A gas company investigating the death of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa has released details of a ‘miniscule leak’.
Hackman was found dead in his Santa Fe mansion, with his remains reported to have become partially ‘mummified’.
His body was found in a similar state of decay to Arakawa, who was found in another room in the mansion also partially mummified and bloated.
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In addition to this one of the married couple’s three dogs was found dead in the property, though local police were revealed to have misidentified which one was deceased.
Santa Fe’s Sheriff Adan Mendoza said it was believed the pair were dead nine days before being found, due in part to the ‘last event’ registered on Hackman’s pacemaker.
The pair’s death was early theorised to be due to a carbon monoxide leak, a theory shared by Hackman’s daughter Elizabeth Jean.
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But according to the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department however, a local gas company carried out a search and made ‘no significant findings’ of a gas leak.
What they did discover, however, was a ‘miniscule leak’.
This was part of a series of five ‘red tags’ the company revealed they had issued to the property in their investigation.
They said in a press release: “One red tag was for a minuscule leak (0.33% gas in air – not a lethal amount) at one of the stove burners.
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“The other four red tags were for code enforcement violations — not involving gas leaks or carbon monoxide — involving a water heater and gas log lighters installed in three fireplaces.”
Members of Hackman’s gated community recently spoke to the New York Times about the legendary actor’s death.
James Everett, who had lived for five years part-time in a house next door, said of Hackman and Arakawa: "They have a gate, and we have a gate, and we just have never even seen each other.”
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Several of his neighbours described the pair as being reclusive, with Bud Hamilton, their next door neighbour, saying that in the 20 years they’d lived next to each other they had dinner just once in that time.
Harvey Chalker who lived in the community described his singular meeting with Hackman, saying: "He wanted to be quiet, he didn't want to be bothered, and I don't blame him."
While Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths are not being treated as suspicious, they were however described as being suspicious enough to warrant a search of the property.
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An affidavit filled out by an investigating detective said: “Affiant believes that the circumstances surrounding the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”
It went on to describe how Arakawa’s body ‘showed obvious signs of death, body decomposition, bloating in her face and mummification in both hands and feet’.
Topics: Gene Hackman, Film, TV and Film, Celebrity, Crime
Michael Slavin