A doctor for Betsy Arakawa has made a bombshell claim about the timeline of her death.
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Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 65, were both found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home on February 26, along with one of their pet dogs.
The couple's bodies showed that they had both been dead for several days before they were found.
Chief Medical Investigator Dr. Heather Jarrell confirmed that Arakawa died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome — a rare and often fatal disease transmitted through infected rodent droppings, per BBC News.
Her death was ruled as natural, with no signs of trauma. She is believed to have passed away on February 11, the last day she was known to have communicated via email.
Hackman, a two-time Academy Award-winning actor, died roughly a week later, on February 18.
His cause of death was hypertensive cardiovascular disease, with advanced Alzheimer’s disease listed as a contributing factor. Dr. Jarrell noted that his pacemaker ceased recording cardiac activity on February 18, making it the likely date of his passing.
However, Arawaka's doctor has now spoken out to claim her death must have occurred later than believed as he says she phoned him on February 12.
Dr Josiah Child, a former emergency care specialist who runs Cloudberry Health near where the couple lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, told the Daily Mail: "Mrs Hackman didn't die on February 11 because she called my clinic on February 12."
He added: "She'd called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband.
"She was not a patient of mine, but one of my patients recommended Cloudberry to her. She made an appointment for herself for February 12. It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory."
Dr. Child claimed that Arakawa had cancelled the appointment two days before, due to Hackman feeling unwell, and added: "She called back on the morning of February 12 and spoke to one of our doctors who told her to come in that afternoon.
"We made her an appointment but she never showed up. She did not show any symptoms of respiratory distress. The appointment wasn't for anything related to hantavirus. We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply."
If true, this would mean that Arakawa was alive at least 24 hours longer than the coroner had concluded.
Dr. Child added: "I am not a hantavirus expert but most patients who have that diagnosis die in hospital.
"It is surprising that Mrs Hackman spoke to my office on the phone on February 10 and again on February 12 and didn't appear in respiratory distress."
Hackman's pacemaker, meanwhile, revealed that he likely died on February 18, the date it stopped showing activity.
His postmortem found that while he did not have any food in his stomach at the time of his death, he did not appear to be dehydrated.
Officers attending the home noted that besides Hackman and Arakawa's bodies, the property was otherwise clean and organized, and potential carbon monoxide poisoning was quickly ruled out as a cause of their deaths.
Santa Fe County Medical Examiner Heather Jarrell noted that due to Hackman's Alzheimer's, “it is quite possible he was not aware that [Arakawa] was deceased” for several days until his own passing.
The couple's 12-year-old Australian kelpie mix dog was also found dead in a crate inside a closet near the bathroom where Arakawa's body was found, and is believed to have died from starvation and dehydration.
Their other two dogs - Bear and Nikita - survived as they were free to roam the property, and one of them led first responders to the couple's bodies when they attended the home.