"Both individuals tested negative for carbon monoxide," Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza shares at a Friday press conference

Gene Hackman 's pacemaker was last operational on Feb. 17, the Santa Fe County Sheriff said Friday afternoon, suggesting the Oscar-winning actor had been dead for nine days before he and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were discovered in their New Mexico home.

"I think the autopsy results, the official results, are going to help us steer us in the right direction," the sheriff said in an interview on Friday.

Authorities launched a probe into what they said were the "suspicious" deaths of Hackman, 95, and his classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, as questions swirl over how the beloved actor could have died.

Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa tested negative for carbon monoxide in the initial results of the toxicology report, leading officials to rule out the gas as a cause of Hackman and Arakawa’s death, Sheriff Adan Mendoza said in a press conference on Friday.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told reporters at a Friday afternoon press conference that Hackman’s pacemaker last recorded an event on Feb. 17, though that doesn’t mean the pacemaker was implicated in his death.

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