![\"Gene](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_20th-Annual-Peoples-Choice-Awards.jpg\")
Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa were found dead in February(Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)<\/p>\nHollywood legend Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found in their Santa Fe home in February, with a coroner later discovering she had hantavirus pulmonary syndromeGene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa were found dead in February(Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
A rare virus<\/a> linked to the death of Hollywood legend Gene Hackman<\/a>‘s partner has been found in three more victims, sparking warnings.<\/p>\n The Superman star and his classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa were found partly decomposed and mummified in their Santa Fe home on February 26. Officers made the grim recovery following a welfare check sparked by concerned property staff. Experts posited Hackman succumbed to heart disease exacerbated by Alzheimer’s approximately a week after to Arakawa’s death caused by hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare condition passed on by rodents. Now three people in a rural town in California have also been found to have the rare disease.<\/p>\n READ MORE: ‘I used roaming data for \u00a30 on holiday in Spain, Portugal and Denmark – here’s how’<\/a> Dr Tom Boo, Mono County public health officer, said in a statement: \u201cThe occurrence of three cases in a short period has me worried, especially this early in the year.<\/p>\n “A third case of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), each of which has been fatal, is tragic and alarming. We don’t have a clear sense of where this young adult may have contracted the virus.<\/p>\n \u201cThe home had no evidence of mouse activity. We observed some mice in the workplace, which is not unusual for indoor spaces this time of year in Mammoth Lakes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven’t identified any other activities in the weeks before illness that would have increased this person’s exposure to mice or their droppings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been aware of this suspected case for some weeks, but it has taken time to obtain testing. Historically, we tend to see Hantavirus cases later in the spring and in the summer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve now gone about a month without any additional suspect cases, but remain concerned about the increase in activity. Mono County has now recorded 27 cases since it was first reported here in 1993, the most in the State of California.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty one of these infections affected county residents, and six occurred in visitors who were infected in Mono. Hantavirus more commonly occurs in the late spring or summer, so three cases this early in the year is strikingly unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month lawyers for Gene Hackman’s estate argued in a Sante Fe court photographs and videos of the actor and his wife’s bodies should not be released to the public<\/a>, according to Deadline. <\/a>They argued the estate has a right “to protect Gene and Betsy\u2019s property, including photographs and videos of their dead bodies”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood legend Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found in their Santa Fe home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[231,202,105,302,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-4131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alzheimers-disease","9":"tag-gene-hackman","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-heart-disease","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114295957962259128","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Gene](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_Gene-and-Keanu.jpg\")
The pair and their dogs were found dead by police conducting a welfare check<\/p>\n