Audio of a 911 call placed by a maintenance worker who said he noticed the dead bodies of Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, inside their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home, hasbeenreleased.
The man, who said he works as a caretaker for Santa Fe Summit, the community where the couple’s home is located, told the 911 dispatcher he saw what he believed to be unconscious people inside a home, urging the operator to send first responders to the scene.
The unnamed worker said he did not know any details about the bodies he saw.
Asked if the “patient” was a male or female, he responded: “A female and a male probably, I don’t know, I don’t know, just send somebody up here real quick.”
He also made clear he had no access to the home when asked if he could tell whether the people he saw were breathing.
“I have no idea,” he said. “I’m not inside the house. It’s closed, it’s locked, I can’t go in. But I see she’s laying down on the floor from the window.”
The office of Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed Hackman, Arakawa and one of their dogs were found dead Wednesday afternoon during a welfare check.
Mendoza said while “there was no obvious sign or indication of foul play,” authorities are not ruling out anything, adding that the autopsy will help them draw a more informed conclusion.
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The search warrant affidavit obtained by several news outlets said the deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”
Mendoza said early indications suggest Hackman and his wife “had been deceased for a while.” Authorities have yet to identify their cause of death.