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Featured Image Credit: Santa Fe Police Department
Topics: Gene Hackman, Celebrity, US News
Joe Yates
A day before Betsy Arakawa is believed to have died, she was caught on surveillance footage shopping at two stores in what proved to be some of her final moments.
On February 11, the 65-year-old classical pianist wife of 95-year-old Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman was seen donning a black coat, blue jeans and a face mask - having Googled 'can Covid cause dizziness' the day before.
The video, released by police, shows her paying for her groceries shortly after 4.00pm at supermarket chain Sprouts Farmers Market in Santa Fe.
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She was then captured on CCTV inside Shine Pet Food Co. purchasing food for her three dogs - with one of the dogs, Zinna, having been picked up from the vets two days prior.
It comes as chief medical examiner Dr Heather Jarrell initially told reporters last month that the last time Arakawa was believed to have been alive was on February 11, with a timeline of the incident having already been confirmed.
However, she is understood to have called Cloudberry Health in Santa Fe to cancel an appointment on February 12, according to Dr Josiah Child, who runs the facility.
He claimed she spoke to a member of his clinic to arrange an appointment for her husband.
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“Mrs Hackman didn’t die on February 11 because she called my clinic on February 12,” he told the Daily Mail.
"She'd called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband. She was not a patient of mine, but one of my patients recommended Cloudberry to her.
"She made an appointment for herself for February 12. It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory."
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The clinic made an appointment for Arakawa later that day, but she didn't show up.
Chief medical examiner Dr Heather Jarrell confirmed her cause of death was hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) - a rare infectious disease linked to rodents.
However, Dr Child confirmed the appointment she arranged 'wasn't for anything related to hantavirus' and the clinic was then unable to get hold of her over the phone.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office to Today explained how Arakawa missed a return call from Cloudberry Health later on in the day.
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“We can now confirm that Mrs. Hackman’s phone was utilized on the morning of Feb. 12 to call a medical center in Santa Fe, Cloudberry Health. A total of three calls were made that morning, all to the medical center," officials confirmed.
"One incoming call was made to Mrs. Hackman from the same medical center that afternoon. That appeared as a missed call on Mrs. Hackman’s cell phone,” the statement concludes.
"This information was learned through investigation into the cell phone data contained on her phone.”
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Six days later, on February 18, the last recorded activity came from Hackman's pacemaker.
While concluding the cause of death, Jarrell confirmed: "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."
Their bodies were discovered on February 26, alongside that of Zinna - one of their three dogs.