Gene Hackman and his wife found dead

BlueBelle I so agree, it happens in families, yes sad but the
newspapers should stop speculating

Anniebach according to all I ve had read they did not want ANY intervention and that’s their choice the maintenance men said they never saw them they made all arrangements over the phone or internet and they were not around when they did jobs
If the children lived far away and didn’t have much contact they surely had enough money to have had all sorts of care in place Some older people just want to be left alone and stay independant at whatever cost
She was young to die he really had had his three score and ten plus plus and maybe with advanced Alzheimer’s not even have realised she wasn’t around

It’s sad but it seems it was their choice I think the newspapers should leave it alone now and stop speculating

The police mucked this up from the start and released an awful lot of information before the post mortems. However, I do find it odd that Mrs Hackman was able to go shopping on the morning the sad events took place. If she was really ill would she not be in bed? Not implying she wasn't ill, just that it was odd. Then there was the matter of the door being ajar, when initially the maintenance man said he could not enter the premises as the place was all locked up! I will never completely believe something wasn't amiss, but the police had already made up their minds.

Agree that this is the tragic story, without foul play.

Can you imagine that if this happened to you, no-one would notice. Not family, not neighbours, not anyone? This could never happen here. If ACs phoned or messaged a couple of times without a reply, they would get in touch with neighbour. And neighbour would notice within days anyhow.

The internet is naturally awash with conspiracy theories because "There must be more to it" Sadly it seems only too likely that there is nothing more to it. She was 30 years younger and probably took it for granted that he would die long before her, and that she was perfectly able to cope as his carer. No one expects to die so suddenly and she probably didn't realise how serious it was till it was too late. He probably wasn't even aware that she had died, or that the poor dog needed looking after.

It's not uncommon for someone suffering from Alzheimer's to isolate themselves from family and friends. My own mother did the same. It was only with the benefit of hindsight that we realised what she had being doing and that her behaviour was down to the Alzheimer's.

Anniebach

They may have chosen to be isolated from family

Yes I think that is right Anniebach they were reclusive from choice although it would appear to be more the wife's choice.

Yes it is tragic , isn't it. How unlucky could two people be? Apparently his wife died of an unusual type of infection.
The Alzheimers was the key because poor Mr Hackman possibly had no idea what was happening, or if he did, what to do about it.
RIP both of them and their dog.

They may have chosen to be isolated from family

Such a tragic and truly sad story. Just can't imagine - the poor man not knowing what to do, and the poor dog dying in his cage.

The police are checking to see if there were any calls for help. I can only think that Mrs Hackman must have collapsed soon after she got home from the vet's as the dog was found still in its cage.

Whiff

Just read about the causes of their deaths . Why did no one care enough to bother to check on them especially as Gene Hackman had advanced Alzheimer's. He has 3 children why didn't one of them phone in all that time ? It's so sad his wife died a week before but he wouldn't have realised .

Why didn't anyone care about them?

It is very sad an I wondered that, too, Whiff.

However, it was reported that they were reclusive so perhaps they did not encourage contact from other people, even family.

You'd have thought someone so wealthy would have had help in the home, cleaning etc as caring for a husband with dementia and looking after a large property would have been a huge task for Betsy Arakawa.

How sad that they died like that, the dog too.

A tragic course of events truly.
Poor dog!
The children and grandchildren will be feeling ashamed I expect.

My own DM lay helpless in her flat for many hours after a fall, before a neighbour let herself in after getting no response. She refused to wear her alarm and couldn't reach the phone.

She had broken her hip. After a stay in hospital SS got involved and a care package was arranged. We all felt guilty and were very glad she had a neighbour with a key.

Yes Whiff and Bridie I also wondered the same. Surely if Gene had advanced Alzheimer’s you would have thought someone would check in on them. But perhaps they lived a reclusive life and didn’t want visitors. Also I suppose everyone thought that Gene’s wife was in good health and not suffering from an awful but rare disease and so could look after Gene.
But sometimes we assume too much and is a wake up call for any loved ones who say their lives are too busy to simply check in on older relatives.
My heart breaks when I think of Gene wandering around in confusion after his wife died.
So tragic.

Bluebelle according to the BBC she had just collected the dog from the vets, it was found dead in the pet carrier.

The other two managed to scavenge what food they could to stay alive.

I wondered that to Whiff, I heard that luckily the maintenance crew called every couple of weeks, but to lay there alone all that time , very sad, and how did the other dogs manage to survive without food?
Sad case.

Just read about the causes of their deaths . Why did no one care enough to bother to check on them especially as Gene Hackman had advanced Alzheimer's. He has 3 children why didn't one of them phone in all that time ? It's so sad his wife died a week before but he wouldn't have realised .

Why didn't anyone care about them?

So we now know the order of deaths which were natural thankfully. I didn’t realise he had very advanced dementia

So the wife died first of a rare pulmonary disease passed on from rodents urine or droppings Gene died a week later from natural causes
Reasons for the dogs death haven’t been released yet

A sad end for them all but thankfully it was a chapter of natural causes

The local police chief said it would be very difficult to tell the sequence of their deaths due to the time lapse until they were found.

I like BlueBelle take on what might have happened. Better than foul play for me.

Sky news says tested negative for carbon monoxide, his pacemaker puts death mid February

He was 95 mael3 what do you expect??!!

A picture of him and his wife was on the BBC News website a couple of days ago. He looked shockingly frail.

I m not so sure * Grammarett* the latest reports say they had been dead around 10 days, as yet they don’t know the order of death that will surely be a big clue if it was a suicide pact wouldn’t they have laid together they seemed devoted to one another, not been in different rooms
To me that implicates panic
The pills laying scattered on the bathroom floor with the wife and dog were genuine medication for heart and thyroid
It also stated the actor himself had a pacemaker
Could he have had a collapse and she ran to the bathroom for his tablets and ??? Could the dog have ate the pills on the floor and thus died !
Hopefully the autopsies will answer some questions

They were so reclusive and people rarely saw them even the maintainence people said they didn’t see them…. all arrangements were made over the phone and they were never in sight when they did any work

No one knows at this stage what happened a chapter of incidents or intention maybe no one ever will

It certainly sounds like a suicide pact, taking the dog because they didn't want the dog to suffer bereavement.
I can't imagine being so reclusive, can you?
Although Gene narrated a documentary "We the Marines" in 2017 which was unbelievably 8 years ago.

Doesn’t say that on BBC Delene where did you see it ?
Just watching News on ITV and there is still no confirmation of how they died