A News 8 review of similar hanging deaths around the nation may reinforce a possible suicide scenario.
The body of Zahau, 32, was found hanging by the neck with a rope tied to a second-story balcony of the home owned by Arizona tycoon Jonah Shacknai.
Zahau and Shacknai, 54, were romantically involved and stayed at the Ocean Blvd. home during summer months.
Detectives said Shacknai’s brother, Adam Shacknai, was the only other person home at the time of Zahau’s death. Adam said he cut down Zahau’s body and then called 911.
News 8 helicopter video showed the body on the ground with rope tied around Zahau’s wrists and ankles.
At a news conference two days after Zahau’s body was discovered, a Sheriff’s homicide captain was already talking about suicide as a possible cause of death.
“If it was determined to be a suicide, people will do some very bizarre things,” said Capt. Tim Curran.
If Zahau did commit suicide, she presumably would have bound her own neck, hands and feet before hanging herself — by either jumping off the balcony itself or perhaps stepping off a table located on the ground near her body.
But is that really possible? Local investigators admit they have never encountered a female suicide victim, found hanging, naked and bound. But the suicide scenario remains a possibility.
Read the entire CBS 8 story here.
