Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa may have been dead for days or weeks, sheriff says

Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, who were found dead in their Santa Fe mansion earlier this week, may have been dead for 'days or weeks'.

This is according to Adan Mendoza, the Sheriff of Santa Fe county.

He said on the Today show this morning: "It’s very difficult to put a timeline together even with the help of the office of the medical investigator.

“Just based on their body and other evidence on the body, it looked — it appears [that they were deceased for] several days, even up to a couple of weeks.”

This updates comes after a search warrant, released to press yesterday, confirmed that the pair had been found 'mummified'.

Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead alongside their pet at their residence in New Mexico on Wednesday (26 February)

The shocking death of the pair, as well as their German Shepard, has sent shockwaves across the entertainment industry due to the ever changing nature of the case.

Whilst there is no publicly available cause of death at the time of writing, authorities have addressed a commonly speculated theory that they may have died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Hackman's daughter spoke to TMZ and said she believed this may have led to their death, and Santa Fe Fire Chief Brian Moya also said on Today that they have not yet ruled out this as a cause of death.

A search warrant released yesterday revealed however that there was 'no signs of a gas leak', as well as stating that the circumstances were 'suspicious enough' to warrant a search.

Hackman and Arakawa were both found in different rooms 'partially mummified' and with similar states of decomposition.

The front door had been left open and, while one of their dogs had also died, their other two pets survived.

Hackman and Arakawa were found dead in their Santa Fe mansion (Donaldson Collection via Getty Images)

It was also stated by the Santa Fe's Sheriff that pills found next to Arakawa's body in the bathroom where she was found were 'very important evidence'.

He said on the show earlier today: "I am pretty confident that there is no foul play just based on the lack of evidence of foul play, but of course, we’re not ruling anything out."

Regarding the 'important evidence' of the pills found next to her body he went on to say: "That information was collected, that information was passed to the office of the medical investigator to help them make a determination.

"So we’re looking at that specifically and other medications that were possibly in the residence. So that is something of concern."

The pair were found by two maintenance workers, who said they had not seen them for two weeks prior to their deaths.

Hackman had been retired from acting since 2004, telling Empire Magazine in one of his final ever interviews: "The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York.

“The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.”