Following a First Judicial District Court ruling, Santa Fe County revealed redacted records linked to Hackman and Arakawa’s killings about two months after their bodies were discovered.

The decision was issued in response to public and media demands for information under New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act. County Manager Gregory S. Shaffer indicated that the County sought court direction to strike a balance between the family’s right to privacy and its legal obligations.

Sheriff Adan Mendoza also underlined the need of maintaining public transparency while also respecting the family’s dignity. The redacted content contained body photos and sensitive footage.

Other files, including environmental assessments and police body camera footage, were approved for publication. Among the first records reviewed were those describing the finding of the bodies within the house. Arakawa’s death was officially attributed to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a rare but often fatal infection caused by rat urine, droppings, or saliva. Health officials confirmed that the circumstances found in the property’s outbuildings were consistent with established viral transmission scenarios.

The condition, which can develop after inhaling airborne particles in rodent-infested confined places, explained the symptoms that Arakawa had been researching prior to her death. Hackman appeared to have experienced comparable symptoms of sickness.

Authorities investigated documents and determined that the virus was most likely contracted when she was on the site. The health department’s risk assessment determined that others who entered the house, including family members and emergency personnel, were not in danger. Zinna, the couple’s 12-year-old Kelpie mix discovered inside the closet container, died of malnutrition and dehydration, according to the necropsy report. Soon after some of these records became public, legal action was taken to prevent additional material from being released.

Following the release of the original records, Arakawa’s mother, Yoshie Feaster, filed a legal petition to prevent the disclosure of other materials, such as police body cam footage and autopsy images. She claimed that disclosing such information would create undue anguish and undermine her family’s right to grieve privately.

She claimed that her daughter and son-in-law cherished privacy and did not want their personal life made public. In her complaint, Feaster wrote, “I have a constitutional right to avoid seeing images of my daughter’s home, her dead body, her husband’s dead body, and their dog’s corpse.”

She also demanded that photographs of the couple’s living quarters, deceased bodies, and their dog’s body not be shared. Though police had already disclosed exterior evidence, including video recorded outside the home and talks with a groundskeeper and one of Hackman’s children, interior footage remained in question.

Motions for intervention were granted to media companies, including CBS and the Associated Press, in support of increased public access. The court determined that while redacted records might be shared, photos of the remains had to remain sealed.

In mid-April 2025, weeks after Feaster’s filing, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office released an 11-minute body cam video from inside the home. The footage obscured Arakawa’s figure and showed products on the bathroom counter. Around the same time, close family members of the departed couple gathered to bid their final farewells.