Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, wife found dead in Santa Fe home

[T.O.M.]

I read somewhere the dog was in a crate/kennel.  Hope the pup didn't starve or dehydrate to death...

[230RN]

I read somewhere the dog was in a crate/kennel.  Hope the pup didn't starve or dehydrate to death...

I'd love to have a pet, but that's why I won't even have a bowl of goldfish.

[Bogie]

Maybe if I am retired, I can give a dog the attention that he deserves...
 
But doggies need friends, and I don't have enough space.

[Ben]

Tested negative for carbon monoxide.

[230RN]

Fentanyl vapors?  Wouldn't want to guess on how it might  have gotten there, but I was reminded of the Russians' use of it in disabling the kidnappers in that hostage situation a couple of years ago. Oh, and Carbon Dioxide kills, too, you know.

Just spitballin'.  Sometimes, but rarely, I actually hit the spittoon.

ETA:
Found it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
------------------------
Date   23–26 October 2002
(4 days)
Location   
Moscow, Russia
Result   
Crisis ended

Numerous civilian casualties caused by narcotic gas pumped in by Russian security forces.

...

The identity of the gas was not disclosed at the time, although it was believed to have been a fentanyl derivative.[6] A study published in 2012 concluded that it had been a mixture of carfentanil and remifentanil.[7] The same study pointed out that in a 2011 case at the European Court of Human Rights, the Russian government stated that the aerosol used was a mixture of a fentanyl derivative and a chemical compound with a narcotic action.[8]
---------------------

Hence my spitball.  And when you're guesseratin' and speculatin', nothing is impossible. 

Maybe some of that spilled "powder" (whatever it was) got spilled on the heater and the vapors got all over the house. That's another guesselation.



Terry, 230RN
 

[K Frame]

My gut tells me that it would take more than a couple of pills to generate enough vapors to actually kill someone at prescription levels.

The Russians apparently used a MASSIVE amount of the narcotic gas, FAR more than would actually be prudent.

[BobR]

My gut tells me that it would take more than a couple of pills to generate enough vapors to actually kill someone at prescription levels.

The Russians apparently used a MASSIVE amount of the narcotic gas, FAR more than would actually be prudent.

They also kept what they used secret which led to the death of quite a few hostages. Had they disclosed they used a narcotic gas (which was new tech at the time) then some of the people could have been saved through the use a a opioid antagonist such as naloxone.

bob

[230RN]

My gut tells me that it would take more than a couple of pills to generate enough vapors to actually kill someone at prescription levels.

You're presuming Rx levels and pills.  And implying a lot might be needed... perhaps "street" levels would be sufficient?

The Russians apparently used a MASSIVE amount of the narcotic gas, FAR more than would actually be prudent.

You're presuming less would have been better, which begs the question of how much less would have been necessary.  Perhaps "street" levels?

The point was they apparently used fentanyl or derivatives in the ventilation system to knock people out.

We're hearing so much about fentanyl now... how little is necessary to kill.

As I said, the possibility of fentanyl being a culprit in this tragedy just "popped" into my mind* and the description of the things on the bathroom counter said "powder," not pills

And the presence of anything volatile being detected after two weeks of the room temperature corpses generating decay gases seems unlikely.  But I ain't no coroner.

What kind of bothers me is that in two weeks, they had no calls from friends or relatives which generated curiosity.  Were they real "loners?"  I also wonder about the dog(s) barking or not.

Terry "Not married to the fentanyl notion," 230RN

* With the recent publicity about fentanyl and the recollection of the Russian incident.  1.8 + 2.2 = 1822. :)

[K Frame]

"We're hearing so much about fentanyl now... how little is necessary to kill."

Fentanyl is a perfectly safe pain killer. That's why it's approved for use medically and has been for decades.

The reason we're hearing so much about fentanyl is because it's incredibly cheap to manufacture illicitly and has astronomical profit margins for drug cartels.

The worst of the fentanyl isn't in pill form, it's in powder form, often added to either cut heroin or simply replace it with no controls at all.

So, what? We definitely know that Hackman and his wife were hop heads? I mean, all of those actors are drug using/wife swapping hedonists. Even worse, his wife was an oriental! And you know where most of the illegal fentanyl comes from? The Orient!

J'accuse!

You guys are ignoring the likely TRUE cause of this... a yee naaldlooshii.

Hackman and his wife wronged the Navajo and they sent a yee naaldlooshii for them.

Don't piss off the Navajo, man!

[K Frame]

Fox news is saying that the county sheriff has indicated that Hackman's pacemaker registered a "cardiac event" about 9 days before his body was discovered.

Since everyone else is speculating, I'll give it a go...

Hackman has a heart attack and dies. I mean, rare and completely out of the norm for someone who's 95 and has a pacemaker, but rarer things have happened.

Wife scenario 1:

She discovers his body and goes into the bathroom where she overdoses. The only problem with that is that a pill overdose takes time. Generally a lot of time to take effect. Most people who OD on pills aren't found on the bathroom floor. They're found in bed.

Of course, she could have chewed the pills, or she could have broken out a supply of the super potent fentanyl that he was muleing into the United States on a regular basis because she's oriental...

Wife scenario 2:

She discovers her husband not feeling well and possibly in a medical emergency. She goes to the bathroom to retrieve his medication. Her stress levels are off the map and she suffers either a heart attack or a stroke, dying there in the bathroom surrounded by the pills that she was trying to get.

According to the sheriff's office, "Arakawa, 65, was found lying on the bathroom floor with a space heater and an open bottle of prescription medication nearby with pills “scattered on the counter-top,” per an affidavit for the search warrant obtained by NBC News Feb. 27. The medications taken from the home were an unspecified thyroid medication, the painkiller Tylenol and the blood pressure medication Diltiazem, according to the outlet."

Of course, given her connections to the Oriental fentanyl trade, all of those were cut with incredible amounts of fentanyl, so...

Wife scenario 3:

Hackman and his wife knew too much about the Clintons. A Russian hit squad infiltrated their compound to flood the house with fentanyl gas. But, they forgot their gas cylinders back in Russia (Ivan was too drunk to check the official inventory) so they snuck into the house and dropped a pill on the space heater. Given the purity of the fentanyl that the wife was muleing in from the Orient, everyone died. Which is what Hillary Clinton intended. No loose ends. The bodies of the Russian hit squad will never be found.

Wife scenario 4:

yee naaldlooshii. She disrespected a Navajo elder. And that can't be overlooked.

[230RN]

All highly amusing.  Never presented as a valid theory, just a possibility borne of my recollection of the Russian incident, recent druggy news, and stuff as reported herein at that point.  Looking forward to additional proportion out-of-blowing.

But kind of a shame it got started for such a serious subject.

Terry, 230RN

[K Frame]

My God... you're not Terry...

You're the... yee naaldlooshii

It makes perfect sense!

[230RN]

My God... you're not Terry...

You're the... yee naaldlooshii

It makes perfect sense!

Acknowledged as having been read.

Gentle suggestion:




Your turn, Sir.  AFAIC, this ends here. I am not that boorish as to allow continuing childish humor in a thread involving the tragic death of two parties.

And yes... I can take a joke, so don't toss that one out.  It would be too predictable as one of your most common defensive ploys when caught in a gaffe.

Terry, 230RN

[BobR]

"We're hearing so much about fentanyl now... how little is necessary to kill."

Fentanyl is a perfectly safe pain killer. That's why it's approved for use medically and has been for decades.

Fentanyl is a good pan killer and it takes just a whiff, in the order of micrograms or mcg/kg to be effective. It is not totally safe though. If the IV Fentanyl is pushed (administered) too fast is can cause an interesting reaction called Wooden Chest Syndrome. In a nutshell it can cause skeletal chest wall muscle rigidity which makes ventilation nearly, if not completely impossible. I have seen it once when a baby Nurse pushed it too fast and locked up a kid.  Luckily whenever we did stuff like we were doing we had reversal agents available. We unlocked him and kept going.

This also makes one wonder how many ODs from this stuff is caused by WCS  and not just respiratory depression.

Just file this under "the more you know" because outside the anesthesia or critical care areas it is not very well known.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8312149/


bob

[K Frame]

Acknowledged as having been read.

Gentle suggestion:




Your turn, Sir.  AFAIC, this ends here. I am not that boorish as to allow continuing childish humor in a thread involving the tragic death of two parties.

And yes... I can take a joke, so don't toss that one out.  It would be too predictable as one of your most common defensive ploys when caught in a gaffe.

Terry, 230RN

This your first day at APS?

Must be...

[K Frame]

"It is not totally safe though."

No medication is totally safe under all circumstances for all patients.

So you're correct, my statement that fentanyl is "perfectly safe" is incorrect.

But, when a pharmacological-grade version is used under professional supervision, fentanyl is about as safe as any medication can be expected to be.

When it's a third-world knockoff manufactured with no standards and then sold to criminal elements who have no clue or care about how potent or pure it is is when there are real issues.

 

"This also makes one wonder how many ODs from this stuff is caused by WCS  and not just respiratory depression."

Opiates suppress breathing by interfering with smooth muscle contractions. Those are the ones that drive involuntary processes -- breathing and digestive functions (hence... chronic constipation for opiate users).

Makes me wonder if WCS is a related interference in the smooth muscle function.

[zxcvbob]

This your first day at APS?

Must be...

I think he's just suggesting that this is not an appropriate thread in which to be an ahole.  (there are so many other threads!)

[K Frame]

I think he's just suggesting that this is not an appropriate thread in which to be an ahole.  (there are so many other threads!)

It's probably not the thread in which to be making wild speculations based on... whatever.

But, fair enough.

[Hawkmoon]

You guys are ignoring the likely TRUE cause of this... a yee naaldlooshii.

Hackman and his wife wronged the Navajo and they sent a yee naaldlooshii for them.

Don't piss off the Navajo, man!

Wrong part of New Mexico. Sante Fe is closer to a couple of Apache reservations, and a bunch of Pueblo reservations

[JTHunter]

It would appear that K Frame's "Wife Scenario #2" has the greatest chance of being at least "close" to the truth.  Ms. Arakawa may have had an undiagnosed heart condition and, when Gene fell, she panicked.  In trying to get the pills, she had the open bottle, had a heart attack, spilling the bottle and collapsing.  Some of the pills MAY have fallen on the floor and the dog that died ate one or more of them.  IF SO, it's likely the dog's blood pressure went so low that it collapsed in the closet in the bathroom, which news said was 10-15 feet away from the wife.  The fact that a second dog was in the house and did NOT die likely negates the possibility of some kind of gas or drug powder problem.  I have heard that dog #2 was crated when found alive, so - - -.

[K Frame]

Wrong part of New Mexico. Sante Fe is closer to a couple of Apache reservations, and a bunch of Pueblo reservations

True, but the Navajo, Apache, Pueblo, Hopi, Zuni and several other South West populations all have yee naaldlooshii or other forms of skinwalkers, probably because they're legends that originated with the Anasazi and spread as the Anasazi spread in the wake of the Great Drought and the ancestors of the current tribes encountered them.

They tried to farm it out to a wendigo, but they couldn't come to terms.

[WLJ]

They're saying she died first from Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome sometime around the 11th then Gene a week or so later possibly from heart disease and complications caused by Alzheimer's.
My guess is due to the Alzheimers he wandered around not knowing what to do. They're saying he may not even been aware she died.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/03/07/gene-hackman-cause-of-death-wife/80684790007/

[BobR]

They're saying she died first from Hantavirus sometime around the 11th then Gene a week or so later possibly from heart disease and complications caused by Alzheimer's.
My guess is due to the Alzheimers he wandered around not knowing what to do.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/03/07/gene-hackman-cause-of-death-wife/80684790007/

That one surely wasn't on anyone's bingo card.

bob

[Ben]

That must have been some severe Alzheimer's for him to be in the house with the body for a week. He would have presumably been doing other things, like eating, or at least drinking, and going to the bathroom and stuff. It looks like maybe he forgot about the one dog locked in the crate as well. I assume dogs can't go without water much longer than humans.

Hanta virus is nasty. I used to do stuff at the university research station on Santa Cruz Island, and they had signs all over the place about it. Also lots of mouse droppings everywhere. The Navy installation where I often stayed on the same island seemed to be hanta virus free, so I think there are some cleanliness issues involved. The Navy site was spic and span. The research station, not so much.

[BobR]

Hanta virus is nasty. I used to do stuff at the university research station on Santa Cruz Island, and they had signs all over the place about it. Also lots of mouse droppings everywhere. The Navy installation where I often stayed on the same island seemed to be hanta virus free, so I think there are some cleanliness issues involved. The Navy site was spic and span. The research station, not so much.

Just a virus found in rodent (mice) droppings. We would get a few cases a year at the hospital on the Rez where I worked. Anytime you are cleaning up mouse droppings a mask and gloves may be a good thing as well as wetting down the droppings the prevent airborne mouse poop dust.

While I was working there the Assistant Superintendent at Glacier NP died from hantavirus. It was not uncommon to have 1 or 2 people on the Rez die from it yearly.

All of that leads me to believe they may have had a rodent problem somewhere in the house.

bob