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After Gene Hackman’s wife Betsy Arakawa was found dead with an open bottle of prescription pills near her body, authorities have shared new details about the medications found in the home.
By Will Reid Mar 01, 2025 12:54 AM | Updated 13 hours ago
Gene Hackman's Daughter Elizabeth Jean Hackman Speaks Out After Death of Actor, Wife and Dog
The investigation into the deaths of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa has yielded new findings.
After the couple and one of their three dogs were found dead in their New Mexico home Feb. 26, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza offered new details about critical evidence in the case.
Arakawa, 65, was found lying on the bathroom floor with a space heater and an open bottle of prescription medication nearby with pills “scattered on the counter-top,” per an affidavit for the search warrant obtained by NBC News Feb. 27. The medications taken from the home were an unspecified thyroid medication, the painkiller Tylenol and the blood pressure medication Diltiazem, according to the outlet.
Investigators also collected records from MyQuest—an online health lab results portal—as well as a 2025 monthly planner and two green cellphones using the warrant.
Earlier in the day, Mendoza stressed the significance of the pills amid the ongoing investigation, characterizing them as “something of concern.”
“That’s obviously very important evidence at the scene,” he told Savannah Guthrie during an interview on Today. “That information was collected, that information was passed to the office of the medical investigator to help them make a determination. So we’re looking at that specifically and other medications that were possibly in the residence.”
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
The sheriff also noted that a full toxicology report “could take up to three months or even possibly longer” to complete,
but added that his team is “hoping it comes sooner than later.”
Meanwhile, authorities have ruled out the possibility that the couple and their dog died of carbon monoxide poisoning after both Hackman and Arakawa tested negative for the substance, Mendoza said in a Feb. 28 press conference. However, he noted that police could revisit the cause if “there's something else that comes back in the toxicology report.”
For a look at Gene Hackman through the years, keep scrolling.
(E!, NBC News and Today are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Image/Getty Images
1965
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
1969
Getty Images
1971
Tony Korody/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images
1974
Fairchild Archive/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images
1976
Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
1986
Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
1988
Mario Ruiz/Getty Images
1988
Purschke/ullstein bild via Getty Images
1989
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
1991
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
1992
Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
1993
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
1993
Avalon/Getty Images
1993
TriStar Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
1995
Ron Davis/Getty Images
1996
Jan Jarecki/Penske Media via Getty Images
1996
Tim Boyle/Newsmakers
2000
Takashi Seida/Heightened Productions Inc. via Getty Images
2001
LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP via Getty Images
2001
Vera Anderson/WireImage
2003
Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
2003
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
2005
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