Update on Gene Hackman’s passing: The gas company releases a new statement with details from their investigation

The investigation into the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa revealed a small gas leak at one of the stove burners in their Santa Fe home, according to the gas company assisting in the inquiry.

Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 65, were found dead, along with one of their dogs, in separate rooms of their home mansion in New Mexico last Wednesday.

Initially, there were concerns raised by Hackman’s daughter, Elizabeth Jean, suggesting that her father and stepmother might have passed away from carbon monoxide poisoning or exposure to other harmful fumes.

Following a thorough examination, the New Mexico Gas Company determined that there were no significant gas leaks or carbon monoxide present in the residence, as confirmed by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in a statement to DailyMail.com.

The gas company did, however, issue five ‘red tags’ including one for the minor leak at the stove burner, which registered ‘0.03 per cent gas in the air’ and is ‘not a lethal amount’.

‘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,’ police said.

Authorities believe Hackman and Arakawa, whose bodies were partially mummified at the time of discovery, likely died a couple weeks before they were found.

Tests on Hackman’s pacemaker revealed that he was alive on February 17 when a ‘last event’ was recorded – nine days before his body was discovered. Police say it is a ‘reasonable assumption’ that he died when his pacemaker had its ‘last event’. 

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza during a press conference Friday confirmed that both Hackman and Arakawa ‘tested negative for carbon monoxide’.

‘An initial interrogation was conducted of Mr Hackman’s pacemaker,’ he said. ‘This revealed that his last event was recorded February 17 2025, I was advised that a more thorough investigation will be completed.’

Mendoza said the ‘initial findings noted no external trauma to either individual’, but reiterated the ‘manner and cause of death has not been determined’. He also said there were ‘no apparent signs of foul play’.

‘The official results of the autopsy and toxicology reports are pending,’ he added.

The shocking discovery of the bodies has puzzled investigators, who are still trying to determine how and when the couple died.

Hackman and Arakawa were found by a neighborhood security officer after pest-control workers reported not being able to get in touch with the residents.

Authorities investigating the couple’s deaths have already said a deadly carbon monoxide leak is unlikely.

But an expert who is not involved in the investigation on Tuesday weighed in on another theory recently bandied about – that Hackman and Arakawa may have died by ‘companion suicide.’

James Gill, Chief Medical Examiner for the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told People Magazine that the theory is an unlikely explanation for the puzzling deaths.

Gill, who said he had dealt in the past with ‘cases like that,’ explained that couples who die in a dual suicide are ‘usually… together in bed.’ 

However, police have said that Hackman was found dead in the house’s mud room, with his can and sunglasses near him on the ground. Arakawa was discovered lying on the bathroom floor with prescription pills strewn across the nearby countertop.

‘The fact that they’re in two separate locations tells me that I think that’s less likely,’ Gill continued.

The medical examiner said that the initial information about the scene makes it appear as if Hackman had ‘collapsed.’ ‘He’s got a history of heart disease. He’s got a pacemaker. So that would not be unusual,’ he said.

Another detail Gill focused on was the fact that Hackman was ‘ambulatory’ before his death, which he thought decreased the likelihood of a scenario in which he was left potentially helpless if Arakawa had died first.

‘Sometimes we’ll see instances where someone is bedridden and maybe they have dementia and then their caregiver dies from a natural event, and then there’s no one there to take care of them, and then they can die from dehydration or what have you,’ he explained. ‘I don’t think that’s the case in this.’

That information could be particularly useful to compare to when Arakawa may have died, though Gill admits ‘that’s a little bit of a more gray area.’ 

New Mexico Gas Company tested gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to a search warrant, and no signs of problems were found.

Officers are still trying to piece together the couple’s last known contact with other people but ‘that’s one of our challenges because of their privacy,’ Mendoza said.

The sheriff had previously said there were several conflicting stories about which doors were locked at the house – he said several were unlocked and a rear door was open, which allowed two dogs that survived to go in and out.

He also said he thought the front door was closed but unlocked. Two other dogs were found alive at the property, one inside and one outside.

The alarm had been raised by a maintenance person doing pest control at the property, who was concerned because he had not seen the couple, police said.

A search was carried out after the bodies were discovered and several items were ‘secured from the residence for evidentiary purposes’.

These included two green mobile phones, two bottles of medication, medical records and a 2025 monthly planner. Work is now being done to ‘sift through cell phones’ and to look through a calendar found near the couple’s bodies.

Contact will also be made with workers, security staff and family members.

Mendoza said there is nothing which suggests the couple fell, adding: ‘I don’t think, you know, there was any indication that, again, there was no trauma or injured themselves, or head injury or brain injury.’

The moment when a pacemaker stops working could mark the point when a person dies but not always, according to Dr Philip Keen, the retired chief medical examiner in Maricopa County, Arizona.

He said later: ‘If your heart required a pacemaker, there would certainly be an interruption at that point – and it might be the hallmark of when the death occurred.

‘But it’s not necessarily because some people get a pacemaker to augment things, not necessarily replace things.’

He also felt it would be unlikely for a person who tests negative for carbon monoxide initially to later be found to have been poisoned by it.

Hackman, who was widely respected as one of the greatest actors of his generation, was a five-time Oscar nominee who won best actor in a leading role for The French Connection in 1972 and best actor in a supporting role for Unforgiven two decades later.

His daughters Elizabeth and Leslie, and his granddaughter Annie, said they will miss the actor ‘sorely’ and are ‘devastated by the loss’.