Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa have finally been laid to rest weeks after their shocking deaths, DailyMail reports.
The Oscar-winning actor and his classical pianist wife had their funeral in Santa Fe, New Mexico, People reported on Tuesday.
It was preceded by a private memorial service for an intimate group family — including Hackman’s three children and close friends.
The family farewell comes after Gene Hackman and wife Betsy’s bodies were discovered in their Santa Fe home on February 26.
Police have since determined that Arakawa died first around February 12 as a result of respiratory symptoms caused by the rare, but deadly, hantavirus, which is passed on through rodent urine, saliva and feces. She was 65.
A report obtained by DailyMail indicated that Arakawa had bookmarks on her computer suggesting that she had been researching medical conditions with symptoms similar to Covid-19 or the flu prior to her death.
Hackman, who was suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease at the time, is believed to have wandered around the couple’s home alone after his wife’s death.
The actor, who was 95, is believed to have died nearly a week later, around February 18, from severe heart disease, while Alzheimer’s and kidney disease were contributing factors.
One of the couple’s dogs, an Australian Kelpie mix named Zinna, was also found dead in their home in a crate, where it is thought to have died from dehydration and starvation.
Hackman and Arakawa’s two other dogs were found alive on their property.
Sources shared that Hackman’s son Christopher, 65, and his daughters Elizabeth, 62, and Leslie, 58, were all in attendance at the couple’s memorial service.
Hackman shared his three children with his first wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017. They were married from 1956 until their 1986 divorce.
He and Arakawa later wed in 1991 after being together for seven years.
Late in life, Hackman admitted to having regrets about the amount of time he spent away from his family while shooting films.
One of the couple’s dogs, an Australian Kelpie mix named Zinna, was also found dead in their home in a crate, where it is thought to have died from dehydration and starvation.
Gene Hackman and wife Arakawa’s two other dogs were found alive on their property.
Sources shared that Hackman’s son Christopher, 65, and his daughters Elizabeth, 62, and Leslie, 58, were all in attendance at the couple’s memorial service.
Hackman shared his three children with his first wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017. They were married from 1956 until their 1986 divorce.
He and Arakawa later wed in 1991 after being together for seven years.
Late in life, Hackman admitted to having regrets about the amount of time he spent away from his family while shooting films.
He said he ‘lost touch’ with his son Christopher because he was ‘gone so much’ during the period when his son was at an ‘age where he needed support and guidance.’
However, he appeared to have made more of an effort to stay in touch with his younger daughters, who were occasionally seen with him at film premieres or were spotted on the set of his films.
Following Hackman’s death, his estate seems poised for a battle over his assets after he didn’t appear to have written his children into his will.
It was revealed in March that the Unforgiven star had left his entire $80 million Hollywood fortune to his late wife Betsy.
However, Hackman made a crucial mistake Hackman made late in life when planning out his estate.
Documents obtained by DailyMail.com in March revealed that a representative of his estate had filed a petition in court to appoint a new temporary successor trustee, as previous successor trustees he had listed — including Arakawa — had all died before him, leaving no one left that he had specified to run his trusts.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Hackman and Arakawa’s home was infested with rats that spread the deadly hantavirus that led to Arakawa’s death.
Although carbon monoxide poisoning was initially considered as a possible cause of death, it was later ruled out after investigators discovered two of the couple’s dogs alive on the property, and the hantavirus soon emerged as a culprit.
Hackman may have been unaware Arakawa was dead, investigators speculated, given his severe health condition at the time of her death.
A week after the bodies were discovered, the New Mexico Department of Public Health conducted a health assessment on the property.
The department concluded that dead rodents and their nests were found in ‘eight detached outbuildings’ on the Hackman property, making it a ‘breeding ground’ for the hantavirus, TMZ reported.
The deadly hantavirus typically spreads through rodent urine and droppings that one may come into contact with when cleaning a basement or an attic.
There were droppings found in three garages, two casitas, and three sheds on the property.
Additionally, there was a live rodent, a dead rodent and a rodent nest found in three more garages on the property, according to the inspectors.
There were also two vehicles seen on the estate that had evidence of rodents, and they even found traps in the buildings as well, suggesting this had been an ongoing issue for the Hackmans.
The health assessment was conducted to assess whether first responders or others who were on the property were safe from the virus.
The results revealed that the primary residence was deemed ‘low-risk’ with no signs of a rodent infestation inside.
The hantavirus was first identified in South Korea in 1978 when researchers isolated the virus from a field mouse.
The virus is rare in the US, with fewer than 50 cases reported yearly. For reference, there are roughly 2,000 cases of West Nile Virus reported in the US annually.
However, after Arakawa’s death, the virus claimed three more victims in the town of Mammoth Lakes, California.
Hackman’s 1995 will listed Arakawa — whom he married in 1991 — as his sole inheritor.
However, Arakawa’s will indicated that if the spouses were to die within 90 days of each other, the proceeds from the estate would be donated to charity.
Hackman retired from acting after 2004’s Welcome To Mooseport, and he was rarely seen in public during the final two decades of his life.
The body cam footage and details of the investigation into Hackman’s property were made public by court order earlier this month.
The ruling from a New Mexico judge allowed the release of redacted police body camera video and other investigative materials, including images of the couple’s dead dog.
All photos, video and documents from the investigation had been restricted from release by an earlier, temporary court order, to protect the Hackman family’s constitutional right to privacy.
An attorney for the estate, Kurt Sommer, argued that the couple took great pains to stay out of the public light during their lifetimes and that the right to control the use of their names and likenesses should extend to their estate in death.
But judge Matthew Wilson permitted details to be released, provided they did not depict the bodies of Hackman or Arakawa.
‘There shall be no depiction of either body in any video production’ or photographic image of the bodies, Santa Fe-based Judge Matthew Wilson said in response to questions from attorneys on his ruling.
The previously redacted body cam footage shows deputies talking with two workers who called authorities to report seeing someone lying on the floor inside the Hackman home.
With no signs of forced entry or other evidence of suspicious circumstances, the deputies asked about the possibility of a gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning, and the workers said they didn’t see how that could have been the case.
‘Something’s not right,’ one of the workers said.
Authorities quickly determined there were no leaks that could have been fatal, fuelling a mystery that captured the public’s attention.
But the case was ultimately when medical investigators confirmed that Hackman died of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer´s about a week after hantavirus pulmonary syndrome took the life of his wife.