“There was no indication of a struggle,” Mendoza said. “There was no indication of anything that was missing from the home or disturbed, you know, that would be indication that there was a crime that had occurred.”
Results of autopsies conducted on both bodies are not available yet, sheriff’s officials said, noting that carbon monoxide and toxicology test results are pending.
The search warrant affidavit suggests that police appear to have a working theory that “some kind of gas poisoning” happened, but that they don’t know yet and aren’t ruling anything out, Loyola Marymount University law professor Laurie Levenson said.
“They don’t have clear evidence that it’s any type of homicide, but they’re asking for blunt instruments or other weapons that could be used,” said Levenson, who has no connection to the investigation. “It doesn’t also look like some kind of planned double-suicide.”
William & Mary Law School professor Jeffrey Bellin said the request for a search warrant was somewhat unusual because investigators who file one usually believe a specific crime was committed. In this case, no alleged crime was mentioned, Bellin said.
Police tend to overstate what they know, but this is the opposite, said Bellin, who also isn’t tied to the investigation.
“It just struck me as very careful in a way that search warrant affidavits often are not,” he said.
ACTOR KNOWN FOR HIS VERSATILITY
Hackman routinely showed up on Hollywood lists of greatest American actors of the 20th century. He could play virtually any kind of role, from comic book villain Lex Luthor in Superman to a coach finding redemption in the sentimental favourite Hoosiers.
Hackman was a five-time Oscar nominee who won best actor in a leading role for The French Connection in 1972 and best actor in a supporting role for “Unforgiven” two decades later. His death comes just four days before this year’s ceremony.
Tributes quickly poured in from Hollywood.
“There was no finer actor than Gene,” actor-director Clint Eastwood, Hackman’s Unforgiven co-star, said in a statement. “Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much.”
HACKMAN AND ARAKAWA SETTLED IN SANTA FE
Hackman met Arakawa, a classically trained pianist who grew up in Hawaii, when she was working part-time at a California gym in the mid-1980s. They soon moved in together and relocated to Santa Fe by the end of the decade.
Their Southwestern-style ranch on Old Sunset Trail sits on a hill in a gated community with views of the Rocky Mountains. The sprawling four-bedroom home on 6 acres (2.4 hectares) was built in 1997 and had an estimated market value of a little over US$4 million, according to Santa Fe County property tax records.
Hackman and his wife also owned a more modest home next door.
