Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa could have been dead for ‘couple weeks’: Sheriff | Hollywood

Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa could have been dead for a ‘couple weeks’

Mendoza was joined by Santa Fe’s fire chief Brian Moya on Friday’s interview as they shared some insights from the ongoing probe into Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths. “Just based on their bodies and other evidence on the body, it appears several days and possibly up to a couple weeks,” the sheriff told the outlet, adding that it is “very difficult to determine” if they died simultaneously or one before the other.

However, their deaths were “pretty close,” Mendoza said. He went on to say that “there’s no indication that anyone was moving about the house or doing anything different, so it’s very difficult to determine if they both passed at the same time or how close they passed together.”

“We’re trying to put that information together and, obviously, with the assistance of the office of the medical investigator, I think the autopsy report is going to be the key to this investigation,” Mendoza continued before explaining that the investigators are “trying to put things together, a timeline when the decedents were last spoken to.”

The sheriff explained that the probe poses a “challenge” as Hackman and his pianist wife were “very private individuals, and a private family, so we’re trying to put all that information together right now.” According to a search warrant, an orange prescription bottle was found near Arakawa’s body, with pills scattered around, Fox News reported.

Speaking about the prescription bottles, Mendoza told Today, “That’s obviously very important evidence at the scene.” “That information was collected… passed to the medical investigator to help them make a determination,” he went on, adding that the authorities are “looking at that specifically, and other medications possibly in the residence.”