Him, his wife and his dog found dead in the house ?
Carbon Monoxide, possibly?
Shame. I had no idea the guy was that old.
Carbon Monoxide, possibly?
Shame. I had no idea the guy was that old.
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.The evidence doesn't show any foul play but the probabilities and unlikelihoods do.
Tragic situation all around, but I'm not ready to use a probability based argument to insist on foul play.
From https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/202...
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
But it’s unlikely for so many things to converge like this.
Here, there's plenty of possible explanations for why their deaths would be correlated. Especially the dog. If you lock a dog in a place for two weeks, it inevitable that it will be either dead or in serious medical distress when you come back. The one follows logically and tragically from the other. It doesn't change anything about the probability of the initiating event.
If somebody driving a car has a heart attack, and the car crashes into a tree also killing the passenger, you don't say: "what are the chances that Person A would have a heart attack at the exact same time that the Person B was in car accident? That's such an unlikely coincidence. There must be something else going on here."
Analyzing all events as statistically independent, even in situations where they clearly aren't is the opposite of "actuality knowing reality and knowing how reality works". On the contrary, it's one of the most common ways for a statistical analysis to go wrong.
The dog dying could be explained but from what I know dogs end up eating the owners.
Either way there isn’t any evidence for correlation only made up stories.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/27/gene-hackman-ca...
Time to visit the hardware store
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...).
I'd be willing to bet the NEC says "must be able to perform without mains power" for any hard wired setup.
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.
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)