Sheriff Investigating Gene Hackman’s Death Calls 1 Piece Of Evidence 'Very Important'

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said this particular item “is something of concern" regarding the deaths of the actor and his wife, Betsy Arakawa.

The sheriff who is investigating the deaths of Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, says there’s one piece of evidence that is “very important” in determining the couple’s causes of death.

On Wednesday, the bodies of the Oscar winner, his classical pianist wife and one of their dogs were found in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home. An anonymous caretaker for the community in which the couple lived found them after coming by their home for a welfare check around 1:45 p.m.

According to a search warrant affidavit obtained by several news outlets on Thursday, the officers who arrived at the scene “observed an orange prescription bottle on the counter-top” near Arakawa’s body. The affidavit also states that the “prescription bottle appeared opened with pills scattered on the counter-top.”

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza — who is leading the investigation into the couple’s death — told Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s “Today” Friday that this prescription bottle is “very important evidence.”

“That information was collected, that information was passed to the office of the medical investigator to help them make a determination,” Mendoza said. “So, yes, we’re looking at that specifically and other medications, of course, that were possibly in the residence. So that is something of concern.”