Gene Hackman and wife’s deaths ‘suspicious enough’ for investigation, warrant says

Warrant raises questions about scattered pills, after Betsy Arakawa’s body had ‘mummification in hands’

File photo shows actor Gene Hackman at the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California. Picture: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, file

An active investigation is under way into the deaths of the Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife, the classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, after their bodies were found “in a state of decomposition” along with that of one of their dogs in their home in New Mexico, the local sheriff’s department has confirmed.

The local gas provider, the New Mexico Gas Co, was involved in the investigation alongside the Santa Fe county sheriff’s department, Associated Press reported, raising speculation that carbon monoxide poisoning lay behind the deaths. The emergence later on Thursday of a search warrant, however, cast doubts about a possible gas leak and raised alternative questions about the discovery of prescription pills near Arakawa’s body.