Judge to consider request to withhold investigation records related to deaths of Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa
Mar 31, 2025
SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – A hearing is scheduled Monday to consider a request from Gene Hackman's estate to block the release a variety of records from the investigation into the deaths of Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. These records include any footage showing the bodies of Hackman and Araka
wa.
A court had put a temporary restraining order on the release of the records pending Monday's hearing.
Hackman, Arakawa, and their dog Zinna were found dead inside their Santa Fe home on Feb. 26.
Actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa are pictured in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. (Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Deputies responded to the home around 1:45 p.m. to find Hackman, 95, on the floor of the home’s mudroom alongside a walking cane and sunglasses. Arakawa, 65, was found on the bathroom floor. In the bathroom closet, deputies found one of the couple’s three dogs dead inside a crate.
The medical investigation would later reveal that Arakawa died first of hantavirus. Authorities said Hackman died more than a week later of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer’s. It was determined that the dog died of starvation and dehydration.
Groundskeeper to deputies outside Hackman home: ‘I knew something was wrong’
Authorities have released portions of the body-camera footage taken by deputies who responded to the home on the day Hackman and Arakawa's bodies were discovered. Only video from outside of the home has been released, after a judge granted a temporary block of footage from inside the house or of the couple’s bodies at the request of the family. ...read more read less