Residents mourning Mr. Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, are consumed by the unusual circumstances surrounding their deaths and why they were not discovered sooner.

Gene Hackman had become “reclusive” with his health “slipping” in his final months, his friends and neighbors said over the weekend. The legendary actor—who was found dead in his New Mexico mansion on Wednesday along with his wife and a German Shepherd—had stopped riding his bike and was “home-bound,

Hackman’s longtime friend said that “in recent times” the two-time Oscar winner was “essentially kind of home-bound.”