Newly released bodycam footage is casting a darker shadow over the circumstances surrounding the final days of legendary actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa.
In the weeks leading up to the couple's tragic deaths, the couple allegedly experienced two unsettling encounters that left them on edge, Fox News reports.
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Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 65, were discovered dead inside their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home on February 26, along with one of their dogs.
Authorities later confirmed Hackman died from hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with Alzheimer’s disease listed as a significant contributing factor.
Betsy had died days earlier, with her cause of death identified as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome — a rare but serious respiratory disease.
Their dog, Zinna, is believed to have passed away from dehydration.
Now, in a newly surfaced bodycam video obtained by Fox News Digital, a man named Christopher - who worked as Betsy’s hairstylist - told Santa Fe County Sheriff's deputies about bizarre and unnerving encounters she had with a strange man on two separate occasions in December.
“She mentioned to me that there was a man that had parked outside of their gate and followed them,” Christopher says in the footage. “On two separate occasions. One occasion is when they went to White Rock. They went and had lunch there and the guy followed them from parked [outside of their gated community], followed them all the way to White Rock.”
Christopher explained that Betsy was shaken by the experience and voiced concern that their security had failed to detect the man.
Continuing his account to police, the hairstylist adds: “She said, ‘Christopher, I’m surprised that security didn’t [know] how he got there… because when we left, I noticed that this car had followed us from the residence to White Rock.’”
He added that Betsy claimed the man had pulled out a folder full of photographs of Hackman and asked for autographs. “She said… she approached him and said, ‘I told him he needed to have more respect,’” Christopher recounted.
Christopher then admits that he was personally alarmed by the interaction. “I said, ‘That’s so weird because Santa Fe’s not a place of paparazzi and stuff,’” he recalled telling Betsy.
The hairstylist also described a second incident involving the same man, who followed the Hackmans to another location and tried to give them a bottle of wine, which they declined.
“I said, ‘Oh my gosh, Betsy, that’s crazy. You should not have approached this person. This makes me nervous.’ He knew what [they] drove. That’s the scary part,” Christopher told officers.
In the aftermath of their deaths, the Hackman estate moved swiftly to block public access to sensitive details.
On March 13, a lawyer for the estate filed a petition in the state District Court in Santa Fe to prevent the Office of the Medical Investigator and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office from releasing footage and other records related to the couple’s deaths.
The legal filing, submitted by attorney Kurt Sommer, argued that the Hackmans' right to privacy outweighed the public interest in accessing these materials.
“Once the images are released, the bell cannot be unrung,” Sommer wrote, per The Sun, invoking a precedent from the Kurt Cobain case where courts refused to release “death-scene” photos.
“During their lifetime, the Hackmans placed significant value on their privacy and took affirmative, vigilant steps to safeguard their privacy,” Sommer added.
A temporary restraining order was subsequently granted, barring the release of photographs or videos that include images of Gene or Betsy Hackman, their home’s interior, or any deceased animals found at the residence. The order also restricts the release of autopsy or death reports, with a hearing scheduled for March 31.
New questions also emerged about the timeline of Betsy’s death.
Authorities initially believed she died on February 11, but preliminary cellphone records obtained by Fox News suggest she was still alive the following morning.
“We can now confirm that Mrs. Hackman’s phone was utilized on the morning of February 12 to call a medical center in Santa Fe, Cloudberry Health,” officials said. “A total of three calls were made that morning, all to the medical center. One incoming call was made to Mrs. Hackman from the same medical center that afternoon. That appeared as a missed call on Mrs. Hackman’s cell phone.”
That revelation aligns with a claim made by Dr. Josiah Child, a former emergency care specialist and the operator of Cloudberry Health.
As the investigation continues and the legal battle over public access unfolds, the strange sightings, delayed death timeline, and privacy push from the estate leave behind more questions than answers in the wake of the Hollywood couple’s mysterious deaths.