Who is Dr. Josiah Child? Authorities change Gene Hackman’s wife’s death timeline after her doctor speaks out

Details surrounding Gene Hackman's wife's demise are being disputed by her doctor.

Gene Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered dead in their Santa Fe home in New Mexico on Wednesday, February 26. One of their dogs was also found dead in one of the bathrooms.

This Monday, Dr. Josiah Child, a Santa Fe doctor, alleged that Gene Hackman's wife called his clinic a day after police claimed she died on February 11. Child is a practicing doctor at Cloudberry Health in New Mexico.

“Mrs. Hackman didn’t die on February 11 because she called my clinic on February 12,” Child told the Daily Mail this week. “She’d called me a couple of weeks before her death to ask about getting an echocardiogram [heart scan] for her husband.”

Dr. Josiah Child earned his BA in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, after which he pursued his MD at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Post that, he worked at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine/Pediatrics before he began working at Brown University.

He held stints as the Chief Innovation Officer and Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Bristol Hospital and Stamford Hospital, and his accolades include Excellence in Research and Excellence in Clinical Ultrasound from the Yale New Haven Hospital, as well as a Research Grant for the Effect of Antidepressant Medications on Flow-Mediated Vascular Function in Women from the Ethel Donaghue Foundation.

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Everything we know about Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa's deaths so far:

Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa's remains were discovered by maintenance and security workers. While the former, a two-time Academy Award winner, was found not too far from the home's main entrance, his wife, a classical pianist, was found in the bathroom.

According to the New York Post, Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza and his team have since reviewed Dr. Josiah's claims and have altered their timeline of events accordingly.

“That would indicate to me that she was seeking medical advice or medical help and may have not been feeling well,” he said on Good Morning America.

Dr. Heather Jarrell, the chief medical examiner for the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, revealed in a press conference on March 7 that Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome on or around February 11.

As for Gene Hackman, his death was ruled a result of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, though according to Jarrell, Alzheimer's disease played a "significant contributory factor."

Good Morning America has since contacted Cloudberry Health, which confirmed that Arakawa had made a call to them to schedule an appointment for February 12, though it was unrelated to any respiratory problems.

“We can now confirm that Mrs. Hackman’s phone was utilized on the morning of February 12 to call a medical center in Santa Fe, Cloudberry Health,” the sheriff’s office told Today in a statement. “A total of three calls were made that morning, all to the medical center. One incoming call was made to Mrs. Hackman from the same medical center that afternoon that appeared as a missed call on Mrs. Hackman’s cellphone. This information was learned through investigation into the cellphone data contained on her phone,” the statement concluded.

In his statement, Child revealed that while Arakawa was "not a patient of his," one of his patients "recommended Cloudberry to her." However, two days ahead of their appointment, she called to cancel, claiming her husband wasn't feeling well.

"She made an appointment for herself for February 12. It was for something unrelated to anything respiratory," he said. "She called back on the morning of February 12 and spoke to one of our doctors who told her to come in that afternoon. We made her an appointment, but she never showed up," Child said. "She did not show any symptoms of respiratory distress. The appointment wasn't for anything related to hantavirus," he added. "We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply."

A report obtained by The Associated Press reveals that one of the pair's dogs, Zinna, succumbed to dehydration and starvation.

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At the time of writing, investigations into Gene Hackman and his wife's deaths remain ongoing. According to Newsweek, authorities are awaiting their cell phone call logs.