New footage filmed by police when they discovered the ‘mummified’ bodies of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa at their remote home features some surprising comments

Eerie footage of the moment cops from the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office discovered Hollywood star Gene Hackman dead at home has been released.

The Oscar-winning actor, 95, was discovered at his Santa Fe home on 26 February, alongside his wife Betsy, 65. In one video, which was made public yesterday, a shaken handyman can be heard telling police that “something’s not right.” Discussing the possibility that the couple died from a gas leak, an unnamed groundskeeper says: “That big vent you see on the roof by the front door, that thing’s like that big around, so it’s meant to vent.

“So I just don’t… and that mechanical room is pretty damn tight. I don’t see carbon monoxide getting…”

When asked if gas could have leaked through kitchen appliances, the aide replies: “It shouldn’t. I don’t see how this is both of them are down like this. Something’s not right.”

Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa were found dead at their New Mexico home on February 26(Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

In another segment of the footage, shared by TMZ, the handyman shares his grief at losing his employers. He says: “He’s just a normal person and to see that, both of them… sorry, I get attached to all these people, they treat me really well.”

Medical examiners suggested that Betsy, whose cause of death was rare rodent-borne illness hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, had sadly died a week before her husband, who had late-stage Alzheimer’s. An exchange between a Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office deputy and Hackman’s daughter Elizabeth also features in the released tape. In it, she tells the lawman to cremate the remains of her dad’s dead dog, Zinna, and put the ashes in with her stepmum’s.

She says: “I’m thinking cremate the dog and bury it with Betsy…if the dog was wearing a collar, could you save that for me.”