Attorney says he has new evidence in Coronado mansion suicide case
CORONADO (KUSI) — The attorney in the case of the 32-year-old woman found naked and hanging from the second-story balcony of a Coronado mansion announced Tuesday he had new evidence that confirmed the death was not a suicide.
The attorney for Rebecca Zahau’s family — Keith Greer — claimed that further analysis of evidence proves she did not kill herself in her boyfriend’s mansion in 2011.
Early on the morning of July 13, 2011, Rebecca’s nude body was found hanging from a balcony railing at the 103-year-old Spreckels Mansion, which was owned by her multimillionaire boyfriend, pharmaceutical tycoon Jonah Shacknai. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her ankles had been bound as well, according to homicide investigators.
After a seven-week investigation, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and Medical Examiner’s Office agreed that all evidence in the case pointed to suicide, though one with some novel aspects. Zahau’s relatives refused to accept the ruling, saying she was a religious woman who viewed suicide a sin.
Authorities speculated that Zahau may have killed herself out of grief and guilt over the accidental death of Shacknai’s 6-year-old son, Max. Two days before her death, Max was mortally injured in a fall over a stairway railing in his father’s 27-room ocean-front manor while under her care.
Greer filed a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging that Adam Shacknai, the brother of Zahau’s boyfriend, killed her.
Related links
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Second autopsy set for woman found hanged at Spreckels mansion
