New Mexico
Investigation advances into Gene Hackman's mysterious death, with update by New Mexico authorities
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities are set to reveal more information about an investigation into the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa, whose partially mummified bodies were discovered last month at their home in New Mexico.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office has said it does not suspect foul play, and tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative.
Sheriff Adan Mendoza and state fire, health and forensics officials scheduled an afternoon news conference Friday to provide updates on the case.
Mendoza has said the couple may have died up to two weeks before they were discovered on Feb. 26. Hackman’s pacemaker last showed activity Feb. 17, nine days before maintenance and security workers showed up at the home and alerted police.
Arakawa was found with an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the bathroom counter, while Hackman was found in the home’s entryway.
One of the couple’s three dogs also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs survived. Authorities initially misidentified the breed of the dead animal.
Authorities retrieved personal items from the home including a monthly planner and two cellphones that will be analyzed. Medical investigators have been working to establish the cause of their deaths, but toxicology reports often take weeks to complete.
When they were found, the bodies were decomposing with some mummification, a consequence of body type and climate in Santa Fe’s especially dry air at an elevation of nearly 7,200 feet (2,200 meters).
Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a storied career in films including “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers” and “Superman” from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
Arakawa, born in Hawaii, studied as a concert pianist, attended the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid-1980s while working at a California gym.
The couple’s stucco, Pueblo-revival style home sits on a hill in a gated community at the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains. Santa Fe is known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.
Hackman dedicated much of his time in retirement to painting and writing novels far from Hollywood’s social circuit. He served for several years on the board of trustees at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and he and his wife were investors in local businesses.
Grant’s Thursday Evening Forecast
Showers and thunderstorms will continue in eastern New Mexico tonight into Friday. Breezy winds will bring an elevated fire danger in the western half of the state.
Thunderstorms are firing up Thursday afternoon along and east of New Mexico’s central mountain chain while gusty south winds over 30 mph are driving an elevated fire danger across western parts of the state. Storms will continue spreading across eastern New Mexico through this evening, bringing locally heavy rainfall, lightning, small hail, and gusty winds. The winds will weaken later tonight, but showers and thunderstorms will keep going across eastern New Mexico overnight into early Friday morning.
A few spotty storms will redevelop Friday afternoon across eastern New Mexico, with a couple near the Texas state line capable of turning strong to severe. At the same time, breezy southwest winds will ramp back up across western New Mexico, with gusts over 35 mph creating another round of elevated fire danger. Storms will push east out of New Mexico Friday evening while winds gradually ease overnight.
Quieter and drier weather takes over this weekend. Temperatures Saturday afternoon will cool a few degrees but still stay near average for late May. Breezy afternoon winds will continue Saturday before lighter winds and warmer temperatures return Sunday.
Moisture will start building back into eastern New Mexico Monday, bringing a slight chance for thunderstorms near the Texas state line. Monday will also be the hottest day of the warming trend statewide. More moisture spreads into the eastern half of the state Tuesday, increasing storm chances along and east of the Rio Grande Valley by afternoon. Even deeper moisture arrives statewide by Wednesday and Thursday, fueling more widespread showers and thunderstorms through the middle of next week.
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Skies are partly to mostly clear with most similar or slightly milder than yesterday. Winds are a little breezy occasionally with the highest humidity values mostly from out east and to the north.
Air temperatures in the north are mostly starting off in the 30s to the low 50s. Elsewhere to the south, air temperatures are mostly ranging from around the high 30s to the low 60s.
Many areas from eastern New Mexico to the Pecos River Valley area will range from the high 60s to the 80s from north to south from high to low elevation. The northern higher elevations will mostly range from the high 40s to near 60°, while the northern valley floors to western and central areas will mostly range from the high 70s to the low 90s.
Southerly upper-level winds, in combination to the low-level moisture still lingering around the northern high elevations to out east, will lead to few thunderstorms capable of producing brief bouts of heavy rain, small hail, some lightning, & gusty conditions.
Ridging in the jet stream will then allow for clearer conditions, drier air, and for temperatures to rebound for the remainder of the week. However, slightly more thunderstorms will form for some eastern and mountainous areas late in the week, resulting in outflow-southeasterly winds to occasionally pick up.
Even hotter air returns late this weekend into early next week before thunderstorms are more likely to form next week.
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