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Coronado, California is as close to a perfect place to live as you will find in the world. It features a beautiful beach, safe streets, great shops and restaurants, a well-known playhouse, golf courses, a sweeping blue harbor bridge that attaches it to San Diego, and the historic Hotel Del Coronado. The city is bordered on both sides by the US Navy SEAL Team base and Naval Air Station North Island, where President Obama lands when he arrives on Air Force One to visit San Diego. If you can afford to live there - and small houses start at over one million dollars - it's paradise.
The Coronado police department protects and serves visitors and tourists, longtime residents, retired military officers, and new and old moneyed people. (John McCain's wife, Cindy, owns a beach view condo in Coronado). With about 45 sworn members, it keeps the peace in a largely peaceful city. So on July 13, 2011, when a young woman was found dead on the grounds of a $12 million Coronado house (known as the Spreckels mansion, after a founding father of the city of San Diego) owned by a rich entrepreneur, they called in the San Diego Sheriff's Department homicide unit to help them investigate.
Rebecca Zahau, 32, was the girlfriend of 54-year-old Jonah Shacknai, a wealthy business owner whose company manufactures health and beauty supplements. In the early hours of July 13, Rebecca hung herself over a second-floor balcony. Her naked body was found on the ground below, by her boyfriend's brother, who was living on the property in a guest house.
Her death was part of a strange sequence of events in the home. Two days prior to Rebecca's death, Jonah Shacknai's six-year-old son, Max, was seriously injured in a fall from the second story staircase at the home. Child abuse and homicide investigators believe Max tripped over something or fell as he was jumping down the staircase and sustained a life-threatening head injury. They do not believe the boy was pushed or was assaulted in any way.
The assumption is that Rebecca blamed herself for Max's injuries to such a degree that she killed herself out of remorse or shame. Prior to her death, she had learned that he would not survive his accidental fall and indeed, he died two days after she killed herself.
According to the Sheriff's Department, just after one a.m., while Max was dying at the hospital, Rebecca Zahau took a shower, removed her clothes, and used a paint brush and a tube of black paint to write a message on the door of a guest room where she kept her art supplies. The message said, "SHE SAVED HIM/CAN HE SAVE HER?"
She then tied a length of red nylon rope, which she may have retrieved from the garage where boating equipment was stored, to the foot of her bed frame. She wrapped the rope over a long-sleeved shirt she had placed around her neck, bound her feet with the rope, tied her hands behind her back with a series of twisted loops, shuffled over to a small balcony off the window, and leaned or jumped over the railing. She fell about nine feet and the force of the jump strangled her.
Not surprisingly, this case first fascinated residents of the cities of Coronado and San Diego, before it became national and international news. How could this house become the scene of two suspicious deaths in such a short time? Was the little boy killed or did he fall? Was Rebecca murdered or did she kill herself because she actually abused the boy or because she felt guilt about not supervising him properly?
In a two-hour news conference, the San Diego Sheriff's Department provided a detailed account of their investigation, evidence, and conclusions about her death: the black paint from her door note was found on her hand and body; there was a small knife and a large knife in the bedroom - her fingerprints were found on the small one and her DNA was found on the large one; her DNA was found on the bed, the rope, the balcony door, and the bedroom door; her bare feet and toe impressions were found on the dusty balcony floor; changes in the dust on the balcony railing were consistent with her body going over it, as were the scrapes on her back and legs from hitting the large plants below. No other footprints, fingerprints, or DNA that was not hers was found at the scene. There were no signs of a fight, struggle, or sexual assault in the bedroom.
Rebecca's family has disputed the results of the investigation and has hired an attorney. Well-known forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden (no stranger to high-profile media cases involving unique deaths), looked at the case details from his office in New York, and told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he believed the Sheriff's investigation was valid and accurate.
Rebecca's family is outraged that the Sheriff's investigation could conclude that she killed herself. They disagree that it was from grief, shame, or depression. She had told friends and family that she had felt depressed over the past year, but her parents didn't believe that was true. They said she had a lot to live for her and her personality was always cheerful.
And what about being naked? Her parents insist that their Burmese-Asian culture is far too modest for a woman to leave herself uncovered in death. And what about the fact that her hands and feet were bound? How could she have tied her own hands behind her back? The Sheriff's Department actually produced a video re-enactment of how they believe Rebecca tied her own hands, which they showed at the press conference that covered details of their investigation. Based on how the ropes were twisted into large loops around her wrists, it would not have taken an acrobat or the ghost of Harry Houdini to tie her own hands. (You can view the video link at www.uniontrib.com/mansion)
Dr. Michael Baden told the local paper that of the 32,000 people who killed themselves last year, hanging was second only to gun shots as the method for their suicides. Many clinicians involved in suicide research or who perform psychological autopsies on behalf of a medical examiner's office agree that women don't usually disfigure themselves in their suicides (i.e., gun shots to the face or slashed wrists), which makes hangings or intentional drug overdoses as their methods of choice.
And what about the cryptic note painted on the door, in Rebecca's own hand? Why was it not more explicit? Why did she write it in such a way that we can't interpret it fully as to what she was feeling, or whether she blamed herself for little Max's injuries and subsequent death, or why she chose to kill herself in such a provocative way?
Bill Gore (who was the Special Agent in Charge of the San Diego FBI field office prior to his election as San Diego County Sheriff in 2006) said that he reviewed a 2008 Georgetown University School of Medicine study that said the reasons why people committed suicide in the nude was as a way to atone for their actions, as a cleansing ritual, or as a self-abasement for their guilt.
The suicidal dead take their reasons with them. Rebecca Zahau had her reasons and while they are far from satisfying for her family, they are what they are. There is nothing at this point that suggests the Sheriff's Department botched the investigation. Their work was thorough and exact, not just because it initially looked like a murder, but also because of the high-profile nature of the location, the homeowner, and the previous incident involving the little boy.
There is nothing to connect Rebecca's brother or her boyfriend to her death, or any other known or unknown person. There is no forensically-skilled maniac roaming the streets of Coronado, using suicide scenarios to cover up his homicides. She is dead at her own hand and that is a tragedy.
In 1994, Dr. Steve Albrecht, PHR, CPP, co-wrote Ticking Bombs, one of the first business books on workplace violence. He holds a doctorate in Business Administration, an M.A. in Security Management, a B.S. in Psychology, and a B.A. in English. He worked for the San Diego Police Department from 1984 to 1999. His police books include Contact & Cover; Streetwork; Surviving Street Patrol; and Tactical Perfection for Street Cops. He can be reached at drsteve@drstevealbrecht.com
