Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy died in February (Image: Getty)
and his wife Betsy Arakawa’s tragic deaths have been shrouded in mystery since . A post-mortem had revealed Betsy, 65, had died first of hantavirus, a rare rat-borne disease, on February 11, before her husband Gene, 95, died a week later of heart failure combined with Alzheimer’s. But Betsy’s doctor Dr Josiah Child, a former emergency care specialist who now runs Cloudberry Health in Santa Fe, has shared a bombshell piece of information.
He told The Mail on Sunday: “Mrs Hackman didn’t die on February 11 because she called my clinic on February 12. She’d called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband. She was not a patient of mine, but one of my patients recommended Cloudberry to her. She made an appointment for herself for February 12. It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory.”
Gene and Betsy’s deaths have been shrouded in mystery (Image: Getty)
Dr Childs added that two days before the appointment, she called to cancel and said that her husband wasn’t well.
He continued: “We made her an appointment but she never showed up. She did not show any symptoms of respiratory distress. The appointment wasn’t for anything related to hantavirus. We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply.”
Speaking of her hantavirus diagnosis, he said: “I am not a hantavirus expert but most patients who have that diagnosis die in hospital. 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.”
This new revelation could mean that Betsy was alive for at least a day longer than the coroner claimed from the post mortem findings.
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Betsy’s mummified remains were found on the floor of the bathroom surrounded by pills and a space heater, while Gene was found in the mudroom.
His pacemaker showed he died on February 18, with investigators fearing he was alive for a week after his wife’s death, and because of his Alzheimer’s, may not have realised she was dead.
There was also no food in his stomach, meaning he may not have eaten for a week following her death, and their beloved dog was also found to have died from dehydration and starvation.