How Gene Hackman and Wife Betsy’s Surviving Dogs Helped First Responders

The two surviving dogs of Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa tried to assist the law enforcement investigation into their deaths, authorities confirmed.

While local members of the Sante Fe sheriff’s department searched the couple’s home during a welfare check, they noticed one dog running up to them. According to Chief Brian Moya, the canine kept barking and ran in a different direction.

“They realized [the dog] was trying to say, ‘Hey, come over here! Come over here!’” Moya recalled to USA Today in an interview published on Tuesday, March 11.

The dog — Hackman and Arakawa owned three, one of which died alongside the pair — led the first responders to the corner of a mudroom where Hackman’s body was found unconscious on the floor. Per Moya, the Oscar-winning actor had blackened hands and showed other signs of decomposition. A door was ajar nearby, seemingly allowing the dogs entry between the house and the backyard.

News broke late last month that Hackman and Arakawa had been found dead inside their Santa Fe, New Mexico, house. They were 95 and 65, respectively.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy. He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us, he was always just Dad and Grandpa,” Hackman’s daughters and granddaughter told Us Weekly in a statement. “We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”

Hackman and Arakawa are survived by his children, Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie, whom the actor shared with late ex-wife Faye Maltese, and granddaughter Anna.

A medical examiner later confirmed that Hackman died due to hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributing factor. Arakawa, for her part, died as a result of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

After Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies were discovered, surviving dogs Bear and Nikita were taken to a local pet shelter. (Their dog, Zinna, also died last month while locked in a crate inside the pair’s home.)

“She was devoted to those dogs,” Gruda Veterinary Hospital owner Robert Gruda recalled to USA Today. “She was consistent, predictable. We knew something was wrong when she didn’t pick up the food on time.”

Arakawa had taken Zinna, Bear and Nikita to Gruda Veterinary Hospital for years.

“She was an excellent dog owner, excellent caretaker to those dogs,” Gruda recalled. “She really doted on them.”

According to Gruda, his staff last saw Arakawa in late January when she picked up Zinna after a “major” operation.

“She was friendly, dutiful,” Gruda remembered. “That’s how we make a living, with owners [who] care for their animals and see us consistently.”