Sheriff's office makes error about Gene Hackman's dog in initial death report

USA Today

04-03-2025

Sheriff's office makes error about Gene Hackman's dog in initial death report It's unclear how the dog was misidentified in the report
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Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa mourned in Santa Fe
Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were living a quiet life in Santa Fe before their deaths.
SANTA FE, N.M. — News of the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa pinged into Sherry Gaber's cell phone as text messages from friends.
'Do you know about this?' one friend asked, with a link to an article about the discoveries.
Gaber's heart dropped. The news of Hackman and Arakawa – close friends and clients – was bad enough. But what really sank her soul was the fact that their German shepherd, Bear, had died along with them.
Just five months earlier, Gaber, an animal chiropractor, had run her hands along Bear's fur, adjusting the animal's atlas vertebrae, the topmost vertebrae in the cervical spine. She'd cooed the German shepherd and laughed with Arakawa. Bear seemed vibrant and happy, although still slightly favoring a right hip from a surgery a few months earlier.
Now, she believed he was dead, found either in a closet or crate or bathroom floor, depending on conflicting news and official reports. The details didn't compute.
'I can't handle that image,' Gaber said in an interview with USA TODAY. 'That's why this whole thing is so distressing.'
'It just doesn't add up,' Gaber said.
That's because it didn't.
Bear wasn't dead at all. As Gaber read the news reports on her phone, the dog was alive and well, resting at a pet daycare facility in Santa Fe, along with the couple's other dog, Nikita, a 7-year-old Akita-shepherd mix.
USA TODAY learned the dog who perished in the Hackman home was actually Zinna, a 12-year-old reddish Australian Kelpie mixed-breed who had once trained in agility skills to compete at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Her body was found in a closed crate in the home, according to Joey Padilla, who transported the surviving dogs to his facility, Santa Fe Tails.
Police continue to look into the details and causes behind the deaths of Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 64. They were discovered in separate rooms in their Santa Fe estate with signs of advanced decomposition, probably from being dead for over a week. As investigators try to establish a cause of death for the movie actor and his wife, their misidentification of Zinna could potentially raise doubts about other parts of their investigation.
In their affidavit for a search warrant, sheriff's investigators said deputies 'continued to search the residence where they then observed/found a deceased brown in color German-Shepard [sic] canine.' Details of the affidavit were reported by the media, leading friends to believe Bear had died.
USA TODAY visited the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, the county agency responsible for housing animals when they are found with deceased owners. Officials there referred all questions to the sheriff's office.
It's unclear how the dog was misidentified in the report. USA TODAY contacted Denise Womack-Avila, a spokeswoman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, who's leading the investigation. She said she hadn't heard of the mistaken dog identity.
She said investigators may have just misidentified the breed.
'Our deputies do not deal with canines on a daily basis and I cannot currently speak to the condition or state of the dog's body upon discovery,' Womack-Avila said in a text message response.
Informed by USA TODAY that it was Zinna – not Bear – who was found dead in the home, Gaber gasped.
'My body's just shaking right now,' she said. 'I'm grateful [it's not Bear]. It's still a tragic story.'
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Hackman and Arakawa were devoted dog lovers
Gaber met Hackman and Arakawa more than 18 years ago, when the couple learned of Gaber's ability to improve animals' health through chiropractic adjustments. Gaber focuses her treatment on the upper cervical spine to allow the body to better communicate with the brain, she said.
Over the years, she has treated dogs, cats, bald eagles, owls, pet skunks, a porcupine ('I'll never do that again'), rabbits, goats and a mountain lion.
In 2003, Gaber helped a 1,400-pound buffalo walk straight again, a story captured in the 2007 book, 'A Buffalo in the House,' by R.D. Rosen. Arakawa heard the story at a Santa Fe book event – and immediately reached out to Gaber.
That sparked an 18-year relationship where Arakawa would bring her dogs into Gaber's Santa Fe practice every few weeks to get adjusted. The two would also meet for dinner or go shopping around town.
When Arakawa rescued Zinna from a shelter, she contracted a trainer and began putting her through agility training – weaving through poles, tire jumps, ducking through tunnels – with the goal of entering her into Westminster, Gaber said.
Gaber treated Zinna before and after training sessions and competitions, she said. As she got older, Zinna – short for zinfandel – stopped training. But Arakawa continued bringing the dogs in for sessions.
'They wanted to do all the right things for their animals because they loved them so deeply,' Gaber said.
The last time she saw Arakawa was in October, when she brought in Bear for an adjustment. The German shepherd, who Arakawa rescued from the side of Interstate 25, appeared to enjoy his session, Gaber said. She and Arakawa joked and promised to meet up again soon.
Then, last week, the messages came in: Her two close friends were dead, as was Zinna.
'I went into shock,' Gaber said. 'I laid down underneath the stars and cried for an hour.'
A star's tragic end: Gene Hackman's refuge – and mysterious death – at his Santa Fe home with wife Betsy Arakawa
Dog trapping at the Hackman home
Padilla, who took care of and trained the couple's dogs over the years, got the call Wednesday afternoon. It was the handyman who had first discovered the bodies.
The worker, who had done jobs for Hackman in the past, asked Padilla if he could come retrieve the surviving dogs. Padilla drove to the scene.
Bear was found 10 to 12 feet away from Arakawa, while Nikita was running around in the sprawling backyard, skittish of all the commotion, Padilla said.
Animal control had already collared Bear. Padilla tried to coax Nikita closer by opening and closing the door to Arakawa's car, but she stayed clear, he said. One of Padilla's employees tried drawing her close with treats, but also couldn't get near enough.
Finally, the animal control staffers set up a door trap for her overnight in the yard, which got her. Padilla returned on Thursday to retrieve the dogs. While he was there, Sheriff Adan Mendoza called one of Hackman's daughters and put her on speakerphone, as he and Padilla inquired about what to do with the dogs. Overcome by grief, no one came up with an answer, he said.
'It was overwhelming for everybody,' Padilla recalled. 'There was a lot to intake. I finally said, 'Listen, I'm just here to help.''
He drove the dogs to his pet daycare facility, where he'll take care of them until lawyers sort out the couple's will and determine if there's any mention of what to do with the dogs. They won't be taken to a shelter, Padilla said.
'If only people knew how meticulous and amazing [Hackman and Arakawa] were with the dogs,' said Padilla, who took care of and trained the couple's dogs over the years. 'It breaks my heart.'
Meanwhile, a local company donated food to feed the dogs and a veterinarian hospital offered to cremate Zinna, but authorities told them they were still investigating and needed the dog's body, Padilla said.
He said he wouldn't speculate as to how Zinna may have died in the crate. But he said he was sure Hackman and Arakawa did everything they could to help those dogs – all the way to the end.
'I think this is a tragic accident,' he said. 'There's no way that Betsy would have left that dog in a crate for any other reason.'
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