Rebecca Zahau’s Death: Autopsy, Lawsuit, and Settlement

Rebecca Zahau’s death at the Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California, on July 13, 2011, was officially ruled a suicide by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, but a civil jury later found her boyfriend’s brother liable for her wrongful death, and her family has spent more than a decade pushing for the case to be reopened. She was 32. Her body was discovered hanging nude from a second-story balcony, hands tied behind her back, ankles bound, and a T-shirt wrapped around her neck and partially in her mouth.

What Happened at the Spreckels Mansion

Zahau was the girlfriend of Jonah Shacknai, a pharmaceutical executive who founded Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation.¹²³

On July 11, 2011, Shacknai’s six-year-old son Max fell from a railing in the mansion’s front stairwell while in Zahau’s care. He struck the floor face-first, fractured his forehead, and was hospitalized with a severe brain injury. He died days later. Coronado police ruled his fall an accident, and the department has maintained that ruling despite a private pathologist hired by Max’s mother later calling it “inaccurate.”⁴

Two days after Max’s fall, Zahau was found dead. Jonah Shacknai’s brother, Adam Shacknai, had flown in from Tennessee after hearing about Max and was staying in the mansion’s guest house. He was the only other person on the property that night. Adam Shacknai reported discovering Zahau’s body, cutting her down, and calling 911.⁵

The Scene and Autopsy Findings

The physical scene was unusual by any measure. Zahau’s nude body hung from a rope tied to the second-story balcony. Her hands were bound behind her back, her feet were tied, and a long-sleeve cotton T-shirt was wrapped three times around her neck and partially stuffed into her mouth. San Diego Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Lucas said the shirt was loose and “not part of the asphyxia or neck pressure.”⁶

On a bedroom door inside the mansion, a message had been painted in black: “She saved him can you save her.” Black paint was also found on Zahau’s breasts, collarbone, and hands. The autopsy documented four separate hemorrhages under the scalp, tape residue and blood on her legs, and red rope tied around her wrists and ankles.⁷ The official cause of death was asphyxiation from hanging.

Dr. Lucas characterized the scalp hemorrhages as “relatively minor” and suggested they could have come from Zahau’s head striking the building during the fall from the balcony.⁸ He acknowledged that the significance of the tape residue and the T-shirt in the mouth could not be fully explained in the autopsy report.⁷

Why the Sheriff Ruled It a Suicide

In September 2011, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department officially ruled the death a suicide. Investigators concluded that Zahau had bound her own feet, tied her arms behind her back, and hanged herself from the balcony. Then-Sheriff Bill Gore said publicly: “Was Max’s death a homicide? No, it was a tragic accident. Was Rebecca’s death a homicide? Again, the answer was no, it was a suicide.”⁹

The theory was that Zahau was despondent after learning Max’s prognosis. Jonah Shacknai had left her a voicemail the night before, crying and telling her his son was not expected to survive; investigators could not confirm whether she listened to it.³ Officials said DNA analysis and fingerprint testing showed no signs of an attack and that only Zahau’s DNA and fingerprints were found at the scene. Adam Shacknai took a polygraph on the day the body was found; results were inconclusive, but authorities cleared him.⁵

The California Attorney General’s Office declined to intervene on September 22, 2011, after the family petitioned to reopen and reclassify the case.¹⁰

Why the Family Disputes the Ruling

Zahau’s family rejected the suicide finding from the start. Her mother, Pari Zahau, and her older sister, Mary Zahau-Loehner, said Rebecca had no psychiatric history, was not on antidepressants, had never attempted suicide, and was described as “completely fine” the night before her death. The family also said the handwriting on the painted message did not match Rebecca’s.⁶

The family exhumed Zahau’s remains and hired forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht for a second autopsy. Wecht identified four small hemorrhages on the right side of the scalp and said they may have come from “a smooth, rounded object that didn’t break the skin but might have caused unconsciousness.” He also questioned why Zahau’s neck was not broken after a nine-foot drop. Wecht said he could not conclude with “scientific certainty” that the death was a homicide, but “strongly lean[ed]” toward that finding and recommended the manner of death be changed to undetermined.⁸

Sheriff Gore pushed back, accusing the private pathologist of “selectively releasing things without telling the whole story,” and noted that toxicology showed Zahau was not drugged or under the influence of alcohol.⁸

The Wrongful Death Lawsuit and Verdict

In July 2013, the Zahau family filed a wrongful death suit in San Diego Superior Court against Adam Shacknai. Jonah Shacknai was not named. The trial began in March 2018 and ran roughly a month, with testimony from 29 witnesses and experts.¹¹

Family attorney Keith Greer argued that Adam Shacknai had struck Zahau in the head, sexually assaulted her, strangled her, and then staged the scene by hanging her from the balcony.¹² Greer pointed to the scalp injuries, the paint on Zahau’s body, and a steak knife found at the scene bearing her menstrual blood.¹³ A forensic knot analyst, Lindsey Philpott, described the bindings as involving overhand and clove hitch knots common in nautical contexts and suggested Zahau had originally been hogtied.¹⁴ A handwriting expert retained by the family identified similarities between the painted message and Adam Shacknai’s handwriting.¹⁰

Adam Shacknai’s attorney, Dan Webb, countered that there was a “complete failure” to connect his client to any alleged act. The defense emphasized the absence of Adam Shacknai’s DNA at the scene and pointed out that none of the 29 witnesses identified him as responsible.¹³ The defense characterized the knots as simple and widely used, noting that the wrist bindings were loose enough for authorities to remove them intact.¹⁴ Adam Shacknai testified he “never did anything to Rebecca Zahau” and that he found her already dead.¹¹

In April 2018, the 12-person jury voted 9-3 for the Zahau family, finding Adam Shacknai civilly liable for battery and wrongful death. The jury awarded Pari Zahau $5 million in noneconomic damages and $167,000 for lost past and future financial support.¹¹ Civil cases require only a preponderance of the evidence, a lower standard than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” required in a criminal case.

The Settlement That Erased the Verdict

Adam Shacknai appealed and sought a retrial. Then, in February 2019, a judge confirmed that a settlement had been reached between the Zahau family and an insurance company for an undisclosed sum, and the civil case was dismissed with prejudice. The dismissal vacated the jury verdict. There is no legal judgment against Adam Shacknai, and the family cannot bring further legal action against him.¹⁵ Shacknai was reportedly angered by the settlement, saying he had intended to pursue his appeal to clear his name. He stated publicly that his “name is cleared.”¹²

The 2018 Review and Where the Case Stands

After the civil verdict, the Sheriff’s Department agreed to a fresh review of the case using investigators who had not been previously involved. The review, conducted jointly with the Coronado Police Department and the San Diego County Medical Examiner, was presented at a December 7, 2018 news conference.¹⁶ The agencies reaffirmed the suicide finding and said they found “no evidence” to support the civil jury’s verdict.¹²

Lt. Rich Williams of the Sheriff’s Homicide Unit said autopsies found no evidence of sexual assault. Zahau’s DNA was on a smaller knife at the scene; a larger knife yielded a mixture from at least two people in quantities too small to test. Latex and garden gloves similarly held insufficient DNA. Bare-foot impressions on the balcony and disturbances in dust on the railing were consistent with Zahau’s body size.¹⁷

The family rejected the review as predetermined. Greer filed a lawsuit under the California Public Records Act alleging the Sheriff’s Department had selectively disclosed investigative files while withholding information that might undermine the suicide conclusion.¹⁸ The civil trial judge, Katherine Bacal, separately observed in a January 2019 ruling that “the Sheriff’s Investigation leaves almost as many questions unanswered as it answered” and that it was “not unreasonable to still ask, ‘who killed Rebecca Zahau?'”¹⁹ The CPRA lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed by the family in July 2022 after Judge Timothy Taylor issued a tentative ruling that they had “failed to carry their burden.” No additional investigative records were released.²⁰

Mary Zahau-Loehner has continued as the family’s most prominent advocate. In March 2025, she published a nearly 300-page book, Unraveling the Knots, that raises claims including a partial male fingerprint she says was never properly investigated, a dryer sheet found in the room that was never collected, and what she describes as errors in the Sheriff’s Office’s video recreation of the knot-tying scenario.²¹ She has called on current Sheriff Kelly Martinez to transfer the case to the FBI or another outside agency. As of mid-2025, no agency has acted on that request. A Sheriff’s Office representative said: “At this time, there is no new information which would lead the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office to re-open this investigation.”²² In September 2023, Chief Medical Examiner Steven Campman wrote that “after reviewing the totality of the evidence, the conclusion of this office has not changed.”

The family continues to offer a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Adam Shacknai, who maintains his innocence.¹⁸ Rebecca Zahau’s manner of death remains officially classified as suicide.

1
Bausch Health. Valeant Pharmaceuticals to Acquire Medicis Pharmaceutical
2
Oxygen. Who Was Rebecca Zahau
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Courthouse News Service. Brother of Accused Man in Suspicious Death Testifies
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NBC San Diego. Max Shacknai’s Death Remains Accident
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ABC News. Jury Awards Rebecca Zahau Family $5M
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ABC News. Rebecca Zahau Autopsy Raises Questions
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ABC News. Rebecca Zahau’s Death Ritualistic Killing Expert
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San Diego Union-Tribune. Pathologist on Dr. Phil Calls Zahau Autopsy Inconclusive
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Fox 5 San Diego. Sheriff’s Department to Review Rebecca Zahau Case
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ABC News. Mysterious Death of Rebecca Zahau
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Courthouse News Service. Jury Finds Man Liable in Mysterious Mansion Death
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10News. Rebecca Zahau Case Settlement Reached, Civil Case Dismissed
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Courthouse News Service. Was It Suicide or Murder at the Mansion
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San Diego Union-Tribune. Expert Mariner Shows How Knots Tied on Rebecca Zahau
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Fox 5 San Diego. Settlement Reached in Civil Case Against Shacknai for Coronado Mansion Death
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San Diego Sheriff’s Office. Coronado Death Investigation
17
Oxygen. A Look at the Evidence in the Case of Rebecca Zahau
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NBC San Diego. Attorneys Make Arguments in CPRA Lawsuit Regarding 2011 Zahau Death
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CBS 8. Zahau Amended Writ
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Caitlin Rother. Zahau Family Lawsuit Against Sheriff’s Department Dismissed
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Fox 5 San Diego. Rebecca Zahau Book San Diego
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Yahoo News. Family of Rebecca Zahau Seeks Justice