The linchpin of public suspicion that the death of a woman at the Spreckels Mansion in Coronado was not suicide appears to be that her arms and feet were bound when she was found hanging by her neck.
Add to that oddity some other factors in the case — the owner’s 6-year-old son died days after falling down some stairs, the mansion is owned by a rich business executive and is one of the upscale community’s most famous landmarks — and the case has the makings of a mystery.
Add to that oddity some other factors in the case — the owner’s 6-year-old son died days after falling down some stairs, the mansion is owned by a rich business executive and is one of the upscale community’s most famous landmarks — and the case has the makings of a mystery.
Or does it?
Sgt. Roy Frank of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department homicide squad cautions that suicides can sometimes look like something else, even like murder.
Until forensic tests on Rebecca Nalepa, 32, the girlfriend of mansion owner Jonah Shacknai, are completed, the Sheriff’s Department won’t say what the cause of death was. That could take weeks.
The public may think that the fact that Nalepa’s hands and feet were tied rules out suicide. Frank does not.
“We have not been able to rule out suicide,” Frank said Monday.
Read the entire LA Times article here.
