Gene Hackman’s body still hasn’t been claimed weeks after he was found dead at the Santa Fe property he shared with his wife Betsy Arakawa. Betsy was also found dead at the scene, believed to have been suffering from a rare hantavirus, while Gene succumbed to heart disease around a week later with advanced Alzheimer’s playing a significant role.

Their bodies were taken to the Office of the Medical Examiner in New Mexico, but both are still unclaimed. According to a list posted by the office on March 24th, both are “unclaimed decedents”. The list is updated every Monday and Friday – though today’s (March 28) hasn’t yet been posted. TMZ, however, states the arrangement is not entirely out of the ordinary, with a source from the medical examiner telling the US publication it could be “because the family are still making funeral arrangements”.

Gene had three adult children – Christopher, 65, Elizabeth, 62 and Leslie, 58 – who all stand to inherit his estate despite not being mentioned in his will. Gene left everything to Betsy, but as she died a week before him, has been rendered moot.

His $80million estate might now be subject to intestate succession laws, meaning Gene’s three kids might receive something after all. California attorney Tre Lovell told the BBC: “The estate will actually be probated in accordance with intestate succession laws, and the children would be lawfully next in line to inherit.”

Another twist in the tale came when footage revealed Betsy worried she was being followed by a stalker in the months leading up to her death. The 65-year-old told her hairstylist Christopher about two incidents in which she and her husband went for lunch only to discover the same man following them.

He told police: “She mentioned to me that there was a man that had parked outside of their gate and followed them. On two separate occasions. One occasion is when they went to White Rock. They went and had lunch there and the guy followed them from parked [outside of their gated community], followed them all the way to White Rock."

The man had a folder full of photos of the couple which he asked them to sign, and later offered them a bottle of wine which they refused.