Yoshie Feaster, Gene Hackman‘s mother-in-law, wants graphic photos from the scene of the late actor and her daughter Betsy Arakawa‘s deaths to be kept private.
“I humbly come before this court to request that this court respect my right to grieve in peace and find that I have a constitutional right to avoid seeing images of my daughter’s home, her dead body, her husband’s dead body, and their dog’s corpse,” Feaster, 91, said in court documents obtained by People on Monday, March 31. “The public spectacle surrounding my daughter’s death is one that no parent should have to live through.”
Feaster’s wishes were not fully granted by the New Mexico court. On Monday, Judge Matthew Wilson ruled that redacted police body camera video and other investigative materials, including images of the couple’s dead dog, could legally be released as long as all depictions of Hackman and Arakawa are censored. A New Mexico law blocks public access to sensitive images, such as images of dead bodies, according to AP.
Hackman and Arakawa were found dead inside their Santa Fe home on February 26. He was 95 and she was 65.
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The couple were likely dead for over a week before being found. Officials estimated Arakawa, who died due to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), died around February 12 while Hackman likely died around February 18. Hackman’s official cause of death was hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributing factor.
Feaster wanted to ensure that not only photos of the body but also Hackman and Arakawa’s home and deceased dog remain unreleased. (Zinna, one of the couple’s three dogs, was found dead in a crate and likely died due to dehydration and starvation.)
“I believe a parent’s right to choose how to care for a child during their life should reasonably extend to a parent’s decision in dealing with a child’s death,” Feaster said. “This right should extend to protect against the release of the autopsy photos and autopsy reports of my daughter. This right should extend to permit me to control the physical remains of my daughter, her memory, and images of her deceased body; including, but not limited to, images demonstrating how my daughter was residing during her final days.”
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Attorneys for the Hackman family estate also hope to block the eventual release of autopsy reports and death investigation reports by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. Typically, such files are considered public records. An attorney for the estate, Kurt Sommer, argued that because they were so private in their life, they should be granted the same privacy in death.
