The bodies of Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa remain unclaimed at a New Mexico medical examiner’s office more than a month after their deaths, according to reports.

Hackman and Arakawa – whose bodies were found in their Santa Fe home on Feb. 26 – were still on the New Mexico Medical Examiner’s unclaimed decedents list as of Monday, TMZ reported.

That list is updated each week, indicating that as of days ago they were still lying in the local morgue.

But bodies lying unclaimed for up to a month is not necessarily unusual, officials told TMZ, indicating that the 95-year-old actor’s family could still be making funeral arrangements.

Hackman had long been open about his rocky relationship with his three kids, Chritopher, 65, Elizabeth, 63, and 58-year-old Leslie, commenting later in life how his career often kept him from home and distanced him from raising his family.

The father and his kids eventually reconciled, however.

After his death, the kids released a statement mourning their loss.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” they said.

“He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”

But none of them were named in their father’s will – with the entirety of his $80 million fortune reportedly going to Betsy, 65, who was his second wife and not the mother of his kids.

It remains unclear what will become of the cash.

The husband and wife were found dead in their home about two weeks after they’re believed to have died inside.

Arakawa is believed to have died about a week before Hackman after contracting a rare flu-like disease – hantavirus — carried by rodents, according to New Mexico Chief Medical Examiner Heather Jarrell.

Hackman is believed to have died days later from heart complications. He was also suffering from Alzheimer’s.

“He was in a very poor state of health,” Jarrell said at a press conference earlier in March. “He was in an advanced state of Alzheimer’s disease and it was quite possible he did not know that she was deceased.” 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A woman was caught on camera smashing windows and damaging nearly a dozen Albuquerque city and police vehicles.

It isn’t the first time she’s reportedly done something like this. So why, after spending less than 24 hours in custody, is she already out of jail?

Danielle Magee’s case highlights a major issue we’ve seen in thousands of cases in New Mexico. They’ve been dismissed because the suspects are deemed not competent to stand trial. 

KOB 4 has been digging into what lawmakers in Santa Fe did to try to address the issue and what more needs to be done. 

It’s a longstanding issue, the so-called revolving door in New Mexico’s justice system. Suspects arrested, deemed incompetent to stand trial, and then released back on the streets only to repeat the cycle over and over.

It’s one of the issues lawmakers addressed this session, but the question is how will it be implemented?

“We are tired of seeing the same people coming back into the system and not being able to do anything for them,” said Deputy Bernalillo County District Attorney, Steven Diamond. 

That is exactly what has happened to repeat offender, Danielle Magee. A security camera caught her smashing the windows of 21 city and police cars parked downtown. 

This is the latest chapter in a long story. She has been charged several times since 2022 for similar crimes:

• 2024: Damaging a police vehicle
• 2023: Damaging eight city vehicles and 32 personal vehicles in Civic Plaza

In the majority of those cases, she’s been found incompetent to stand trial.

“As annoying as her crimes are, as they create public safety concerns, they don’t rise to that level of dangerousness. So the law would say her case gets dismissed,” said Diamond. 

Since 2017, the governor’s office says 18,000 criminal charges in New Mexico have been dismissed because of competency issues. 

This past legislative session, lawmakers passed a crime package that creates access to behavioral health care across the state for these offenders. 

“We are now able to offer some help for some people who are found incompetent, when we otherwise wouldn’t be able to,” Diamond said. 

The issue now:

“Those services currently don’t exist. So we aren’t sure how that void is going to be filled,” said Tess Williams with the Law Offices of the Public Defender.

While the Legislature has put in place the groundwork to fix the competency revolving door, prosecutors and public defenders agree the issue isn’t going away immediately. 

“We have a serious need for long term and short term mental health treatment facilities,” Williams said. 

“Passing legislation is not the end of the process. Now we have to figure out how that legislation is implemented,” said Diamond. 

Magee was released from custody Tuesday and has a mental evaluation scheduled in April.

Xavier made it official Tuesday night when it announced the hiring of Richard Pitino as its next head coach.

Xavier’s offseason can start with Pitino forming his staff, and the process is already underway.

According to Geoff Grammer, who covers the Lobos for the Albuquerque Journal, Pitino’s staff at New Mexico have already accepted a move to Xavier.

Tempo, steals and sarcasm: What to expect from Richard Pitino-coached Xavier Musketeers

More: Here’s where Xavier Musketeers roster stands as Richard Pitino era begins

“Richard Pitino plans to take (and they’ve accepted) the entire coaching staff with him − assistant coaches Isaac Chew, Tarvish Felton, Aaron Katsuma, Davie Pilipovich − with him at Xavier,” Grammer said in a social media post Wednesday, adding that Chew would be a candidate to replace Pitino as New Mexico’s head coach.

Chew just finished his fourth season on Pitino’s staff at New Mexico and was promoted to associate head coach in April 2024. He has previous assistant coaching experience at Murray State, Missouri, Marquette, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M and Grand Canyon, according to his coaching bio.

Felton had a 10-season run at Utah State before serving as the associate head coach at Fresno State for four years. He has been with New Mexico since 2022.

Katsuma spent five seasons at Colorado State (four as director of basketball operations) before joining New Mexico as an assistant for back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. Katsuma was on Pitino’s staff at Minnesota for four total seasons.

Pilipovich has over 35 years of coaching experience. He was the head coach at Air Force for eight seasons from 2012-2020.

In Austin, Sean Miller was introduced as the next head basketball coach at Texas on Tuesday afternoon. Miller said he’s planning to bring “a number” of staff members at Xavier to Texas, according to David Eckert of the Austin American-Statesman.