Gene Hackman Died from Heart Disease a Week After Wife's Death | TMZ Live - video Dailymotion

TMZ

Gene Hackman died a full week after his wife Betsy Arakawa died and lived in the house as her body lay in the bathroom ... this according to New Mexico officials.

Transcript

00:00There was a stunning development today in the death of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy.

00:05Gene Hackman was not the first to die. A lot of people thought that was the case.

00:11Gene Hackman died a full week after his wife Betsy died, and now we know the cause of death of both.

00:18For both of them, and as Harvey said, what they revealed, the sheriff and the medical examiner there in Santa Fe County, New Mexico,

00:26revealed that Betsy died first, they believe, on the evidence they have at this point, it was February 11th,

00:34and that she died from Hantavirus. Hantavirus is a respiratory disease that is particular to the Southwest.

00:43You contract it from rodents, oftentimes, and it is a very serious, sometimes fatal disease,

00:49and they say it was fatal in the case of Betsy.

00:52Remember, she was found in the bathroom with pills scattered about.

00:57They all said those pills were thyroid medication that was prescribed and being taken regularly,

01:03that those pills had nothing to do with the death.

01:06Now, as for Gene, remember what Charles just said was Betsy died February 11th.

01:13Gene died February 18th, that is a full week later, and he was living in the house.

01:20So, of course, the question, how could that be? He never called 911. There are answers to this.

01:26Gene Hackman had advanced Alzheimer's and was in frail condition.

01:32Right. Here's how the medical examiner laid out all the details that they have now uncovered.

01:38Our investigation shows that all the last known communication and activity from Ms. Arakawa was on February 11th.

01:46Mr. Hackman's initial pacemaker data revealed cardiac activity on February 17th,

01:53with subsequent pacemaker interrogation demonstrating an abnormal rhythm of atrial fibrillation on February 18th,

02:02which was the last record of heart activity.

02:05Based on the circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that Ms. Hackman passed away first,

02:13with February 11th being the last time that she was known to be alive.

02:17Do you believe that she was possibly not aware that if I had died, would she know what to do in that situation?

02:24I think that question is difficult to answer, but I can tell you that he was in an advanced state of Alzheimer's,

02:30and it's quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased.

02:34So, the coroner said, the medical investigator said, that it is likely she died February 11th, based on everything they know.

02:43This is where it just gets, what is already was a sad and tragic story, really gets heartbreaking,

02:50because essentially what they're saying is that Betsy dies, and then Gene is in the house,

02:57and with this advanced Alzheimer's, unaware that his wife is likely unaware.

03:04One of the reporters asked that question, and they said likely unaware.

03:08So, he was in such an advanced stage of Alzheimer's, that it may not have computed.

03:13Interesting that he had his sunglasses on when he fell to the ground and died.

03:20Which makes me feel like he was just going about his day, daily activity.

03:24Going in and out.

03:26Yeah, going in and out of the house, and when this heart attack happens and he dies, it's so sad.

03:34Did we, the dog, the dog had gone to the vet a few days before for some kind of a procedure, Zuma,

03:43and they crated the dog, so the dog was found in a crate.

03:48So, we don't know whether it was starvation, whether it was something connected to the procedure.

03:54Or did the dog have Hantavirus? They didn't do a necropsy on the dog, right?

03:59It's pending.

04:00Oh, that is pending.

04:01They said it's pending.

04:02So, that's what we know.

04:04So, you know, there were a lot of theories about what happened here, and nobody had this theory.

04:10The two wild cards that we just didn't know about, couldn't know about, were the Hantavirus and Gene's advanced Alzheimer's.

04:20It's just what we didn't know.

04:23Look, this investigation is still going on.

04:26They're still going to sort of try to figure out what happened with the dog precisely,

04:29and now we just know that she pre-deceased him, and he was in a very confused state.

04:33It's just a very sad ending for a guy with one of the best careers in Hollywood.

04:37Just very, very sad.

04:38We had seen, you know, photos and even video of him at times where he was walking around Santa Fe.

04:45We just did not know the severity of the condition.

04:47But we didn't know about the Alzheimer's, right?

04:48Yeah, we did not know anything about the severity.

04:50They were very, very private people.

04:53Yeah.

04:54Hello, I'm Lisa Perron from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

04:57Gene Hackman was one of the best actors of all time, and his death, and alongside his wife Betsy, came as quite a shock.

05:05I'm glad the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office has solved this mystery.

05:09This is such a sad story.

05:11I hope his family and his fans can find closure now.

05:15Yeah, you know what?

05:16I think that's part of the reason they held this news conference.

05:18So you remember when this happened on February 27th, they quickly said,

05:23it's going to be four to six weeks before we can get the results.

05:27That's typically what happens, but clearly in this case, with all the interest and all the calls they were getting...

05:32Well, the medical examiner said it.

05:33She said going into this news conference, she said,

05:36we don't usually comment on this, but there have been so many people speculating about it.

05:42We've talked to the family.

05:43The family is okay with us doing this news conference.

05:45Right, and also that they advanced the process of getting all the testing done.

05:50Right.

05:51That's very sad.

05:52Wow.

Gene Hackman Died from Heart Disease a Week After Wife's Death | TMZ Live

Category

Transcript

Recommended