After authorities found actor Gene Hackman and his wife dead in their Santa Fe home, along with one of their dogs, they launched a criminal investigation, revealing a dark and mysterious discovery with loads of foul play.
According to police documents obtained by Fox News Digital, they were found decomposed. However, Betsy Arakawa, Hackman’s wife was found in a strange state. There was bloating on her face and her hands and feet had been mummified.
Former NYPD investigator Joseph Giacalone had loads of questions as to what the authorities have found about the bodies so far.
“Was the house really hot? Did they have a lot of clothes on? The heat can get the bodies into those stages faster,” Giacolone said.
“You have different stages that you look for, like the liver mortis, which is the purple-ing of the body, and what we call the dependent areas you could tell by how long somebody has been dead. This is all approximate stuff.”
“How long have the bodies been there? You can generally determine this based on the stiffness that you see. So, from an investigator’s standpoint, there are clues. This is something, ultimately, the medical examiner or medical-legal investigator will weigh in on. But detectives generally have a good idea about what they’re looking at,” he added.
When officers first landed on the crime scene, they found Arakawa lying motionless on the bathroom floor with a bottle of pills scattered around. A space heater was also found near her body.
Many investigators have weighed on the case, concluding the couple most probably died of carbon dioxide poisoning or something toxic.
The deceased dog was found near Arakawa’s body in a closet of the bathroom, however, when the officers searched the house, they also found two healthy dogs who were still alive.
