Hackman’s pacemaker reveals actor may have died over a week before he was discovered

Actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, may have been dead for more than a week before their bodies were discovered in their Santa Fe home. 

That news comes via Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, who revealed in a Friday press conference that the legendary actor’s pacemaker last recorded an “event” on Feb. 17. Hackman and Arakawa were found in their residence on Wednesday. 

“Both individuals tested negative for carbon monoxide. An initial interrogation was conducted of Mr. Hackman’s pacemaker. This revealed that his last event was recorded on Feb. 17, 2025,” Mendoza said, per The Wrap. “According to the pathologist, I think that is a very good assumption, that that was his last day of life.”

Authorities have not determined whether Arakawa and Hackman died at the same time. Foul play is still not suspected in the couple’s deaths.

At the Friday press conference, Mendoza noted the difficulty of stitching together two timelines: the one leading up to their deaths and the one between their deaths and their discovery.

“In an investigation, we try to piece a timeline together, usually [from] before the event happens, and that gives us a lot of information. But in this case, it seems like we’re doing a reverse timeline. We’re doing the timeline from the time of death and the autopsy and the results, and we’re going to start working our way backwards,” Mendoza said. “We’re going to do both.”

Due to the state of Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies, Mendoza said the couple may have been dead for “several days, possibly even up to a couple weeks” by the time they were found.