Post by Graveyardbride on May 25, 2015 7:18:04 GMT -5
Death in the Spreckels Mansion
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a woman found nude, bound and hanging at the Spreckels Mansion at 1043 Ocean Blvd. in Coronado, California, continues to move forward, this time with key audio evidence, according to Keith Greer, the family’s attorney.
On July 13, 2011, the nude body of Rebecca Zahau (above right), 32, was discovered dangling from a balcony at the famous home. Her death came two days after Max Shacknai (above left), the 6-year-old son of her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai, fell while under Zahau’s watch. Ultimately, after what officers claimed was a thorough investigation, homicide detectives concluded that Zahau had committed suicide.
For four years, Zahau’s family has fought to have the case looked at again because they believe Zahau’s death was murder, not suicide. In October 2014, a federal judge allowed the Zahau family to move forward with a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against Dina Romano Shacknai, Max’s mother; her twin sister, Nina Romano; and Adam Shacknai, Jonah Shacknai’s brother. The lawsuit alleges the three “actively participated in the planning, implementation, execution and subsequent concealment of the scheme” to kill Rebecca Zahau.
Keith Greer, the Zahau family attorney, told NBC 7 there is now a piece of evidence he thinks could be the key to this mysterious case: an audio recording of investigators interviewing a woman who was near the Spreckels Mansion before Zahau’s body was discovered. In the recording, the woman says she heard screaming coming from the mansion. “It was clear, it wasn’t a muffled or far off sound,” she told investigators, according to Greer.
“Give me an example of what you heard, if you were mimicking what you heard,” an investigator asked the woman on the audio recording. She went, ‘Ahh, ahh. Then she went help!’” the woman told the investigator. “It was more shocking evidence. How could you hear this, know this existed and still say this is a suicide that doesn't warrant further investigation?” Greer asked.
NBC 7 reached out to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department concerning the recording. Department spokesperson Jan Caldwell released the following statement: “This information had come to us during the investigation and we fully investigated it at the time. It did not have merit, however, as in any investigation, if anyone has new information, we will always accept and conduct followup. We stand by the medical examiner’s findings that this was a suicide.”
Dina Shacknai, who is listed in the wrongful death suit, also sent NBC 7 a statement in which she said: “Nina and I have recently started to receive the documents related to Rebecca’s death ... However, although there were at least seven DOJ agents involved at the scene, we still have no files from the Department of Justice, nor the Border Patrol agents (under the auspice of the Federal Department of Homeland Security), so we have yet to review the complete file. However, regardless of our lack of complete information, thus far, I could not comment on Mr. Greer’s statement as I was with my son Maxie at Rady’s Hospital in Pediatric Intensive Care, praying for his recovery and watching him fight for his life, trying to breathe on his own while on a ventilator.
“It would be impossible for me to hear any disturbances at Jonah’s home as I was with our son alone at a hospital miles away. As well, my sister Nina was with her son and our close friend, none of whom heard a disturbance as they were five blocks from Jonah’s house on Ocean Boulevard. My sister and I would again publicly like to extend, for the fourth time since 2012, our offer to share all of the information we have with the Zahau and ask that they reciprocate. Perhaps an exchange of accurate data could help both families find answers, healing, and resolution.”
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In 2009, Jonah Shacknai, an executive at Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. in Scottsdale, Arizona, purchased the Spreckels Mansion as a summer home. Shacknai, twice married and divorced, had been dating Rebecca Zahau (aka Rebecca Nalepa), a woman 22 years his junior, since 2008. Zahau, born in Myanmar (formerly Burma), had a less than stellar past. For one thing, she was still married to a nursing student she had wed in 2002, and in August 2009, she was arrested for shoplifting and pled guilty to stealing approximately $1,000 in jewelry frm Macy’s in Phoenix, Arizona. She did not obtain a divorce from her husband until February 2011, after she had been dating Shacknai for two years. Until she quit her job in December 2010, Zahau worked as an ophthalmic technician.
Dina, Nina Romano & Adam Shacknai
On Monday, June 11, 2011, 6-year-old Max Shacknai toppled over a staircase railing. Following an investigation, detectives surmised he may have tripped over Zahau’s dog, called “Ocean.” He hit the floor below face-first and suffered fractures and injuries to his spinal cord. The spinal cord injures affected his heart rate and breathing. Zahau claimed she was in the bathroom when the child fell, but found him moments later and Xena, her 13-year-old sister, called 911. The boy was unresponsive when EMTs arrived and he was transported to Rady Children’s Hospital. However, the child’s physician, Brad Peterson, M.D., was quoted in a search warrant saying suffocation may have occurred prior to the fall.
After Max was transported to the hospital, Zahau called a San Diego dog-boarding establishment and told Ted Greenburg, “I need someone to take care of my dog. There’s been an accident.” He also understood her to say her child was in a coma. The following day, he went to the Spreckels Mansion and picked up the Weimaraner. He later told investigators Zahau “wasn’t in distress or erratic, Just very subdued. She was quiet,” he said. “Almost eerily quiet.”
On July 12, Xena was scheduled to return to Missouri and Zahau drove her to the airport. Then she picked up Adam Shacknai, Jonah’s brother, who arrived on a flight from Memphis. She, Jonah, Adam and a friend had dinner that evening. Adam spent the night at the house and there were reports of loud music coming from the Spreckels Mansion. Jonah was said to be sitting at his son’s bedside along with his ex-wife, Dina Romano. At some time that evening, Jonah left the hospital to rest at a nearby Ronald McDonald House. Around 6:45 a.m. on July 13, Adam reported finding Zahau’s nude body hanging from a balcony with her wrists and ankles bound. He called 911 at 6:48, then texted his brother. He had already cut down the dangling corpse when police arrived.
Zahau was gagged with a blue, long-sleeved T-shirt that was double-knotted around her head with part of the garment stuffed into her mouth and there was tape residue on her legs. Her hands were tied behind her back with red rope. Of interest, investigators discovered a copy of Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft in her room which contains drawings of how to tie an individual’s hands behind his/her back using red cord during an initiation ritual. Medics were unable to revive the woman and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Just outside the second-story room, a cryptic message was written in black paint: “She saved him. Can you save her?” Following autopsy, Zahau’s body was shipped to St. Joseph, Missouri, for burial.
Three days after Zahau’s death, Max Shacknai died. The autopsy report concluded the child died as a result of an accidental fall. Reportedly, the child’s last word was “Ocean,” the name of Zahau’s dog, and investigators speculated that Max may have been riding his scooter in the hall when he ran into the dog and plunged over the railing.
The only DNA at the death scene was that of Zahau, herself, and on September 2, 2011, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department formally announced that Zahau had committed suicide. But the Zahau family insisted she was religious and would never have taken her own life. “All I know at this point is my sister didn’t commit suicide and I want justice for my sister,” said Mary Zahau-Loehner. She added that on the night before her death, Rebecca had called, saying she would call their mother en route to the hospital the following morning. “She gave me detailed information that … not a person who was trying to harm herself would ever do. You will never come across anyone in her life that would say she’s ever talked about suicide.” Family members also could not understand why Zahau had bound both her arms and feet with tape.
Investigators, however, discovered Zahau had apparently been so stressed a few months previous she had lost weight and concluded that when she checked her voice-mail and learned Max wasn’t expected to survive, she could not deal with the situation.
Coronado residents had mixed feelings concerning Rebecca Zahau’s death. Paul Mershon said he believed detectives did a thorough job, but one fact continued to bother him. “It just doesn’t make sense to me … a person would tie their hands behind their back and bind their feet and commit suicide in this fashion.” Others believed the death of the child she was supposed to have been watching could have caused her to commit suicide. “It makes sense to me for some reason,” said Denise Shorall.
Reed Holman, a personal trainer at the gym Zahau attended, told reporters, “She worked out, seemed fine, seemed happy,” and recalled that a few days prior to the incident, she had a positive attitude. Nonetheless, after learning investigators had determined Zahau committed suicide, Holman conceded, “Police say that’s what happened, I would agree with them.”
But another resident disagreed. “Ask any woman and they’ll say if they are going to kill themselves, they won’t be naked,” Joe Ditlerm insisted. Investigators countered by saying Zahau slept in the nude and could have bound her own hands and feet to prevent any “second thoughts.”
Even after law enforcement considered the case closed, Maribeth Stull, who lived two blocks from the Spreckels Mansion still wasn’t convinced. “It’s so ugly none of us want to talk about it,” she observed, “but it’s so morbid and fascinating you can’t help it. I think it’s going to linger for a long time.”
The Zahau family initially hired Anne Bremer, a high-profile Seattle attorney, to represent their interests and when the results of the autopsy report were released, Bremer was derisive concerning the medical examiner’s conclusions. “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. The family wants justice. The family does not believe it was a suicide. Rebecca had no history of suicidal tendencies, no psychological problems and no history of depression.”
In October 2011, Rebecca Zahau’s body was exhumed and a second autopsy performed by Dr. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist. The results of the examination – which were later revealed on The Doctor Phil Show – showed hemorrhages under Zahau’s scalp, tape residue and blood on her legs and that the tee-shirt had been partially stuffed into her mouth. “It cries out for an explanation,” Wecht exclaimed. “I would like to hear how there are four separate impacts on the top of the head from a vertical hanging. Those kinds of impacts could lead to a concussion and temporary unconsciousness. If the body had plummeted down, the cervical vertebrae would have been broken from the base of the skull.”
Dr. Wecht also expressed amazement at the bizarre manner in which Zahau was discovered. “How does someone go about binding their hands in a slip knot, binding their calves, putting a rope around their neck and then putting a shirt over the rope, binding it three times and then stuffing it in their mouth?” he asked. “Harry Houdini did it 70 years ago. I’ve yet to hear where she [Zahau] acquired this skill.” He also considered it highly unlikely that the woman would have stripped naked before killing herself. “In all of my autopsies, I can’t remember a case where a woman committed suicide nude and in an outdoor environment.” Because there were no defensive wounds on the body, Wecht surmised that Zahau may have been hit over the head and knocked unconsciousness with a smooth object, then manipulated into the suicide scenario. “That could well explain how you have Miss Zahau dead in this situation with no evidence of a physical struggle,” he related. He was of the opinion the investigation into Rebecca Zahau’s strange death should be reopened.
Nina Romano denies any involvement in Zahau’s death, but admits she questioned Zahau regarding her nephew’s fall. Initially, there were reports that Max Shacknai’s injuries were the result of a heart attack and Nina Romano recalled her conversation with Zahau: “I said, ‘He’s a six-year-old boy. He’s a healthy boy. He plays soccer. He plays sports. I don’t understand.’ And [Rebecca] just looked at me and she said, ‘I know.’ And I said, ‘Okay, well, where did he fall from? Did he fall from the first set of stairs, the little landing, the stairs going up, the top landing by the bedrooms, where did he fall from?’ She said twice, ‘He fell from the bedroom. He fell from the bedroom.’ And I looked at her and said, ‘How do you know that? I thought you didn’t see him.’ And there was no answer.”
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The 27-room Spreckels mansion was built in 1901 by sugar baron John D. Spreckels, owner of the Hotel del Coronado and three San Diego newspapers: the Call, the Union and the Evening Tribune. He died June 7, 1926, at the age of 68. Austin Adams, his biographer, called Spreckels “one of America’s few great Empire Builders who invested millions to turn a struggling, bankrupt village into the beautiful and cosmopolitan city San Diego is today.”
Following the deaths of his son and girlfriend, Jonah Shacknai had the house renovated from top to bottom, including a new roof, exterior paint, refurbished wood flooring and upgrades in several rooms. However, no changes were made to the balcony from which Zahau was found hanging. The initial asking price was $16.9 million, but the house was sold for $9 million.
Author: Graveyardbride.
Sources: Andie Adams, Danya Bacchus and Tom Jones, KNSD News, May 9, 2015; Christine Pelisek, The Daily Beast; The Los Angeles Times; ABC News, and Sotheby’s.
