Authorities have released body camera footage from outside the home of Gene Hackman, where the actor and wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in late February.
The redacted footage shows deputies talking with the two workers who called authorities to report seeing someone lying on the floor inside the home. With no signs of forced entry or other evidence of suspicious circumstances, the deputies asked about the possibility of a gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning, and the workers said they didn’t see how that could have been the case.
“Something’s not right,” one of the workers said.
Authorities soon determined there were no leaks that could have been fatal, further fuelling a mystery that captured the public’s attention.
It was solved about a week later when medical investigators confirmed that Hackman died of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer’s about a week after hantavirus pulmonary syndrome – a rare, rodent-borne disease – took the life of his wife.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office released only some of the footage from the investigation.
A New Mexico court last week granted a temporary restraining order against the release of any photographs and video showing Hackman and his wife the inside of their home. Hackman’s estate had filed the petition to withhold images, citing the need to protect the family’s constitutional right to privacy in grief under the 14th Amendment.
Workers who had maintained the property talked to investigators about respecting Hackman and Arawaka’s privacy. One worker described Arawaka as a private person.
