SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Oscar-winner Gene Hackman, his wife and one of their dogs were apparently dead for some time before a maintenance worker discovered their bodies at the couple’s home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, investigators said.

The bodies were found Wednesday. Denise Avila, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, said there was no indication they had been shot or had any wounds that would indicate foul play. But Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office detectives wrote in a search warrant affidavit investigators thought the deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”

Hackman, 95, was in an entryway, and his 65-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, was lying on her right side in the bathroom. A space heater was next to her head and may have fallen when she abruptly dropped to the floor, according to the affidavit.

The New Mexico Gas Co. tested the gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to the warrant. At the time, it didn’t find any signs of problems and the Fire Department found no signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning. A detective wrote that there were no obvious signs of a gas leak, but he noted that people exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide might not show signs of poisoning.

The sheriff’s office planned a Friday afternoon news conference to provide updates on the case.

The gruff but beloved Hackman was among the most accomplished actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.

“He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa,” his daughters and granddaughter said in a statement Thursday. “We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”

Worker found bodies of Hackman and his wife

According to the search warrant affidavit, a maintenance worker reported that the home’s front door was open when he arrived to do routine work Wednesday, and he called police after finding the bodies.

But in a 911 call, the maintenance worker said he was unable to get inside when the operator asked whether the people in the house were breathing.

“I have no idea,” the subdivision’s caretaker said. “I am not inside the house. It’s closed. It’s locked. I can’t go in. But I can see she’s laying down on the floor from the window.”

He and another worker later told authorities that they rarely saw the homeowners and their last contact with them had been about two weeks ago.

Hackman appeared to have fallen, a deputy observed. A cane was nearby.

A dead German shepherd was found in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, police said. Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said during an unrelated news conference Thursday that the dog was found in a kennel. Two healthy dogs were found on the property — one inside and one outside.

“There was no indication of a struggle,” Mendoza said. “There was no indication of anything that was missing from the home or disturbed, you know, that would be indication that there was a crime that had occurred.”

Results of autopsies conducted on both bodies are not available yet, sheriff’s officials said, noting that carbon monoxide and toxicology test results are pending.

The search warrant affidavit suggests that police appear to have a working theory that “some kind of gas poisoning” happened, but that they don’t know yet and aren’t ruling anything out, Loyola Marymount University law professor Laurie Levenson said.

“They don’t have clear evidence that it’s any type of homicide, but they’re asking for blunt instruments or other weapons that could be used,” said Levenson, who has no connection to the investigation. “It doesn’t also look like some kind of planned double-suicide.”

William & Mary Law School professor Jeffrey Bellin said the request for a search warrant was somewhat unusual because investigators who file one usually believe a specific crime was committed. In this case, no alleged crime was mentioned, Bellin said.

Police tend to overstate what they know, but this is the opposite, said Bellin, who also isn’t tied to the investigation.

“It just struck me as very careful in a way that search warrant affidavits often are not,” he said.

Actor known for his versatility

Hackman routinely showed up on Hollywood lists of greatest American actors of the 20th century. He could play virtually any kind of role, from comic book villain Lex Luthor in “Superman” to a coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite “Hoosiers.”

Hackman was a five-time Oscar nominee who won best actor in a leading role for “The French Connection” in 1972 and best actor in a supporting role for “Unforgiven” two decades later. His death comes just four days before this year’s ceremony.

Tributes quickly poured in from Hollywood.

“There was no finer actor than Gene,” actor-director Clint Eastwood, Hackman’s “Unforgiven” co-star, said in a statement. “Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much.”

Hackman and Arakawa settled in Santa Fe

Hackman met Arakawa, a classically trained pianist who grew up in Hawaii, when she was working part-time at a California gym in the mid-1980s. They soon moved in together and relocated to Santa Fe by the end of the decade.

Their Pueblo revival home, a style typical in the area, sits on a hill in a gated community with views of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The four-bedroom home on 6 acres (2.4 hectares) was built in 1997 and had an estimated market value of a little over $4 million, according to Santa Fe County property tax records.

Hackman and his wife also owned a more modest home next door.

Hackman co-wrote three novels, starting with the swashbuckler, “Wake of the Perdido Star,” with Daniel Lenihan in 1999, according to publisher Simon & Schuster. He then penned two by himself, concluding with “Pursuit” in 2013, about a female police officer on the tail of a predator.

In his first couple of decades in New Mexico, Hackman was often seen around the historic state capital, known as an artist enclave, tourism destination and retreat for celebrities.

He served on the board of trustees for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum from 1997-2004, the museum said in a statement.

Hackman’s later years

In recent years, he was far less visible, though even the most mundane outings caught the attention of the press. There were articles about him attending a show at a performing arts center in 2018, as well as pumping gas, doing yard work and getting a chicken sandwich at Wendy’s in 2023.

Aside from appearances at awards shows, he was rarely seen in the Hollywood social circuit and retired from acting about 20 years ago. His was the rare Hollywood retirement that actually lasted.

Hackman had three children from a previous marriage. He and Arakawa had no children together but were known for having German shepherds.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private company launched another lunar lander Wednesday, aiming to get closer to the moon’s south pole this time with a drone that will hop into a jet-black crater that never sees the sun.

Intuitive Machines’ lander, named Athena, caught a lift with SpaceX from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It’s taking a fast track to the moon — with a landing on March 6 — while hoping to avoid the fate of its predecessor, which tipped over at touchdown.

Never before have so many spacecraft angled for the moon’s surface all at once. Last month, U.S. and Japanese companies shared a rocket and separately launched landers toward Earth’s sidekick. Texas-based Firefly Aerospace should get there first this weekend after a big head start.

The two U.S. landers are carrying tens of millions of dollars’ worth of experiments for NASA as it prepares to return astronauts to the moon.

“It’s an amazing time. There’s so much energy,” NASA’s science mission chief Nicky Fox told The Associated Press a few hours ahead of the launch.

This isn’t Intuitive Machines’ first lunar rodeo. Last year, the Texas company made the first U.S. touchdown on the moon in more than 50 years. But an instrument that gauges distance did not work and the lander came down too hard and broke a leg, tipping onto its side.

Intuitive Machines said it has fixed the issue and dozens of others. A sideways landing like last time would prevent the drone and a pair of rovers from moving out. NASA’s drill also needs an upright landing to pierce beneath the lunar surface to gather soil samples for analysis.

“Certainly, we will be better this time than we were last time. But you never know what could happen,” said Trent Martin, senior vice president of space systems.

It’s an extraordinarily elite club. Only five countries have pulled off a lunar landing over the decades: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. The moon is littered with wreckage from many past failures.

The 15-foot (4.7-meter) Athena will target a landing 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the lunar south pole. Just a quarter-mile (400 meters) away is a permanently shadowed crater — the ultimate destination for the drone named Grace.

Named after the late computer programming pioneer Grace Hopper, the 3-foot (1-meter) drone will make three increasingly higher and longer test hops across the lunar surface using hydrazine fueled-thrusters for flight and cameras and lasers for navigation.

If those excursions go well, it will hop into the nearby pitch-black crater, an estimated 65 feet (20 meters) deep. Science instruments from Hungary and Germany will take measurements at the bottom while hunting for frozen water.

It will be the first up-close peek inside one of the many shadowed craters dotting both the north and south poles. Scientists suspect these craters are packed with tons of ice. If so, this ice could be transformed by future explorers into water to drink, air to breathe and even rocket fuel.

NASA is paying $62 million to Intuitive Machines to get its drill and other experiments to the moon. The company, in turn, sold space on the lander to others. It also opened up the Falcon rocket to ride-sharing.

Tagalongs included NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer satellite, which will fly separately to the moon over the next several months before entering lunar orbit to map the distribution of water below. Also catching a ride was a private spacecraft that will chase after an asteroid for a flyby, a precursor to asteroid mining.

LONDON (AP) — A new album called “Is This What We Want?” features a stellar list of more than 1,000 musicians — and the sound of silence.

With contributions from British artists including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Cat Stevens and Damon Albarn, the album was released Tuesday to protest proposed British changes to artificial intelligence laws that artists fear will erode their creative control.

The U.K. government is consulting on whether to let tech firms use copyrighted material to help train AI models unless the creators explicitly opt out.

Critics of the idea fear that will make it harder for artists to retain control of their work and will undermine Britain’s creative industries. Elton John and Paul McCartney are among those who have spoken out against the plan.

The protest album features “almost silence,” said composer and AI developer Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the album. The 12 tracks consist of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, “to symbolize what we expect will happen if the government’s proposals go through.”

“It’s a mix of artists that everyone’s heard of and, you know, and many musicians who are not household names,” he told The Associated Press. “And I think that’s really important because this issue is going to affect all of us.”

The titles of the 12 tracks spell out: “The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies.”

Profits will be donated to the musicians’ charity Help Musicians.

“The government’s proposal would hand the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies, for free, letting those companies exploit musicians’ work to outcompete them,” Newton-Rex said.

“It is a plan that would not only be disastrous for musicians, but that is totally unnecessary,” he said. “The U.K. can be leaders in AI without throwing our world-leading creative industries under the bus.”

Britain’s center-left Labour Party government says it wants to make the U.K. a world leader in AI. In December, it announced a consultation into how copyright law can “enable creators and right holders to exercise control over, and seek remuneration for, the use of their works for AI training” while also ensuring “AI developers have easy access to a broad range of high-quality creative content.” The consultation closes on Tuesday.

Publishers, artists’ organizations and media companies, including The Associated Press, have banded together as the Creative Rights in AI Coalition to oppose weakening copyright protections.

Several U.K. newspapers ran wraparounds over their front pages on Tuesday, criticizing the government consultation and saying: “Let’s protect the creative industries — it’s only fair.”

The British government said in a statement that it was “consulting on a new approach that protects the interests of both AI developers and right holders and delivers a solution which allows both to thrive.” It added that “no decisions have been taken.”