This entire Gene Hackman story has been so disturbing… but this new detail is the worst.
We learned in the early hours Thursday morning that the Oscar winning actor and his classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa had been found dead in their Santa Fe home, along with one of their dogs. Their deaths are still unexplained — and being treated as “suspicious” as the investigation continues.
One thing we do know? It took 12 hours to positively identify the couple! Per local news station KOB 4, they were found about 1:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday following a welfare check request by a neighbor. But it wasn’t until very late that night they could be IDed. We’re talking about one of the most celebrated actors of all time… And no one could recognize him. That’s how far gone the bodies were.
Oh god… This explains why the distraught worker who found them told the 911 operator the bodies were “a female and a male probably.” He couldn’t be sure. That’s horrific.
The couple, who had been married 35 years, were probably dead for some time. They hadn’t been heard from in a couple weeks. And according to a sheriff’s report, Betsy was even showing signs of “mummification.” Mummification is when a body becomes desiccated, and the skin grows dark and leathery. It happens in a hot, dry environment — like a home in New Mexico with the door open.
What a terribly undignified end for such a Hollywood legend.
[Image via DJDM/WENN.]
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