Gene Hackman Death Case: Pills Found by Wife’s Body Identified

Originally appeared on E! Online

The investigation into the deaths of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa has yielded new findings.

After the couple and one of their three dogs were found dead in their New Mexico home Feb. 26, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza offered new details about critical evidence in the case.

Arakawa, 65, was found lying on the bathroom floor with a space heater and an open bottle of prescription medication nearby with pills “scattered on the counter-top,” per an affidavit for the search warrant obtained by NBC News Feb. 27. The medications taken from the home were an unspecified thyroid medication, the painkiller Tylenol and the blood pressure medication Diltiazem, according to the outlet.

Investigators also collected records from MyQuest—an online health lab results portal—as well as a 2025 monthly planner and two green cellphones using the warrant.

Earlier in the day, Mendoza stressed the significance of the pills amid the ongoing investigation, characterizing them as “something of concern.”

For a look at Gene Hackman through the years, keep scrolling.

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“That’s obviously very important evidence at the scene,” he told Savannah Guthrie during an interview on Today. “That information was collected, that information was passed to the office of the medical investigator to help them make a determination. So we’re looking at that specifically and other medications that were possibly in the residence.”

Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa — Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

The sheriff also noted that a full toxicology report “could take up to three months or even possibly longer” to complete, but added that his team is “hoping it comes sooner than later.”

Meanwhile, authorities have ruled out the possibility that the couple and their dog died of carbon monoxide poisoning after both Hackman and Arakawa tested negative for the substance, Mendoza said in a Feb. 28 press conference. However, he noted that police could revisit the cause if “there’s something else that comes back in the toxicology report.”

For a look at Gene Hackman through the years, keep scrolling.

(E!, NBC News and Today are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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