Investigators are zeroing in on new evidence in the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa.
Specifically, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adam Mendoza cited an open prescription pill bottle found near Arakawa’s body, first mentioned in an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by NBC News Feb. 27, as a crucial detail authorities are taking a close look at as they continue to determine the couple and their dog’s sudden death.
“That’s obviously very important evidence at the scene,” Mendoza told Savannah Guthrie on the Feb. 28 episode of Today. “That information was collected, that information was passed to the office of the medical investigator to help them make a determination. So we’re looking at that specifically and other medications that were possibly in the residence. So that is something of concern.”
The sheriff—who is leading the investigation into the deaths of the longtime couple—added that a toxicology report “could take up to three months or even possibly longer.”
“It just depends how busy the laboratory is,” Mendoza explained. “But we’re hoping it comes sooner than later so we can answer some of these questions and hopefully it’ll help us in our investigation to help determine the matter and cause of death.”
The lead investigator added that “it’s very difficult to put a timeline together” around the couple’s death, but “it appears [they had been deceased for] several days possibly even up to a couple weeks” before their bodies were discovered in their home Feb. 26.
That being said Mendoza explained that officials believe that the timing of Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths were “very close” together.
“There was no indication that anybody was moving about the house or doing anything different, so it’s very hard to determine if they both passed at the same time or how close they passed together,” he noted. “We’re trying to put that information together.”
Mendoza added that “the autopsy report is going to be key to this investigation,” but investigators are “pretty confident that there is no foul play, just based on the lack of evidence of foul play.”
However, he continued, at this time officials are “not ruling that out.”
The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office had previously stated in the affidavit that their death’s were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”
According to the warrant, Arakawa’s body “showed obvious signs of death, body decomposition, bloating in her face and mumification in both hands and feet” when she was found dead in a bathroom during a routine welfare check.
Meanwhile, Hackman—who was discovered in the mudroom area of the house and suspected to have “suddenly fallen”—”showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent.”
Keep reading for more on Hackman’s life…
(E!, NBC News and Today are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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