Ohh. Crime scene pic. Blurry, but still...
Ohh. Crime scene pic. Blurry, but still...
In an exclusive Californian suburb that has seen only two murders in the past decade, the mysterious deaths of a billionaire's young son and girlfriend following a series of incidents at his mansion have caused a sensation.
Rebecca Zahau's naked body was found hanging from a rope tied to the second-floor balcony of the historic Coronado building, her hands tied behind her and her feet bound on Wednesday, local police said.
Just two days before on Monday, July 11, she was babysitting Max, the six-year-old son of her billionaire boyfriend Jonah Shacknai, when he reportedly fell down a flight of stairs at the 27-room home.
This morning, the Shacknai family confirmed in a statement that Max died "despite heroic efforts on the part of paramedics and hospital staff", US television network ABC reported.
Suspicious death or suicide?
Ms Zahau, 32, also known as Rebecca Nalepa from a previous marriage, reportedly dated 54-year-old Mr Shacknai, the chief executive of an Arizona-based US pharmaceutical company selling acne and facial wrinkle treatments, for two years.
The certified ophthalmic technician's body was discovered by Mr Shacknai's brother Adam, 47, who cut the rope she was hanging from and called police, officials said.
US media said police investigators have remained tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding Ms Zahau's death, despite searching the Shacknai mansion twice.
"The circumstances are bizarre, you could tell this was unusual, but [suicide] is a possibility," San Diego County Sheriff's Captain Tim Curran told the Associated Press last week.
An autopsy on Ms Zahau's body has been sealed as authorities waited for further tests to be conducted.
Ms Zahau's sister, Mary Zahau-Loehner, told the ABC she spoke to her on Tuesday and she was "normal, fine, just getting ready to go to bed".
Her brother-in-law, Doug Loehner, added in a statement: "Jonah is a stand-up guy. He was very devoted to Rebecca. She treated his kids as her own."
Mr Shacknai's Phoenix-based company boss, Michael J. Trier, also spoke glowingly of Ms Zahau, saying that she was committed to her career and had a "personality very much full of life".
What happened to Max?
Sheriff's Captain Curran said investigators have so far not found any links between Max's and Ms Zahau's death.
On Monday, paramedics found the young boy not breathing and without a pulse after falling down some stairs, Coronado police Chief Louis Scanlon said, calling it a "tragic accident".
He was taken to Rady Children's Hospital and reportedly remained there in a coma until his family's statement this morning.
Coronado, a wealthy seaside suburb of about 24,000 people on San Diego Bay, had one murder last year and a total of two in the last decade, media reports said.
The local police department does not have a homicide unit and had to ask the Sheriff's Department to help with the investigation.
"A case like this would be unusual anywhere," Coronado Mayor Casey Tanaka told The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper.
“It's one of those things that no community wishes for and no community is really ready for when it happens.”
Another resident told the Union-Tribune that when she heard sirens in Coronado, it would be because someone had jaywalked.
"It's completely shocking," she told the paper. "I walk by [the mansion] every day. This is the town where you don't expect anything like this to happen."
The mansion was built in 1908. Its previous owner was John D. Spreckels, owner of the majestic Hotel del Coronado and the San Diego Union and San Diego Tribune newspapers, AP reported.
It was sold to Mr Shacknai in 2007 for $US12.7 million ($12 million), US television network CBS reported, citing property records.
Last edited by Olivia; 07-17-2011 at 08:31 PM. Reason: formatting
I don't understand why they didn't at least cut the tape off her legs and hands before calling 911. GHOSTS.
Leading pathologist questions suicide ruling in death of millionaire's girlfriend
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...fed-mouth.html
It won't let me post the article
Yeah, I'd freak out but it wouldn't justify possibly staging the strangulation death and subsequent humiliating abuse of a corpse of the girlfriend.
i don't think any parent on earth except Casey Anthony wouldn't freak but I super wonder what the fuck was going on in that house the weekend leading up to all of this. It sounds too much like the scenario where she said the wrong thing, he was volatile, chocked her, faked her death. I dunno. I watch a lot of TV.
This one really, really irks me. I just can't comprehend that she possibly offed herself. Naked. With her arms and legs bound. And she wrote a creepy message on the door, that may or may not have been from her?
From the article Hayalet posted above:
It was revealed on Friday that before she died a distraught Ms Zahau had painted a message in black paint on a door.
According to Ms Zahau's ex-husband, Neil Nalepa, it read: 'She saved him, can he save her.'
What in the world does that possibly mean? And there were no drugs or alcohol found in her system? And the original investigators seemed a tad too quick to rule this as having absolutely no chance of being a murder. I guess money talks.
Also, entirely not appropriate, but the amount of "touch ups" that man has had done to his face make me want to gag every time I look at him.
This pic is just a tiny smidge more clear than the one already posted
Its blurry but id still consider it NSFW
and magnified:
Im not buying it was suicide. The brother was alone with her in the house. I say it was him
..because I have no one else to point a finger at this time
(missed you Becca )
I am confused. I thought she hung herself in the stairwell inside?
I did to, apparently she hung herself on an outdoor balcony that looks over the courtyard.
The brother of her husband "found" her when he was on his way out to get coffee
From an article today:
Nemeth said Zahau left a short message in black paint on the door leading to a bedroom, tied a red rope to a bed in that room, placed the rope around her neck and used sections of the same rope to bind her feet and ankles - - the rope going around her extremities four or five times.
She then went out to a balcony and leaned forward over a railing, falling 9 feet to her death, the sergeant said.
Impressions of her feet and toes right next to each other on the dust covering the balcony, dust being wiped away from an 11-inch section of the railing and the bed being pulled away from the wall all helped lead to their conclusion, he said. Two knives used to cut the rope were found in the room.
Fingerprints were all Rebecca's, according to Nemeth.
"The DNA profiles on the bindings, the rope around her neck, the rope attached to the footboard of the bed and the small knife, were only from Rebecca,'' Nemeth said.
He said no evidence was found to suggest foul play.
And we don't know what the message said? She was super determined to tell someone something by writing it in paint.
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