Adan Mendoza, Sante Fe County Sheriff; Betsy Arakawa and Gene Hackman. Photo:

NBC; Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

A prescription pill bottle that was found near the body of Gene Hackman’s wife Betsy Arakawa is “very important evidence” when it comes to investigating the couple’s deaths, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza has said.

In a Friday, Feb. 28 interview with the Today show’s Savannah Guthrie, the officer — who is leading the investigation — was asked about the medication, first mentioned in an affidavit for a search warrant previously obtained by PEOPLE.

Noting that the sheriff might not be at liberty to say what the prescription was due to medical privacy, Guthrie wondered if Mendoza believed “it may be possible that that prescription could be related in any way to the deaths that we’ve seen here?”

“That’s obviously very important evidence at the scene,” Mendoza said in response about the medication, which was found left open with pills scattered near Arakawa’s body. “That information was collected, that information was passed to the office of the medical investigator to help them make a determination. So we’re looking at that specifically and other medications that were possibly in the residence. So that is something of concern.”

When asked what the timeline might be regarding a toxicology report, Mendoza replied, “Based on my experience, a toxicology report could take some time, it could take up to three months or even possibly longer.” 

“It just depends how busy the laboratory is. But we’re hoping it comes sooner than later so we can answer some of these questions and hopefully it’ll help us in our investigation to help determine the matter and cause of death,” he added.

Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa. Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

According to the affidavit, Hackman’s body was reportedly discovered in a different room of the couple’s residence than where Arakawa’s was found.

She was lying on her side in a bathroom, with a space heater near her body, per the affidavit. A deceased German Shepherd was found about 10-15 feet from Arakawa, while two other healthy dogs were also found on the property.

The two may have been dead for a while, police said. Arakawa’s body “was in a state of decomposition with bloating in her face and mummification in her hands and feet,” while Hackman showed similarly “obvious signs of death.”

He was “fully clothed” with his sunglasses found near his body, indicating that he may have fallen down.

Betsy Arakawa and Gene Hackman. Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty

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A spokesperson from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office previously told PEOPLE that foul play was not suspected and the couple’s causes of death had yet to be determined. Neither firefighters nor the local gas company observed any obvious signs of a gas leak, despite previous speculation.

Still, Mendoza told Today that while he’s “pretty confident there’s no fowl play just based on the lack of evidence of fowl play,” police are “of course are not ruling that out.”

“The autopsy results, the official results, are going to help steer us in the right direction. That could change and we’re not ruling that out,” he said. “This is an open investigation, it’s a couple of days old, so we’re putting together the timeline and we’re trying to look at all the evidence.”

He added: “The autopsy is key. That’s going to take some time, so I hope a little bit of patience on the family’s part, on everybody’s part, so we can have some answers into these deaths.”