A veterinary report has detailed what likely killed the dog found deceased with Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, providing some answers to one of the lingering questions in the deaths of the couple and their pet.
The dog, a female kelpie mix named Zinna, is believed to have died of dehydration and starvation, according to a report from the New Mexico Department of Agriculture’s veterinary lab, obtained by the Associated Press.
Zinna’s body, found inside a closed dog crate, had a mostly empty stomach. There were no signs of disease, trauma or poisoning, though the report noted that the body’s state of decomposition could have made those factors harder to detect.
Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 65, were discovered dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home late last month. The actor’s body was in the home’s entryway, where he had appeared to have suddenly fallen. The body of Arakawa, a pianist, was in an upstairs bathroom with an open pill bottle nearby, pills scattered on the floor. The crate that held Zinna was close to Arakawa’s body.
All three bodies were in a severe state of decomposition, suggesting they had been dead for days or weeks. Meanwhile, the couple’s two other dogs were alive and roaming freely.
Investigators ultimately determined that Arakawa had died from hantavirus, a disease spread by rodents, on or around Feb. 11. Hackman died a week later, of heart disease, with Alzheimer’s disease as a “significant contributory factor.”
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Robert Gruda, the couple’s veterinarian, said Zinna had recently undergone “major surgery,” and Arakawa had been instructed to keep the dog confined in a crate while she recovered. The vet remembered her as an “excellent” dog owner.
“She really doted on them,” he told USA Today.
The two surviving dogs, a German shepherd named Bear and an Akita-shepherd mix named Nikita, are healthy and currently with a dog day care facility where they had spent time in the past.