Details surrounding the deaths of legendary star Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa continue to be puzzling after a doctor said Hackman’s wife called his office a day after police said she died.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dr. Josiah Child, who runs Cloudberry Health in New Mexico, said, “Mrs. Hackman didn’t die on February 11 because she called my clinic on February 12.” The 95-year-old actor was discovered at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, along with his wife on February 26.
“She’d called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband,” Child said. “She was not a patient of mine, but one of my patients recommended Cloudberry to her.”
Child said two days before her appointment, Arakawa ended up canceling it because her husband wasn’t feeling good.
Mystery around Gene Hackman’s death deepens as wife Betsy Arakawa’s doctor claims she called him after police say she died https://t.co/mMUqPMxt5k pic.twitter.com/glJoJmG6Pt
— New York Post (@nypost) March 17, 2025
“She called back on the morning of February 12 and spoke to one of our doctors who told her to come in that afternoon,” the doctor said.
“We made her an appointment but she never showed up. She did not show any symptoms of respiratory distress,” he added. “The appointment wasn’t for anything related to hantavirus. We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply.”
“I am not a hantavirus expert but most patients who have that diagnosis die in hospital,” Child continued. “It is surprising that Mrs Hackman spoke to my office on the phone on February 10 and again on February 12 and didn’t appear in respiratory distress.”
During a recent press briefing, police said both Hackman and his wife died of natural causes.
New Mexico chief medical examiner, Dr. Heather Jarrell, said that Hackman’s death was listed as “Hypertensive and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease, with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributory factor.”
Hackman’s likely last day of life was on February 18, the last day his pacemaker recorded an event, Jarrell told the press.
His wife’s death was listed as “Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, the manner of death is natural,” the official added. Arawaka’s death is believed to have occurred on February 11. She was 65, the chief medical examiner explained.
Officials also revealed there were no signs of trauma internally or externally for either Hackman or his wife. Testing for carbon monoxide poisoning was negative as well.
The news followed an earlier report that the deaths of the Hollywood star and his wife were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation” due to all of the “circumstances surrounding” the scene, according to the search warrant affidavit.
