Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa can have died nine days before being found on Wednesday.
Although the cause behind deaths is still unknown because no unfair or carbon monoxide poisoning has been detected in the preliminary autopsy, a more in -depth examination revealed that Hackman’s heart stimulator ceased to work on February 17 – which can be died nine days earlier, the sheriff of the county of Santa Fe Adan Mendoza.
Authorities do not believe that the house had surveillance cameras, Mendoza said at a press conference.
The retired chief medical examiner in Arizona, Dr. Philip Keen, also shared information on the incident, explaining that the moment when a cardiac stimulator stops working could mark the point when a person dies, but not always.
“If your heart needed a cardiac stimulator, there would certainly be an interruption at that time – and it could be the brand of death,” AP Cité Keen. “But it is not necessarily because some people get a cardiac stimulator to increase things, not necessarily replace things.”
The results of toxicology tests should be completed in the coming weeks, which could reveal whether the pills that were found dispersed on the site were a factor in their death.
Investigators who searched the house recovered drugs that treat high blood pressure and chest pain, thyroid drugs, tylenol and medical diagnostic tests, shown judicial files on Friday.
The couple was found after a maintenance worker, who presented himself to carry out routine work at home, could not enter and called a safety worker, who then spotted two people on the ground, said Mendoza.
One of their dogs was also found dead in a closet while two other dogs in the residence remained healthy.
