Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa’s bodies remain unclaimed weeks after they were discovered in their Santa Fe home.
The couple was found dead on February 26, along with one of their dogs, at their New Mexico residence.
A pathologist determined that Hackman, 95, died from heart disease, with Alzheimer’s as a contributing factor, while Arakawa, 65, passed away a week earlier due to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare infectious disease.
The couple's bodies were not discovered when maintenance and security workers showed up at the Santa Fe home and alerted police, with the mystery making headlines around the world.
Their remains are currently at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Examiner, where they have yet to be claimed.
The late couple were listed as "unclaimed decedents" in a report released by the Medical Examiner on March 24.
The list is updated twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, although the March 28 update had not been posted at the time of writing.
A spokesperson from the Medical Examiner's office told TMZ that this situation isn't uncommon and may simply be due to the family still making funeral arrangements.
Earlier this month, a New Mexico court approved a temporary hold on the release of documents related to the pair’s death containing sensitive footage and images.
The temporary restraining order, which was granted on March 17, was submitted by Julia Peters, a representative for the couple’s estate, to protect the family’s right to privacy in grief under the 14th amendment of the US constitution.
Under the order, documents containing images or videos of the body of Hackman or Arakawa, the interior of their home, or their deceased animals, cannot be released.
Post-mortem examination and death investigation reports are also not able to be disclosed by the Office Of The Medical Investigator under the hold.
A hearing to argue the merits of the order has been scheduled for later this month.
The US state’s open records law blocks public access to sensitive images, including depictions of people who are deceased.
But the bulk of death investigations by law enforcement and post-mortem examination reports by medical investigators are still typically considered public records under state law to ensure government transparency and accountability.
It comes after Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office found that Arakawa’s phone was last used on February 12 to call a medical centre in Santa Fe called Cloudberry Health.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said three calls were made to Cloudberry Health, and one from the medical centre to Arakawa’s phone was made that afternoon, and appeared as a missed call on the device.
Hackman won two Oscars during a storied career in films including The French Connection, Hoosiers and Superman from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
Elsewhere, it emerged that Hackman, who last signed his will in 2005, left his whopping $80million fortune to his wife, who was the successor trustee to his trust.
It is uncertain whether Gene’s three children Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie, who he shared with late ex-wife Faye Maltese, were left anything in the fortune.
Betsy's will designates her assets to a trust, where her money will be donated to charity and used to pay her medical debts.
