New York, NY – The mysterious death of Rebecca Zahau at a California mansion in July continues to make headlines, as many question the assertion of authorities that she took her own life. On Wednesday, Jane Velez-Mitchell discussed Rebecca’s death on her HLN show and the actions of Rebecca’s billionaire boyfriend Jonah Shacknai.
“How and why would a beautiful woman – a beautiful woman with no history of mental illness strip naked, bind her own hands and feet in elaborate knots that sailors normally use and then hang herself?” Velez-MItchell pondered.
She added, “Investigators practically launched a public campaign to explain their ruling of suicide.”
Dylan Howard, senior executive editor of ‘Star’ magazine spoke to Velez-Mitchell about the matter saying, “…The San Diego Police Department are making noises that they are prepared to reopen this investigation in the event that new evidence is forthcoming… it’s interesting to note… they’re saying there is very little evidence to suggest this was anything beyond a suicide, as they initially concluded… we’ve also established at this time, a portrait of Jonah Shacknai, the billionaire businessman, the boyfriend of Rebecca Zahau, and his immediate actions in the aftermath of Rebecca being discovered at his mansion.”
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He continued, “What we’ve been able to establish is that Jonah Shacknai told… Rebecca’s sister’s husband that he immediately concluded that she had committed suicide. What’s more, he also hired a private investigator who went to collect, on the day Rebecca died, the couple’s dog from a dog daycare facility… it shows a level of inconsistency about his story. Because on the one hand, here he is hiring a private investigator, seemingly concerned about the suspicious nature of his girlfriend’s death, yet, at the same time immediately declaring it a suicide to her family.”
On July 13, Rebecca was found hanging nude from a balcony at the Coronado, Calif. Spreckels mansion, which is owned by her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. She had a red rope wrapped around her neck, was reportedly gagged with a t-shirt that was around the ligature and her hands and feet were bound.
Just days before, on July 11, Max Shacknai, 6, Jonah’s son, while in Rebecca’s care tripped and rolled over a balcony at the home and grabbed a chandelier as he fell.
Authorities speculate that Rebecca committed suicide after hearing a voice mail indicating Max was about to succumb to his injuries, which he did on July 16.
“…the medical examiner addressed all the questions people had after they said it was a suicide, and they offered explanations for each of these doubts,” Velez-Mitchell said of a statement released by the coroner Tuesday after officials conducted a news conference Friday deeming Rebecca’s death a suicide.
She noted that suicide is doubted by many who’ve read the autopsy because tape residue was found on both of Rebecca’s legs and she had several head injuries that created bruising on her scalp.
Attorney Ann Bremner, who’s representing Rebecca’s family also appeared on the show and said “…we’ve heard from experts all over… who say this doesn’t pass the smell test. I have been inundated with information, and experts have been hiring experts for the family, including Dr. Cyril Wecht, who said that it should at best be undetermined. Those blows to the top of her head. She’s bound, gagged, taped, she was bleeding.”
Bremner added, “…it would be great if they would reopen the case. That’s what we’ve been asking for… so it’s a great day if that’s going to happen, for the family and for me.”
Criminal defense attorney Roy Black chimed in on the matter, noting, “Four separate police agencies took a look into this case… everybody now has all kinds of opinions and theories about it. But there are certain incontrovertible facts that I think substantiate the fact that this is a suicide.’
Black continued, “Rebecca was a young woman who was considered to be a health nut, who aggressively worked out. She was pretty strong, pretty tough. In order to tie her hands behind her, tie her feet, put a rope around her neck and throw her over a balcony, you’d have to put up quite a fight with her to do that.. They took ten samples of DNA from the ropes around her feet, around her hands, on the bedside where the rope is tied. Numerous places. They only came back to her. Not a single flake from anybody else.
Black also mentioned the message investigators found painted in black on a bedroom door which read, “She Saved Him Can You Save Her,” saying, “The fingerprints, they’re on the door going into that room. They’re on the bedpost where the rope is tied. They’re on the paint tube, which she used to paint this message. Nobody else’s fingerprints are anywhere else… the balcony where she was on was extremely dirty, according to the police and the photographs that I looked at. Hers are the only footprints on there, showing in a V-type manner how she stood right behind the railing and then tipped herself over.”
Bremner responded to Black’s assertion and said, “…the fact is, she died on her back, the experts are saying. She probably was dead when she went over. She didn’t have a broken neck. There’s no fingerprints from the perpetrator because they probably wore gloves… She didn’t write that note. Her family says it’s not her handwriting. The fact that she had no depression, no suicidal ideation, no kind of psychiatric defect or issue before this… The family says no way she knew how to do slip knots, square knots, seafaring type of knots. And the footprints on the balcony… there’s two together, but then it’s just a partial kind of toe print right before the side…”
Black referenced reports that Rebecca had received a voice mail shortly before her death, which indicated Max was about to die from his injures, noting the news could have been so traumatic for her she decided to commit suicide.
“…there’s no phone message,” Bremner argued. “It’s erased… so there’s no evidence that she was told anything. There’s just nothing…. then the third party, she saved him, can you save her on the note?”
Bremner added, “…I believe in… thoroughness… they’re not done with the investigation. Seven short weeks and they say suicide… experts didn’t look at anything else in terms of any other possibilities. They didn’t even check her footprints against her own foot. They didn’t look at other people’s fingerprints… I mean this is just something that needs to be completed… maybe they conclude at the end of the day, it’s a suicide. I don’t think they will.”
