Going West: True Crime - The Spreckels Mansion Mystery // 128

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

In 2011, a young woman died mysteriously in her boyfriend's Coronado, California home. Due to the nature of her death, it was ruled a suicide. But with the persistence of her family, a civil trial began and the finger was pointed at someone in her inner circle. This is the story of Rebecca Zahau, and a case that's also known as the Spreckels Mansion Mystery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Tee. And I'm your other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Howdy guys, hope you're all doing great. So Heath and I today were in Los Angeles, we're recording at my sister's house. So, we have a very, very much DIY studio going on today, so apologies for any inconsistent sound quality

or whatever's to come with all those loud ass cars outside. Yeah, we apologize for those loud cars. And also, on top of that, I'm a little bit stuffy because I got some allergies. Yeah, we got lots going on, but a very interesting case today, and I really want to thank Emily Keltz for suggesting this. A couple of times on Instagram, thank you so much. We love suggestions, and I'm sure someone else has suggested this, and I'm so sorry I don't have your name in front of me.

Sometimes you guys suggest cases, and it takes us forever to get to them, or they slip between the cracks, but we really appreciate every single one and I know this case is slightly more well-known But I've never gotten a chance to do an actual deep dive into it and figured either a lot of you guys haven't Or you have and want to hear our take on the case and as always I tried to be as detailed as possible for our typical 50-ish minute time slot So you may even learn something new. Yeah, I'm really excited to get into this one today. This is a very controversial case, and I do want to give a trigger warning because we mentioned

suicide and hanging in this episode, just so everyone's aware and prepared for that, but I'm excited to talk about this one as well. All right, guys, this is episode 128 of Going West, so let's get into it. The death of Rebecca Zahau caught national attention. In 2011, it was the top 10 most covered news stories of the year. Now 10 years later, the spotlight is back on the story that some call a murder mystery while officials have determined it was a suicide. July 13, 2011, the body of Rebecca Zahau was found hanging from a balcony in the Spreckles mansion.

Her feet were bound and her wrists were bound behind her back. The 32-year-old had a t-shirt stuffed into her mouth and tied behind her head. She was naked with black paint on her breasts. The palms of her hands and fingers were clean and her feet were covered in dirt. It was almost like a movie. You can't make this tough up. Now, Rebecca's family did not agree with the sheriff's findings

and ended up having her body exhumed for re-examination. Based on the findings by their investigators, the family filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Adam Shackney. Each one of the defenses we've named have a strong motive to kill her. Rebecca Zahau, who typically went by Becky, was born on March 15, 1979, to parents Zung Tin Par and Robert Zahau, in Falam, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, which is in Southeast Asia, along with her three sisters, Mary, Zina, and Snowum, and two brothers, Joseph and Solomon. But life was tough for the family and they lived without running water for a very long time.

So when Rebecca was just two years old, she and her family became political refugees and moved to Nepal, which is in South Asia. But again, due to everything that was happening with the government, they had to seek asylum in Germany. There's a how family was very poor financially, but they made the best of it by loving each other and just remaining extremely close as well as faithful, specifically through Protestantism, which is a form of Christianity. Although Rebecca's family was rich with love, she struggled in other ways as a child.

She, along with other students, were molested by their school principal, and sadly, we're unsure if the principal was ever reprimanded for this, but it is something that Rebecca dealt with during her childhood. But as she grew up, she was determined to live a happy and good life. She eventually moved to Austria to attend Bible College, and that's when she met a 36-year-old man named Neil Nalipa. Neil was from Scottsdale, Arizona, and was attending school for nursing when he met 23-year-old Rebecca Zahau. But they felt deeply in love, and in 2002, they got married.

Since he lived in the United States, and they both knew that they could have a wonderful life there together, and Rebecca was completely captivated by America, the newlyweds moved to New York. There Rebecca worked as an off-dome technician at an eye clinic, but in her free time she absolutely loved to paint, and she was very artistic. Overall Rebecca was a very laid back and loving young woman. She was also very responsible and didn't drink or do drugs, because she was a total health nut, and she loved her new life with her new husband. While they were married, she also kept faith

a very important part of her. And although she left organized religion altogether shortly after arriving to the United States, she still prayed every night and her religion remained a key role in her life. And it was great because Rebecca moved to the US, also alongside her sister Mary, and then the majority of her family, including her parents, eventually moved to St. Joseph, Missouri. So her family wasn't far except for her sister Snowom and brother Solomon, who both lived in Germany. So after a short stint of living in New York, Rebecca and her husband Neal moved to Temecula,

California. And in October 2004, she met a man named Michael Berger, and the two began having an affair. She moved into his Glendale, California home, which is in Los Angeles, for a short period of time in 2005, and Neil moved to Oregon. Because once Neil found out about their relationship, he wanted to break up and move, but shortly after, in May of 2005, Rebecca went to work and never returned to Michael's home, and he of course became incredibly worried, so worried that he called the police to report her missing. Rebecca eventually called Michael and explained

him that she had been kidnapped. When in reality, she was apparently just not interested in carrying on with a relationship and made up a random story. And she'd actually gone to be with Neal and Oregon and they kinda just fixed things up for the time being. The couples seem to pop around a lot because before 2008, they headed to Arizona, remember that's where Neiels from. And Rebecca began working at Horizon Eye Specialists in Lasex Center in North Phoenix.

Rebecca was known to be very good with patients, and they described her as full of life, and was just overall committed to her work. The following year in August of 2009, Rebecca was at a mall in Phoenix and headed into Macy's to look at some jewelry. And while she had $1,000 worth of jewelry in her hand, she ran out of the store and was

caught and arrested for shoplifting. Rebecca explained that she had been on the phone while in Macy's when she received some bad news about her brother. And without realizing that she was holding this jewelry, she just ran out of the store and then was caught. She was ultimately never charged but took responsibility by taking a shoplifting class. I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt here because I personally don't see why she would steal the jewelry. You know, she and her husband both had pretty good jobs. And that's just my opinion though, obviously I know people shoplift for all kinds of reasons and I also want to mention how Rebecca worked very hard in life to try to support her parents. She and her older sister

kind of made it their mission to make sure their parents never had to worry about where their next meal would come from and you know make sure that they lived comfortably and Rebecca was known as the glue of the family. So I just want to make that note so nobody thinks that she's just this thief because you know it's kind of important to mention this, just take it with a grain of salt. So when Rebecca and Neal had gotten married, everything seemed perfect, and Neal truly seemed like the man of her dreams. But as the years went on, they grew apart, and Rebecca allegedly began having an affair with another man, a man who she met at work named Jonah Shacknye. When Neil found this out, he was devastated and decided it was best to break off their

marriage, so in February 2011, they moved forward with divorce proceedings. Jonah Shacknye was the CEO of Medicine's Pharmaceutical, which is based in Arizona, and in 2008, he went into Rebecca's work. The two really connected, and they began having a secret affair the following October for the years to follow. And Jonah was 51 at the time while Rebecca was 29. And when they met, Jonah had a three-year-old son named Max from his second wife, Dina Romano, and their relationship ended in 2008.

And he also had two teenagers from his first wife. So a few months after Rebecca Neal split, in the summer of 2011, Rebecca and her now-boyfriend Jonah headed to his vacation home in beautiful Coronado, California. As the ninth highest paid CEO in Arizona, he owned a stunning and historic beachfront mansion called Spreckles Mansion as his vacation home, which sounds amazing. The mansion is about 19,000 square feet and has 10 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and a four-car garage, a pool and spa, a guest bathrooms, and a four car garage, a pool and spa, a guest house, and many other amenities.

So this house is like massive. And for those of you who don't know where Coronado is, it's a beautiful island in the San Diego Bay that's just a 15 minute ferry ride or a seven-ish minute drive over the bridge. So this was quite the ideal vacation home to have, and they were excited to enjoy the summer there. But everything would change in early July of that year.

Monday, July 11, 2011, started off as an overcast yet warm day as temperatures reached just around 73 degrees Fahrenheit. Jonah drove his two teenage kids to the airport so they could return home with their mother, and his six-year-old son Max rode along in the car. After a super quick airport run since the San Diego airport is just 15 minutes from the Spreckles mansion, Jona dropped his son Max off at the house where Rebecca would watch him as Jona worked out at the gym. As the early morning faded, the son began to kind of peek through the clouds and they planned for a gorgeous out at the gym. As the early morning faded, the sun began to kind of peek through the clouds and they planned for a gorgeous day at the beach, followed

by a trip to the San Diego Zoo. Rebecca's much younger sister, Zina, who was 13, was visiting from Missouri, so she would be joining in the festivities and it was going to be a fun day for all. Especially since Rebecca and Max got along so well, they had a wonderful connection, and Rebecca was even teaching him how to paint and draw. So although Rebecca and Max got along really well, it kinda wasn't the same with Jonas two older kids who were the teenagers. They were known to kinda resent Rebecca, and they gave her a really hard time. Now it's kinda our take that maybe they didn't like her because she was a new and much

younger woman in their lives taking kind of a motherly role, so maybe it was something along those lines and not something personal against Rebecca, since by all accounts, she was great with all the kids. But the teenagers gave her such a hard time that Rebecca actually considered pausing or ending her relationship with Jonah on multiple occasions. Jonah and Rebecca's relationship was also known to be a bit strange. Her sister Mary later explained that she never saw them being playful or romantic with each other, and that if she didn't know them, she really wouldn't know that they were

dating. Yet Rebecca put her life on hold to go to Coronado with Jonah that summer, and she was a person who primarily cared for and did things for Max at the time. From reading to cooking to taking him to soccer practice, Rebecca pretty much did it all. But around 10am on the morning of July 11, 2011, something horrible happened. Max fell over the second story banister and hit the floor instantly going unconscious. We have an animated photo replay on our socials, but what's believed to have happened is that Max was maybe playing on his scooter near the banister, fell off, grabbed the chandelier,

and took it down to the floor with him, crashing to the ground. Rebecca, who stated she was in the bathroom when this happened, heard a very large crash and went running out to see the scene. She immediately ran to Max and began performing CPR while she screamed to her younger sister Zina, who was showering, to call the police. Since Max hit his head on the floor, he was bloodied and he was also unresponsive. He did appear to be semi-conscious, though, and he said one word to Rebecca.

Ocean. Ocean was Rebecca's dog and his scooter and soccer ball were nearby. And by the way, I read that it was the family dog, but I also read that it was Rebecca's and I just can't confirm which. But when first responders arrived, Rebecca was still by Max's side, crying, and trying to wake him up.

Max was rushed right to Rady's Children's Hospital, which is just a few minutes from their home, or they continued efforts to save his life. For about 30 minutes, Max had been without oxygen and doctors couldn't find a pulse. So his condition was very severe, but he was still alive and clinging to life. Considering Max, apparently, it said ocean, and the dog was found running around. It also kind of paints the picture that maybe Max was scootering and the dog was running around him and they collided or something in that realm. And I couldn't find out what kind of dog ocean was, but I did find a photo of Rebecca with a larger skinny gray dog on a hike.

So if that was ocean, then they're a larger dog. I mean, I could definitely see how this could happen if Max was, I mean, as dangerous anyway for a five or six year old to be, you know, near the banister on the second floor like that, but also to be scootering around as well, and then having a dog running around definitely pretty dangerous. Yeah, there's a lot of question as to how this happened. And we're going to talk about it more throughout the episode, but it's not very clear. They did do that animated replay to see how he could have gone over the banister, but it's not very clear they did do that animated replay to see how

he could have gone over the banister, but there's a lot of questions surrounding this. For the hours and days to come, Max's family surrounded him in the hospital, just praying that he would recover from his injuries. One of those people was his uncle, his father Jonas' brother Adam Shacknye. Adam is six years younger than his brother, Jonah, so he was about 48 at the time of Max's fall. Adam and Jonah had a deep bond since childhood when they grew up in Suffer New York, which is a beautiful small village that borders the state of New Jersey. But he and Jonah had gone down very different paths in life. Jonah going off and becoming a wildly successful CEO and Adam working for their father's business and then moving to Memphis, Tennessee to work as a deckhand turned tugboat captain on

the Mississippi River. He was known to be an intelligent guy who loved writing fiction stories. As far as relationships go, Adam was dating a woman 18 years his senior, and they had been together for nearly 20 years. Although they never married, they spent a lot of time in the art scene together, always going out to concerts, the movies, and different dinners, and social events. But on July 11, 2011, Jonas' father called him to explain what happened to his nephew Max, and Adam then went on to

call Rebecca and ask if he should fly down to San Diego to be there with everyone else. Adam says that Rebecca told him to follow his heart, and with that, he booked a flight to San Diego for the following afternoon. Rebecca was the one who picked him up from the airport after dropping off her 13-year-old sister Zina, and together, she and Adam headed straight to the hospital to see everyone else. After spending some time there together, Jonah, Adam, and Rebekah went to the fish market for dinner, but it was far from a good time, you know, their minds were all just preoccupied

with Max's condition, and Rebecca was said to have eaten very little and remained silent. After that, they went back to the hospital, and soon after, Rebecca and Adam returned to the spread calls mentioned together, while Jonas stayed with his son Max at the hospital. The events we're going to share next are from Adam's statement later on, since he's the only one who could speak for what occurred this night. Adam said that when they returned home, Rebecca seemed upset, and they briefly discussed Adam and Jonas' mother's death from cancer and how it happened when they were very young. Then Adam decided to go to sleep and retired to the guest house for the rest of the night,

while Rebecca went to sleep in the main house. According to Adam, he didn't see her again that night. A somewhat odd incident occurred this day as well. Jonah Shacknye's second wife, Dina, has a twin sister named Nina Romano. She flew down from San Francisco with her teenage son to be with the family alongside Max, and Rebecca picked them up from the airport even though they had only met a few times. When Nina arrived, Rebecca hugged her tightly and said, I'm so glad you're here.

When they got in the car, Nina pressed Rebecca on what happened and said, I don't understand what happened. Nina said Rebecca responded with, I know. Nina said, I heard Max had a heart attack and fell down the stairs. Where did he fall from? The first landing, the second landing? Then she says Rebecca said, he fell from the bedroom, and she said that twice, but didn't give any other details.

Nina said, I don't understand this, he's a healthy young boy. And then Rebecca said, can you read directions and hand at Nina her cell phone? Nina was confused at Rebecca's behavior and she later told her sister Dina about this. So essentially Nina is feeling like Rebecca's being weird about the whole situation with Max. The following morning, which was Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 6.45am. Adam Shacknye called 911, and here's part of that call. What's the matter on emergency? What are you reporting?

Yeah, I got a girl, hunger shells, and death shells, over. It's on Ocean Boulevard across from the hotel, same place that you came and got the KVS today. To recap, he said, Yeah, I got a girl hung herself from the guest house. It's on Ocean Boulevard across from the hotel. Same place you come and got the kid yesterday.

You came here yesterday to pick up a little boy. In the call, he says that Rebecca is 30 and that he hadn't seen her since the previous evening. When police arrived at the scene, they discovered the body of Rebecca's how nude and laying in the grass on the mansion's lawn with her hands tied behind her back with red rope and her ankles bound together with the same red rope. While Adam was on the phone with police, he apparently grabbed a knife from the kitchen, stood on a table on the ground level, and cut Rebecca down while saying, are you alive? She had been hanging 82 inches off the ground or nearly 7 feet

from red rope as well. And when Adam found her, he apparently cut her down and she landed on the lawn in a position that left her partially on her side but facing upwards. Adam stated that he checked her pulse and gave her CPR. She also was gagged with a blue long sleeve t-shirt that was wrapped around her head and the sleeves were double-nauded inside her mouth. On her legs, there was what appeared to be tape residue, but we'll touch on this later. And after Adam cut her down and before the police arrived, he texted Jonah to let him know Rebecca was dead. 32-year-old Rebecca Zahau was pronounced dead at the scene,

especially considering the bizarre nature in which her body was found. Forensic and toxicology teams got together to determine what happened to her. Not only was their DNA taken from her body, but also from the scene of the crime. Although they suspected foul place since the beginning, less than two months after Rebecca's death, on September 2nd, 2011, the San Diego Sheriff's Department announced that her death was ruled as a suicide. When the Spreckles mansion was searched, something incredibly strange was found inside the home on the door to a guest room where Rebecca painted.

In black paint, a message was written and it said, She saved him. Can you save her? We posted photos on our social media so go check it out if you're somewhere you can safely do so. As we know, Rebecca loved painting and she even had an art studio inside the mansion which was this guest bedroom. She always signed her work and her family members knew what her writing looked like, so they were extremely adamant that the writing on the door looked absolutely nothing like her writing when she paints.

Even her ex-husband Neal was questioned and he said the same thing that it didn't appear to be something she would have written. He also didn't believe Rebecca would have taken her life because that was something very out of character for her and he said he would never believe that she would do that. Despite the fact that no one knew what this message meant, nor believed that it was written by Rebecca herself, the sheriff's office determined that, although it wasn't a clear suicide note, that it likely was one, and it helped secure their suicide ruling further. Rebecca's sister Mary, as well as every other family member,

fully agree with Ne Neil that Rebecca would not have killed herself. Mary discussed how Rebecca's spirituality and personality would have never let her to such a decision, especially since due to her Christianity, she believed that suicide was wrong. More specifically, Mary spoke with Rebecca on the phone just hours before she died, and although Rebecca sounded distraught, tired, and concerned about Max's condition, there was absolutely nothing in the conversation that indicated Rebecca was even considering

attempting something nearly as serious as taking her own life. Rebecca had no history of suicidal tendencies, no psychological issues, and no history of depression. And obviously, no one is really qualified to determine whether or not someone would take their own life and on what circumstances they would or wouldn't do so, but respectfully, it's important to discuss in case suicide is not what happened here. Because then, Rebecca deserves justice in her death and for her killer to be caught. So in this case, we will be speculating on the details of her death to determine our personal opinions on what may have really happened to her.

So let's discuss the evidence found at the scene and in Rebecca's autopsy. The autopsy revealed four different instances of head trauma, and there was also evidence that Rebecca went off the balcony in a non-vertical position, meaning she could have struck her head on the balcony in a non-vertical position, meaning she could have struck her head on the balcony on her way down, and she could have hit her head very easily. However, a San Diego medical examiner also determined that Rebecca hitting her head four times on the balcony after going off the railing would have been highly unlikely.

Which begs that question, was she hit on the head by someone before she went over the balcony? Yeah, I mean, honestly, that's... When you think about that in your mind, you're visualizing this. If she was thrown off of the balcony, she still wouldn't hit her head for separate times. She would maybe hit her head once and then begin swinging back and forth,

but she wouldn't hit her head four times. There's just no possible way that could happen. And technically it couldn't happen and that's why Rebecca's family, not believing that her death was a suicide, requested a second autopsy because the fact that they had found these four contusions on her head and still ruled it a suicide didn't make sense because of, you know, how did those, those wounds get there. In the second autopsy, the pathologist determined that the fractures in her throat were far more consistent with manual strangulation versus suicidal hanging.

So that's obviously really big in this case. Yes, because none of the vertebrae in her neck were dislocated, but the trauma at the base of her neck, which is consistent with manual strangulation, was the cause of her death, and the hemorrhaging to her head from the foreblows occurred beforehand. And at the end of his examination, he came to the confident conclusion that Rebecca did not commit suicide, but rather was murdered, because not only were there many inconsistencies with, you know, between the first autopsy and the second one, but there was also evidence that Rebecca's how had been sexually assaulted before she died. So just really quick about the hemorrhaging occurring before she died.

Sure, she could have hit her head, and that could have occurred before she died by hanging, right? Of course. But you can also look at it that maybe somebody hit her in the head, and then strangled her to death. I just think it's really interesting that he came to the conclusion because obviously when someone hangs themself, what happens to your neck is very different from when somebody strangles you. And so the fact that this pathologist noticed that difference and that it wasn't noticed

in the first autopsy is huge. Yeah, definitely. But I do think it's extremely interesting that we have a professional saying, hey, this was not suicide. This was a homicide. To help put the pieces of the puzzle together for the night that Rebecca died, police reviewed Rebecca's phone records and then noticed that between 8pm and 10pm the night before her body was found, she was texting back and forth with her older sister Mary. Then at 10.48pm, Rebecca received a text from Nina Romano,

and remember she's the twin sister of Jonas' second wife, Dina, who was Max's mother. So, Nina was Max's aunt. Nina explained that she wanted to stop by the house and talk about Max's incident. Rebecca never responded to this message, though, and phone activities ceased until about two hours later. At 12.50am, Rebecca's voicemail was checked. Records didn't state who left this voicemail, but police have since stated that it was a message from Jonah telling Rebecca that Max's condition had worsened. But this voicemail was deleted, so no one can be sure exactly what was said in the message. And police could have requested AT&T retrieve that deleted message, but they didn't do that. And nothing else was uncovered from the phone.

And the reason police felt they knew what the voicemail said was because Jonah told them what he said in the voicemail. So we really just have to hope that Jonah's telling the truth so we can properly put the pieces together. Jonas stated that he and his ex-wife Dina had gotten some horrifying news from the doctor. That if Jonas survived his injury, he would likely never walk or talk again. Jonas says that after they heard the news, he called Rebecca crying but she didn't answer, so he left an emotional voicemail explaining what the doctor had said.

Because of this call, police began to wonder if Rebecca was driven to end her life after listening to the voicemail from Jonah, and this also aided in their decision to rule her death as a suicide. There was only one witness in the case, and it was a 70-something-year-old woman named Marsha Allison. She lived two doors down from the Spreckles mansion and she stated that at 11.30pm on July 12th, 2011, so about 7 hours before Adam called 911, Marsha heard a woman scream, help me, help me.

She stated later in the oath that it was very loud and it sounded like it came from a young woman. But Marcia didn't hear anything after that, so she carried on with her evening and watched TV. So when she heard about Rebecca's death the following day, she told police about what she had heard the previous evening. But since no one else came forward with a similar story, police couldn't confirm if this was true or where those police were coming from if they even occurred. So it's just Marsh's word. But if what she's saying is correct, that means Rebecca would have been screaming for

help about an hour and a half before that call from Jonah came in, meaning she wouldn't have heard that voicemail. A big thing in this case is the fact that Rebecca's hands and ankles were bound. She was gagged, and then she was hanged. It seems extremely unlikely that she could have done this to herself, but of course, it's important to determine if it is possible. Considering its believed Rebecca and Adam were completely alone on the property together that night, it's hard to ignore that these very complex knots could be nautical knots.

And as we know, Adam was a tugboat captain. It was determined that the knots, although appearing complex, were not tied very tightly, and they were actually slipped off intact during her autopsy. Apparently, there have been documentation throughout history in the US where people have secured their hands and feet before suicide to prevent them from changing their mind after the suicide attempt begins. So police tried to prove that this could positively be done and they tried the scenario themselves as well as watched a video on it.

As for the gag, this really couldn't be explained, because why would she gag herself? And of course, with her hands and ankles being bound, just because they determined it was possible doesn't mean that's what happened. It's just, it could, she technically could have done that. It seems like it would be really difficult, and again, with the gagging, nobody really understands that. But it technically was possible. Yeah, and I mean, just because some people throughout history of committed suicide after tying themselves up,

doesn't conclusively determine that Rebecca did that very same thing. And that's what her family wanted to prove. So because this gained so much media attention both national and international, and the theories behind Rebecca's death didn't include suicide, Rebecca's family hired a private investigator to look even further into the details of her autopsy. And the PI uncovered that it would have been nearly impossible for Rebecca to have tied her hands and feet the way they were and then

hung herself in make-or-way off the balcony without any assistance. The PI also concluded that the probability of this happening was nearly 0.001%. Here's some further suspicion against Adam. When Adam was originally questioned, he told police that he didn't remain at the hospital because he was tired. And after he retired to the guest house, he watched pornography, and we'll get into this a little bit more soon. Then he called his girlfriend, took an ambient and was asleep by 8 p.m.

But when police checked his laptop, there was no trace of him having watched pornography. When Adam was interviewed, he also submitted to a polygraph test and he failed miserably. On the questions relating to him having killed Rebecca, his heart rate skyrocketed. Now of course, we say this every time we discuss a polygraph, it's not a perfect science. Just because you fail a polygraph does not mean you are guilty, but it's definitely worth mentioning.

Adam also denied writing the painted message on the door of the guest bedroom, the one that read, she saved him, can you save her? But when a handwriting expert compared the painted writing to Adam's regular writing, they found it matched pretty well. More on that later. In his interview with police, Adam also mentioned that Rebecca was there when Max was injured. And then he added, maybe she just couldn't live with it. Despite brief suspicions against Adam,

police said that he was free to go. And of course, painting is very different from how people write, but the painted writing on the door was in very cryptic block letters, and Rebecca always wrote in a pretty clean, cursive font, and we also posted photos of that. Again, although the rope came off fairly easily, the knots themselves were quite sophisticated, and they were the type of knots Adam knew how to tie since he was a tugboat captain Adam and Rebecca were also alone on the property that evening so if he did kill her

He had a lot of time to do it and could have happened at any time Also his 911 call raised a bunch of eyebrows because he knew Rebecca fairly well yet in the call He I got a girl, and then she hung herself. He also never mentioned during the Forish Minute Call that Rebecca had her hands tied. Now regarding the knife he says he used to cut Rebecca down after he found her dead, that knife didn't have any of his DNA on it, and his DNA wasn't anywhere at the scene either, so this evidence could point to him cleaning the scene. And when you look at what we're calling the crime scene and say his DNA wasn't there, this makes us think that he wasn't at the scene, but the fact that the knife didn't have

his DNA on it and he said he used it to cut her down, that makes the whole scene look super suspicious, but his DNA should have been on that knife. Yeah, I mean there's no way around that. If he did use that knife to cut her down, his DNA would undoubtedly be on that knife. And something else I want to mention that I noticed, so in the 9-1-1 call, Adam says, same place you got the kid yesterday. Now this call took place at 6.48am on July 13th. Max was picked up from the house to go to the hospital just after 10am on July 11th. So almost 48 hours earlier, aka, two days

ago, not yesterday. And the reason I bring this up is because you know how when it's past midnight and you're still awake and you refer to the previous day as today, because it's still technically today for you since you haven't gone to bed. So since he said yesterday, I wonder if he said this because to him it was yesterday since he hadn't gone to bed yet because he was up all night after killing Rebecca. And that might be a stretch and maybe the stress of the whole thing confused him and he got the days mixed up, but I do wonder about that. And before we dive more into the suspicion surrounding Adam, I want to touch on Jonah

and Dina's reaction to hearing about Rebecca's death. So as we said, Adam had texted Jonah, but then they had a phone call. When Jonah returned to Dina and Max's side at the hospital, Jonah told Dina that Rebecca had killed herself, and according to Dina, he then made the motion of stabbing himself in the stomach. Dina asked why, and Jonah said, Asian honor. And that afternoon when investigators interviewed Jonah, he said, she comes from a true Asian background. They just look at things differently in terms of responsibility. This is Rebecca's partner of a couple years, and he is very matter-of-factly stating why Rebecca killed herself, and it's interesting that he said she killed herself because of

her Asian background, yet her Asian family did not agree. And in fact, her sister Mary said that, as Protestant Christians, not only would she not kill herself, but she would never do so nude as Asian people are typically very modest. And Rebecca was known to be more modest and would never be nude in public. She did however sleep naked because of an allergy she had, is very uncomfortable for her to sleep clothed. So this led her sisters and family to believe that she was killed after falling asleep nude in bed, or while she was in the shower.

And I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, but I'm thinking about this, if you were going to commit suicide, I feel like it would feel embarrassing to a person to do so well nude. You know, that's the thing is, with suicide, there's so endless possibilities. Everybody has done everything pretty much throughout history, so it's not impossible. No, not at all. But I hear you, and that's exactly what her family was saying. They're like none of the details of it makes sense to them. So the fact that Jonah is saying, oh yeah, you know, Asian honor, she did this like matter of factly, it's like what? Right, like it's part of some

tradition for her to do something like this. And it was he's the way he said it and Motioning stabbing himself in the stomach like it's very insensitive anyway because if she did you know end her own life That's still incredibly insensitive To say about anyone let alone your partner of multiple years right to make that motion just seems not very like empathetic about Your partner and her death. So although the whole conversation with police was based around why Rebecca would have killed herself, and everyone pretty much agreeing that this was the conclusion, at the end, Jonah asked, do I need protection?

I.e. does he need a lawyer? Rebecca's ex-husband, Neil, was cleared early on from any suspicions, even though he and Rebecca remained very close even after their split. And Neil wasn't anywhere near the scene when she died. The crime scene was completely botched because not only did they leave Rebecca's body lying in the sun for hours, but they also failed to take samples from potentially key items in the house, including a glass of clear liquid in the home, amongst many other things. The medical examiner placed Rebecca's time of death at around 3am, but because her

body was left out for many hours in the hot July sun before her autopsy, it's hard to know if we can trust that timeline. There was also a drop of blood as well as hair found in the shower of the master bathroom, but this was never tested. This was in a completely other section of the house from where Rebecca was found, so this looks very suspicious. And crazy enough, police never tested this DNA. I don't understand why they didn't do that. Well, that's the thing is, so many things were done wrong. We cover a lot of cases where

the crime scenes are botched, but this one's really disappointing because automatically in their minds they're like hanging, suicide. They did obviously take some samples, but they did not take nearly as many as they should have. And blood is pretty important. Yeah, and like you said, you know, this case is teetering between the two, between suicide and homicide, so it's like, you have to be very, very clear with evidence. Especially in this situation, there was never any evidence suggesting anyone else in the house blood that day. So does that mean that Rebecca really was hit in the head and killed by someone and that

it was mostly cleaned up. Since the suicide ruling prevented a criminal trial, the Zahau family filed a wrongful death suit against Adam Shacknye, the man the Zahau's believe were truly behind Rebecca's death. Many years passed as they tried to get organized and prove that Rebecca did not take her own life, but that she was murdered. And on February 28, 2018, a civil trial began in a San Diego courtroom. By the way, the differences in a civil trial versus a criminal trial requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, as well as a unanimous verdict.

There was, like, somewhat proof of a struggle inside the home, including an overturned share. There's a house attorney painted a picture for the courtroom, and here it is. Rebecca was getting out of the shower and was wrapped in a towel, and Adam confronted her, but things went south. And as Rebecca attempted to escape to her art studio guest room, a struggle ensued, the chair got overturned in the process, and Rebecca ran to the balcony where she screamed for help. Rebecca had bruising on her back, and attorney Greer believed that that occurred during her

struggle with Adam, who then struck her four times in her head, rendering her unconscious. Adam then bound her arms and feet, sexually assaulted her with the handle of a knife, and then painted the message on the guest room door. Now having paint on his hands, he pinched Rebecca's nipples which left some paint residue. And by the way, on Rebecca's body there were traces of black paint on her nipples as well as on the rope, yet not on the gag suggesting the gag had already been in place. So again, this is fully speculation, this is the attorney saying, this is probably what happened to her, but of course, we don't know for sure. There were two knives found on the floor of the guest room, and one of those knives

had Rebecca's hand print on it. But the way that the print was made, it was as if the knife was facing her while she was holding it. Attorney Greer pointed out that it was as if she was attempting to cut her hands free from the robe. Furthermore, there was blood found on one of the knives, and it proved to be blood from Rebecca's menstruation, and at the time of her death she was menstruating. So not only is there believed to be proof that she was sexually assaulted, but then they discovered this, which is obviously huge. However, the defense tried to paint the picture that there was actually not trauma to her vagina,

meaning that she was not sexually assaulted. Rebecca's handprints were found on a door jam as well as on a bedpost, and they were in such a position where she wouldn't normally have made them standing, but rather if she was crawling on the ground. So this obviously looks suspicious. And then speaking of the bedpost, the red rope was tied to the leg of the guest bedpost and led out to the balcony that Rebecca was hung from, so the rope is tied to this bedpost leg and it's leading out the window. Exactly, so if you were thinking that she was potentially hanging from the rails of the balcony or something like that, she wasn't.

The rope was tied to the bedpost inside the room that the balcony was attached to, and regarding the sexual assault. So the second autopsy, the pathologist came to the conclusion that he believed that she was sexually assaulted. But if you think that she was sexually assaulted, that leads you to believe that she was murdered, because often times, especially cases we discuss, the victims sometimes are sexually assaulted prior to the murder. So with her menstrual blood being on that knife, that kind of coincides with my personal theory that she was.

But the defense obviously was working very hard to make the courtroom believe that she wasn't to prove that she committed suicide and that Adam was not responsible for her death. Right, and the prosecution wasn't able to prove that Adam had physically done anything to her body with his body. Right, because of lack of DNA. Exactly. But if you kind of look at the pieces of the puzzle, like the menstrual blood being on the knife, it's very concerning, like that, kind of paints a picture of what could have happened. So anyway, there were many tests done to see how much the bed would have moved from the wall.

If Rebecca had tied herself to the bed and fallen off the balcony to her hanging death, and ultimately, it was determined that Rebecca's 100-pound body would have caused the bed to move significantly if she had really died that way. But when the bed was discovered, it was only a few inches away from the wall. They tested this theory using many different weighted punching bags and different weights and kept the weight of the bed in mind, and one of Rebecca's family's attorneys came to the conclusion that the scene had to have been staged based on the lack of movement of that bed. And again, since Adam had supposedly cut Rebecca down before police came, we can't

say for sure that she ever really was hanging there. And the lack of broken vertebrae coincides with this theory. But of course, this is Rebecca's family's attorney's conclusion, so it's probably pretty biased, but I thought that was really interesting that they did do those tests. However, the floor of the balcony was dusty, and the only prints on the balcony were bare footprints in a V shape that were believed to be Rebecca's. This led the defense to try and prove that Rebecca was the only one on that balcony that night, and that she went over it on her own.

Attorney Greer pondered why Adam would have needed to stand on a table to cut Rebecca down because he was tall enough to be able to do so without standing on a table. In Adam's defense team painted this picture in a pretty vile way. Into the courtroom, they brought an $8,000 sex doll that was altered to look just like Rebecca. It was a terrifyingly realistic life-size nude and bound doll just as Rebecca was with long black hair and a very similar face. And they used this in the courtroom as their way of kind of reenacting

how everything went down, and it was extremely upsetting to a lot of people. We posted a photo of this as well, of course. It just looks so real. It's very disturbing. I totally understand why there was an uproar about this because it's pretty gross. As we mentioned earlier,

there was no pornography found on Adam's computer in the guest house, but one of the computers inside the mansion had more than a dozen searches of sexual content including terms like raped, sexy Asian girls, and bondage anime. These were accessed the day before Rebecca died. It has never been conclusively discovered who accessed this pornography, but it's hard to ignore the parallels of how Rebecca, an Asian woman, was found bound and dead and possibly sexually assaulted. Also, we mentioned earlier, there was duct tape residue on Rebecca's ankle, potentially hinting to her almost being tied with duct tape, but then, wrote being used instead. his ankle, potentially hinting to her almost being tied with duct tape, but then, wrote

being used instead. Regarding the theory behind what the message, she saved him, can you save her? Means? We couldn't find any clear theories online about what this could really mean, so, to anybody's guess. So, as we mentioned earlier, a handwriting expert felt that the handwriting matched Adams fairly well. He also compared the writing in trial and felt the A's leaned to the left like Adams did,

whereas Rebecca's leaned to the right. The M's had a long last leg and Adams M's did that as well. Rebecca was only 5 foot 3 and the message was quite high on the door. Adam was about 5 foot 10 so the handwriting expert also felt like Rebecca would have had a difficult time writing this message at the height that it was written at. But at the same time, the handwriting expert noted that he couldn't conclusively determine that the handwriting was Adam's in particular, but more so that it likely wasn't Rebecca's. On April 4, 2018, a verdict was reached after three and a half hours of deliberation. The jury found Adam Shacknite guilty of battering Rebecca's house before her death with the

intent to harm her, and they found him liable for her wrongful death with a vote of 9-3. This account family was awarded $5 million in damages for Rebecca's death, as well as $167,000 for the financial support that she would have given her parents and younger siblings had she not died. As the verdict was read, Adam hung his head and later stated that the case was a hoax perpetrated by this house family attorney, Keith Greer. So obviously, he was very upset by this verdict because he maintained his innocence the whole time. On July 16th, so about five days after Max had his critical injury and 3 days after Rebecca's death, Max Shacknide died from the brain damage that he suffered due to oxygen deprivation from his injuries.

Then, 10 days after that, investigators ruled his death an accident, stating that he must have somehow tripped and fallen. But a trauma doctor who examined Max's body both before and after his death told police that he did not believe his injuries were consistent with cardiac arrest and brain swelling but rather more consistent with him being suffocated prior to his fall. And we think it's important to mention this but are in no way saying that Rebecca suffocated him, pushed him off of the banister or tried to make his death look like an accident. But it's very interesting that he and Rebecca's cases have some pretty strange similarities.

And almost exactly two years after Rebecca died, her father Robert died at the age of 80. Rebecca's older sister Mary said that he never recovered at all from her death, and that he died from a broken heart. As we mentioned, Rebecca was known as the glue in the family. Her father died in his home, so he never saw the results of the trial that came five years later. Something many wonder about in this case is if Dina, Nina, Adam, and Jonah wondered if Rebecca had killed Max herself.

Because Nina was very suspicious of Max's death. And since Rebecca wasn't tied to any of them in a biological way, she was kind of the outsider. Nina stated that Max wasn't a daredevokid and he wasn't the type to swing from chandeliers or be reckless, so they wondered if Rebecca either accidentally killed Max or purposefully did it and then tried to cover it up. Therefore one of them, or all of them, may be plotted to kill Rebecca. And Dina looked like a pretty good suspect because not only did Jonah divorce her after meeting Rebecca, but then her only son died under her care.

Also, an eyewitness reportedly saw a dark-haired woman who looked like Dina on the porch the night that Rebecca died. However, surveillance video at the hospital put both Jonah and Dina there all night, and Nina's alibi was also confirmed. Dina has since come forward and stated that she doesn't believe Rebecca killed Max either on accident or on purpose. She and Nina also don't believe Rebecca killed herself and wonder if Adam knows more than he's leading on. But they don't necessarily feel he's responsible because they don't believe that he knew her long enough to hate her. But they do wonder. Dina noted that after Rebecca's death went public, Jonah hired two armed bodyguards, and this confused her a lot.

She asked why he would need guns for the media, and this made her wonder if someone was trying to send Jonah a message. As we know, Jonah was very successful, and Dina thinks that Max and Rebecca's deaths are linked. And to kind of piggyback on this, when Rebecca began dating Jonah, her coworker at the time googled him and tried to tell Rebecca how wealthy he was, and Rebecca's response was, I don't want to know. She just really didn't seem to care about that. She was very trusting, and this is why she also didn't lock her doors, not even the

ones in the mansion. When her sister Snowom asked why, Rebecca said, no one's going to rob you. Everyone leaves their doors open here. So was Adam really responsible for Rebecca's death? Did she end her own life or did someone who has gone completely unnoticed? Kill 32-year-old Rebecca Zahal. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Rebecca Zahal. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. At the end of the day, this case is just so sad of overall. I mean, two lives were lost, one who was only six, and the other was just 32.

And I know there are a ton of different theories in this case because of how many questions there really are, but we'd love to know what you guys think. I think there's a lot going against Adam, but I also think it's interesting that, you know, Dina thinks that both Max and Rebecca could have been killed by someone else entirely. I just wish that there was more hard evidence in this case so that we knew for sure what went down that night because Rebecca's family deserves to know. Yeah, I mean, I completely agree with you. Thank you guys so much for listening, and again, thanks for dealing with Heath Beansick

and us not being in a legit studio, and thanks for listening as always. Yeah, hopefully the quality wasn't too terrible. Also thank you guys so much for being patient all the patrons who we couldn't shout out last week. We're gonna do that now. Thank you so much everybody who has joined in the last couple weeks. It means a lot when you guys join, we have a bunch of new bonus episodes coming this month

for you guys that Heath is working on now. So thank you so much everybody who goes and joins patreon.com slash going west podcast. Yeah, we got to give those shout out So big shout out going out to Jennifer Jordan. Thank you Lisa Jennifer Donna Randy and Molly. Thank you so much Shania, Chris, Freddie, Marianne, Jennifer lots of Jennifer's Yeah, thank you Dana. Thank you, Jess, Lexi, and Bri. And a big thanks going out to Lindsay,

Torrin, Rachel, Monica, Rebecca, Meredith, Joey, and April. Thank you so much to Haley, Sarah, Julie, Michelle. Thank you to Risa, Steve, Shauna, and Ingun. Big thanks going out to Christina, Kristen, Beth, Courtney, Rachel, Heather, Allison, Drew Lana. Thank you to Casey. Thank you Liz, Caitlin, and Megan. And last but not least, thank you so much to Cindy, Cassandra, Rachel, Erin, Rose, thank you Jen, Leon, Kathleen, Amber and Crystal.

Thank you guys so much, sorry that we rushed through those, but we appreciate every last one of you and it means so much that you joined our Patreon community. Yeah, you guys are absolutely amazing. We love having you over there. And if you're interested in getting some bonus episodes, head over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. All right guys so for everybody out there in the world cheerio and don't be a stranger Thanks for watching!