Gene Hackman’s daughter Elizabeth told police to have the late actor’s dog, Zinna, cremated and buried with her stepmom Betsy Arakawa, according to new bodycam footage released Friday.
The footage, which was taken on Feb. 27 and obtained by TMZ, shows a phone conversation between an officer and Hackman’s daughter one day after his and his wife Arakawa’s bodies were discovered in their home.
During the heartbreaking call, his 63-year-old daughter asked police to save the dog’s collar for her, if she was wearing one.
In an additional clip taken on Feb. 26, the day the bodies were discovered, deputies had an emotional conversation with a groundskeeper who teared up as he described his relationship to the couple.
“They treat me really well. She was a sweetheart and to see them like that…” he said before leaving over and getting choked up.
The couple’s dog, which was one of three kept on their property, was also found dead when authorities discovered Hackman and his wife in late February.
Its body was discovered in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa’s body. The couple’s two other dogs survived.
An autopsy report for the dog revealed that it likely died of starvation and dehydration as it had very little inside its stomach before it died. The report also noted the dog was partially mummified, which could have obscured changed in organs.
However, there was no evidence of poisoning, disease or trauma that could have led to death.
Autopsy reports for Hackman and Arakawa revealed the 95-year-old movie star’s cause of death was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
The report also listed “evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease” as a significant contributory factor.
Arakawa, 65, on the other hand, died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a rare rodent-transmitted virus. The manner of death was natural.
Arakawa was originally believed to have died in the couple’s Santa Fe home on Feb. 11, with Hackman presumed to have followed on Feb. 18, which was the last date recorded on his pacemaker.
However, authorities later amended the pianist’s date of death after it was revealed she had placed a call to her doctor the day after authorities originally claimed she died.
Earlier this week, a Santa Fe judge ruled that photos of Hackman and Arakawa’s dead bodies — which police reported showed signs of partial mummification — would not be released to the public after a representative of the actor’s estate requested to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports related to their deaths
The court issued a temporary restraining order against the release of those pictures as well as shots of the interior of the reclusive couple’s New Mexico home, where they died. A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for March 31.
Hackman is survived by his daughters Elizabeth and Leslie, 58, as well as his son Christopher, 65, whom he shared with his ex-wife Faye Maltese.
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