Gene Hackman dead at 95: Iconic actor and wife, 63, are found dead with their dog at Santa Fe home.

[friendlysleuther]

A possible scenario - the wife is deceased before the husband. Her body seems to be in a more advanced stage of decomp. Sadly the deceased dog she wanted near her. Do we know the mental state 95 year old GH was in? Is he aware of what's going ? Maybe he passes away from a sudden heart attack or stroke. He's confused before passing away and he left the door open for the other dogs to leave the house while he was wandering around. None of this is foul play. imo

Why do people keep saying the wife’s body was more advanced stage of decomp?

 

[fsngruv]

Many people have space heaters in their bathrooms because they like it to be warmer than the rest of the house. Sometimes they only turn them on before a shower to warm up the bathroom.

Exactly!
I've heard this is a must for people who may suffer from joint pain because getting out of a warm shower causes the other air to feel so chilly.

I would also like to add most small space heaters have an automatic shut off button on the bottom so if the heater is moved or knocked over it turns off and an over heat protection feature. Just sharing a link for discription purposes.

Amazon.com

Because both parties seem to have fallen suddenly, I'm wondering if they were tripped up by one of the dogs? Completely coincidental and still hard to believe it would happen to both?

I offer this scenario because I've had a friend who mother loved animals so much she took in a rowdy big dog who she couldn't really train, but the dog would jump on her and get in her way and eventually the mother broke her hip in the process of trying to let the dog outside.

 

[Fabled Automatic]

Not the one I'm looking at right now!

Here in Canada we have both. Many radiators are now portable. They're electric and filled with oil and they're on wheels. A space heater is a different design.

 

[friendlysleuther]

I would have thought that they would have had no worries about the cost of heating their house to be permanently as warm as they needed in all rooms.

Some people want the bathroom to be hotter than the Sahara Desert, but not necessarily the entire home.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Why do people keep saying the wife’s body was more advanced stage of decomp?

Where have you seen this data point???
It does suggest different scenarios....

 

[friendlysleuther]

I am in Australia, for the love of God, will somebody please tell me what a space heater is??!! (sorry to yell)

Here’s some images of what a space heater looks like

 

[K9Enzo]

Why do people keep saying the wife’s body was more advanced stage of decomp?

He's found clothed in a separate room with no immediate signs of injury or significant decomp, suggesting he might have passed away more recently. She was found in a state of advanced decomp and mummification, indicating she had been deceased longer (the heater doesn't mean much here to me). This is a possible staggered timeline of death, which makes me question how long he was alive after she passed away. IMO

 

[IceIce9]

What i cant fathom is how 2 dogs survived yet both Gene's body and his wife's were found in a state of decomposition with mummified hands and feet. That points to death quite dome time ago? Such a sad case for all including the dogs

Dogs can drink water out of toilets, and there was a dog door so they could get outside and find food sources. Also they might have been able to access dogfood from storage bin or something similar.

 

[SBurrus]

snarky article.
But it is still amazing to me that no one had been in touch with either of them in a while...
the mummification and the total lack of contact with anyone is still so hard to comprehend.

This. It's amazing that at least two weeks went by before anyone thought to check up on them. That no family members, albeit estranged ones, friends, acquaintances, or even door-to-door solicitors or even a random perfect stranger would not, at some point, either call, e-mail or come by the residence in what must have been nearly a month, based on the level of decomposition noted on both people.

It's really sad that anyone would die, and then for their bodies to deteriorate significantly before they were found.

 

[friendlysleuther]

He's found clothed in a separate room with no immediate signs of injury or significant decomp, suggesting he might have passed away more recently. She was found in a state of advanced decomp and mummification, indicating she had been deceased longer (the heater doesn't mean much here to me). This is a possible staggered timeline of death, which makes me question how long he was alive after she passed away. IMO

"Deputy Thomas advised the female decedent showed obvious signs of death, body decomposition, bloating in her face and mumification in both hands and feet."

"Deputy Thomas advised the male decedent also showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent."

AFFIDAVIT

 

[Starkville]

I only had a few seconds to listen to the 911 call before I had to go to work. But what I heard was the coller said that front door was shut and locked and he was looking through a window. That is opposite of the front door being wide open...

Like I said I didn't get to hear all of the 911 though...

A few thoughts. In the clip of the call that I heard on the news, the caller said there were two bodies. I can understand him seeing a body in the mud room, through a window, but would he have seen someone in a bathroom? In our house, it’s possible to look through some first floor windows and see into an open bathroom door, so it’s not “suspicious”, but it all depends on the house!

He may seen Gene first, and gone in to the house to investigate and found Betsy.

 

[friendlysleuther]

Exactly!
I've heard this is a must for people who may suffer from joint pain because getting out of a warm shower causes the other air to feel so chilly.

I would also like to add most small space heaters have an automatic shut off button on the bottom so if the heater is moved or knocked over it turns off and an over heat protection feature. Just sharing a link for discription purposes.

Amazon.com

Because both parties seem to have fallen suddenly, I'm wondering if they were tripped up by one of the dogs? Completely coincidental and still hard to believe it would happen to both?

I offer this scenario because I've had a friend who mother loved animals so much she took in a rowdy big dog who she couldn't really train, but the dog would jump on her and get in her way and eventually the mother broke her hip in the process of trying to let the dog outside.

IMO neither of them fell.
They have completed autopsies & still are unsure of cause and manner of death.
If they had fell, the coroner/ pathologist would have been able to tell.

 

[iamshadow21]

He's found clothed in a separate room with no immediate signs of injury or significant decomp, suggesting he might have passed away more recently. She was found in a state of advanced decomp and mummification, indicating she had been deceased longer (the heater doesn't mean much here to me). This is a possible staggered timeline of death, which makes me question how long he was alive after she passed away. IMO

But it says, in the report Knox linked to:
Deputy Thomas advised the male decedent also showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent.

Similar and consistent with. Which implies that they're at a similar level of decay.

Minor differences could be down to things like body fat level (he would have had absolutely minimal amounts, based on the photo from a year ago) and the immediate environment around the body (air flow, heat level, moisture level, exposure to sunlight (through windows or doors), etc.

MOO

 

[Megnut]

IMO neither of them fell.
They have completed autopsies & still are unsure of cause and manner of death.
If they had fell, the coroner/ pathologist would have been able to tell.

The ME hasn't released a final report. They were both found on the floor. The ME will take into account how they were found. A broken hip wouldn't be readily apparent on scene but could account for a fall (fall, break hip; break hip, fall). Anyone who is upright at the time of death will fall. How significant a fall is, as a contributing factor, IMO the ME hasn't yet said.

JMO

 

[osu]

Dogs can drink water out of toilets, and there was a dog door so they could get outside and find food sources. Also they might have been able to access dogfood from storage bin or something similar.

In the AD article that @MassGuy linked earlier, it looks like there was a fountain in their entryway where the dogs could’ve drank.

ETA: I just noticed a dog peeking out the window in that photo.

Revisiting Gene Hackman’s House in Santa Fe

AD looks back on our 1990 tour of the late actor’s rustic New Mexico abode

www.architecturaldigest.com

 

[Starkville]

Where did it say that? I posted directly from the affidavit that stated they both had similar and consistent signs of death and body decompisition

*butting in* I forget where now, so take with a grain of salt, but I had read that, too. It was when the news had just broken, and there were fewer facts but more rumors floating around. Not saying it’s true (at all!), just that the rumor was out there.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

He's found clothed in a separate room with no immediate signs of injury or significant decomp, suggesting he might have passed away more recently. She was found in a state of advanced decomp and mummification, indicating she had been deceased longer (the heater doesn't mean much here to me). This is a possible staggered timeline of death, which makes me question how long he was alive after she passed away. IMO

But where is the source of this data....?
I may have missed a linked article upthread...
Hopefully someone can post again, if that is the case....

 

[nhmemorymaker]

But it says, in the report Knox linked to:
Deputy Thomas advised the male decedent also showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent.

Similar and consistent with. Which implies that they're at a similar level of decay.

Minor differences could be down to things like body fat level (he would have had absolutely minimal amounts, based on the photo from a year ago) and the immediate environment around the body (air flow, heat level, moisture level, exposure to sunlight (through windows or doors), etc.

MOO

YES... this is the only article I have seen that references the consistencies off the two deaths...

Tis why I am requesting whatever link says otherwise...

 

[NuttMegg]

A possible scenario - the wife is deceased before the husband. Her body seems to be in a more advanced stage of decomp. Sadly the deceased dog she wanted near her. Do we know the mental state 95 year old GH was in? Is he aware of what's going ? Maybe he passes away from a sudden heart attack or stroke. He's confused before passing away and he left the door open for the other dogs to leave the house while he was wandering around. None of this is foul play. imo

There was a doggie door
"But two other dogs were found alive, and it appeared they had access to a doggy door, the sheriff said. One healthy dog was near Arakawa and the other was located outside, according to the search warrant."

Gene Hackman, wife and dog found dead in home under 'suspicious' circumstances; 2 other dogs found alive

The couple was found during a welfare check after their neighbor called in concerned about their well-being.

abcnews.go.com

 

[judithannegg]

Forgive me if this theory has already been posted as I haven't gone through all the postings yet. Perhaps he died of a heart attack or stroke first. Then she was despondent and took pills then died. Or did she die first, either from pill overdose or trying to take the pills because of a heart attack, but died anyways. Then maybe he has dementia and didn't realize she was dead and ended up dying because he couldn't feed himself or take his meds to keep him healthy (my mom had dementia and would only take meds if someone told her to take him -- she didn't even know they were meds) or even know to call 911 when she died.