Gene Hackman, wife and dog are found dead at home

[Chuchoter]

Legendary Hollywood star Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead in their Santa Fe home.
The couple, who had been married since 1991, were found alongside their dog. Local media has reported that no foul play is suspected.
Hackman had just turned 95 in late January. He was known for being a reclusive person, having not starred in a movie since 2004, when he played Monroe 'Eagle' Cole in the political satire Welcome to Mooseport.
Born in California on January 30 1930, the actor had enlisted in the army after lying about his age at 16, serving for four-and-a-half years.
After moving back to California following his military service, he decided to pursue acting after briefly living in New York.
RIP

Superb actor.

Well, the two doctors quoted didn’t do the post mortem. Since Arakawa didn’t show for her afternoon clinic appointment, possibly she was too sick by then to go.

Neither Betsy Arakawa nor Gene Hackman were patients at the clinic that she phoned, she was making inquiries about getting an appointment, rather than being an existing patient. Which would make it understandable how they didn't realise that those calls were relevant to this case. And I can see how the police might not have had immediate access to the mobile phone records to check who she called and when.

Whenever there's these sorts of awful situations where unexpected and tragic things happen, people seem determined to find suspicion and foul play where there is just a tragic sequence of unusual events.

Which would make it understandable how they didn't realise that those calls were relevant to this case.

I think it was obvious from the press early on thaf police were struggling to pin down a time of death, though. I don’t think it’s foul play or conspiracy, I just think it’s a bit crap that they didn’t say sooner to police that they had had a call from someone of that name and hence could narrow down the time of death.

It's relying on whoever took the calls to remember the name I suppose, which given that a lot of the reporting was "Gene Hackman and wife" and she wasn't a well known person, it's just uninterested human failings. So, yes, a bit crap that they didn't twig sooner but in the general scheme of things it's totally unimportant whether she died on the 11th or the 12th as it's still clear it was days before her husband. And none of that matters to anyone else who isn't involved in dealing with the estate or potentially benefitting from it.