Rebecca Zahau

Case background and investigation

Rebecca Zahau, 32, was found dead on the morning of July 13, 2011, at the Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California, the home of her boyfriend, pharmaceutical executive Jonah Shacknai. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, she was nude, her hands and feet were bound, a T-shirt was in her mouth, and she had been hanging from a balcony off a second-floor guest bedroom. A message in black paint was found on the bedroom door. ABC 10News reported that Jonah Shacknai's brother Adam, who was staying at the property, called 911 to report finding her.

Two days earlier, Jonah Shacknai's six-year-old son Max had been seriously injured in a fall at the house while Zahau was looking after him. The Union-Tribune reported that she was the only adult at home and tried to perform CPR. Max died of his injuries five days after the fall, according to 10News.

About two months after her death, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department announced that Zahau had died by suicide. The Union-Tribune reported that county authorities said no fingerprints, DNA or footprints belonging to anyone else indicated that she had been killed. Her family rejected the finding. According to Wikipedia's account, a second autopsy arranged by the family, performed by pathologist Cyril Wecht, reached a different conclusion from the official one.

The family brought a wrongful-death suit against Adam Shacknai. On April 4, 2018, a civil jury in San Diego found by 9-3 votes that he had touched Zahau with intent to harm and that this caused her death, and awarded about $5.17 million to her mother, Pari Zahau, NBC 7 San Diego reported. A civil verdict uses a lower standard of proof than a criminal trial. Adam Shacknai has consistently denied any involvement and has never been criminally charged.

After the verdict the sheriff's department had the case reviewed by personnel who had not worked on the original investigation, drawn from its major crimes, homicide and crime lab units, the medical examiner's office and Coronado police. In December 2018 Sheriff Bill Gore announced that the review had found no evidence that Zahau died at the hands of another and that the case would not be reopened, according to 10News.

In February 2019 the family settled with Adam Shacknai's insurer. The Union-Tribune reported that the judgment was vacated and the case dismissed, so that the verdict no longer has legal effect. Shacknai told NBC 7 that the settlement was $600,000 and was made without his involvement. The family later offered a $100,000 reward and sued for access to investigative records; NBC 7 reported in July 2022 that the records suit against the former sheriff had been dropped and that the family would ask the medical examiner to change the manner of death. The official ruling remains suicide.