SAN DIEGO — The family of a woman who was found hanged at a California mansion has filed a $10 million lawsuit claiming she was murdered.
The suit was filed Friday in federal court by the family of 32-year-old Rebecca Zahau and seeks general and punitive damages. Zahau’s body was found at a Coronado mansion in July 2011 and her death was ruled a suicide.
But Zahau’s family always believed her death was suspicious. The lawsuit alleges that Adam Shacknai and Dina Shacknai, the brother and former wife of Zahua’s boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai; and Dina’s twin sister, Nina Romano, were responsible for the woman’s death.
The lawsuit doesn’t provide specific evidence against the three, but alleges that they killed Zahau at the mansion of her billionaire boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. He was not named in the lawsuit.
No criminal charges were filed.
Attempts to reach Adam Shacknai, Dina Shacknai, and Nina Romano on Sunday were unsuccessful.
Authorities said Zahau killed herself because she was distraught over a fatal fall that Shacknai’s 6-year-old son suffered at the house two days earlier. His death was ruled accidental.
Adam Shacknai was staying in a guesthouse at his brother’s mansion at the time of Zahau’s death. Dina Shacknai was staying in a vacation home a few blocks away, and Nina Romano had flown in from Sacramento to be with her sister.
Adam Shacknai told police he found the nude body of Zahau hanging by a rope from a second-story balcony.
Related:
"Investigators believe Zahau tied rope to bedposts and around her wrists and ankles. The suspect she loosely tied her wrists together in front of her before slipping one hand out, putting her hands behind her back and reinserting her wrist into the loop of rope. They said Zahau's DNA was found on a knife, rope and bedposts, along with her footprints on a dusty balcony. Zahau's family immediately questioned the findings disclosed Sept. 2 that included a video reenactment of how they think she bound her wrists. Shacknai acknowledged in his letter that the circumstances of Zahau's death were "undeniably strange.""
I no longer believe in "suicides" as reported by my paper.
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Reminds me of the Mun murder, and they got off on that, too.
Related:
"Twice-divorced millionaire 'planned to propose' to girlfriend found hanging naked at mansion
* Jonah Shacknai 'wanted to spend the rest of his life' with Rebecca Nalepa
* Miss Nalepa's personal trainer says she was 'strong enough' to carry out the bizarre suicide
* Friend says tycoon is 'absolutely inconsolable' after death of Miss Nalepa and six-year-old son
by Fiona Roberts
21 July 2011
Pharmaceutical tycoon Jonah Shacknai had planned to propose to his beautiful girlfriend, who was found hanging naked from a second-floor balcony at his historic California mansion.
A friend has revealed the millionaire wanted to 'spend the rest of his life' with Rebecca Nalepa, who died two days after Mr Shacknai's six-year-old son Max was fatally injured when he fell down the stairs.
The news came a day after police revealed Mr Shacknai, who has been married twice before, had a stormy and violent relationship with his ex-wife, Max's mother Dina.
They repeatedly accused each other of physical and verbal abuse as their marriage broke down, and three times the fights became so violent they called police.
Hmmmm.
Their six-year-old son died in hospital on Sunday, almost a week after he fell down the stairs while in Miss Nalepa's care.
Last Wednesday she was found dead, hanging naked from a second-floor balcony with her hands and feet bound with orange electrical cord.
San Diego police are still investigating the case, amid mounting speculation 32-year-old Miss Nalepa committed suicide out of grief for Max's death.
She had been dating Mr Shacknai for two years, and last December quit her job as an ophthalmic technician to devote herself to him and his three children at his historic Spreckels mansion in the affluent Coronado suburb of San Diego.
The 32-year-old had recently finalised her own divorce, and in May officially filed to revert back to her maiden name, Zahau.
A friend close to Mr Shacknai told Radar: 'It was a very serious relationship. There was a lot of love there.
Jonah had every intention of proposing to Rebecca. Jonah wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.'
Her sister, Mary Zahau-Loehner, has vehemently denied that her sister committed suicide, telling ABC: 'Rebecca was a beautiful, vibrant, loving and kind person and she would never do this to herself.'
Today Reed Holman, a personal trainer at Miss Nalepa's gym, echoed her words, saying: 'She had everything to live for, she was young, fit and really beautiful.'
But Mr Holman also speculated she might have been strong enough to carry out the bizarre suicide....
Homicide Sergeant Roy Frank said police have now searched the house twice as they try to work out what happened to Miss Nalepa.
He told The Arizona Republic: 'There are five possibilities in her death, and we know it wasn't natural or accidental.
'We don't want to say "undetermined" so that leaves homicide or suicide. We want to be very sure which one it was.'
Police are also investigating reports that a loud party was held at the house the night after Max's fall, and just hours before Miss Nalepa died.
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Related: Was a PARTY held at millionaire's mansion the night after his six-year-old son was fatally injured in fall... and just hours before girlfriend was found hanging naked?
"Jonah Shacknai said he hoped the review would give "confidence, comfort and resolution" to those questioning whether Rebecca Zahau committed suicide July 13 at his Coronado mansion near San Diego. Shacknai, 54, said he had no reason to doubt findings by authorities in San Diego County that his 32-year-old girlfriend killed herself two days after Shacknai's 6-year-old son accidentally fell while under her watch and died days later."
Oh, I SMELL a COVER-UP!
Max Shacknai, Son Of Millionaire Jonah Shacknai, Was Likely Murdered: Report
What Really Happened in Coronado
Rebecca Zahau homicide
Rebecca Zahau’s Murder Solved: Fact or Fiction?
Jews literally get away with murder in this country with it's two-tiered "jewdicial" system.
Case Summary:
Rebecca Mawii Zahau, 32, was discovered dead on July 13, 2011, at the historic Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California, owned by her live-in boyfriend, Medicis Pharmaceutical CEO, Jonah Shacknai.
Zahau's death occurred two days after Shacknai's six-year-old son Max took a fatal fall from a staircase banister in the same mansion. San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore announced on September 2, 2011, that Zahau's death was a suicide while the younger Shacknai's was an accident, and that neither was the result of foul play. Members of Zahau's family dispute the contention that her death was suicide.
Rebecca Zahau was born on March 15, 1979 in the town of Falam in northwestern Burma. She moved to Nepal and then Germany. She moved to the United States about 10 years before her death. Her parents and most family members live in Saint Joseph, Missouri.
She had an older sister, Mary Zahau-Loehner, a younger sister, Snowem
Horwath, who lives in Germany, and a teenage sister, Xena Zahau, among
other siblings.
She was married to Neil Nalepa of Scottsdale, Arizona, but their
marriage ended by divorce in February 2011, and in May 2011 she returned
to using her maiden name Zahau.
In 2008, she began dating the previously twice married bachelor,
50-year-old Jonah Shacknai, while still married to Neil Nalepa.
In 2011, Shacknai and Rebecca moved into an historic mansion in
Coronado, California that had been built in 1908 by John D. Spreckel.
The 13,000 square-foot dwelling featured 27 rooms and a guest house.
Shacknai has since sold the historic mansion to "an unidentified group of investors at an undisclosed sale price.
Max Shacknai’s Death:
On July 11, 2011, Zahau and Max Shacknai were at the Spreckels Mansion along with Zahau's visiting teenage sister, Xena, when Jonah’s son Max fell over a second-floor banister. There was speculation that he may have tripped over a ball or the dog. He fell head-first, suffering injuries to his spinal cord and facial bones, the former of which affected his heart rate and breathing.
Next to his body lay the large chandelier that had hung from the ceiling
not far from where the boy had fallen. Investigators with the Coronado
Police Department assumed the boy had grabbed the chandelier to break
his fall.
Zahau said she was in the bathroom at the time; she found Max moments later, her younger sister had called 911.
Max was not breathing and unresponsive, and was taken to Rady Children's Hospital.
Max died on July 16 due to brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation resulting from his injuries.
On July 26, investigators ruled the boy’s death as an accident. However,
a trauma doctor who examined Max prior to his death and autopsy stated
to police that he did not believe Max's visible injuries from his fall
were consistent with the cardiac arrest and brain swelling experienced
by him, and suggested that Max may have suffocated prior to his fall.
Rebecca Zahau’s Death:
On July 12, the day before her death, Zahau went to the airport to drop off her 13-year old sister, Xena, for her flight back to Missouri, and then picked up Shacknai's brother Adam Shacknai, who had just arrived on a flight from Memphis.
Zahau and Adam Shacknai ate dinner with Jonah Shacknai and his friend
Howard that evening, and then returned to the mansion. Adam Shacknai
stayed at the mansion that night in a guest house on the property.
There were reports of loud music coming from the mansion that evening.
Jonah Shacknai was supposedly keeping a vigil at Max's bedside with
Max's mother Dina Romano; he would leave the hospital to recuperate at a
nearby Ronald McDonald House.
Adam Shacknai stated that he found Zahau nude, hanging from a
balcony, with her wrists and ankles bound, at roughly 6:45 AM on the
morning of July 13.
He called 911 at 6:48 AM, and then sent a text message to his brother to inform him of the news.
He cut the body down and placed her on a grass lawn prior to the arrival of police.
Zahau was gagged with a blue, long sleeve T-shirt wrapped around her
head with the sleeves double knotted and stuffed into her mouth. There
was also what appeared to be tape residue on her legs.
On a bedroom door not far from where the rope used for the hanging was
anchored, someone in cursive writing using black paint, had written:
"She saved him you can save her."
Medics attempted to revive her, but pronounced her dead at the scene.
The police initiated forensic and toxicology testing on her body as part
of an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
Dr. Jonathan Lucas, the San Diego County Medical Examiner, performed the
autopsy. He found four hemorrhages under Zahau's scalp (but no
lacerations), and evidence of tape residue on her legs. The forensic
pathologist found traces of blood on her legs as well.
Investigators indicated that DNA evidence at the scene pointed to Zahau.
On September 2, 2011, San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore, amid rampant
speculation of foul play, announced that Rebecca Zahau's death was a
suicide. Distraught over Max Shacknai's accident on her watch, she had
hanged herself. The sheriff's office closed the case.
The scenario involving Rebecca Zahau is unique insofar as no woman had
ever taken off her clothes, gagged her mouth, bound her own hands and
ankles without any assistance, then hanged herself. According to the
police theory she would have to have hopped out onto a balcony, while
bound, and then somehow maneuvered herself up and over a railing that
surrounded the balcony.
Late in July, San Diego Sheriff's Office Sergeant Roy Frank said this to
a reporter: "There are documentations of incidents throughout the
country where people have secured their feet and hands to commit
suicide. They do it to make certain they can't escape if they change
their minds."
While that may be true, the fact remains that no woman has ever hung
herself naked, in full public display outdoors, while bound and gagged.
The medical examiner, Dr. Jonathan Lucas, in response to a mounting
criticism in the press regarding his manner of death ruling, indicated
that Rebecca may have struck her head on the balcony on the way down. In
addressing the blood on Zahau's legs, the forensic pathologist
identified the cause as either a menstrual period, or an intrauterine
device. The medical examiner offered no explanation for the presence of
the tape residue.
Dr. Maurice Godwin, a private forensic consultant from Fayetteville, North Carolina with a Ph.D in criminal psychology, told a reporter that Zahau's death had all the earmarks of a "ritualistic killing," and that the suicide had been staged. In Dr. Godwin's opinion, someone had dazed Zahau with a blow to the head, then tossed her off the balcony.
Dr. Lawrence Kobilnsky, stated that the medical examiner's suicide manner of death determination was "premature." Dr. Kobilnsky said he believes that someone had delivered a substantial blow to Zahau's head. The forensic scientist said, "The chances of bumping into the railing, going over the balcony and hitting your head four times is highly unlikely."
Dr. Werner Spitz, said he thought the San Diego medical examiner's manner of death ruling in the case made sense.
People close to Zahau expressed doubt that she would have committed suicide. Zahau's elder sister said in an interview that "I still believe my sister didn't take her life", and in a written statement on behalf of the family wrote that "Rebecca valued her life and lived her life to its fullest. Rebecca loved God, her family and life."
Her younger sister commented more strongly by e-mail, "Becky did not
commit suicide. My sister was murdered." Her former trainer also stated
that "She was always happy [and] always smiling when she came in. I
didn't see a problem or anything like that."
Family members disputed police characterizations of Zahau as depressed, describing her instead that as a happy person.
On September 7, the family launched a website JusticeForRebecca.org
seeking donations to fund their own investigation into Zahau's death.
The site states: "It was obvious that the Sheriff’s Department had
worked too hard to paint this picture of suicide and they were not about
to let the Zahau’s ruin it."
Rebecca Zahau's family hired Seattle lawyer, Anne Bremner, to represent
their interests in the case, and to pressure the San Diego Sheriff's
Office to re-open the investigation of Zahau's death. The district
attorney's office, and the attorney general, declined.
Bremner expressed derision at the medical examiner's conclusions,
stating ""This would be the first case in the history of the world that a
woman killed herself like this ... It's ridiculous on the face of it."
Dan K. Webb of Winston & Strawn LLP, a lawyer for Shacknai, alleges
that other statements of Bremner's imply that Shacknai used his wealth
and profile to improperly influence the probe into Zahau's death. He
sent a cease and desist letter to Bremner warning her that certain
statements of hers constituted defamation, as well as being "highly
insensitive on a human level" and contributing to "the harsh and unkind
glare of a national media frenzy."
Shacknai also hired public relations firm Sitrick and Company to represent him the week after Zahau's death.
In response to media inquiries, a Sitrick and Company employee stated
that Shacknai had hired the firm to handle his large volume of incoming
calls in the days after the deaths, to give him time to grieve and make
arrangements for the funerals.
On November 15, 2011, Dr. Cyril Wecht, the celebrity forensic pathologist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, appeared on the "Dr. Phil" television show to voice his professional opinion regarding the cause and manner of Rebecca Zahau's strange and sudden death.
(See the YouTube links at the end for a replay of those shows.)
Dr. Wecht, at the behest of attorney Anne Bremner, had performed a
second autopsy of the victim's exhumed body. While he found Dr. Lucas'
initial autopsy thorough, Dr. Wecht questioned the medical examiner's
suicide manner of death determination. Wecht said the four hemorrhages
beneath the scalp could have not have been caused by hanging. "You have
to have blunt force trauma for that," he said. "You have something of a
rounded, smooth surface that impacts against the scalp, this not
producing a laceration." According to Dr. Wecht, Zahau could have been
knocked unconscious, which would explain why her body did not have any
defense wounds from a struggle. The former coroner of Allegheny County
agreed that the woman had died from hanging, but believes her manner of
death should be changed from "suicide" to "undetermined."
Dina Shacknai, Max Shacknai's mother, in order to acquire the boy's autopsy photographs, filed a suit against the San Diego Medical Examiner's Office on April 12, 2012. Dina and her supporters were looking for proof that someone had murdered the 6-year-old boy. They did not believe the wounds on his head had been caused by the fall. (It's not clear if they suspect Rebecca or her sister Xena, or what motive they assign to the homicide.)
On July 16, 2012, the one-year anniversary of Max Shacknai's death, Dina Shacknai and her attorney, Angela Hallier, held a press conference in Phoenix. According to the lawyer, the family possessed information from "privately retained experts" that proves the 6-year-old had been murdered at the Coronado mansion.
On August 6, 2012, a spokesperson for the Coronado Police Department confirmed they had met with Dina Shacknai and her attorney regarding Max Shacknai's death. Police investigators had agreed to read the report containing the opinions of forensic scientists who believe the boy could have been murdered. One of those experts, Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist with the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office, reportedly believes that Max was too small to have gone over the balcony railing. Moreover, she believes his head injuries are not consistent with a fall.
On September 10, 2012, a spokesperson for the Coronado police announced there would be no reinvestigation of 6-year-old Max Shacknai's death. Investigators believe that the boy tripped while running, grabbed a chandelier, hit his back on the banister, and fell to his death.
Further Information:
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