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Exclusive | Inside Gene Hackman, wife Betsy Arakawa’s final days before couple mysteriously found dead in New Mexico home: ‘Got tougher for them’

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Exclusive | Inside Gene Hackman, wife Betsy Arakawa’s final days before couple mysteriously found dead in New Mexico home: ‘Got tougher for them’


As cops scramble to piece together what caused the tragic deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, friends of the couple lament how they had become increasingly insular in their final years and even stopped receiving guests.

Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead alongside one of their dogs in their sprawling $3.8m home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Feb. 26. 

The Hollywood couple are believed to have been laying dead for up to two weeks before maintenance workers stumbled across the scene and called emergency services.

The 911 caller and another worker later told authorities they rarely saw the homeowners. 

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New Mexico authorities found Gene Hackman, his wife and one of their dogs dead in their Santa Fe home under “suspicious” circumstances. Getty Images
Author Daniel Lenihan had been friends with the legendary Hollywood actor, 95, and his wife for years. Associated Press

No red flags had been raised by family or friends in the time between the pair dying and their bodies being found, but it was common for the couple to fly under the radar for long periods, according to longtime close friends Barbara Lenihan, 75, of Santa Fe and her husband, author Daniel Lenihan, 79.

Daniel told The Post it had been “years” since he last saw Hackman, his friend of more than 30 years, in person. Barbara, who also owned a home decor store with Arakawa, said she last saw Hackman about a year ago.

She last spent time with Arakawa in person sometime earlier this year and had exchanged emails with her in recent weeks. According to her, the pair had increasingly “become insular” in recent years.

Hackman and Arakawa were found dead inside their New Mexico home, seen here. AP
Hackman’s body was found on the floor in a mud-room with a walking cane and sunglasses nearby. AP

“People loved to be around them,” she said. “We used to spend a lot of time at their house but it’d been a while since they were comfortable having others over.

“They were a little insular and that was fine, it just got tougher for them to have people over. 

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“We’re all deeply saddened. We’re all just in shock and can’t believe [that they are dead],” she added.

Almost one week on, it is still not known what caused the Oscar winner and his wife’s mysterious deaths.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said it had so far proven to be a “challenge” to determine the events that lead up to the pair’s final moments as they were “private individuals and a private family.”

“One of the things is in an investigation, we try to piece a timeline together,” Mendoza said in a press conference on Friday, adding investigators are having to work “backwards” on the case.

Hackman and Arakawa in 1986 – she was his second wife and they married in 1991. Getty Images

According to a search warrant affidavit, authorities found the actor on the floor of a mudroom near his cane, while his wife Arakawa was found in an bathroom next to a space heater, with an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the nearby countertop.

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A deputy observed Arakawa with “body decomposition, bloating in her face” and mummification of her hands and feet, the document states. Officers said it appeared that Hackman had “suddenly fallen.”

Because of the couple’s penchant “for privacy”, there is no surveillance footage from inside or outside the home to help piece together their last moments alive, according to the sheriff.

Mendoza said investigators were in the process of trying to crack the passwords on two cell phones found at the Hackman home and gain insight into the couple’s final days — including who last had contact with the couple, and when.

“We’ll be analyzing cell phone data, phone calls, text messages, events, photos in the cell phone to try to piece a timeline together,” he explained.

By all accounts, Hackman and Arakawa liked to keep a low profile, but as Hackman, who had battled several health issues, became frailer the longtime lovers spent more and more time at home together.

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Hackman and his wife Betsy seen out and about in Santa Fe last year. / SplashNews.com
Hackman appeared to have fallen before he died, per police. SplashNews.com

Hackman was last photographed in public when he arrived for a medical appointment in March 2024.

His own children and closest friends who spoke to The Post also hadn’t spoken to or seen him for months.

The youngest of Hackman’s three children — whom he shared with his ex-wife, Faye Maltese — explained she hadn’t seen the actor or Arakawa in a “few months” as she lives hundreds of miles away in California.

“We were close,” Leslie Anne Allen, 58, shared before admitting, “I hadn’t talked to them for a couple months, but everything was normal and everything was good.”

“They had a wonderful marriage. And I give credit to his wife, Betsy, for keeping him alive.”

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The last public pictures of Hackman show him looking pale and gaunt, although Leslie Anne said the two-time Oscar winner was “in very good physical condition” and did yoga and pilates up until the end.

Hackman also spent much of his time writing and painting, according to several of his friends and family.

“[Betsy] took very, very good care of him and was always looking out for his health,” Leslie Anne said.

“So I am appreciative to her for that, and I’m very saddened by her passing.”

Hackman and the woman who would become his second wife, pianist Arakawa, at the Oscars in 1988. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
The Oscar winner likely died about nine days before the bodies were discovered, authorities said. Getty Images

Keiko, a housekeeper for Arakawa’s mother, told the Daily Mail the classical pianist used to check in on her own 91-year-old mother, Yoshie Feaster, regularly, as the latter is battling dementia.

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However, she added, “Betsy hadn’t called her mother in months.”

“She usually called every one or two months,” the housekeeper added. “Last time she called was October. We were thinking, what happened?”

Keiko said the family became worried over Arakawa’s alleged lack of communication.

Hackman, who retired from acting in 2004, was “deeply woven” into his New Mexico community, Jennifer LaBar-Tapia, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Film Office, said at a Friday press conference.

“Gene was not only a legendary actor whose talent shaped generations of storytelling, but he and Betsy were also longtime residents of our community,” she added.

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Preliminary autopsy reports showed the couple — who had been married since 1991 — had no signs of external trauma and they both also tested “negative for carbon monoxide,” which would suggest they weren’t poisoned by a gas leak, as had initially been thought a possibility by the family.

Mendoza said Friday that the Hollywood star’s pacemaker tracked his “last event” on Feb. 17, which the Santa Fe County pathologist believed could be an indicator of when Hackman was last alive. Getty Images
Hackman won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s 1971 action thriller “The French Connection.” ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection

Initial findings did not show any signs of external trauma, and there were no indications of “foul play”, however the deaths have been deemed “suspicious” and the investigation is ongoing.

One of the couple’s German shepherds was also found dead in a closet, less than 15 feet from Arakawa, while two other living dogs were found roaming inside and outside the property.

Hackman’s acting career spanned six decades, with bit parts in the early 60s before scoring his breakthroughs in Warren Beatty’s “Bonnie and Clyde” in 1967 and as the hard-boiled detective star of “The French Connection” in 1971, both movies became cornerstones of the New Hollywood era. The latter role also brought him his first Best Actor Oscar.

He went on to appear in up to five movies per year throughout the 70s and 80s, taking on iconic roles including Lex Luthor in “Superman” and Coach Norman Dale in “Hoosiers.” In 1993 he got his second Oscar as Supporting Actor for western “Unforgiven”.

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In 2011, when an interviewer for GQ magazine told him, “You’ve got to do one more movie,” Hackman said, “If I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people.”



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City seeks developer for property next to Smith’s in SE Albuquerque

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City seeks developer for property next to Smith’s in SE Albuquerque


According to the city, they’re looking to turn the property into housing and businesses and will even donate the half-acre lot to the winning developer.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The city is seeking a developer to transform a vacant, city-owned lot next to the Smith’s grocery store near the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

The lot is on Yale Boulevard, near Coal Avenue, just north of the Smith’s grocery store in that area. They want to turn that lot into housing and businesses.

The city will even donate the lot to the winning developer.

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The property is zoned for housing and businesses, like convenience stores.

You can learn more about it during a webinar Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. Then, developers have until Dec. 5 to submit proposals.



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New Mexico’s Free Child-Care Plan Has a Feasibility Gap

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New Mexico’s Free Child-Care Plan Has a Feasibility Gap


Last month, New Mexico’s governor announced that the state would soon become the first in the country to offer universal free child care. This was a momentous development for child-care proponents such as myself, who have long argued that wide-reaching free programs are crucial for parents and for a healthy democracy. Notably, the policy frames child care not as a private service but as necessary social infrastructure—the kind that, like schools and roads and libraries, should be publicly funded and available to everyone, regardless of their income.

Since the announcement, advocates and pundits have been unreserved in their excitement: An article in Bloomberg declared this was proof that “Universal Child Care Doesn’t Have to Be a Fantasy.” A writer for The Nation made the case that other states should establish similar programs. But this victory lap may be premature. New Mexico has many hurdles to overcome before anyone can declare the policy a success—and the state could, after all of this attention, fail to fully deliver on its promise.

Although the universal policy will not take effect until Saturday, New Mexico already has, at least in name, one of the most comprehensive child-care funding programs in the United States. Its current system, which offers free care to families with children ages six weeks to 13 years, does have an income-based cutoff, but it’s a generous one, in effect meaning about 85 percent of children in the state are covered. Within that income band, any family with all parents working or in school part- or full-time qualifies. Those families are then guaranteed what is essentially a voucher, which fully covers fees at any child-care provider participating in the state system.

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In practice, though, the state-covered care has been hard for many families to access. Of the roughly 137,000 children under age 5 (the group with the most acute care needs), only about 21,000 actually receive benefits under the current program. Among the remaining kids, some are not eligible; other families take advantage of different care options, such as Head Start or free pre-K, which are run separately and not counted as part of the child-care-voucher program. But plenty of families do qualify, and many of them want free care—yet have been unable to find open slots at participating providers. Roughly two-thirds of kids who currently meet program requirements in the state don’t receive any help.

The obstacles to higher uptake are multifold and stubborn. Among them are a shortage of child-care educators, trouble creating care options that meet families’ needs, some providers’ reluctance to accept state vouchers, and uneven care availability in rural areas. These aren’t the type of problems that can typically be resolved quickly—and they are highly unlikely to be addressed before the new policy kicks off. At least in the immediate term, then, New Mexico stands to remain one of the many states falling short of a pledge to provide free or subsidized care.

Ambitious policies, even those whose aims aren’t fully met, have real value; despite the relatively low uptake, New Mexico’s current plan has been a boon to many families. But scarcity acquires a different symbolic tenor in the context of a commitment to be available for everyone. An unmet promise, particularly one announced with great fanfare, can make people feel duped. Because New Mexico is the only state with a program like this, the stakes are high: The new policy’s rollout, and its successes or stumbles, may shape views on the viability of universal child care across the country.


New Mexico’s new child-care proposal is bold. It will use the same voucher system as the current plan, along with the same age cutoffs for kids and many of the same eligibility requirements, but it will open coverage to families at any income level. In its idealized form, parents across the state (excepting stay-at-home parents) will be able to easily sign up for benefits and access the care they need.

Seeing this vision through, however, will involve a herculean effort: New Mexico will need to hire an estimated 5,000 new educators to work in the system, while maintaining its current labor force, which a representative for the state’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department estimates is roughly 13,000 educators. The state has succeeded at similar child-care recruitment efforts in the past. When Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham was elected, she and other legislative leaders funneled money into the field, and from 2019 to 2024, the number of child-care practitioners in the state grew by 64 percent, department representatives told me. But attracting and training thousands more could take years.

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Carrying out this recruitment in the places with the most need may be particularly difficult. New Mexico’s current child-care offerings are geographically lopsided. For example, in many regions the state is low on slots for children under 2 (an average of 32 spaces exist for every 100 children in that age group), but the sparsely populated Union County has no licensed infant slots at all.

For years, New Mexico had a way to address rural child-care needs: by relying on informal providers known as “registered homes,” in which neighbors (or sometimes grandparents and other family members) care for a few children living nearby and are compensated by the government for their labor. In addition to making it easier for families in rural areas to access care close to where they live, registered homes tend to have more flexible hours—a necessity for parents who aren’t working a traditional 9-to-5. Other parents turn to these homes to find providers who share their language or culture.

Yet the number of slots in registered homes has been falling for more than a decade; from 2019 to this year, it plummeted from nearly 13,000 to just over 3,000. The exact reasons for the decline are unclear, but the drop-off may be related to how “confusing” one provider said the process of registering a home was.

The state is aware of these supply limitations. Elizabeth Groginsky, the secretary of New Mexico’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department, told me that her team is launching a campaign to recruit 1,000 new registered homes, working to make the registration process easier, and creating a support network for registered homes’ providers. The department also plans to offer low-interest loans to encourage the construction of new child-care centers and licensed family child-care businesses, and the expansion of existing ones. And it will be increasing the baseline rate at which child-care programs are reimbursed for the children they serve, as well as offering even more to programs that commit to a $16-an-hour wage floor for educators, compared with the state’s minimum wage of $12 an hour.

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All of this, though, costs more than the state has set aside. The department will be asking the state legislature for $120 million in additional funding, but the money is not guaranteed to be approved, particularly in the face of budget uncertainty after Congress passed a bill in July that puts new financial burdens on states. Groginsky told me that, no matter what, New Mexico expects to be able to pay for its child-care program through 2026. After that, it’s up to the legislature. This uncertainty has prompted some child-care-center owners—who don’t have to accept state vouchers—to express wariness about participating.


Any major foundering in New Mexico could have long-lasting consequences. Take the case of Quebec, which in 1997 launched a universal, $5-a-day child-care program, whose failures continue to reverberate today. At the time the policy was announced, the province had the capacity to serve only 15 percent of its children. Parent demand for the universal program was much higher, so, to meet it, the province took shortcuts, such as lowering educator qualifications and relying on for-profit providers of questionable quality. Although many kids got great care, others ended up in overcrowded, unclean centers. Evidence suggests that some of the kids in substandard settings may have grown more anxious and less social.

More than a quarter century later, Quebec’s stumbles are still used to argue against expansions of publicly funded child care. In 2021, J. D. Vance co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed opposing President Joe Biden’s proposed investments in child care. It took only three paragraphs for Vance to bring up Quebec, asserting that “it was, to put it bluntly, a disaster for Quebec’s children.”

New Mexico doesn’t seem likely to let quality slide in the way Quebec did. The problem, rather, is that the state may not be able to ensure that all families have access to the care they desire. This is where the messaging becomes so important: New Mexico has pledged universal free child care, but it has left itself little wiggle room to explain the time it may take to reach that goal or the challenges that could stand in its way.

Success, then, will depend on whether the state can recruit educators quickly enough, on whether the legislature will continually approve the needed funds, on how many providers opt into the state system, and on how soon families can expect access to the child care they were promised. The state’s program is an admirable gamble—but it is still very much a gamble.

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NM legislators want ‘truth commission’ to investigate late sex offender Epstein

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NM legislators want ‘truth commission’ to investigate late sex offender Epstein


Two New Mexico state Democratic lawmakers said Monday they will work during next year’s legislative session to establish a “truth commission” to investigate the activities of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at his Zorro ranch near Stanley in Santa Fe County.



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