Bodycam footage from outside Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa's home released: 'Knew something was wrong'
SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Authorities have released portions of the body-camera footage taken by deputies who responded to the Santa Fe home of actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa last month.
Only video from outside of the home has been released, after a judge granted a temporary block of footage from inside the house or of the couple's bodies, at the request of the family. The footage also suggests that deputies prioritized the couple's privacy very early in the investigation.
"Because of who they are … I just want to keep this limited as much as possible, because once this gets out, you know how this is going to turn," one deputy said.
It's something that was also reiterated to the couple's next of kin.
"A lot of the information that we do at the sheriff's office is, unfortunately, public information, and it doesn't take them very long to figure out where this was at, the address," one deputy can be heard explaining to Hackman's daughter on the phone. "Once we start getting the media attention and all that stuff, people start wondering what's going on. I don't want anybody here that's not supposed to be here."
With no evidence of foul play, deputies bring up the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning. The medical investigation would later reveal that Arakawa died first of hantavirus. Authorities said Hackman died more than a week later of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer's. It was also determined that one of their dogs, who was found in a crate near Arakawa's body, died of starvation and dehydration.
The couple's other dogs could be seen roaming the property in the bodycam footage.
A dog trainer who knew the couple also spoke with responding deputies on the day the bodies were discovered, the bodycam video shows.
"Anything he needed, she took care of him," the dog trainer said of Arakawa. "But she was healthy, man, acupuncturist, healthy foods, everything."
In a separate video, a groundskeeper also told deputies he was in the process of doing a welfare check after not hearing from Arakawa.
"I knew something was wrong because she don't totally cut off … communications for that long," he said.
Despite Hackman's estate asking the courts to temporarily block any footage showing his or Arakawa's bodies, an upcoming hearing has been scheduled to decide if that footage should be permanently blocked from release.