I've read that the profile of women that kill themselves generally take care to be found or make sure people don't stumble on their body/leave a mess for others to clean up. It would be an odd suicide, leaving the dog to die, pills on the ground and your bodies exposed like that.
As another actor said….. Hackman didn’t make a bad movie. Guy was fantastic. That recent picture of him in the blue shirt walking around with his wife doesn’t even resemble the GH I remember
I have to be honest. My initial reaction to learning Gene Hackman died was “holy shit, Gene Hackman was still alive!!!???” He apparently retired from acting 20 years ago. Not the first time I saw a Hollywood obit and had that type of thought. If he was dealing with issues it wouldn’t be surprising if he wanted to check out at 95. But the wife and dog? I assumed a gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning. Maybe he was having issues the wife could not deal with and it was she who “pulled the plug” (proverbially), but even then I can’t believe they’d leave the dog crated to die in the worst way. The dog is what makes the least sense if it was some type of mercy-suicide.
It is possible one of them died, and the sight of the other caused a 2nd medical emergency. Esp if it was the 60yo wife who died first, leaving the 95 year old. I’m sure that has happened more than a few times to elderly couples, and it would explain the dog. As carbon monoxide has been ruled out, it’s hard to come up with anything else that doesn’t involve foul play.
There were other dogs, and they were big dog lovers. No way they just leave it to starve. It is some freak accident (well, dying at 95 isn’t freaky) and the dog was unfortunate to be incarcerated. I leave my dogs out of the crates when the wife is gone, in case I drink myself to death I mean spontaneously die.
Report today is Gene Hackman had advanced Alzheimer's, and his wife died several days before him of natural causes. Then Gene Hackman apparently had a heart attack and died himself. I'm guessing his Alzheimer's affected his ability to recognize his wife had died to do report it, so he lived in the house with dead wife for several days. Very sad way to go out. Gene Hackman death investigation update | Fox News
Certainly not hard to picture that scenario unless they had people checking on them very regularly. Which they obviously should have.
My Aunt essentially killed herself caring for my uncle who was late stage in one of the dementias. It wasn't alzheimers, but similar enough, maybe LBS? Anyway, she was going to be his caregiver until the end. No matter what, that's what she committed to. At the end, she would hardly leave the house and didn't like having company. She let a foot infection get to the point of needing her entire leg to be amputated before she ever asked for help. He lived a few more weeks in a home for memory patients and she only made it a couple more months in an assisted living facility, never fully recovering from the leg surgery. I can easily see how this happened, especially with Hackman's wife being somewhat able bodied and 30 years younger. I imagine if my Aunt had fallen ill and passed away, my Uncle would have passed a few days later as he would have had no idea how to take care of anything. And because she was pushing people away, it likely would have been a while before they were found. It's almost what happened anyway, they were just taken to other facilities before they actually passed on.
I remember a time when people were allowed to be “senile” when they approached advanced age. My dog is 16, meaning late 80’s in human years, and he paces at night and seems out of it from time to time.
If you have access to the New York Times, a well-done look at their lives in the final years, Gene Hackman Lost His Wife and Caregiver, and Spent 7 Days Alone
