Fire chief reveals Gene Hackman's dogs helped emergency responders with heartbreaking act before discovery
Topics: Gene Hackman, Celebrity
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Getty Images
Topics: Gene Hackman, Celebrity
Gene Hackman’s death sparked sadness and questions regarding the circumstances, and authorities have just offered up an extra sad detail.
Police confirmed at the end of February that actor Gene Hackman had died as well as his wife Betsy Arakawa, and both bodies were found at their Santa Fe home.
While authorities ruled out foul play, a slew of questions arose regarding how exactly the pair died.
While we now know 95-year-old Hackman and 65-year-old classical pianist Arakawa passed on from natural causes, the investigation is still ongoing, as authorities also found one of the couple’s three dogs deceased at the home.
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Recently, the Santa Fe Fire Department Chief Brian Moya spoke about how the other two dogs behaved when authorities arrived.
Around 1:43 p.m. on Feb. 26, a maintenance man visited the property and found the front door ajar. He saw Arakawa on the floor and notified another maintenance worker, who called 911.
When paramedics arrived, they saw Arakawa on the nearby bathroom floor and Moya confirmed that her body looked deceased, and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office were called for backup, as is normal per protocol.
When they arrived, paramedics checked her body, while authorities fanned out through the home and grounds as one of the couples' dogs continuously approached them. The dogs would repeatedly bark at them and then run off in a different direction.
The first responders initially believed the dogs simply wanted to play. However, it eventually became clear that this was not the case.
According to a USA Today report, Moya said: “They realized (the dog) was trying to say, ‘Hey, come over here! Come over here!'”
It was after authorities realized this that they followed the dog that lead them to the mudroom, in the far end of the home, where Hackman’s body was found.
The dog then sat next to the body, which was crumpled on the floor with his cane and sunglasses laid out close by.
Moya also said that the backdoor being open allowed the dogs to go in and out of the home.
Earlier this month, chief medical examiner Dr Heather Jarrell confirmed the pair's cause of deaths.
She said: "The cause of death for Mr. Gene Hackman, aged 95 years, is hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with Alzheimer's disease as a significant contributory factor."
Speaking about Arakawa's death, the chief medical examiner added: "Autopsy examination and full body post mortem CT demonstrated no findings of trauma internally or externally with microscopic findings consistent with Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome."