Betsy Arakawa‘s doctor is disputing the time of death determined by medical examiners following the discovery of the 65-year-old alongside her husband actor Gene Hackman.
Arakawa and Hackman were found dead in the Santa Fe home in New Mexico on February 26. However, it was determined that Arakawa passed away on February 11 and Hackman a week later on February 18.
Now, Arakawa’s doctor Dr Josiah Child is disputing her death date, claiming that she called his clinic on February 12, the day after her presumed death.
“Mrs Hackman didn’t die on February 11 because she called my clinic on February 12,” Child told The Daily Mail.
“She’d called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband. She was not a patient of mine, but one of my patients recommended [the clinic] to her. She made an appointment for herself for February 12.
Child says that she cancelled her original appointment, noting that her husband was sick, but called back to reschedule.
“She called back on the morning of February 12 and spoke to one of our doctors who told her to come in that afternoon,” he continued.
“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.”
However, according to a statement made by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office to E! News, the office did not report an explicit date of death and claim that the phone records back up Child’s account.
“We did state that the last known activity shown for Mrs. Arakawa Hackman was on February 11, 2025. We also stated that the investigation was open and we were awaiting cell phone records. Pending cell phone records, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office investigation showed the last known activity of Mrs. Hackman to be February 11, 2025,” the statement read.
“We can now confirm that Mrs Hackman’s phone was utilized on the morning of February 12 to call a medical centre in Santa Fe, Cloudberry Health,” the statement continued. A total of three calls were made that morning, all to the medical centre. One incoming call was made to Mrs Hackman from the same medical centre that afternoon which appeared as a missed call on Mrs. Hackman’s cell phone. This information was learned through an investigation into the cell phone data contained on her phone.”
Arakawa was found in the bathroom of her home surrounded by pills with her husband around six metres away. One of their dogs was also found dead.
Sherriff Adan Mendoza stated that Arakawa’s official cause of death was a rare and deadly respiratory disease called hantavirus which is transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents urine, droppings and saliva.
Hackman’s cause of death was deemed as hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease — known colloquially as a hardening of the arteries — along with Alzheimer’s disease. His time of death was based on the last recorded incident on his pacemaker.
Hackman’s will was left entirely to Arakawa, leaving the fate of his estate unclear.
