One of the finest actors of the twentieth century has passed away. Gene Hackman at the age of ninety five. Joining us now Alex Stone from ABC News to talk about the latest because some of these details kind of weird, Alex, what do you have now?
Yeah, Hey, Mandy, they are weird, and it's not clear yet how they died. And it's being called suspicious because the front door was open, it was propped open, and two people and a dog were dead inside. But the sheriff is saying that that there are no signs of oulplay, no signs of trauma, no signs of how they died. That it wasn't apparent in the building or on their bodies. They were not shot, they were not stabbed, they were not strangled. They were just dead. And how they died
they don't know. And they're not ruling out a crime that until they can figure it out. That there definitely wasn't one. But the sheriff did give some details a little while ago. This is what he said. We're not ruling it out. What I did state was was there was no obvious sign or indication of, you know, all foul play. There was no immediate sign of foul play. I haven't ruled that out yet. This is an investigation,
so we're keeping everything on the table. Co Mandie. One thing that you know, when multiple people are dead inside of a home and an animal as well, typically that's going to be gas of some kind.
Like, yeah, that's that's what I thought that I even put that on my blog. I said, this really looks like a gas situation, a gas leak, carbon monoxide or something. But they didn't find any sign that there was any kind of gas leak. I guess.
Yeah, So that's the thing that the gas company in the fire department, they came out, no signs of a gas leak, no gas in the home. But it appears that they were dead for a very long time. Betsy Arakaway his wife. She was not to get to graphic, but she was mammified and they were badly decomposed. So if there was a leak over you know, weeks ago, and the front door was open, it probably would have
vented out. But they haven't found any anything that was leaking gas, so they can't say, well, the gas is gone. But it was this. She was found next to a space heater that had fallen with her. That may have been the culprit. Something else could have been. They don't know. And so she was in a bathroom. There were pills that were around, but we don't know what those pills were. They could have been she could have had a headache
from carbon monoxide and gotten to take a pill. He was in a mudroom and investigators say it looked like he fell very suddenly, that his sunglasses were next to him. It looked like when he went down, those got tossed a little ways away from his body, and that it's really going to come down to an autopsy to know why they died, and assuming that they do toxicology, that can take weeks, that can take months running the blood test,
so it could be a while. But they are trying to make sure it wasn't a crime, but that they really don't know.
I mean, Gene Hackman was ninety five, so he was an elderly man, so you know it would stand a reason that, I mean, he could have died after a fall. It's so strange, and I have a feeling, Alex that were never really going to find out what happened, right like, because there's everybody that was there is dead. So it's this is just a sad way to end such an amazing life and end career that Gene Hackman has had.
Just just very odd, you know, yeah, it really is. And there were two other dogs that had free reign to come and go and that they were able to go from the open door to outside, and that may be why they survived. The other dog was locked in a in a crate in a kennel, so that dog wasn't able to get away from whatever killed them. So all of this is pointing toward maybe carbon monoxide, but they don't know. But the dogs that were able to
get outside, they were okay. There were other buildings on the property totally locked up, those signs of forest and for a nothing was rummaged through. Neighbors say that they hadn't seen them in a very long time, being elderly. He was elderly. She was in her sixties, but he being ninety five years old, they ever really saw them. They never really came out, so they don't know how
long they've been dead or what they went through. And the sheriff said, well, the autops people figure that out, but he doesn't even know looking at them how long they had probably been dead, and nobody knew it, but it was this exterminator that was doing work and the door was open, and thought, this isn't right. It looked like they weren't home. Called a security worker slash caretaker, not for them, but for the neighborhood community, and then they called nine one. Wow.
Someone on our text line said, Gene Hackman's birthday was January thirtieth. I wonder if he made it to his ninety fifth birthday. I guess we're going to find this out.
Maybe not, I mean, based on how they were found, he may not have.
Yeah, that's just absolutely. Somebody said, I suspect Jane had dementia and his wife died suddenly. He didn't have the mental capacity to know what to do.
So do they because you.
Said the wife was mummified, not to get like two in the gory part, But the wife was mummified. Is there a possibility that she had been did well before he is?
Maybe, although he was pretty well decomposed according to the documents that we've got as well, so it had been a while for him too. But maybe she had died first and the dog starved to death in it was locked up in the kennel and and then he couldn't take care of himself, and then he either had a medical emergency or slipped and fell. They're gonna have to look at all of that. They don't know the most likely scenario. I mean, my history of covering these things,
typically it's it's just the most straightforward answer. You know, we always come up with all these It could have been this, it could have been that. Yeah, and normally it's like, oh, yeah, you know, it's the one that
you go, well, that makes the most sense. But they don't know, and they got to figure out if there was a crime, because what if what if we go, well, it was carbon monoxide or you know, some other non criminal thing, and then they find out somebody did kill them and got in there, so they got to rule that out. Well, does he have any kids?
Do they have children?
It's a great question. Yeah, we don't tell you.
Like I mean, I talk to my mom and if I can't get a hold of my mom, I call my brother who lives near her, and I'm like, I need a life check for my mom. Like I how do you not call your dad?
You know? Nobody question I do the same thing just to hear them pick up and know that they're doing all right. Yeah. Yeah, we don't know that. The sheriff is saying that, uh that nobody was trying to contact them that they know of. So if they do have grown children, that there there was not an attempt to make sure that the mom and dad were doing all right and to check in on them. It seems like nobody un tell this exterminator. Yeah, I was able to say, hey,
something is well, listen to this. This is the nine on one call femail. Probably I don't know, I don't know. I just send somebody up here real quick. That was the the exterminator had let that security guy know, and then then he called it in and and then they came racing up and then they found him dead in the house.
Well, I'm sure there's gonna be a podcast about it soon. Alex So Alex, Alex Jones, Alex Jones, I'm so sorry.
Well that's okay, everybody, I'll talk to you like this. Yeah, yeah, oh thank you.
Yeah, yell at me with some conspiracy theories and thanks for your time.
We'll talk to you soon.
Stone covering the Gene Hackman death, which is a terrible