Gene Hackman died at home a week after the death of his wife Betsy Arakawa from Hantavirus, say the authorities

Santa fe, nm – Medico-legal experts arrived at a heartbreaking conclusion Friday in the fashion of death for the actor Gene Hackman: he died of a heart disease with complications of Alzheimer’s disease on an empty stomach a week after a rare disease behind rodents took the life of his wife at their home in Santa Fe.

The partially mummified remains of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered on February 26 when the maintenance and security officers presented themselves to the home and alerted the police.

The authorities unraveled the mysterious circumstances and revealed that Arakawa was probably died on February 11 at the Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal distribution by excrement of infected rodents.

Hackman, in the advanced stages of Alzheimer, apparently ignored that his wife had died.

“He was in a very poor state of health. He had a significant heart disease, and I think in the end, this is what led his death, “said Dr. Heather Jarrell, chief investigator. “It is quite possible that he does not know that she had died.”

The two deaths were deemed natural causes.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said that Arakawa’s last known outing was a series of races and shopping on February 11. She visited a pharmacy, a pet store and a grocery store before returning to the closed district of the couple that evening.

Arakawa stopped responding to emails that day. Communications from the couple’s mobile phone have not yet been analyzed.

Hackman’s cardiac stimulator has shown signs of activity for the last time a week later, indicating an abnormal heart rate on February 18, on his death, said Jarrell.

Hackman was found in the entrance to the house and Arakawa was found in a bathroom. Their bodies were decomposed with a certain mummification, a consequence of the type of body and the climate in the particularly dry air of Santa Fe at an altitude of almost 7,200 feet (2,200 meters).

The revelations on the manner of the death of the couple rocked Santa Fe, the state capital known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.

“We all knew it should have verified it,” said Stuart Ashman, co -owner of Cuba Artes Gallery, who cherished his meetings with Hackman in a local Pilates exercise studio. “I had no idea. … It’s really sad. And that she died a week before him. My God.”

Experts believe that Hackman was seriously altered due to Alzheimer’s disease and unable to face the death of his wife in the last week of his life – or to ask for help after his death.

“Their explanation (the authorities), I thought, was quite clear and plausible,” said Dr. Victor Weedn, a medical examiner in Virginia. “I think they really discovered what really happened in this case.”

Most older Americans with Alzheimer’s and related dementia live at home, and many receive family or friends.

Hantavirus is generally reported in spring and summer, often due to the exhibitions that occur when people are close to mouse excrement in houses, hangars or poorly ventilated areas. This is the first confirmed case of Hantavirus to New Mexico this year.

Although the Hantavirus is found worldwide, most cases in the United States have been found in Western states. The virus can cause severe and sometimes fatal pulmonary infection.

Jarrell said he was not known how Arakawa speed died.

One of the couple’s three dogs, a mixture of kelpie named Zinna, was also found dead in a box in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs survived.

Dogs do not fall ill from Hantavirus, said Erin Phipps, a veterinarian from the New Mexico Health Department. A necropsy will be carried out on the dog.

The sheriff considers that it is an open survey until they receive the results of the dog autopsy and finish checking the data from the personal mobile phones recovered from the house.

Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a 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, frequented the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid -80s while working in a California gymnasium.

Hackman has devoted a large part of his time to paint and write novels far from the Hollywood social circuit. He sat for several years on the board of directors of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and he and Arakawa were investors in local businesses.

___

This story was corrected to show one of the causes of Hackman’s death was a heart disease, not heart failure.

___

Baumann reported to Bellingham, Washington. The journalists of the Associated Press Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio and Carla Johnson in Seattle contributed.