Gene Hackman & Betsy Arakawa’s Santa Fe property was infested with rats

One of the biggest celebrity-bummer stories of the year is the death of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. The story kept getting more and more tragic as the police investigated their deaths after finding their bodies in their Sante Fe home on February 26. As it turned out, Betsy passed away first from the hantavirus, and Gene passed away a week later. He was suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s and likely did not know what happened to Betsy. Hackman was also estranged from his three children, to the point where Gene and Betsy’s bodies were unclaimed a month after they were discovered. Well, friends and family (?) finally got around to conducting a memorial service:

Gene and Betsy Hackman have been laid to rest. The couple, who were found dead in their Santa Fe home on Feb. 26, were also remembered in a memorial by family and close friends, PEOPLE has learned.

The small, private memorial, attended by the legendary actor’s three children — son Christopher and daughters Elizabeth and Leslie — was recently held in Santa Fe.

Gene and Betsy were discovered at their home along with one of their dogs, a kelpie mix named Zinna, in Santa Fe Summit on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Two other dogs were discovered alive and well on the property.

[From People]

I wonder if anyone in Gene and Betsy’s circle took their dogs? Anyway, I’m glad they finally organized this and I’m glad Gene’s children came to it. As for Betsy’s hantavirus diagnosis, the New Mexico Department of Public Health has examined the property and what they found was horrible:

Dead rodents and their nests were scattered across eight detached outbuildings on Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa’s property in Santa Fe, New Mexico … a health report obtained by TMZ reveals.

The New Mexico Department of Public Health conducted an environmental assessment back in March, one week after Gene Hackman was found dead alongside wife Betsy, who died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), caused by hantavirus.

The deadly disease spreads through rat and mouse urine and droppings, often picked up when someone’s cleaning out attics or basements. In Hackman and Betsy’s case, rodent feces were found in three garages, two casitas, and three sheds on their property. A live rodent, a dead rodent, and a rodent nest were found in the three detached garages.

Two vehicles on the property were also found with signs of rodents — nests, droppings, and sightings of the pests. Investigators even discovered live traps set up in the outbuildings, suggesting the infestation had been ongoing.

The New Mexico Department of Health did a risk assessment on March 5 to make sure first responders and family members who’d been on the property were safe. Luckily, they found the primary residence to be low-risk, with no signs of rodent activity inside.

[From TMZ]

This is what I keep coming back to: for a property this big, with all of these garages, outbuildings, sheds, casitas, etc… how did Betsy not have staff working there on a regular basis? Why weren’t groundskeepers working there on a weekly basis? Why didn’t they have ANY household staff? How was it just Betsy trying to take care of a 90-something man with Alzheimer’s AND this huge property, all by herself?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.