A private healthcare clinic in New Mexico has cast doubt on official findings about the timing of the death of Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, claiming that she rang them on 12 February – the day after police say she died.
Dr Josiah Child, the head of Cloudberry Health in Santa Fe, where the couple lived, told the Mail on Sunday: “Mrs Hackman didn’t die on 11 February because she called my clinic on 12 February.”
Postmortem results indicated that Arakawa died of hantavirus, a rare rodent-borne respiratory disease, on 11 February, a week before her husband is believed to have died from heart disease. His pacemaker showed no activity after 18 February; he is also believed to have suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
“She’d called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband,” said Dr Child. “She was not a patient of mine, but one of my patients recommended Cloudberry to her. She made an appointment for herself for 12 February. It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory.”
Dr Child added that two days before her appointment was due, she cancelled it, saying Hackman was unwell. “She [then] called back on the morning of 12 February and spoke to one of our doctors who told her to come in that afternoon.
“We made her an appointment but she never showed up. She did not show any symptoms of respiratory distress. The appointment wasn’t for anything related to hantavirus. We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply.”
Dr Child also confirmed to the BBC that Arakawa “described some congestion but didn’t mention any respiratory distress, shortness of breath, or chest pain”.
The Santa Fe county sheriff’s office now say they have confirmed that Arakawa made multiple calls to a health clinic on 12 February. It remains unclear why these calls have taken so long to come to light, as her previous date of death was predicated on her apparently having no communication by email after 11 February.
That day she was also seen visiting a number of Santa Fe shops, including a chemist, pet food store and supermarket.
Arakawa, 65, was found on the bathroom floor of the couple’s home, with a portable heater nearby, and pills scattered on a countertop. Hackman was found, apparently having had a fall and with no food in his stomach, in a porch a short distance away. Both bodies showed signs of mummification and bloating.
One of the couple’s three dogs, which was in a crate recovering from surgery, died of starvation and dehydration, while the other two dogs were wandering the property and grounds.
Dr Child cast further doubt on the official cause of death of his clinic’s prospective client, saying: “I am not a hantavirus expert but most patients who have that diagnosis die in hospital. It is surprising that Mrs Hackman spoke to my office on the phone on 10 February and again on 12 February and didn’t appear in respiratory distress.
A Los Angeles-based doctor told the Mail on Sunday: “Respiratory failure is not sudden – it is something that worsens over several days. Most people get admitted to the ER [emergency room] because they are having trouble breathing. It’s exceedingly rare for a seemingly healthy 65-year-old to drop dead of it. In fact, no one’s heard of such a thing.”
Representatives for the Hackman estate were initially successful in their bid to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports, especially photographs and police body-camera video, related to the couple’s deaths.
