Gene Hackman, an actor, was by himself.

The two-time Academy Award winner skipped meals and didn’t make any calls.

According to medical experts, it’s possible that the 95-year-old, who was in advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease and in declining health, was unaware that his wife of over 30 years had passed away in the house where he lived.

According to experts who spoke to the BBC, if he did, he probably went through several phases of bereavement and confusion while attempting to rouse her before the illness distracted him or made him too overwhelmed to take action. This process probably repeated for days before he passed away as well.

According to New Mexico officials, Hackman died on February 18 from natural causes, while Betsy Arakawa, 65, died seven days earlier from a rare virus.

Following a welfare check by neighborhood security, the two—along with one of their dogs—were discovered dead in their Santa Fe home after their bodies were discovered on the ground through a window.

The grim discovery was initially deemed “suspicious enough” by authorities to initiate an investigation.

Their remains were found in a highly decomposed state. Arakawa was discovered in a restroom with pills all over the place. Hackman was discovered wearing sunglasses and a cane close to the kitchen. In a crate, one of their three dogs was discovered dead.

However, a police investigation revealed no evidence of foul play.

Rather, the case has illuminated the harsh facts of Alzheimer’s disease, which gradually deteriorates and kills brain cells, impairing memory and other critical mental processes.

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“It’s like he was living in a reel,” Catherine V. Piersol, an occupational therapist with decades of experience caring for people with dementia, told the BBC about Hackman’s possible experience of losing his wife repeatedly.

According to her, people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease, like the actor, are unable to look back at past events or look forward and take action. Instead, they live in the present.

He would probably be attempting to wake her up but failing. However, she explained, “[He] might have been sidetracked by one of the dogs or something in another room.”

He would then “live through it again” after he saw his wife on the ground once more, she said.

Authorities and the local medical examiner discussed the grim nature of the possibilities, even though no one knows how Hackman spent his final days alive.

New Mexico’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Heather Jarrell, stated at a press conference last week that Arakawa passed away from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a respiratory disease brought on by contact with infected rodents. Alzheimer’s disease played a role in Hackman’s death, which was caused by severe heart disease.

Dr. Jarrell stated that it is “quite possible that he was not aware that she [his wife] was deceased” due to Hackman’s advanced stages of Alzheimer’s.

Although he did not exhibit any symptoms of dehydration, his autopsy revealed that he had not eaten recently. Authorities were unable to assess whether he was capable of taking care of himself and discovered no proof that he had contacted anyone following the death of his wife.

According to Ms. Piersol, people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease have trouble recognizing environmental cues like light and dark, which makes it difficult for them to know when it’s time to eat, sleep, or take a shower.

“Those [cues] are oftentimes just, no longer available to people at this stage of dementia,” she stated.