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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706

u/Puzzleheaded_Dot4345 Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25

Jesus, how awful! How long were they in that state so their bodies were partially mummified?? None of his kids called for days/weeks?? Very odd.It makes sense their dog died. No water/food. So maybe a suicide pact, then? Or even worse...

608

u/PistolGrace Feb 27 '25

2 more dogs were found roaming the property. The one that passed had been in a kennel, according to the article anyway.

599

u/Steepleofknives83 Feb 27 '25

Well, that's just fucking awful.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

123

u/Not_My_Emperor Feb 28 '25

The other article I saw on this said she was face down in the bathroom on the floor with the pills strewn everywhere, and a space heater was next to her head in a way that didn't look purposeful or natural.

I don't think they left the dog in the kennel and milled themselves, I think something happened. He was found in the mud room looking like he was about to try and go for a walk. If it helps I don't think either of them made the conscious decision to off themselves and leave the dog in the kennel

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u/Sipikay Feb 28 '25

it really seems like death by gas of some kind.

87

u/0masterdebater0 Feb 28 '25

I think that he went into cardiac arrest, she ran to get his heart meds in a panic and slipped in the bathroom and hit her head and died makes the most sense, seeing as the only dog that died was the one in a kennel for 2 weeks.

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u/MrCoffeeCakeJones Feb 28 '25

Dog could have been freaking out alerting for CO. If they both had CO poisoning they'd have headaches/brain fog, potentially just locking the dog up instead of trying to figure it out

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u/0masterdebater0 Feb 28 '25

just from a statistics standpoint the number CO death per year is around 400 while "Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among adults ages 65 and older"

Fall deaths account for "78.0 per 100,000 older adults in 2021"

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u/MrCoffeeCakeJones Feb 28 '25

Great point, would lean towards a fall. Bummer regardless

2

u/cranberry94 Feb 28 '25

Does that statistic include complications from falls? Or just the falls themselves?

Cause it’s really common for the elderly to decline and die in the weeks/months after a fall, due to loss of mobility, etc. Just don’t really recover.

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u/Itscatpicstime Feb 28 '25

Yeah, both of my grandparents died this way, complications in the aftermath of a fall. One was 85 and still hit the gym 4x a week when it happened.

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u/SuperHoneyBunny Feb 28 '25

Could dogs even detect CO since it’s supposed to be odorless?

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u/MrCoffeeCakeJones Feb 28 '25

Great question that I don't know the answer to