Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa’s tragic deaths have had an untold impact on people the world over, from their fans to family members and close friends.
While Betsy, 65, passed away after contracting hantavirus, an illness spread through rodents, her husband died a week later from heart disease at 95 years old.
Although the couple lived reclusive lives in their Santa Fe gated community, they often interacted with neighbors and staff members who kept an eye on their wellbeing.
One such staff member, Jesse Kesler, was the contractor who found Betsy’s body and alerted the security guard who accompanied him to the tragedy.
The 52-year-old handyman revealed to the Daily Mail that he had grown concerned about Gene and Betsy’s wellbeing after the couple had failed to respond to his emails sent weeks prior.
“For the first week, I thought maybe [Betsy] was mad at me. I thought I had done something wrong,” he told the publication.
© Ron Galella Collection via Getty“We have other projects going on and I [thought] I might have slipped and said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re doing this for this other person’. So I thought maybe I’d got caught. I thought maybe I was in trouble.”
“It was probably in the last three days where I decided, okay, something’s wrong, and we started the process to determine what the hell was going on,” he explained.
“It wasn’t like we were just up there and just stumbled across it. It was a two-week event that led up to us finally going in. We knew something was wrong. We were trying to get the process done correctly, not just walk on someone’s property.”
© Animal Rescue Inc/ FacebookHe added that when he couldn’t get in touch with Gene’s family, he decided to visit the couple to do a welfare check. Upon arrival, Jesse saw Betsy’s body on the bathroom floor and realized she had passed away.
“We did not enter. The door was open to the bathroom from outside,” he recalled. “We looked in, she was close and it was very obvious she was gone. I was hysterical. I pretty much lost it.”
The security guard who accompanied him then found Gene’s body and immediately called 911.
© WireImageJesse, who worked with Gene and Betsy for 16 years and was in constant communication with the duo, shared his deep regret over their devastating deaths.
“I wish I’d gone in quicker…I might have been able to save Gene or the dog,” he said. “To be honest, it was awful. It was one of the worst days of my life, and I’ve had some bad days. To see someone like that…”
He continued: “I was hoping for a better outcome, that maybe they were out of town and they just didn’t tell anyone, or they got locked in the wine cellar by accident.”
© NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal viaJesse had seen the Bonnie & Clyde star 12 weeks before his body was discovered, and Gene appeared in good health according to the handyman. As for how he is coping with their loss, Jesse said that he is still coming to terms with the traumatic experience.
“It’s just such a tragic story,” he shared. “I never thought I would be dealing with this and I just never thought we’d lose them both. I thought Gene could live to be 100 years old, but I was kind of preparing myself for [his death]. But never her.”
Gene and Betsy met in the ’80s when the classical pianist worked part-time at his gym; they tied the knot in 1991 and lived a private life after the actor retired from Hollywood in 2004. Gene is survived by his three children, Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie.
