Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe home in New Mexico on February 26. The tragic discovery was labeled as "suspicious" by investigating authorities, with the bodies found in separate rooms.
The couple's 12-year-old Australian Kelpie named Zinna was also found dead inside its kennel in the bathroom. The dog is said to have died from dehydration and starvation.
In an exclusive interview with the Mail, the couple's animal chiropractor and longtime friend Dr Sherry Gaber shared what she believed happened regarding the fateful incident.
"When I first heard they had died, I thought maybe it was a one-can’t-live-without-the-other type of thing, like Romeo and Juliet," she said.
© Corbis via Getty Images"But when I learned about Zinna, I knew it had to be something else.
"The only thing I can think of is that they were taking things out of their car, going in and out of the house and then Gene’s pacemaker stopped. He fell over and then I think Zinna, who was very close to Gene, got agitated."
Sherry explained how Gene shared a special connection with his pooch and Zinna was most likely very stressed in the moment. "Zinna had a very strong bond with Gene – some dogs respond more to male energy than female energy, so who knows how badly upset Zinna was, pawing him, licking his face and wanting him to get up.
© Getty Images"And Betsy, doing her best in a frenetic moment, got Zinna and put her in her crate."
Sherry, who treated the couple's dogs for 20 years at her Santa Fe clinic in New Mexico, stressed that the pair would not have deliberately harmed their pets.
"Betsy and Gene loved their dogs to the moon and back," she said.
"They always wanted to do the right things for their animals because they loved them so deeply. So whatever happened was an accident."
© Getty ImagesSherry continued: "In the panic of what was happening, maybe she [Betsy] was getting pills for Gene or for herself and then something happened, and she couldn’t get back to Zinna. Betsy’s dogs were her life, and she’d never have left Zinna."
The couple also shared a German shepherd, Bear and a third dog, Nikita, who both survived.
Zinna, whose name is short for the wine Zinfandel, was rescued from a shelter by the couple.
The circumstances surrounding the devastating deaths currently remain unknown, with officials ruling out foul play after an autopsy concluded that there was no external trauma to either Gene or Betsy.
