Wife died at least a day later than originally thought

The authorities in New Mexico have recovered evidence that Betsy Arakawa, wife of late American actor Gene Hackman, died at least one day later than they had estimated.

- Julia Jacobs and Annie Aguiar

SANTA FE, New Mexico -

The New Mexico authorities initially believed Arakawa had likely died of a rare viral infection on Feb 11, the date she was last seen publicly and stopped returning e-mail correspondence.

But after analyzing Arakawa's cellphone, investigators learned the classical pianist had made three phone calls on the morning of Feb 12, Ms Denise Womack-Avila, a spokeswoman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, said on March 17.

She said that Arakawa had made the calls to concierge medical service Cloudberry Health.

Dr Josiah Child, the lead physician there, said in an interview that the clinic called Arakawa back that morning and scheduled an appointment for that afternoon.

He said Arakawa had reported feeling congested but that there were no signs of respiratory distress. She did not show up for her appointment that afternoon, he said.