Sheriff’s Office Confirms New Puzzling Wrinkle in Deaths of Gene Hackman and Wife Betsy Arakawa

Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, more than likely didn’t die on the day investigators believed she did. TMZ reports the famed pianist made phone calls to a medical center on the morning after the day officials first identified her date of death.

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Womack-Avila says phone records confirmed she made three phone calls to a Santa Fe medical center on the morning of February 12. She reportedly died from hantavirus, a rare and potentially fatal disease. 

The Centers For Disease Control states hantaviruses are “a family of viruses which can cause serious illnesses and death.” They are spread mainly by rodents, not from person-to-person.

“We can now confirm that Mrs. Hackman’s phone was utilized on the morning of February 12 to call a medical center in Santa Fe, Cloudberry Health. A total of three calls were made that morning, all to the medical center,” a rep told the media outlet. This comes after a doctor from the facility told Daily Mail that she contacted the office that day. TMZ reports the medical center called Arakawa back, but she missed the phone call.

Dr. Josiah Child, a former emergency care specialist who now runs Cloudberry Health in Santa Fe, told Daily Mail: “Mrs Hackman didn’t die on February 11 because she called my clinic on February 12.” They’d also been in contact previously.

“She’d called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband,” Dr. Child explained.

“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,” he added. “It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory.”

As widely reported, the longtime couples’ bodies were found at their Santa Fe home on February 26, along with one of their three dogs. The investigation is ongoing.