An attorney for the victim’s family blasted the finding as “ridiculous.”
Mary Zahau-Loehner, the sister of Rebecca Zahau, 32, who died in one of two mysterious tragedies within a few days at the $12 million oceanfront mansion, said she disagreed with investigators and was disappointed with the conclusion.
Anne Bremner, a Seattle lawyer hired by the Zahau family this week, said the San Diego Sheriff’s Department’s finding “doesn’t pass the smell test.”
San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore scheduled a news briefing Friday with his investigators, medical examiners and Coronado police to report on their investigation into the deaths at the Spreckels mansion in the wealthy resort community near San Diego.
Zahau, who came to this country about a decade ago from Burma, was found hanging from a makeshift noose, unclothed and with hands bound behind her back and feet bound, in a courtyard at the mansion July 13, the sheriff’s department said at the time.
That was two days after 6-year-old Max Shacknai suffered fatal injuries in what the department termed an accidental fall at the same house.
The home is owned by Zahau’s boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai, father of Max and CEO of an Arizona-based cosmetic drug company, Medicis Pharmaceutical. Shacknai and Zahau lived in the mansion and maintained homes in the Phoenix area. Her body was found by Adam Shacknai, the owner’s brother, who was visiting from Memphis.
Read the entire USA Today article here.
