Tragedy struck Hollywood.
Americans were left asking questions that authorities couldn’t answer.
And police discovered this Hollywood legend dead under mysterious circumstances.
Gene Hackman dies under mysterious circumstances
95-year-old Hollywood icon Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa – whom Hackman married in 1991 – were found dead in their Sante Fe, New Mexico home.
One of the couple’s dogs was also found deceased.
Hackman won two Academy Awards – for Best Actor in 1971’s The French Connection and Best Supporting Actor for his performance in 1992’s Unforgiven.
But Hackman was probably best known for playing supervillain Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeves Superman films.
Hackman retired from acting in 2004 and with a net worth of $80 million Hackman and his wife could afford to live out the rest of their days living a life of leisure.
That all came to a horrific end as a maintenance worker came to the Hackmans’ home, saw bodies, and called 9-1-1.
“Damn, damn!” the recording caught the worker repeating.
“I think we just found a deceased person inside the house,” the worker added as the couple’s two surviving dogs barked in the background.
“I don’t know, sir, just send somebody up here quick,” he added. “The house is closed, it’s locked… I can’t go in but I see she’s laying on the floor.”
The dispatcher asked if anyone inside was alive and he replied “they’re not moving. Just send somebody up here.”
Sante Fe police initially described the deaths as not suspicious which led some – including Hackman’s daughter – to think the couple died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Those thoughts quickly vanished as according to an affidavit signed Deputy Joshua Thomas, what he discovered inside looked very suspicious.
Thomas found a prescription bottle “open with pills scattered on the countertop.”
“He advised he also observed an orange prescription bottle on the counter-top near the deceased female,” the affidavit stated. “The prescription bottle appeared opened with pills scattered on the counter-top.”
Deputy Thomas found Arakawa dead in the bathroom with a space heater that appeared to have fallen near her head.
Arakawa also suffered from signs of mummification on her hands and feet.
“The female decedant showed obvious signs of death, body decomposition, bloating in her face,” the affidavit continued on “and mumification in both hands and feet.”
Most people think of mummification of zombies wrapped in bandages from monster movies.
But mummification is the process of preserving a body that can occur naturally in dry, arid climates like the one in Santa Fe at this time of year.
Police found Hackman in what is “believed to be a mud-room.”
Officers also “did not locate signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning.”
Officers found the door to the home ajar but no sign of forced entry.
They don’t suspect foul play at this time.
But this is a mystery that must be solved.
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