HEART-wrenching new detail has emerged spelling out how police officers came across the lifeless bodies of Hollywood legend Gene Hackman, his wife, and their pet dog. Police discovered the Oscar winner, 95, at his $3.8million mansion on Wednesday afternoon when they uncovered the triple tragedy.
![[Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, at an event.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/02/c9adeaa2-1727-4f55-9a67-76da900138de.jpg?strip=all&w=689)
Mystery currently surrounds their shocking deaths as police say they suspect no foul play but are desperately awaiting a search warrant. "All I can say is that we're in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant," Adan Mendoza, the Santa Fe County sheriff said.
![[Gene Hackman and his wife walking together.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/02/hollywood-royalty-gene-hackman-wife-975559937_2de5fd.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Cops have not revealed a cause of death but shared tragic new details about the heartbreaking tragedy. “On February 26 2025 at approximately 1.45pm, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an address on Old Sunset Trail in Hyde Park where Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 64, and a dog were found deceased," a police statement said.
![[Gene Hackman accepting his Oscar for Best Actor.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/02/NINTCHDBPICT000975574026_ca2829.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
It comes as... Floods of messages from fellow Hollywood stars have poured in to remember the acting legend and his special career. American actor George Takei said Gene's work "will live on forever". "We have lost one of the true giants of the screen. Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it," Takei said.
![[Aerial view of Gene Hackman's Santa Fe home.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/02/2000-grander-two-homesis-twelve-972928242_1d6248.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
"He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was.". The great filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with Gene in the 1974 film The Conversation, remembered him as a "great actor". “The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity," Coppola said.
![[Illustration of Gene Hackman and his wife's $3.8 million home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they were found dead.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/02/KH_27_02_MAP_OSCARS_LEGEND_TRAGEDYv4_fa663d.jpg?strip=all&w=680)
