Most heartbreaking detail in Gene Hackman’s autopsy results

One tragic detail in Gene Hackman’s autopsy findings stopped reporters in their tracks as the grim details were announced today.

As authorities today released their autopsy findings for Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, providing answers to a case that until now has been shrouded in mystery, one heartbreaking detail stuck out.

While 65-year-old Betsy is believed to have died on or around February 11, succumbing to the rare infectious disease hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, autopsy findings do not put her elderly husband’s death until a full week later, on February 18.

That’s seven whole days that Hackman survived in the couple’s Santa Fe home, while his wife lay dead in their bathroom, before he too died of natural causes – his death found to be “cardiovascular disease, with advanced Alzehimer’s disease as a significant contributing factor”.

It would be another week after his death before the couple’s bodies were discovered.

Doctor Heather Jarrell, Chief Medical Examiner for New Mexico, delivered these tragic findings to waiting media at a press conference this morning.

Hackman and wife Betsy were found on February 26 … Picture: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

It’s now believed he survived a week at home after his wife’s death. Picture: Hector Mata/AFP

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Many of the reporters present focused their questions on that week-long period between the two deaths, and while Dr Jarrell could provide some answers, she also stressed that we may never know exactly what happened to Hackman during the final week of his life.

She suggested that, given the advanced state of his Alzehimer’s, it was “quite possible” the 95-year-old actor was never actually aware that his wife had died.

Reporters asked further details about the manner of Hackman’s death. Pressed by one journalist, Dr Jarrell stopped short of referring to Hackman’s cause of death as a “heart attack”.

She also refuted a suggestion from a reporter that he had perhaps starved to death without his wife to care for him.

Sheriff Adan Mendoza (left) and Dr Heather Jarrell (right) address reporters today.

Dr Jarrell explained that, while Hackman had no food in his stomach at the time of his death, he was showing no signs of dehydration – which, if present, would have indicated he was unable to eat and drink for himself. She also noted that the actor was overall in a “very poor state of health”.

Sheriff Adan Mendoza said it was believed Hackman, who had three adult children from his first marriage to Faye Maltese, spent the final week of his life entirely alone.

Mendoza added that “there was no outside surveillance or inside surveillance” on the property that police are “aware of”.

Hackman, seen here on a rare outing two years ago, had severe Alzheimer’s and was in “very poor health.” Picture: Splash News/Media Mode

Hackman’s death came a week after his wife died from what medical examiners believe was a rapid onset of the rare infectious disease hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Infection occurs by breathing air that’s contaminated by rodent urine and droppings.

The Mayo Clinic states that hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is a “rare infectious disease that begins with flu-like symptoms and progresses rapidly to more severe disease’.

“It can lead to life-threatening lung and heart problems. The disease is also called hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome.”

The Clinic states that given treatment options are “limited,” the best protection against the virus is “to avoid contact with rodents and safely clean up rodent habitats”.

Authorities found evidence of rodent entry into the couple’s home, and believe that to be the cause of Arakawa’s infection. Hackman had not contracted the virus, which does not spread between humans.