Before Jean Hackman fades in public places in his adopted hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, locals watched aging film stars on golf courses and tracks, and walked his beloved dogs in the enchanting western cities among mesquite, juniper and pinion pine.
His wife, Betsie Arakawa, was often with him. There was a lot about his life she managed. She set up a golf game with his friends. She cracked down on his diet. She diluted his wine with soda water. She typed and edited novels he wrote by hand.
She also appears to have taken on the role of only caregiver as he endured the devastating effects of Alzheimer's disease. Thirty years later he must have planned to see him in their home until his end.
And it was even more jarring on Friday last month when New Mexico officials unveiled the mysterious mystery of how the couple died in a four-bedroom home hidden in the trees at the end of a gorgeous cul-de-dead east of the city.
Officials said the couple died of natural causes, he had heart disease and she had a rare viral infection. But perhaps the first person to die on February 11 was Arakawa, a caregiver, lover and guardian who left Hackman, 95, with advanced Alzheimer's disease, and stayed home for just a few days. He is believed to have passed away on February 18th a week later.
Their disintegration bodies were not found for another eight days when the maintenance worker called the security guards to the house after no one came to the door. Emergency workers discovered that Arakawa, 65, had spilled pills on the bathroom floor near the medicine bottle. Jinna, one of the three dogs, died in a wooden frame in her closet. Hackman's body was found in a mud room with slippers and a cane.
New Mexico's chief medical inspector said Friday that Alzheimer's disease was a factor in Hackman's death. Arakawa passed away in Hantalibus. Huntaribs are trapped by exposure to rodent excretion, often New Mexico deer mice.
The exact details of what happened at home during that week may never be known. Friends and neighbors said the couple has retreated more and more to the private boundaries of their hillside homes since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the timeline presented on Friday raises the horrifying possibility that Hackman, a Marine and actor of perfect accuracy and control, spent days in front of his fallen wife.
Hackman was drawn to Santa Fe in the late 1980s shortly after his divorce from his first wife. He had already won an Oscar for his role in the 1971 thriller, The French Connection. Another Oscar as a supportive actor for the 1992 West's “Unforgivable” would come later.
His father, who abandoned his family when Hackman was 13, was a local newspaper news agency. His mother was a waitress. But Hackman had a Bohemian Streak and he was drawn to the stunning natural landscapes of Santa Fe, as well as the artists that the landscape inspired. He became one of them and spent fiction sculpture and writing much of the second half of his life paintings in Santa Fe.
Arakawa was a classic pianist born in Hawaii. She met Hackman from Los Angeles at a fitness center where she worked part-time. According to his friend Rodney Hatfield, he had forgotten his entry card so she refused to let him in. They got married in 1991. Friends said the relationship seemed natural despite the age differences.
“They looked equal in so many ways that I never thought of that part,” said my friend Susan Contreras. “She was a personality to herself.”
Their calm life in Santa Fe was fascinating and surprisingly normal. The Architectural Digest features an early hilltop home that it owned outside of town and is built to specifications in an elegant southwest style. Hackman joined the board of directors of the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, one of the city's renowned cultural gems. They invested in restaurant Jinja. Jinja exhibited Hackman's paintings and named them the House Maitai Cocktail in his honor.
But others remembered a man who seemed to fit the mold of everyone he often played on screen. Former neighbor Helen Dufece recalled meeting Hackman for the first time about 10 years ago. He was wearing a baseball cap and pulling along with her on the truck to compile her dachshund.
“What a cute puppy!” he said.
Hackman's longtime friend Tom Allin said Arakawa always served as a gatekeeper to her famous husband. Beyond more than 20 years of friendship with Hackman, Allin couldn't remember talking to him on the phone or emailing him. He would always set up golf games and visit Arakawa. Hackman, who is not interested in technology, did not have the phone that Allin knew.
“She was very protective of him,” Allin said. Hackman added that he appears happy to let his wife run things.
He recalled Mr. Hackman that he would have died “long ago” without assurance that his wife would take care of him and eat healthy.
In January 2020, just before the pandemic, Allin said he saw a friend on his 90th birthday in Islamorada, Florida. “She really took care of him,” he said.
He also said that Hackman could feel he was in decline. The couple had a tradition where Hackman cooked dinner every year for Arakawa's birthday. In 2023, she returned home hoping for food, Allin recalled, but Hackman had forgotten their ritual.
Like many older Americans, Hackman retreated indoors during the Covid crisis to stay safe. Neighbors at Santa Fe Summit, the gated community that the couple lived in in recent years, said they had not seen any signs of the couple, except for the trash cans on the side of the road.
At a press conference Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said investigators determined that they could explain why Jinna was kept in a wooden frame on February 9th, when the dog picked up Jinna from the vet after the dog had undergone surgery.
On February 11th, probably a few hours before her death, Arakawa emailed a massage therapist in the morning and went to the grocery store in the afternoon. She was also filmed on surveillance video and created a short stop at the pharmacy. Sheriff Mendoza said he believed he was wearing a mask that day in public.
Arakawa stopped by a local pet food store late that afternoon and returned to her neighborhood around 5:15pm, the sheriff said. She did not respond to emails after that day.
When asked if anyone was caring for Hackman, Sheriff Mendoza said, “At this point there is no indication that there was a caretaker in his home.”
James Everett, who lived part-time in the neighborhood for about five years, said in an interview last week that, given Hackman's age, he felt it was unusual for the couple to have no caretakers. “I know that when my dad was 95, 96, 97, 98, we had live inkook and maid for him,” he said. “I'm surprised they didn't have them.”
Another neighbor, Robert Cecil, wondered whether the couple's desire for privacy was ultimately a “weakness” that contributed to the fears they were being attacked by.
But Hatfield, a longtime friend of Hackman, said Hackman loved Santa Fe. “I know that genes didn't like the role of celebrities,” he said. “That was pretty obvious.”
Another friend, Stuart Ashman, said it was often the goal for people who moved to Santa Fe. “People come here as a way to hide,” he said. “They did that for sure.”
