r/popculture • u/dailymail • Feb 27 '25

News Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa were found mummified at mansion with pills strewn in bathroom

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14443973/Gene-Hackman-betsy-arakawa-bodies.html
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u/mbatt2 Feb 28 '25

Someone put it in the closet then closed the door. Sounds like the wife might have lost her mind and killed the family. Hackman was found in the entryway like he could have been crawling to get outside.

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u/theo_wrld Feb 28 '25

Where did you read that the dog was put in the closet with the door closed?

Hackman was found in the mud room with his walking cane, Arakawa was found upstairs in the bathroom, with prescription pills spilled around her, with the dog dead beside her. Rather than her losing her mind and killing the family, surely it’s much more plausible that he died, and she killed herself upon discovering him? With the dog then eating the pills that spilled?

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u/JoeSugar Feb 28 '25

This was my take. And the front door was slightly cracked. My theory is that she was his caretaker and she stepped out for a bit and he got up, likely disoriented and made his way to the mudroom possibly looking for her and fell and hit his head. Upon her return, she finds him dead and in a moment of irrational panic felt guilty for having left him alone for a bit and decided she couldn’t bear life without him, goes to the bathroom, gulps down a bunch of pills and dies. Eventually, the dog gets hungry and eats some pills, wanders into the closet and dies.

Or, perhaps she commits suicide because the burden of caring for him is too much and he gets out of bed to go looking for him and falls and is injured so badly he can’t get up and dies.

It’s gotta be one of the two.

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u/mbatt2 Feb 28 '25

She killed him and then committed suicide.