Gene Hackman Investigation: Date of Death Revealed From Pacemaker

Authorities are continuing to look into the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa.

Two days after the couple and one of their dogs were found dead in their Santa Fe, N.M., home, police shared an update on the investigation, revealing at a press conference that Hackman actually died almost two weeks ago.

Authorities believe he passed away on Feb. 17, which was the day Hackman’s pacemaker recorded his last “event,” according to Adan Mendoza, the Sheriff of Santa Fe County.

The sheriff said police have not yet determined who died first or how they died. 

However, both individuals tested negative for carbon monoxide, which Mendoza said appears to rule out carbon monoxide poisoning, though the investigation is ongoing. He also does not believe the couple died by falling, because there was no indication of trauma or injury.

Santa Fe public information officer Denise Womack Avila shared, in a Feb. 27 statement to NBC News, that authorities were called to the couple’s residence around 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 26 after a neighbor requested a welfare check. After identifying Hackman—who shares kids Christopher, 65, Elizabeth, 63, and Leslie, 58, with ex-wife Faye Maltese—and Arakawa’s bodies the next day, it was later confirmed that the couple had been dead for “at least a day.”