Police working on the mysterious case surrounding Gene Hackman’s death have released their bodycam footage – despite his daughter’s making a bid to prevent this
Authorities have released body camera footage from outside Gene Hackman’s home after he and his wife were found dead last month. The deaths of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 63, stunned the world and quickly led to an investigation.
The redacted footage shows deputies talking with two workers who rang the authorities to report seeing someone lying on the floor inside the home in New Mexico. There were no signs of forced entry or other evidence of suspicious circumstances, leading to the deputies asking about the possibility of a gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning. The workers explained they didn’t see how that could have been the case.
“Something’s not right,” one of the workers said. Authorities later confirmed that there had been no leaks that could have been fatal. The discovered led to more mystery when it came to how the pair died.
Around a week later, medical investigators confirmed that Hollywood star Hackman had died of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer’s. His death is said to have occurred about a week after hantavirus pulmonary syndrome — a rare, rodent-borne disease — took the life of his wife.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office released only some of the footage from the investigation. A New Mexico court last week granted a temporary restraining order against the release of any photographs and video showing Hackman and his wife the inside of their home.
Hackman’s estate had filed the petition to withhold images, citing the need to protect the family’s constitutional right to privacy in grief under the 14th Amendment. Workers who had maintained the property talked to investigators about respecting Hackman and Arawaka’s privacy. One worker described Arawaka as a private person.
In the body camera footage, there are also brief sightings of one of the couple’s dogs running in the wooded hills on their property on the edge of Santa Fe.
A man who identified himself to officers as a dog trainer who cared for the couple’s pet dogs said the couple were “nuts” about their dogs. He is heard saying: “There’s toys everywhere around the property.”
In another video, Arakawa’s hairdresser is heard speaking to investigators. He claimed his client always had her dogs with her, saying the smallest one would often hang out inside the salon with them during her visits.
That dog was found inside a crate, not far from Arakawa’s body. A report obtained by The Associated Press from the state Department of Agriculture’s veterinary lab states the dog likely died from dehydration and starvation.
The actor’s daughter, Elizabeth Hackman, told authorities she wanted the dog that died to be cremated. Authorities put her in touch with the local animal shelter to talk about the options.
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