Betsy Arakawa appeared to go about her normal routine in early February.

She ran errands around Santa Fe while wearing a face mask. She visited a Sprouts grocery store, CVS pharmacy and a pet store while emailing her massage therapist, officials said.

Investigators now believe she died two days later on Feb. 11. Her body was later found in the bathroom of the home she shared with her husband, actor Gene Hackman. Prescription pills were scattered on a nearby countertop.

Hackman, 95, appears to have lived inside the home for several more days, succumbing to heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease. He was found in another room with a walking cane and a pair of sunglasses by his body. Officials believe he died on Feb. 18.

Their bodies were discovered Feb. 26 by maintenance workers at their home in the Santa Fe Summit housing community.

The tragic revelations, made Friday by authorities in New Mexico, resolve many questions raised by the unusual deaths.

Hackman had lived in Santa Fe for years, giving up the Hollywood glitz for a quieter life of painting, community events, bike riding and Pilates with his classic pianist wife, friends said. His health appeared to be declining in recent times, and Arakawa was caring for him, some friends said.

What do we know about Hackman’s death?

Heather Jarrell, chief medical examiner at the medical investigator’s office, performed the autopsy on Hackman and said his brain showed “advanced Alzheimer’s disease as well as blood vessel changes in the brain secondary to chronic high blood pressure.”

“He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that is what resulted in his death,” Jarrell said.

When asked whether Hackman’s Alzheimer’s disease prevented him from being able to tell if his wife was dead, Jarrell could not say.

“I think that question is difficult to answer, but I can tell you that he was in an advanced state of Alzheimer’s, and it is quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased,” Jarrell said.

What about Arakawa?

Investigators pieced together Arakawa’s last days through surveillance footage and emails, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza.

She picked up her dog from a veterinary hospital on Feb. 9. Then she was seen on surveillance footage on Feb. 11 at a local Sprouts supermarket around 3:30 p.m. and a CVS Pharmacy shortly before 4:30 p.m., according to investigators.

She stopped at a pet food store and shortly before 5 p.m. returned to her neighborhood and activated the remote control to open the gate to her subdivision. Earlier in the day, Arakawa wrote to her massage therapist over email. There was no email activity on the following day, according to officials.

Though Jarrell did not pinpoint exactly where Arakawa contracted hantavirus, they did note that it is transmitted by rodent droppings or saliva, and characterized by flu like symptoms, fever, muscle aches, cough, vomiting and diarrhea.

Erin Phipps, New Mexico state public health veterinarian, said there were signs of rodent entry in some structures on the property.

Roughly 38% to 50% of people in the Southwest who are infected and experience respiratory symptoms die from the disease, officials said.

What do we know about how the couple was found?

They were found by a pair of maintenance workers in their housing community shortly before 2 p.m. on Feb. 26.

The workers then notified a community caretaker, who went to the home and then called 911.

The caretaker didn’t have all the information when he called but said he was looking through a window at two bodies lying on the floor inside.

The caller can be heard on the 911 audio telling the dispatcher that he could see what appeared to be two motionless bodies inside the house. Shaken, he repeatedly says “damn” and urges authorities to rapidly respond.

“No, they are not moving. Please send someone out here quick,” the caller says.

Hackman’s body was found on the floor near the kitchen and a mudroom, according to a court affidavit. Arakawa’s body was found in a bathroom by the home’s main entrance, and prescription pills were scattered on a nearby countertop. Mendoza said he could not release details about the prescriptions due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The positioning of the couple’s bodies indicated that they may have suddenly fallen, according to the affidavit.

A dog was found dead inside the home while two other dogs were alive on the property and able to enter and exit the residence through a door at the back. The dog’s cause of death is unknown.

Officials later revealed that they removed medication to treat high blood pressure, Tylenol and a medication to treat the thyroid, according to court records.

What do we know about hantavirus?

The condition is rare but deadly — with a mortality rate between 38% and 50% among those infected in the American Southwest, Jarrell said.

Hantaviruses are a family of viruses spread by rodent feces, saliva and urine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most hantaviruses found in the United States can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

People can contract the syndrome by breathing in the air when cleaning up after rodents. It can also be spread by touching contaminated objects and then touching your nose or mouth, getting bitten or scratched by an infected rodent or eating food contaminated with hantavirus, according to the CDC.

Phipps noted that Arakawa and Hackman’s home had a “low risk” of exposure to hantavirus, but said there were signs of rodents in other structures on the property. She said that, in the last five years, New Mexico has confirmed one to seven hantavirus cases annually.

A total of 122 cases and 52 deaths were reported in New Mexico between 1993, when surveillance began, and 2022, the most recent year for which the CDC has data publicly available. California reported 78 cases and 24 deaths in that same time span.

The California cases include a hantavirus outbreak at Yosemite National Park in summer 2012 that infected visitors staying in tent cabins. Of the 10 people who were infected, eight experienced hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, five required intensive care with ventilatory support, and three died.

The deer mouse is the most common vector of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the U.S., according to the CDC.

SANTA FE, N.M. — SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease, authorities revealed Friday.

Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference.

“Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” Jarrell said. “He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death.”

Authorities didn’t suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative.

Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday.

Hackman’s pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said.

Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said.

“It’s quite possible he was not aware she was deceased,” Jarrell said.

Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer’s disease and unable to deal with his wife’s death in the last week of his life.

Most older Americans with dementia live at home, and many receive care from family or friends.

Their bodies were found a little over a week later. Hackman was found in the home’s entryway. His death was tied to heart disease with Alzheimer’s disease contributing.

Arakawa was found in a bathroom. Authorities linked her death to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings. Thyroid medication pills prescribed to Arakawa were found nearby and weren’t listed as contributing to her death, Jarrell said.

Hantavirus typically is reported in spring and summer, often due to exposures that occur when people are near mouse droppings in homes, sheds or poorly ventilated areas. This is the first confirmed case of hantavirus in New Mexico this year.

While hantavirus is found throughout the world, most cases in the U.S. have been found in western states. The virus can cause a severe and sometimes deadly lung infection.

Jarrell said it was not known how quickly Arakawa died.

One of the couple’s three dogs also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs survived. Authorities initially misidentified the breed.

Dogs do not get sick from hantavirus, said Erin Phipps, a veterinarian with the New Mexico Health Department. The sheriff considers this an open investigation until they receive results of the dog’s necropsy and finish checking into data from personal cellphones retrieved from the home.

When Hackman and Arakawa were found, the bodies were decomposing with some mummification, a consequence of body type and climate in Santa Fe’s especially dry air at an elevation of nearly 7,200 feet (2,200 meters).

“All of us that knew him should have been checking on him,” said Stuart Ashman, co-owner of Artes de Cuba gallery who cherished his encounters with Hackman at a local Pilates exercise studio, where they used to swap stories. “I had no idea. … It’s just really sad. And that she died a week before him. My God.”

Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist in Virginia, said when two bodies are found at the same time, the usual assumption would be that they died at the same time. But Hackman’s Alzheimer’s disease added a complicating factor: He apparently was unable to seek help after his wife died.

“They died several days apart: One dying of a viral infection, the hantavirus, which can kill quite quickly. And the other death occurring from heart disease. And that too can be a relatively sudden death,” Weedn said. “Their (the authorities’) explanation, I thought, was quite clear and plausible. I believe they really discovered what truly happened in this case.”

Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a storied career in films including “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers” and “Superman” from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.

Arakawa, born in Hawaii, studied as a concert pianist, attended the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid-1980s while working at a California gym.

Hackman dedicated much of his time in retirement to painting and writing novels far from Hollywood’s social circuit. He served for several years on the board of trustees at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and he and his wife were investors in local businesses.

___

Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington. Associated Press reporters Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Carla Johnson in Seattle contributed.

The seemingly mysterious deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa in their Santa Fe, N.M., home were both natural and occurred days apart before they were discovered, authorities announced Friday.

Hackman, 95, had heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease and likely died days before his 65-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, who died of hantavirus, the New Mexico medical investigator’s office announced. The contributing factors in Arakawa’s death were attributed to rodents.

The bodies of Hackman, 95, and Arakawa were discovered at their Santa Fe home on Feb. 26, but Hackman’s pacemaker was only active until Feb. 17, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza.

Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies responded to the home and discovered Arakawa’s body in a bathroom with prescription pills scattered on a countertop nearby. Hackman’s body was found in another room, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court. Both bodies showed signs that they had fallen down abruptly and were partially decomposed.

Both died from natural causes, Heather Jarrell, chief medical examiner at the medical investigator’s office, said.

Jarrell performed the autopsy on Hackman and said his brain showed “advanced Alzheimer’s disease as well as blood vessel changes in the brain secondary to chronic high blood pressure.”

“He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that is what resulted in his death,” Jarrell said.

When asked if Hackman’s Alzheimer’s disease prevented him from being able to tell if his wife was dead, Jarrell could not say.

“I think that question is difficult to answer, but I can tell you that he was in an advanced state of Alzheimer’s, and it is quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased,” Jarrell said.

An examination of Hackman’s pacemaker showed some signs of activity on Feb. 17 and “an abnormal rhythm” the following day, which were the last signs of life, according to officials.

While officials said they could not provide an exact time and date for the deaths, they think Arakawa died Feb. 11.

Investigators pieced together Arakawa’s last days through surveillance footage and emails, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza.

She picked up her dog from a veterinary hospital on Feb. 9. Then she was seen on surveillance footage on Feb. 11 at a local Sprouts supermarket around 3:30 p.m. and a CVS Pharmacy shortly before 4:30 p.m., according to investigators.

She stopped at a pet food store and shortly before 5 p.m. returned to her neighborhood and activated the remote control to open the gate to her subdivision. Earlier in the day, Arakawa wrote to her massage therapist over email. There was no email activity on the following day, according to officials.

Though Jerrell did not pinpoint exactly where Arakawa contracted hantavirus, they did note that it is transmitted by rodent droppings or saliva, and characterized by flu like symptoms, fever, muscle aches, cough, vomiting and diarrhea.

Erin Phipps, New Mexico state public health veterinarian, said there were signs of rodent entry in some structures on the property.

Roughly 38% to 50% of people in Southwest who are infected and experience respiratory symptoms die from the disease, officials said.

The rest of the Hackman family was notified about the investigation results, Jarrell said, adding that it’s unusual for her office to comment on death investigations. But the “circumstances surrounding these two deaths require accurate dissemination of important information.”

One of the couple’s dogs — the one that Arakawa had picked up from the vet — was found dead in a closet near her body, and two other dogs found on the property were able to enter and exit the home through a door at the rear of the residence, according to Mendoza.

The couple’s bodies were discovered by maintenance workers at the Santa Fe Summit housing community, where Hackman and Arakawa led private lives, authorities said. They told investigators they had not spoken to the couple in more than two weeks.

On Sunday, Hackman was memorialized at the Academy Awards ceremony by actor Morgan Freeman. The two co-starred in the films “Unforgiven” and “Under Suspicion.”

“Like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer whose gifts elevated everyone’s work,” Freeman said. “He received two Oscars but more importantly he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.”

“Gene always said, ‘I don’t think about legacy. I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work.’ I think I speak for us all when I say, ‘Gene, you will be remembered for that, and so much more.’ Rest in peace, my friend,” Freeman said.