The Academy Award-winning actor was found on the floor in the mud room, according to the search warrant. It appeared he fell suddenly, and he and his wife "showed obvious signs of death," the document said.
Arakawa was found lying on her side on the floor in a bathroom, with a space heater near her body, according to the search warrant.
Her body showed signs of decomposition, the document said. There was mummification to her hands and feet, the document said.
A German shepherd was found dead about 10 to 15 feet from Arakawa, the document said.
But two other dogs were found alive. One healthy dog was near Arakawa and the other was located outside, according to the search warrant.
The Santa Fe City Fire Department found no signs of a possible carbon monoxide leak or poisoning, the document said. If there was carbon monoxide at the scene, it could have vented out of the home through the open front door before responders arrived.
New Mexico Gas Company also responded and "as of now, there are no signs or evidence indicating there were any problems associated to the pipes in and around the residence," the document said.
Keep in mind, he was 95 and was forced into retirement by health issues over 20 years ago. If your base rate is based on two healthy people in their prime, that's a little different. It could be as simple as he found her dead or dying, tried to get help and had a heart attack from the stress or simply just fell. Reports are they weren't found for two weeks, which sadly could explain the dog.
Tragic situation all around, but I'm not ready to use a probability based argument to insist on foul play.
3 things dying in 2 weeks in the same house is just unlikely and the people must have died within minutes. This is still unlikely EVEN when you take into account age and health issues.
Maybe he dropped dead and she just decided to go too? The one dog may have just been accidential injestion. But the Medical Examiner will figure out most plausible causes. Sad no matter how it happened.
Hackman and Arakawa were found in separate rooms. The actor was found in a mudroom near his cane, appearing to have fallen, while his wife was found in an open bathroom near a space heater, with an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the nearby countertop, according to the warrant
> The local gas provider, the New Mexico Gas Co, was involved in the investigation alongside the Santa Fe county sheriff’s department, Associated Press reported, raising speculation that carbon monoxide poisoning lay behind the deaths
True. Newer ones will last ~10 years, and will shout an EOL warning when they near the end of their life. I've got hardwired combo smoke and CO detectors (AA battery backup) from Kidde at the house and they have this feature.
The nice part of having them hardwired is that the house is now like an office/other building: if one trips, they all trip, so the whole house is alerted. The newer ones have far fewer false alarms, too (pizza in the oven I am looking at you...).
The battery only CO monitors by Kidde, if I recall correctly, are cheaper than the price of the combined smoke/CO detector minus the price of a Kidde smoke detector. I recently bought a combined unit (ironically because I had a second wireless unit I didn’t recall purchasing that was complaining about low battery near one of the wired units and could not figure out why it was chirping an undocumented signal) and almost put it back on the shelf when I saw the price.
By all means put one in your house but I think it’s a racket to have all four detectors in your house also be carbon monoxide monitors when you can just put a battery unit at the far end of the house from the combined one.
Hardwiring is good, but if retrofitting, you don't need to do it. Some of the 10 year battery powered units can wirelessly link (and thankfully not over something inconsistent like WiFi or Bluetooth).
The article I read said no gas leak or CO was found.
However I don't believe that one person being found dead near an open door is evidence of no gases. I would take it as the opposite. Something happens, one of them almost makes it out but either blacks out at the open door before getting fresh air or, like in the CO case, once exposed the damage is done.
That said, the bigger curiosity is one dead dog and two small, live ones. If you have people poisoned by food, and one animal with food anxiety, that's a recipe for one dead dog and multiple dead people and other household animals wondering what the hell just happened. If you have people and animals poisoned by a gas... Unless it was lighter than air it should have affected the small dogs as well, unless they were napping somewhere outside of the immediate danger.
(The GSD could also have died from eating the prescription pills on the ground and it's only a coincidental death rather than common cause)