Was Rebecca Zahau Murdered At Spreckles Mansion?

32-year-old Rebecca Mawii Zahau lived at the Spreckles Mansion. 

The mansion had a beautiful view of the beach and fresh sea air. It is located on the sleepy Coronodo Island in the San Diego County of California. 

Rebecca shared the mansion with her boyfriend, pharmaceutical multimillionaire Jonah Shacknai.

On July 13th, 2011, Rebecca was found hanging from a balcony overlooking the courtyard. She was nude, her wrists and ankles were bound, her mouth gagged with a shirt.

In the bedroom, a cryptic message was scrawled in black paint: "She saved him, can you save her?"

Rebecca's name means spring time beauty. 

She was kind and had warm personality that would just light up a room. She could make you laugh even on your worst day. And she would take the clothes off her back if she thought you needed it. Rebecca would be there if you needed her. She was funny, upbeat and very intelligent. She spoke English, Nepali, and Hindi. She loved to work and had an amazing worth ethic. 

Rebecca was committed to her family, and helped provide for her parents financially on a regular basis. It was important to her that her parents were able to live comfortable. She didn't want them to be worried about their meal for the next day. 

She also hated the cold and was quite disciplined when it came to eating healthy. Rebecca didn't drink alcohol, didn't smoke, never did drugs and never ate fast food. 

Rebecca was athletic and could run like a gazelle. She ran the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon without even training for it. 

Her religion was also important to her, but she stopped going to church because Jonah didn’t go. Her family was raised Christian and that’s how Rebecca identified as an adult. Before her death she was thinking about finding a new place to worship.

Rebecca wanted to be an ophthalmology technician because she enjoyed correcting visions and the end result.

Rebecca was born March 15th, 1979 in Falam, Chin State, a town in the Chin Hills in northwestern Burma, to her father Khua Hnin Thang and mother Zung Tin Par. Her grandfather was chief of the Zahau tribe. Both her grandfather and her father, now known as Robert Zahau, were freedom fighters, opposed to the military regime's systematic ethnic cleansing through forced labor, forced migration, rape, and religious persecution. Her father was a political prisoner and absent for six years.

Rebecca's parents wanted to give their kids a better future, so when she was three years old the family moved to Katmandu, Nepal.  Their father was granted political asylum in Germany, and the family moved to a town about two hours from Frankfurt. Rebecca graduated from high school in Germany and attended Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe, in Millstatt, Austria. There, she met Neil Nalepa, an American from New York. Their engagement enabled her to immigrate to the U.S., and they were married in Nalepa's uncle's garden on Long Island.

Rebecca trained for and became a licensed eye technician, able to assist in cataract and Lasik surgery. The couple moved briefly to Colorado Springs. Around 2007, after a stop in Temecula, Calif., near San Diego, where Nalepa was working as a carpenter, they settled in Phoenix, where he went to nursing school. But the marriage started to fall apart and they separated.

In early 2009, Rebecca left a local Macy's with $1,000 worth of jewelry in several different shopping bags. She claimed that she had been distracted by a shocking phone call. She got off with a slap on the wrist, paying nearly $500 in court costs and attending a shoplifting-diversion course. 

Rebecca then began dating Jonah Shacknai. They met at the eye clinic where she worked when he went in for an eye checkup.

Jonah was born in 1957. He earned his BS from Colgate University and his JD from Georgetown University Law Center. From 1977 until the end of 1982 John worked as the Chief Aide to the committee on health policy in the US House of Representatives. He also served on the Commission on the Federal Drug Approval Process and the National Council on Drugs.

Jonah served on two federal cabinet-appointed positions; he was a member of the National Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Advisory Council and on the US-Israel Science and Technology Commission.

He was a senior partner at the law firm Royer, Jonah and Mehle from 1982 until 1988. The firm represented multinational pharmaceutical companies, medical device makers and four major industry trade associations.

Jonah founded Medicis Pharmaceuticals in 1988 which is known for its acne products and cosmetic injectables. His position at Medicis made him the ninth-highest-paid CEO in Arizona, earning $6.4 million in 2010. 

He had two previous marriages. His first marriage to Kimberly James resulted in a divorce and a three-year custody fight over the couple's two children. 

He had a son, Maxfield Aaron "Max" Shacknai.

Max born on June 7th, 2005 to psychologist, Dina Romano in Paradise Valley, Maricopa County, Arizona. He was born with a smile on his face. His Hebrew name is "Mattan", the gift. Max was loving kind and had a vibrant spirit. He was a very unique little boy.

In 2007 Dina, Jonah and Max moved into the 10 bedroom Spreckles mansion that they had purchased for close to $13,000.

Jonah and Dina's relationship had been a turbulent one. There was at least three visits to the Shacknai home for domestic disputes: Dina claimed Jonah's German shepherd had attacked her repeatedly and that Jonah had elbowed her in the breast; Jonah claimed he'd been assaulted several times by Dina and that she had once tried to choke him.

Jonah told his friends that he was dating an Asian princess and that his relationship with Rebecca was the most tranquil he had ever known.

Rebecca quit her job an ophthalmic technician in December 2010. She put her life on hold to move to Coronado to be with Jonah and be a part of his life.

Jonah’s two teenage kids resented Rebecca, and it got to the point that Rebecca was considering ending their relationship or putting it on hold.

Even though two of Jonah's kids didn't seem to like Rebecca, Max loved her. The two were very close. Rebecca was often responsible for Max's care. She also often took him to and from soccer practice. He wanted her to read books, he wanted her to be the one that fixed his breakfast or his lunch. She actually took the time to play with him.

By early 2011, Rebecca had lost weight, seemed stressed, was not sleeping well and was not exercising. She expressed her concerns about her relationship with Jonah to a friend.

This brings us to July 11th, 2011. Max along with his father, sister Gabby and another sibling, stayed at the Speckles mansion for the summer. Rebecca, Max, and Rebecca's teenage sister were all home together. 

At some point during that day, Max fell face-first over a second-floor banister, suffering injuries to his spinal cord and facial bones, the former of which affected his heart rate and breathing. Rebecca said she was in the bathroom at the time; she found Max moments later, and Xena called 9-1-1. You can hear Rebecca frantically sobbing and talking in the background.

911: "911 Emergency. What are you reporting."
Xena: "Hello? My sister is trying to... resuscitate him." 
911: "Resuscitate who?"
Xena: "He fell down the stairs."
911: "He fell down the stairs?"

When police arrived, they found Max laying on the floor with  pieces of the chandelier around him and his scooter resting on his right shin. The chandelier was to his right shoulder and a soccer ball was to the far right corner. Rebecca was on her hands and knees hysterically crying Max's name over and over. Max was not breathing and unresponsive. Jonah arrived home and asked to go with Max as they loaded him into the ambulance. Max was taken to Rady Children's Hospital and put in a medically induced coma.

On July 12th, 2011, Rebecca dropped off Xena at the airport for her flight back to Missouri, and then picked up Jonah's brother, Adam, who had just arrived on a flight from Memphis, Tennessee.  Rebecca, Jonah, and Adam ate dinner with a friend named Howard that evening; Rebecca and Adam returned to the Spreckels Mansion, while Jonah reportedly kept a vigil at Max's bedside with his mother Dina Romano; he would leave the hospital to recuperate at a nearby Ronald McDonald House. There were reports of loud music coming from the Spreckels Mansion later that night.

Rebecca's sister Mary, who was in Missouri, talked to Rebecca on the phone at 9:50 p.m. Rebecca was upset and anxious because they were waiting for results of Max's CT scan the next day. Mary claimed that Rebecca didn't seem out of control and was going about her normal routine. She had two detailed plans for the next day: to take things for Jonah to the hospital, where he was tending to Max, to fix something for him to eat. She told her sister to tell their mom that she would call her on her way to the hospital in the morning. Rebecca also told her sister that she  was going to text her throughout the day. She even talked about where the family would do Thanksgiving that year.

Three hours later, on July 13th, at 12:50 a.m., Rebecca retrieved a voicemail message. Jonah said that he is the one that left the voicemail, informing her that Max's condition was worsening and that he wasn't likely to recover. Dina claimed that they had no bad news about Max's condition then.

Sometime around 6:45 a.m., Adam made a call to 9-1-1 that went something like this...

911: "911 emergency what are you reporting?"
Adam: "Ya...uh...i got a girl..hung herself...in the guest house...of uh...it's on Ocean Boulevard across from the hotel. Same place you cam and got the kid yesterday."
911: " Ok sir, is she still alive? Sir are you there?"
Adam: "Gasps, shudders. Are you alive? Doing CPR right now."
911: "Ok, let me get some fire department.. Sir hang on. Let me get the fire department on the phone to help you. Hang on just a minute."
Fire: "Ok, what's wrong?"
Adam: "She hung herself man! I just woke up."
Fire "What's the address?"
Adam: "1043 Ocean Boulevard."
Fire :"When as the last time you saw her?"
Adam: "Last night."
Fire:"Ok. Is she beyond help?"
Adam: " i'm doing... i'm compressing her chest right now."
Fire:"OK, hold on. What's your name?"
Adam: "Adam Shackani."
Fire: "Ok sir, is she still alive?"
Adam: "I don't know".
Fire: "Listen to me. Help is coming right now. Did you cut her down?"
Adam: "Yes i did."

Adam stated that he found Rebecca's nude body hanging from the balcony, with her wrists and ankles bound and her hands behind her back. He ran to her from the guest house and cut her body down before the police arrived. He also had sent Jonah, who was at the hospital, a text message to inform him what had happened. 

Jonah looked at the text from his brother and then stared at his son for a few minutes. He then got up to leave. Dina asked him what was so important. Jonah told her that Rebecca committed suicide. When Dina asked him why, Jonah said, "Asian honor." Jonah then ran out the door at about 7 a.m.

When police arrived at the mansion at 9:20 a.m. they found Rebecca lying on the ground in the courtyard with the shirt that covered her mouth still wrapped around her neck. She had no other significant visible injuries.

Police then entered the mansion and looked for evidence to help them find out what exactly happened. The rope that was thrown over the balcony, was tied to the leg of the bed. They found the cryptic message painted on the inside of the bedroom door. On the floor of the bedroom, there were two paint brushes, a tube of black paint and two knives. A third knife was on the ground outside.

Police also checked Rebecca's phone. The voicemail that Jonah had allegedly sent her had already been deleted and so no one but Rebecca ever heard it.

When Mary found out that Rebecca had died, she called Jonah and asked him what happened. Jonah said that it was his brother Adam who was the one home with Rebecca when she committed suicide. Mary then asked to speak to Adam. 

Mary told Adam "I need you to tell me exactly what happened."  

Adam replied, "It's not a good idea. i don't want to push somebody else over the edge."

On July 16th at 11:30 a.m., little more than a month after his 6th birthday, Max was declared dead. His sister, Gabby, had already posted the news on Facebook: "RIP Maxie. We'll miss your sweet smile and kind heart more than you'll ever know. I'll love you forever."

Three days after Max's funeral, Rebecca was laid to rest. Jonah was invited to sit with her family. 

On September 26th, 2011, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department finished its investigation on the deaths of Max and Rebecca. Max's death was ruled as an accident and Rebecca's was ruled as a suicide. 

Investigators believed that Max was riding his scooter on the second floor landing and maybe of tripped over the soccer ball or his dog. They theorized that he grabbed the chandelier on the way down.

Max's mom, Dina, hired private investigator Tara Schneider to investigate Max's death.

Officials said that Rebecca went to the only bedroom in the house with a balcony. They said that she tied a rope around her hands and feet and hung herself from the balcony. They said that they found her footprints on her balcony and her DNA on the rope and knife.

They also said that she was the one that wrote that message in black paint indicated by the black paint found on her hands and rope and the paint and paint brush in her room. 

The circumstances of Rebecca’s death led her family to adamantly claim foul play was involved. Rebecca's ex-husband Nalepa expressed similar doubts and claimed that that killing herself was something out of character for her to do. Friends and family went so far as to say they had never even heard her mention suicide in her entire life. Even Dina didn't think that Rebecca killed herself.

It is very rare, but there have been a few suicide deaths in which someone's hands were bound, but never with such complex and elaborate rope tying or hanging where a gag was involved in anyway. And people that attempt suicide or complete suicide don't bind their feet. Woman usually don't pick hanging to commit a suicide. In the United States, individuals from Asian decent have some of the lowest rates. Also, suicide is typically a very private and personal act. Rebecca did not die inside her home, she was also nude. The people that usually commit suicide while they are naked are those with severe mental disorders or are under the influence of very powerful drugs. Rebecca wasn't suffering from a mental disorder and she wasn't under the influence of anything. Toxicology reports showed that she had nothing in her system at the time of her death.

Suicide notes are not usually written in the third person like the one found at the scene of Rebecca's death. On the black tube of paint there was no DNA. There was a thumb print found on the lid of the tube, which belonged to Rebecca. The paint brush had no DNA and no fingerprints either. The both sides of the door that the note was written on had no DNA on that either.

Rebecca's prints that were found on one of the knives was on the blade, not the handle. It was as if someone had taken her hand and planted her fingerprints on it.

Rebecca's autopsy results revealed four instances of head trauma.  Experts theorized that she may have hit her head on the way down. However, forensic consultant Dr. Maurice Godwin expressed doubt, stating, "The chances of bumping into the railing, going over the balcony and hitting your head four times is highly unlikely."

The dirt on the balcony was not consistent with the garden dirt found on Rebecca's feet. Also, the footprints on the balcony were heel impressions by the doorway and right toe impressions by the railing. There was a sizable gab in between. There was also no DNA or fingerprints on the rail of the balcony. There was some male DNA found on one of the balcony doors, but it was such a low level that a profile could not be made.

Mark Rudoy was an attorney hired by Rebecca's family in the initial investigation into her death. He claimed that there is no way that Rebecca could have propelled herself over the balcony. He thinks that someone stronger than Rebecca over powered her and trapped her in that room. Rudoy believes that Rebecca then was manually strangled and then possibly already had her on the ground and then hoisted her up with a noose they tied around her neck.

A news station reenacted Rebecca's fall and found that the bed that Rebecca was tied to should have moved way more than it did. The bed at the crime scene moved mere inches and the bed at the reenactment moved 3 feet. During their reenactment they even used a heavier bed than the one that Rebecca had been tied to. 

Rebecca's family was frustrated and hired private investigator Paul Ciolino to take a look into Rebecca's death and into Jonah's brother Adam.

There was no DNA found on the knife that Adam said he used to cut Rebecca down with. Adams DNA was not found on the rope either. So if Adam did cut Rebecca down, how come there was none of his DNA found on either? There was a pair of black gardening gloves found at the mansion. The gloves were tested, but there was no identifiable DNA found. Also, the lawn furniture Adam had to stand on in order to reach Rebecca to cut her down only had three legs and hard to balance on. The ski ropes have metal fibers inside, so they are not really easy to severe. The ropes were tied in seafaring knots and Adam was a long time tugboat captain.

Adam allegedly never visited Max at the hospital. He also told authorities that he was watching porn when Rebecca killed herself. There was searches of Anime porn found on a computer in the mansion.

Police did perform a polygraph on Adam, but they said that the results were inconclusive.

Ciolino said that he went and talked to neighbors and some of them heard a woman scream and cry for help on the morning that Rebecca died. Some of the neighbors said that the police never interviewed them and some of them said that there interviews were discounted. One of those neighbors even called 9-1-1, but it wasn't investigated.

Rebecca's family decided to file a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against Jonah Shacknai's brother Adam. Rebecca's family attorney brought in handwriting expert, Mike Wakshull, to find out if the writing on the door matched Rebecca or someone else. Wakshull determined that the writing on the door matched Adam's handwriting. 

There is a police video showing how someone could have tied their own knots, but expert, Lindsay Philpot, was brought in by the family lawyer deemed that not to be the same knots that had been used on Rebecca. The expert said that the particular knot used to bind Rebecca's wrists was a Clove Hitch. That is a very complicated knot that someone can't just accidentally make. Also, even if Rebecca knew how to make that knot, it would have been pretty much impossible for her to make behind her back.

A second autopsy for Rebecca was ordered and she was exhumed. Dr. Cyril Wecht was hired by Rebecca's family to look at the original autopsy and then to reexamine her body. His finding were death to to asphyxiation. There were fractures of her hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage and the cricoid cartilage. Most of the time in suicidal hangings no fractures occur, the person usually loses consciousness too fast and doesn't have much motion to incur damage like that. The person usually dies from the pressure on the neck cutting off the blood supply. Fractures of the cricoid cartilage are usually found in manual strangulation.

In the original autopsy, there was adhesive material found on both of Rebecca's calves, indicative that tape had been applied. No tape was ever found.

Rebecca had four separate bruises on her scalp. Wecht said that there is no way she could have got those from propelling herself over the balcony. Wecht also said that this, along with the fractures, Rebecca being naked that she was murdered.

After the month long civil trial, the jury found Adam responsible for Rebecca's death and granted her family a $5 million judgment for loss of love and companionship as well as an additional $167,000 for the loss of financial support Rebecca would have provided her mother and siblings. 

In February 2019 Adam appealed the judgment with the defense arguing procedural errors and juror misconduct. Prior to final arguments being presented to the judge, Adam's insurance company and Rebecca's family reached a settlement of $600,000 resulting in the civil case being dismissed with prejudice, and vacating the original $5 million judgment.

Back in 2018, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department announced that they would "undertake a fresh review" of Rebecca's case.

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