One of the biggest celebrity-bummer stories of the year is the death of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. The story kept getting more and more tragic as the police investigated their deaths after finding their bodies in their Sante Fe home on February 26. As it turned out, Betsy passed away first from the hantavirus, and Gene passed away a week later. He was suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s and likely did not know what happened to Betsy. Hackman was also estranged from his three children, to the point where Gene and Betsy’s bodies were unclaimed a month after they were discovered. Well, friends and family (?) finally got around to conducting a memorial service:
Gene and Betsy Hackman have been laid to rest. The couple, who were found dead in their Santa Fe home on Feb. 26, were also remembered in a memorial by family and close friends, PEOPLE has learned.
The small, private memorial, attended by the legendary actor’s three children — son Christopher and daughters Elizabeth and Leslie — was recently held in Santa Fe.
Gene and Betsy were discovered at their home along with one of their dogs, a kelpie mix named Zinna, in Santa Fe Summit on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Two other dogs were discovered alive and well on the property.
I wonder if anyone in Gene and Betsy’s circle took their dogs? Anyway, I’m glad they finally organized this and I’m glad Gene’s children came to it. As for Betsy’s hantavirus diagnosis, the New Mexico Department of Public Health has examined the property and what they found was horrible:
Dead rodents and their nests were scattered across eight detached outbuildings on Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa’s property in Santa Fe, New Mexico … a health report obtained by TMZ reveals.
The New Mexico Department of Public Health conducted an environmental assessment back in March, one week after Gene Hackman was found dead alongside wife Betsy, who died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), caused by hantavirus.
The deadly disease spreads through rat and mouse urine and droppings, often picked up when someone’s cleaning out attics or basements. In Hackman and Betsy’s case, rodent feces were found in three garages, two casitas, and three sheds on their property. A live rodent, a dead rodent, and a rodent nest were found in the three detached garages.
Two vehicles on the property were also found with signs of rodents — nests, droppings, and sightings of the pests. Investigators even discovered live traps set up in the outbuildings, suggesting the infestation had been ongoing.
The New Mexico Department of Health did a risk assessment on March 5 to make sure first responders and family members who’d been on the property were safe. Luckily, they found the primary residence to be low-risk, with no signs of rodent activity inside.
This is what I keep coming back to: for a property this big, with all of these garages, outbuildings, sheds, casitas, etc… how did Betsy not have staff working there on a regular basis? Why weren’t groundskeepers working there on a weekly basis? Why didn’t they have ANY household staff? How was it just Betsy trying to take care of a 90-something man with Alzheimer’s AND this huge property, all by herself?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.
- Santa Fe, NM – The actor Gene Hackman (95) and his Wife Betsy Arakawa (63) were found dead in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The authorities said an investigation was on going. Pictured: Gene Hackman BACKGRID USA 27 FEBRUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- Santa Fe, NM – The actor Gene Hackman (95) and his Wife Betsy Arakawa (63) were found dead in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The authorities said an investigation was on going. Pictured: Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa BACKGRID USA 27 FEBRUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- Santa Fe, NM – The actor Gene Hackman (95) and his Wife Betsy Arakawa (63) were found dead in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The authorities said an investigation was on going. Pictured: Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa BACKGRID USA 27 FEBRUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- New York, NY, New York, NY, 10/24/2007 – Gene Hackman leaving The Carlyle hotel in Manhattan. -PICTURED: Gene Hackman -PHOTO by: Jayme Oak/startraksphoto.com -BRS10798 #Event/#Photo= 2EB115E2189/2EB115E3004 Featuring: Gene Hackman Where: New York, New York, United States When: 24 Oct 2007 Credit: Jayme Oak/startraksphoto.com
Regarding the bodies going unclaimed for a month; my brother had more than one post mortem exam plus waiting for tissue and blood testing results. The coroner may not have released the bodies until all facts were in.
I think internet sleuths discovered that while the remains had been in the hands of the coroner’s office for a month, the bodies had only been released for four days at the time the story ran.
Many Alzheimer patients grow extremely distrustful–this doesn’t happen to everyone, but it’s unfortunately common. When older people start losing their memory and executive function with dementia, they can believe other are stealing from them or carrying out actions they don’t remember agreeing to. They might not recognize the carer and not want to let a stranger in.
I have no idea if this was what Betsy and Gene faced, but I know regular people who had difficulty having/ retaining nursing help for their spouses. Perhaps Betsy felt the help was sufficient for the circumstances (as long as she was healthy, and she didn’t think about getting gravely ill)? Just incredibly sad because it seems like they could have prevented this situation.
This is what came to mind for me, taking care of people you love in situations like this can be a series of impossible decisions.
I vote for letting them rest in peace at this point.
As I recall, didn’t a groundskeeper find the front door ajar and entered the house and found Gene and his wife?
Is that correct or am I mistaken? Surely a groundskeeper knew of the ongoing rodent infestation.
The photos I saw this morning were from inside their house show that Betsy needed a housekeeper. Looking after Gene would have been a full time job for her.
Indeed this story is a sad one. God bless them.
It is very surprising that they didn’t have a staff or at least one groundskeeper to keep this kind of thing from happening (or from getting this out of control). The whole thing is just so sad.
Maybe Betsy was worried about any staff selling information on Genes health. Places like TMZ would absolutely pay for info or any sneaky pictures of a celeb in declining health. She may simply have been trying to protect him as much as she could.
I’ve got friends that live out West and pack rats are no joke out there.
I wish that they employed people to help them with their household needs and groundskeeping but they didn’t. The photos of their home are so unnecessary and to me a violation. Let them rest in peace.
I’m wondering if they didn’t have all that much money to pay staff?
That’s what I’m thinking.
I’m thinking the oft claimed ‘$80 million net worth’ is greatly exaggerated.
Yeah – rodent pests in the southwest.
If you’ve ever wondered why hoods of cars are up: Woodrats and squirrels love to make nests in the engine compartments of vehicles and we try like mad to make it inhospitable for them. We sometimes have to set electronic traps in there as we’re way past the humane trap treatment.
Ugh – it’s a never-ending battle over here!
The report from the health service is helpful, but there was no reason for police dept to release those house pix.
What a mess and what a tragedy for those two poor souls. I imagine they had a system + everything under control for quite awhile + then it gradually started going out of control until it went bad fast.
Just because someone’s a celebrity doesn’t mean they were a great parent. I know nothing about Hackman’s relationship with his adult children, but he married a woman close in age to his daughters, which may have caused some tension. The state of the house suggests that Betsy Arakawa was possibly in no mental or physical shape herself to be a capable caregiver to someone with dementia who was very, very elderly.
Adult children who don’t have loving relationships with their parents are not under any obligation to provide care to those parents. We don’t have any right to judge them.
I think their isolation was a defining factor on the kind of death they met. Whatever the reason, it was what prevented that Gene was found in time to receive proper help.
I doubt they actually needed to keep those smaller building that got infested. Someone with a different perspective could have also convinced Arakawa of doing something more energic about it, and she’d be alive too.