Rotten Mango - #136: “She Saved Him, Can You Save Her?” (The Case of Rebecca Zahau)

Episode Date: February 3, 2022

You might think her life is perfect. Millionaire boyfriend, $13million dollar mansion, and a cute dog. But behind closed doors it was rough - her boyfriend’s ex-wives hated her, she fought with his teenage kids all the time and spent a lot of her time babysitting his youngest child. One day under her care - the little boy ends up unconscious and is rushed to the hospital. Nobody blames her though - or do they? Because just 2 days later she is found dead with the words “she saved him, can you save her?” scribbled on the door. Book Rec: “Death On Ocean Boulevard” - by Caitlin Rother (Yes, there’s a ton of info on this case but this is the best deep dive you will find). Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at $12.99 per month. Butta Bingba. Welcome to this week's episode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue, and let's talk about it.

You might think that she is the perfect life. A multi-millionaire CEO, boyfriend, living in a $13 million mansion in San Diego. Yeah, $13 million. $13 million. What is there not to love? But behind closed doors, you get the drill. It wasn't a perfect life. It wasn't easy. Her new boyfriend had two ex-wives and one of them hated her guts. He also had these teenage kids that despised her for being 20 years younger than their own father, and they were constantly fighting. Yeah, she was fighting with his teenage kids. The only one in the family that seemed to accept her was her boyfriend's youngest child,

Max. But while she's babysitting him one day, he ends up unconscious on the floor with shards of glass all over him. I mean, it looked like he fell from the second floor railing and landed on the ground on his back and now he's not breathing. He's knocked out. She starts panicking. She does CPR. She waits for the ambulance. He gets rushed to the hospital, but things are not looking good. His heart had stopped for 20 minutes. He would be there for days and while the doctors try to save his life, his parents were by his side, and Rebecca, she was alone in this mansion.

This mansion that wasn't hers. Or was she alone? Because two days after Max's fall, she would be found dead. With the words, she saved him, can you save her? Skribbled in black paint on the door. As always, full show notes are available at Rottenminglepodcast.com and there's a ton of sources on this door. As always, full show notes are available at rottenminglepodcast.com. And there's a ton of sources on this case. I mean, this is probably one of the most,

which is the word like most well known true crime cases out there. This is the case of Rebecca Zau and the Spreckles mansion. There's, you know, a really good oxygen special. There's a Reddit user who had really good, I think like a five-part write-up series where she was actually reached out to buy oxygen to talk about the case. There's also a book called Death on Ocean Boulevard

by Caitlin Rother, and she is this amazing, award-winning investigative journalist. She's the best-selling author on top of that, and she did a ton of research for this case. I mean, this is a monster of a case. There's so much information, so many theories, so much truth to be separated from like the muddying conspiracies all over the internet. She was even harassed by the people involved in this case. Like straight up, she was bullied on emails by the people

directly involved. And honestly, she went up against some really scary people to make this book happen because we're not dealing with regular people in today's case. We are dealing with very wealthy families, with seemingly something to hide. Allegedly, don't sue me. Caitlin also interviewed law enforcement, witnesses in this case, and she actually went through a traumatic incident that kind of connected her on this deeper level with the families. And it just really adds a unique compassionate perspective to the whole thing. I know I feel like you might think that you know everything about this case, and I thought so too,

because I did so much research on this case before, and then I picked up a copy of Caitlin's book, expecting the same information. So we talked about this in a mukba, like long time ago, and then her book came out and I was like, oh, I'm gonna give it a read because I've always been obsessed with this case, and I've always wanted to know a little bit more,

and I thought I thought I was gonna get the bare minimum like the same information It's the most deep dive Therobok you're gonna get I highly recommend it go give it a read Now let's get into the main story it all starts with Rebecca's out and I guess maybe the story starts with her parents Right, they were both from Myanmar, and her dad Robert was actually a tribal leader there. So this is where Rebecca is born. And later, Robert was a way on vacation in Thailand.

Like he was a way for a vacation, or not a vacation, a business trip. And during this time, members of the parliament in Myanmar, they were shot in a government coup. And when he comes back, they're like, oh, we missed one, there's Robert. We're not gonna kill you, but we're gonna throw you in prison for nine years,

just because you were part of the old government. You didn't even do anything wrong, you didn't even break any laws, but just like get your butt in jail or die. So he spends nine years in prison. I mean, think about the psychological damage that's gonna have on like all of his loved ones. After prison, Robert gets released,

and the family kind of finds themselves as a bit of a target. They were terrified. All of these people are looking at them, they're scared. So they relocate towards the border near India. And eventually, they migrate to Nepal as political refugees. Was it safer? Yeah, but it wasn't much better.

So the whole family, they didn't really have any money, they didn't really have any means of getting food. They saved every little breadcrum that they had and not to eat these little breadcrumbs But they would set it and scatter it on their dining table Just piece by piece one here one there and they would open their windows and wait Slowly not all the time, but sometimes on a happy occasion Not all the time, but sometimes on a happy occasion, a pigeon would find its way through the window into the house to eat a breadcrum.

And the kids and the parents would pounce. They would jump out from the shadows and try to catch this frantic, flapping bird because they needed something to eat. Like, this is how desperate they were. They had no food. So yeah, life is not easy for this family. And when Rebecca was probably six or seven years old

It only gets worse. So there was this local Christian group that she had joined and it was called youth with a mission and Rebecca and her two sisters they they would go to the Dean's house, I guess at the Dean's request So he would ask Rebecca's parents can the girl sleep over because I want to Do Christian things with them, right? And like, just Christian bonding. And the girls would come home looking scared, depressed, traumatized. And the parents would be like, what's wrong? What's wrong?

They would open up and they said that the dean was always sexually assaulting them during the sleepovers. But the parents, I mean, they listened to this, and they felt like they couldn't stop it. They couldn't even stop from sending their daughters, they felt like they would be in trouble if they refused. So I don't know if they were depending on the church for food, money, shelter, maybe. I don't know. Maybe the local group had so much power that if you piss off the dean, then bad things happen to you, maybe your refugee status is at stake,

I imagine that there's gotta be something because how could a parent send their kids, continually send their kids knowing that they're gonna come back sexually assaulted and traumatized? So I feel like there's gotta be something. So for a while there, I mean, they just come sending the kids,

and Mary, the elder sister, she stepped up to the plate, and she said, I can't do this. I can't watch my two younger sisters get sexually assaulted, so she volunteered to go to these sleepovers by herself. And so Rebecca and her other sister could just stay at home and they did not have to endure it.

Now, the sisters never really opened up about much of this abuse. I can assume and imagine that it affected them a lot. And by the time that Rebecca is 16, the family finally relocates to Germany, again, as political refugees. And that's where Rebecca finishes high school. She even went to Austria to finish college. She was a very, very educated woman.

Like she was very intelligent and just kind of smart, like a go-getter. And that's where she meets her first husband by the name of Neil Nellepp. I think Nellepp, I can't pronounce it. And this is in 2001, and Neil is four years older than her, and he's originally from Long Island, New York. He finds his way in Austria, and he meets Rebecca, and they just hit it off. I mean, they must have,

because within six months of dating, he proposes to her. He's like, will you marry me? Be the love of my life. He even travels to Germany to meet Rebecca's parents and gets their permission for Rebecca's handed marriage and everyone's excited. They've got this little cute ceremony going on.

It was beautiful. But afterwards, Neil is like, I gotta go back home to New York, Long Island. Do you wanna come with me? And she's like, wait, we just got married. And now you wanna go to, okay, I mean, I guess I have to, right? I mean, I wanna be with you.

So yeah, let's move to Long Island, New York. So in 2002, she ends up in New York. And it was pretty rough. Like, she could not find much work. She started doing whatever job she could find. She worked at a local Starbucks and then at a gym. And then eventually, she started working as like this assistant then at a gym and eventually she started working as like this assistant for an eye doctor.

And that's where she really liked it. She was really learning like all the details of like how to be a good assistant. I mean she was really soaking it in. Meanwhile, Neil is having a really hard time. Like you could not hold down a job. Honestly, his work ethic wasn't great. Definitely nowhere near as Rebecca's and that just kind of started becoming this soft spot in their relationship. They fought over it all the time.

Neil was constantly begging Rebecca for what little money she had. He'd be like, listen, I know you're working hard, but can I get that money? I gotta do something. Hey, can I get some more cash? And since Rebecca is financially supporting this man, I guess he was kind of scared to lose her.

He starts becoming this obsessive and possessive man and he was overly jealous all the time. And this really starts to bother Rebecca. She's like, I mean, I give you money. I literally work all day. I come home, you can't even keep down a job and you refuse to put in the work and when I get home, you have the audacity to try and monitor every little thing that I do and every little person that I talk to. Like I'm literally working my butt for the both of us. Are you kidding?

I think anyone would have been fed up, right? But it wasn't just that. Neil started becoming kind of abusive. Well, at least that's what Rebecca told her sisters. Neil vehemently denies all of this. He's like, yeah, absolutely not. Like we didn't have a great relationship. It was a little bit toxic, but it was both ways never physical.

But Rebecca told her sisters that he tried to choke her and he even threatened to drive both of them off the bridge, which is really, that's terrifying. And later everyone was like, what the heck, Neil, why'd you say that? And his whole defense was, oh that? I mean, I didn't seriously mean like, drive off the bridge with her in the car.

I mean, I don't know, I was just trying to express the pain. It's merely a figure of speech. Yeah, because that's a very common thing to say, get in my car, I'm gonna drive both of us off the bridge. So it's kind of alarming stuff. So after breakup, after breakup, because they were in like this really tumultuous on and off relationship. In 2004, the couple decides, let's try to get. But this time, we're going to move from New York to sunny California. I mean, come on, think about it.

That sun is only going to make each other like just happier. We're going to love each other more. We're going to go surfing. That's love. So they moved to this small town called Temecula and they just wanted to focus on their future as a family. Rebecca immediately gets a job working as an eye doctor assistant. Meanwhile Neil starts volunteering as a youth pastor and at this point Rebecca has a miscarriage. So she's just going through a lot like mentally, emotionally, physically and I'm not sure

that Neil was the best support system because that's when she runs into a Michael Berger. So she's working this booth at a charity race for cancer awareness and Michael's there and his mom had breast cancer and he's like there to support his mom, right? And I think immediately Michael's very just attracted to Rebecca. He's like this martial arts instructor.

He's six, one, super fit, weighed about 200 pounds. Like this guy is all about health and fitness. He loved Chinese medicine. So he had a doctorate in traditional Chinese medicine and he was even a licensed acupuncture practitioner. And boy did he love quote, Asian culture. Whatever that means, I think all of Asia, all the cultures. Because you know, there's so many, right?

He claimed that he did a DNA test and he had some Asian in him so like you know make sense he can love Asian culture and particularly properly Asian woman to all his hearts liking because he had a percentage of Asian in him right so anyways he spots Rebecca and he's like wow love, love it first sight. And a lot of men were instantly taken by Rebecca. She was beautiful. She was also very conventionally attractive to most men. So she was super petite, super athletic. She was 25 years old, which I mean, why does that matter?

Well she's half of Michael's age, which nothing's wrong with that age gap, right? But Michael's just super excited. That's kind of how it all starts. But after Michael starts talking to Rebecca at the booth, he realizes that she's a lot more than just good looks. She was fluent in six languages, including English and German. On top of that, she was very health conscious. And Michael loved that she was very soft-spoken.

Sorry, that's why I said that whole should be about Michael in Asian culture. Okay, the words that he chooses are very, you know, interesting. So she's very soft spoken and feminine and he really loves that about her. So he invites her out to dinner and she's like, yes, I would love to. And at this point, he has no idea that Rebecca is actually still married to Neil. So they go on this all first date at this nice restaurant in Glendale, California. And they're just really clicking. Their jokes are flowing.

They have the same interests, the same values, but then Michael looks up. And there's just your streaming down Rebecca's face, just bawling. And he's like, what? We weren't even talking about anything serious. Like what's going on? Are you okay?

Why are you crying? This is still their first date. Yeah, their first date. And she's like, well, I just feel so happy. And I haven't felt this happy in a very long time. And so he gives her a hug and he says, it's okay, it's okay. And he said, as he's hugging her, he feels like he's really falling in love with this woman.

Like I know that he just met, but like she's like a damsel in distress, soft spoken feminine, Asian love it, right? He's like, damsel in distress, soft spoken feminine, Asian, love it, right? He's like, I got you, okay? Whatever you need, I love it. I mean, maybe we're being a little bit too cynical, maybe it was that she was very honest and vulnerable and she just loved being happy. Maybe that's fair.

So this is a really strange thing that happens in their relationship. At first, everything's going well. She's like on her hands and knees cleaning. And then all of a sudden, she just vanishes. April 25th, 2005. She usually leaves her work at like 8 a.m. Comes home around 5 p.m. I mean, this is like an eye doctor's clinic.

This is not a changing schedule. It's only like one shift. This doesn't make any sense. So that day, she doesn't come home. And at first, Michael's not worried, but five turns into six and then to seven. And he's like, well, she's not really close with five turns into six and then to seven. He's like, well, she's not really close with her colleagues, but maybe she went out to go

get some drinks. Maybe on her way, she went shopping, on her way home, and he's thinking all these thoughts and he's trying to calm himself down. He makes it through the night. He doesn't fall asleep though. And the next morning, she's still not home. He's like, okay, this is getting weird now. He calls work. Hi, do you know where Rebecca is? Oh, is this Neil? We were gonna ask you, she never came in for work yesterday or today. So now he starts panicking and he reports

her missing to the police and he's anxiously just pacing around the house when he gets a phone call. Oh my God, it's Rebecca. Rebecca, where are you? And she sounds like she's shaken, she's crying and she says, I don't know where I am. What do you mean you don't know where you are? They took me. Who took you?

I don't know. I don't know. Well, look around. What do you see? I don't know. They have something over my eyes. I can't see anything. The only reason I was able to call you

is because they let me use the bathroom. And before you can respond, she says, I can't talk and hangs up. What? So Michael immediately calls the police. And for the next few days, yes, days, Rebecca keeps calling. And Michael records every single phone conversation and passes it off to the police. The gist of her calls was something along the lines of, she was being held by three men who put a blindfold over her and they were holding her hostage in a van driving her around Los Angeles. So he's frantically telling the police all of this and finally one officer says,

yeah, don't worry about it. She's fine. He's like, what are you saying? She's held hostage by three men and Los Angeles driving around in a van. What do you mean she's fine? She's not fine. I would say that's the furthest thing from fine. The officer is like, I don't want to be the one to tell you this, but we made contact with Rebecca and she's fine. So kind of implying like something shady is happening where maybe Rebecca isn't telling him the truth, so he's so confused. So after this conversation with the police officer, he goes back home and he's still getting calls from Rebecca asking for help that she's being held hostage.

But then on that last phone call, she very ominously tells him, you're not gonna see me anymore ever again. What? What do you mean? What the hell is going on, Rebecca? Just tell me where you are. Tell me what's going on.

You're not gonna see me anymore. You're not gonna see me anymore. And Michael felt like it was as if Rebecca was like reading off a script. It just didn't sound natural. Well, who's making you say all of this? Hello, is someone making you say this? Ow, stop it. It hurts. Ow.

Wait, are you talking to me? What's going on? No. And at this point, Michael goes full on taken, Liam Neeson. He feels like the abductors can hear him. So he shouts, listen, I don't know who you are, but I know you're holding Rebecca against her will.

Are you better let her go right now or else? And then a man's voice comes on the line. I know where you live. And the phone hangs up. So very suspicious. A couple minutes later, Rebecca calls back and says, hey, listen, I need to know that you understand that it's over between us. I'm going to get back with Neil.

So she's implying that she was like, kidnapped by Neil. And after three days of radio silence, the police don't want to help Michael because according to them, Rebecca is fine. And it just felt like straight out of the movie for Michael. And then there, on his doorstep, on the third day, was Rebecca. He's like, oh my god, what happened? Like, what's going on? Well, they took me.

Who took you? And at first she doesn't really want to tell him. So he keeps pushing, like, come on, it's okay. I know you can trust me. Just tell me what happened. Okay, fine. I was on my way to work that morning when Neil and these two guys they completely ambushed me, broke the window of my car.

They dragged me out. They put a blindfold over my eyes and they stuffed me in a van. And he's like, yeah, no, like I don't know what you have to say, but we're gonna go to the police right now. Right this second, you have to report this, this is crazy. She says, no, I can't, I don't have a visa. They're gonna deport me, I don't wanna get deported. So Michael's not having it. He practically drags her to the station and she comes out within like 20 minutes.

And he's like, what did you tell them what happened? Everything? All the details? Yeah, I did. And they didn't really say anything. I told them that I was also scared because I didn't have a visa. And they just laughed and said, do you know how many people in California don't have visas? And Michael was like, wait, what? So he's beyond to throw it off by this whole thing. Like her tone, her reaction, it was odd. But he thinks, you know, that's fine. Maybe she has a weird way of coping.

Maybe she's trying to find the humor and the lightness in this situation. So he doesn't, you know, he doesn't try to over-analyze the situation. They go back to their regular lives and at least for a few days. But then she disappears again. But this time she calls him and she says that she willingly

on her own free will went to Portland, Oregon because she needs some space to clear her head. And he was like, about what? I just need some space. I'm really confused. I'm really stressed right now. And I think the one that I love is you and I think I know that and I want to be with you but this is just temporary.

So she's just like in Portland to clear her head. I mean, I'm sure Michael's thinking, okay, well a few days alone won't hurt. She'll be back. But days turn into weeks and Michael starts getting impatient. He keeps asking her, okay, so when are you coming back? And she would just say, I don't know, I just seen more time. More weeks go by and then it turns into months. And finally, he breaks up with her over the phone.

He takes it as a sign, I can't wait for you. Honestly, Rebecca was emotional, but she would later tell her older sister. I mean, I just ghosted the guy because I just want to make it work with Neil again. And the truth is, like, each time that she disappeared, she was with Neil. She even went to Portland, Oregon with Neil for vacation.

What? So Neil had found out that she was cheating on him, and I guess if you call it cheating, because they were technically like off at that point, but he said that they needed to move so that she wouldn't be around Michael. So they moved to Portland, Oregon. But their relationship didn't get better.

In fact, it got worse. And at some point, it got so aggressive and so scary that police had been called. Instead of addressing their problems, they're like, you know what, maybe it's at Portland there, we need to move again. So they pack up and move to Pennsylvania. They're like, it's going to be different this time.

Niels going back to school, they're going to get two separate apartments, and they're going to live apart, but still be dating. So maybe we need that space so we can pretend like we just started dating again. We can pick each other up, stay at each other's place, like all of that fun stuff. And at first it goes really well, but then Rebecca would find someone else. So their relationship was just toxic. I mean it was toxic in, frickin' New York, California, Portland, and now Pennsylvania. And then eventually Neil moves to Colorado, and Rebecca follows follows him and it's just more toxicness.

And in 2009 Rebecca broke the law for the first time. She went out shopping and I guess she had purchased a few things. She had these very big shopping bags on her. She's lugging them around. And at Macy's, she sees this beautiful piece of jewelry. And I guess she couldn't afford it. I mean, it was $1,000. So she slips it into one of her shopping bags, goes into the Macy's bathroom, takes off the tag, threw it in the trash,

but she didn't know that security had been watching her this whole time. The minute that she started walking out with the jewelry, okay, they follow her, and they grab her arm, and they say, we gotta wait for the police to come. They went all out on her. She was charged with a class 6 felony. She was facing 6 to 18 months in jail.

She was fined up to $150,000, so she pled guilty. And she told the judge that she knew what she did was wrong. And she wasn't even really sure why she did it. She takes full responsibility for her actions and she's really sorry. And I guess the judge felt bad for her. And since it was her first offense, they only gave her a $500 fine and no jail time. But she did have to take a course on shoplifting. And so around this time, she tried to officially end it with Neil and she gets a new boyfriend. Now this one is important.

His name was Jonah Shacknye. And Jonah was a CEO who was worth millions and millions and millions of dollars. He is like in-com taxes for that year that they started dating with somewhere around like the 20 million ballpark. So this guy is very wealthy. Rebecca had no idea of any of that though. So he owned a pharmaceutical company. Yes. Oh yeah.

And he came in to get an appointment at the clinic that she was working at, and during the exam, the two of them flared it a little bit. And he asked her out, and she said, yes. So who's this Jonah Shackney guy? Well, I mean, he was born into this upper-middle-class family. His dad was a businessman. So he taught his kids work hard, strive for success, point blank, like that's what you need in life.

Jonas Mother was a teacher and a guidance counselor, so he really had this really good foundation to start off with. I think that he was pretty privileged ever since he was young, and even in high school, he was set to have an entrepreneurial spirit. He did well in school, he got good grades, he did extra curriculars, his parents taught him to work hard, so he even got a part-time job after school at a local ice cream shop. There's this one really fascinating detail about his high school life.

So this guy was part of the school newspaper, and he was suspended for a cartoon that he did, like he published. It was a political cartoon essentially, and it was one of the teachers basically laundering $60,000. Listen, I don't know how the teacher's laundered the money or why or if they did or didn't or even how Jonah found out But he did and he exposed the teacher and instead of firing the teacher the school suspended Jonah He wasn't even mad. He just said well the truth needs to come out and that's why I did the cartoon and Everyone at school was shocked to find out that Jonah actually had a little brother, named Adam.

Because Adam was the complete opposite of Jonah. Adam's going to be so important later, okay? So Adam was not academically gifted like Jonah. He wasn't that driven. He wanted a work-life balance. Like he wanted to be in the great outdoors. He was laid back. He didn't want world domination.

He just wanted to take some hikes. After college, you know, Adam goes in a very different path, not in a bad way. Everyone described him as being a bit eccentric. He loved to write, and he met a woman at a party, who was 17 years older than him. And the two just hit it off. They were together for at least 20 years. They never got married. And if you asked her, like, why didn't you guys get married? She would say, I've been married before. And I think the only reason Adam and I have been together for this song is because we never got married.

But as laid back as Adam was, he was pretty aggressive when you first meet him. Like he cursed a lot. I feel like he might be the type that comes off kind of scary. If you don't know him, that's just the vibe that I'm getting. A bit socially awkward as well. Like a bit socially aggressive. And after high school school Jonah didn't really care to have that relaxed lifestyle

He didn't really care for hikes. He wanted to partake in capitalism and succeed in it He wanted to be at the top of the food chain So he goes to college in New York and then straight to Georgetown for his masters He was working during the day for US representative James Schuhr, and then during the night he was taking his classes. So at just 21 years old, Jonah was named Chief of Stafford James, and he was one of the youngest in Capitol Hill at the time. So this guy, I mean, he's showing a lot of promise. After he graduates, he becomes a senior partner at a DC law firm called Royer Shacknay and Mel, and his main job was to, you know, simple stuff, working as a strategic advisor to pharmaceutical clients.

That sounds really intense. I don't even know what the job description would be. I don't even think I could do 1% of it, and like, that's like copying papers, I'm sure. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's going to catch us? What a police.

It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're gonna want some drug dealers. And I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat?

100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Aut originals documentary podcast series, available now in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. And then he founded his own company called Medici's pharmaceutical corporation. They made Botox fillers. They sold various medications for skin conditions like psoriasis, eczema, hyperpigmentation, but also asthma. They then made an ultrasound wand that allegedly melted fat off your skin. I'm like, can I get one? I mean, this company was taking off. They're growing, expanding, expanding, and Jonas, like, I need to move to New York. And that's why he meets his first wife, Kimberly James, but she just went by Kim.

And their love story is like a movie. She was a pharmaceutical sales rep for the competing company against Jonah, but they fell in love. They get married and immediately their marriage was not off to a great start. Even during their honeymoon, Jonas said that he was rethinking their whole marriage. But for some reason, they stayed and had babies together. So a lot was going on during their time together. They were building this massive company. They moved everyone. Their entire company, all their employees to Arizona. They had two kids, Zina and Kevin, and at this point, they're making a ton of money. I mean, calculating inflation, they were making like $30 million a year. That's insane.

But their marriage was just beyond repair. So the two of them decided to call it quits. Well, that's a nice way of putting it, I guess. Word on the street is that Jonah actually met his second wife while he was still with Kim. But that's kind of up in the air. So after their divorce, he's like, oh, that's my new girlfriend. Dina, she's important. And then he later marries her. She was also a pharmaceutical sales rep,

and she came to work with him at Medici. So this guy has a way of dating, she's important. And then he later marries her. She was also a pharmaceutical sales rep, and she came to work with him at Medici. So this guy has a way of dating, I tell you. Jonah is like, this time I'm gonna live the life. So he decides to buy a cute little summer house. A beach house in San Diego. There was worth millions of dollars, okay? It's actually in Coronado, California.

It's called Coronado Island sometimes, but it's a peninsula. So it's connected to the mainland near San Diego, but it's just this super, super upper class neighborhood. So think like Balboa Island for OC. I mean, wealthy people, they don't even get their tan in California. No, they go to like St. Trope to get their tan.

Bora, Bora, that's what their tan is from. They own boats that are like parked right outside their multi-million dollar vacation homes and that's a vacation home. They're probably there like two weeks out of the year. Like these are the types of people we're talking about. So Jonah buys a beach house there and it's perfect because he has you know another kid with Zina and they can lounge about at the beach house and his name is Max Field but everybody called him Maxi or Max.

So from the outside, you might think that Jonah finally found the one. I mean, even from the outside, their marriage seemed amazing. So she would volunteer at nonprofits all the time. She loved helping kids with disabilities. Deena was passionate about helping children. She had kids in her family that had a child that was autistic. Her twin sister's child was autistic to be exact. And she was just really passionate about making sure that they were treated right in the world, that they were getting the resources that

they need. And because of this, she decided to go back into studying and become a child psychologist. Are you kidding me? Millionaire husband, loving, caring child psychologist, wife, like who just wants to volunteer all the time, this is the perfect fit. This is amazing. Do you know how much good she can do with all of his money? But looks are deceiving, because they were actually miserable. They both just had super different personality types.

So Dina like to work hard, but she loved to play hard, like she loved her weekends. She would stay up at night with her girls, she would drink, she would party. Meanwhile, Jonah hated this. It was the bane of his existence. He was like the whole wake up at 6 a.m. Go for a run on the beach, eat some toast, and then work for 12 hours straight type of energy. Like the two of them were constantly clashing into each other. Honestly, their marriage was probably worse than his first marriage with Kim. Because Dina and Jonah would even get physical into each other. Honestly, their marriage was probably worse than his first marriage with Kim.

Because Dina and Jonah would even get physical with each other. When the fights were really bad, they both filed domestic violence reports on one another. Jonah claimed that Dina would mix up her prescription pills in alcohol, and then would get mad at him, and attempt to choke him, like strangle him with her bare hands. And then Dina said that every time that they argued, Jonah would order his German shepherd to bite Dina. What in the...

So I mean, I don't know whose side is the truth because you know, things are getting really messy but things are not looking good. And it wasn't until Christmassy of 2008 that their marriage just officially fell apart. Dina and Maxi were visiting Dina's mom for the holidays and Jonah packed up all his things and left their family house. officially fell apart. Dina and Maxi were visiting Dina's mom for the holidays and Jonah packed up all his things

and left their family house. And one month later, after he filed for divorce, the cops would be called. Dina's version of events was that Jonah elbowed her in the breast very hard. Jonah said, no, no, that's not what happened. I was just trying to leave. She grabbed me through my car window

and started screaming, you can't leave me, you can't leave me, so I just tried to elbow her away, just so I could leave. I just wanted to get away from her. So like immediately, you're like, I know exactly how this divorce is going to be, it's going to be messy. The divorce lasted until October of 2009, that's when their divorce was finalized. This is about a week before he needs Rebecca. So at this point, Jonas Happier, he's doing really well for himself, still making that 25, 30 million a year.

He's doing a lot of things outside of work too. So he was the chairman of Delta Society that works with animals. He received an honorary doctorate degree from New York College of Pediatric Medicine. He won a national award for the Freedom Foundation of Valley Force. He was a scientific advisor to the National Institute of Arthur Rytis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. He was also a corporate community advisor to the New York Stock Exchange.

I don't know what any of this means. But this guy probably had a lot of plaques, like a lot of trophies, and they were probably in his office, good for him, you know? I gotta step up my game, but good for him. And so since he's crushing it, he had his main resident in Arizona, which he spent a lot of his time since that's where work is,

and he bought another beach house in Coronado, a better one, an upgrade. It was actually called Sprechle's Mansion, before he bought it, which is insane, because you know know when a house has a name You know, it's like worth more than all of us combined okay, so Spreckles mansion was 13 million dollars The house was fancy. It was actually considered a landmark in Coronado It was financed by John Spreckles who was the heir to one of California's wealthiest families at the time the Spreckles family They were sugar manufacturers. Really put the sugar and sugar daddy, okay?

Those John Sprekels. They were so rich that they even funded the famous Hotel Del Coronada. We saw it in San Diego. The red, I believe it's the red one. Another big landmark for the area. And the mansion was very much Italian Renaissance. Very fancy. The property was huge. The main house was three stories

tall. Then there was a detached guest house. This is in California, okay. There was a detached guest house. If you walk down the courtyard, then there was another building called the Caretakers Cottage. That's where like the staff live, so you never really have to see them, but they're there in case of emergencies. It also had a garage apartment, a basement, an attic, and just massive space. So Jonas living the life, newly divorced and he meets Rebecca and it was love at first sight. Jonas told all of his friends that first of all, she's beautiful. Sure, she's 20 years younger than me, but just listen, age is just a number, and our personalities are just perfect. Sure, she's 20 years younger than me, but just listen, age is just a number, and our personalities

are just perfect. She's obsessed with fitness, just like I am. We have a very similar diet, we're vegetarian, well she's pescatarian, but she's going to be vegetarian, and I'm vegetarian. And she loves working out, and you would even brag proudly. All of you have your little degrees and your master's degrees and your doctorates, but Rebecca is smarter than all of us combined. Yeah, she loves to read, she writes poetry, she's artistic, and Jenna was so smitten even

converted one of the guest rooms in the beach mansion into Rebecca's personal art studio. So that's kind of where she would create these beautiful paintings. Now remember this room for later. The only thing that Jenna noticed was that she did have a weird relationship with food. So whenever food had to be thrown away or trashed, Rebecca would get very emotional about it. It's probably because she grew up really poor and never had enough food, but he was thrown off.

So for example, they went to Hawaii together and they had these pineapples and these fruit and these other things that they were trying to bring back with them. And he was like, yeah, you're not going to bring that back to California. Are you getting me? And they were forced to throw it away. Rebecca started crying at the airport. Now this is understandable, but Jonah was like, you're too much. Like he was just like, wow, that's too much.

Why are you crying over pineapples? So I guess he kind of knew why she was upset, but never really addressed it or tried to talk to her about it was just like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And then another strange instance. Rebecca had shown up at Jonas play Super Shake It. And he's like, what's wrong? Everything okay? And she said, no, my, Neil, my ex, she, he just forced his way into my house and started

threatening me. He broke the glass frame of a picture that I was painting for you and he shoved my head, pinned me up against the wall and he was screaming at me. I ran away just to be safe. Now side note, she did not tell him that she was still legally married to Neil. So he doesn't know any of this. And he was just really worried about her. I think that they got a little bit closer after that because finally he was like, I need

you to introduce you to my kids, to my family, so that you can come over. If you're scared, I want you to be able to sleep over the night without you know, sneaking out. Now, this is a big deal because he's got kids. He's got kids with his first wife who are teenagers at this point, and Rebecca was nervous. She meets them for the first time, and it doesn't go well. Kids do not like her.

No, they do not. I mean, think about it. Your dad has another girlfriend. She's in her late 20s. You're probably like what, 16 at this point. Your dad is much older, your mom's older. I mean, you're not gonna like it. It's gonna be really hard to digest.

So the both of them, I mean, the teenage girl and Rebecca, they were really hostile towards each other. At one point, Jonah asked Rebecca to move in, and she did, but she moved right back out immediately, because there was so much tension between her and his kid. But eventually, Jonah talked to his daughter and Rebecca moved in. And it wasn't just the kids that weren't happy with this.

Even Jonah's first two wives hated Rebecca for some reason. The two first ex-wives, they used to hate each other. But I guess they joined forces because the enemy of my enemy is my friend, type of vibe, and they just got together all the time to talk about Rebecca behind her back. They found out what yoga classes she did and they would just show up. I mean, it seemed like a TV show. Exactly. It seemed like the only person other than Jonah in the family that liked Rebecca was Maxi. I mean, he was too young to understand all the fighting and the politics that was going on.

He's only 5 or 6 years old. Rebecca talks to him, Rebecca hangs out with him, so of course he's going to like Rebecca, which only made his mom Dina hate Rebecca more. But what can she do? Max is under Jonas custody, legally 50% of the time. So he's going to be seeing a lot of Rebecca. And Dina, she's just getting more curious, like, hmm, what is Maxie like her so much? And what type of person is watching my child for the other half of the time? So she being the protective mother that she is. I don't

even know if I could blame her. She gets a background check down on Rebecca. She hires a PI. Okay, that's a little much actually. And Dina's shook to the core. Immediately calls Kim and tells her you'll never believe it. Rebecca is still legally married and she's been arrested for shoplifting. So at first she didn't know what to do with this information, but allegedly it got to a boiling point when Dina claimed the family housekeeper brought her a pile of pictures.

And she said, hey, Dina, like, I don't know what to do with these. These are family photos of you and Max. And I just wanted to bring them to you. Wait, why? weren't these at the Sprechels house? Like, why are you bringing them to me? I mean, these are Max's pictures. Yeah, but Rebecca is trying to throw them away.

Allegedly, this was what happened. So now Dina with these pictures, I mean, she's pissed. So she goes up to Jonah and tells him everything about Rebecca. She's married, she was shoplifting, blah, blah, blah. And Jonah is so confused, because this just does not sound like the Rebecca that he knows. I mean, she's this nice radiant person. Why would she lie? So he sits her down, confronts her about everything, and honestly, her answers made sense. She was super stressed that day. Her brother had been sent to prison that day that she shoplifted. She didn't even know

why she did it. Like, that wasn't even her style of jewelry, I guess she was just so confused and frustrated and going through a hard time like her relationships were horrible, it was weird. It's like the one thing that she keeps thinking about and she feels so ashamed about it and honestly she has a lot of regrets. And then with Neil, I mean, she's too scared to divorce him. He's terrifying. I think that Jonah honestly believed everything she said, probably because it was the truth.

I mean, I feel like he really knew Rebecca at that point. And none of these answers sounded out of character. Like it sounded like it made a lot of sense. And now Dina has no choice but to go back to being civil with Rebecca, which like, I mean, how awkward is that? The ex-wife of the man that you're dating did a background check on you, like how are you just gonna hang how you gonna co-parent?

And then Dina starts getting peeved. She noticed that Max is starting to get fussy with food. So she investigates a little bit and finds out that Rebecca is obsessed with eating healthy and she's like pushing Max to eat healthier. Dina did not like this for two reasons. First of all, I mean, she's a child psychologist and this is too much.

You're like, you know, creating a bad relationship with food. And second of all, don't parent my child. This is my child, not yours. And then there was a specific incident that made everything worse. So Max was the super athletic kid. He played a ton of sports in school and one day was like a race. And he specifically asked Rebecca to be there. So of course she shows up at the school, and I guess he didn't tell his mom, because the mom is like, Rebecca, why the heck are you here? And Dina was there, and it's just really uncomfortable.

I'm sure Dina is embarrassed with all these other PTA moms. Like, think of all those domestic thriller shows where their moms are getting upset and their rain drovers, like, that's the vibe. And the two of them are just going at it the whole time. Dina and Rebecca, in front of everyone, in front of Max. And it really affected him because he always came in first, but that day he came in second.

He was just so distressed. At one point he starts crying after the race. So Rebecca scoops him up and says, Oh, my sweet baby, my sweet angel, don't cry. And Dina was enraged. So Rebecca scoops him up and says, Oh my sweet baby, my sweet angel, don't cry. And Dina was enraged. She started screaming, that's my son, put my son down, leave my son alone, he's my son.

Meanwhile, there's like faculty, parents, students, just all witnessing this and Max is witnessing this. Like, imagine how confusing it is. I mean, it was just really bad. So Dina went to Jonah and made him set some ground rules. Rebecca was no longer supposed to be at any school events. And she was actually an extra upset. I mean, I kind of understood Dina in this aspect

because when she was married to Jonah, he refused to let her come to any of the teenage kids like school events. What? Out of respect for his first wife and the mother of their children. So she's like, if you made me do that, and you had respect for your first wife, like, why can't you show me the same respect?

And I respected those boundaries, so what the heck is going on? And Jonah never really stepped in. He just let all the women fight it out. He was like, not really my big deal. I'm running a multi-million dollar pharmaceutical business like I had a lot on my plate. So he would just kind of take the back seat for all of this.

And then his friends kept telling him, you know, she's two decades younger than you. She, I'm just saying, be just be cautious. She might be looking at something else. She might be looking at some money. You know, you are a multi-multi-millionaire. You are CEO. You have to think about these things. And his friends said that Jonah would be annoyed because he never really believed in that.

Rebecca just was not a gold digger. It wasn't really her personality. So she still wanted to keep her job. She was really independent and they fought all the time. Like Rebecca stood her ground. I mean, you would think that if she's in it for the money, she would tone down some of the fighting and try to be more accommodating, but no. She was like, mm-hmm, this is what I believe

and I'm gonna fight to the death for it. Even Rebecca's sister said she would always tell them, trust me, no amount of money is worth what I'm going through with his family and his ex-wives. It's just, it's a lot. So I think really, I don't think she was in it for the money because he wasn't giving her all these lavish things. It wasn't one of the money because he wasn't giving her all these lavish things

It wasn't one of those setups. He wasn't buying her a lavish car and giving her his credit card like go at it None of that She was just in it for love and I guess everything started to work out because Rebecca started getting along with the teenage girls They would go shopping and they loved getting their nails together and Joe was so happy He was so ecstatic. He even suggested that Rebecca quit her job and take care of the family full time. He would pay her the same salary that she's making at her job and he would pay it for

it at home. Which honestly was not a good deal because at least your job is like a nine to five, but this one you're working non-stop and it's a lot more stressful. It's not a good payoff, right? So definitely not gold digging vibes. But things were looking up. The whole family is settling into this routine. They're not getting along great, but they're managing. So in the mornings, Rebecca would wake up.

She would make breakfast for the whole family. Then she would go work out. Then she would prep lunch. So typically, if the kids were home and staying with them, then everyone would have lunch together. And then dinner would be kind of for Jonah and Rebecca. They would go out and do these little dinner dates together, just the two of them. So it's like this really cute little routine.

But of course, things were not easy peasy. Now this is a legit. Don't sue me. But Rebecca told her sisters that some annoying things were happening. So since Rebecca was essentially picking up a lot of the housework and the slack, she said that Dina started taking advantage of it Like she just wouldn't pick up Max sometimes when she wanted a break So she went from being really possessive to like whatever I can't fix it So have her babies in my kid for free, right that type of vibe and at one point Rebecca and Joan are talking about getting a big dog together

And Rebecca wanted more of like a security dog maybe a guard dog And Rebecca wanted more of like a security dog, maybe a guard dog. They already had this really big dog named Ocean, and it was, it was like a big, I don't know what it was, I don't think it was a German Shepherd, just like a big, maybe a mix, right? And they thought, well, let's get like a highly trained one. So they settled on getting a doberman puppy and paying a trainer of like $10,000 to raise it as a puppy and train it and then give it to them as a trained jobberman, like a guard dog, fully. And Rebecca the minute that that puppy came, all trained to live with his new owners, Rebecca was like, I can't do it. I can't do it, that dog is terrifying, that dog is like too scary looking, I mean, I don't know, the

dog is looking at me weird, I can't do this, you need to send the dog back, I can't keep the dog. So they don't end up keeping the doberman. And later she ends up regretting this decision a lot. So now fast forward to July 11th of 2011. Rebecca's younger sister was in town, her name is Ariel and she was 13 years old. So she's visiting and they had a lot of plans. So it was going to be Ariel, Rebecca, and Max, and they were probably going to go to Disneyland and do all these fun things. And I mean, Max was so excited to have someone that was a little bit younger in the house. He wanted to show off his new scooter that he got for a birthday present, from his mom and his aunt Nina, and honestly, Jonah was really upset about this scooter.

He felt like it was an accident waiting to happen. Max always thought that his teenage half siblings were the coolest, and he always wanted to be like them. So the teenagers, their favorite way of transporting their bodies from the second floor to the first floor was to slide down the stair railing. Now this is a $13 million house. It's a probably a really big long stair railing, right? It's dangerous.

So Max had this idea that maybe he could slide down the stairs on his scooter. Whoa. But before he could test it out, so he's like putting his scooter up and he's like trying to balance, Jonah catches him. And he's like, are you trying to do what I think you're trying to do? He's like, yeah.

So he gets punished for even thinking about it. And he gets his scooter confiscated, but eventually Jonah gives it back and scolds Maxi for playing ball in the house. Like do all these things outside. Stop doing it inside the house. But this is a young boy we're talking about. He's going to be a little bit reckless.

So when Ariel comes over, Maxie wants to impress her, so he's writing a scooter all over the place. But I mean, he's not going that fast. This is carpeting everywhere in the first floor. It was pretty safe at the time and very cute. So let me reconstruct this day for you. Jonah wakes up and he decides to hit the gym. So Rebecca wakes up afterwards and starts making breakfast for herself, Ariel and Maxi, and

probably leaving some leftovers for Jonah when he gets home from the gym. And they were going to eat pancakes and then they had to head to the beach. So Rebecca tells Max during breakfast, okay, you need to eat one more pancake. You're gonna get hungry, eat one more pancake, go upstairs, clean your room, and then once your room is clean, we're all gonna go to the beach, okay? He's like, okay. So everyone heads into their respective rooms to get ready,

and Ariel, she wanted to shower before she had to the beach, and as she gets out, as she's getting dressed, she hears Rebecca screaming her name. Ariel, Ariel! So she brushes out and she sees from the second floor landing downstairs Max is laying at the bottom of the stairs. He looks unconscious. He's surrounded by scattered glass shards everywhere The chandelier is broken pieces of it are laying next to him There's a scooter over his leg and Rebecca is over him like freaking out the whole scene is just chaos

Rebecca's dog ocean is nearby and just barking. I mean, just non-stop, which in hindsight, people thought it was weird. So everyone that knew this dog said that this dog only barks when there are strangers in the house. Like it's a very smart dog. So Rebecca starts yelling, call 911. Where's your phone?

I don't remember. I think it's in my bedroom. So Ariel runs to the third floor, into the master. She can't find it. Runs to the second. I can't find it. Okay, it might be in the kitchen. So she runs downstairs, goes through the kitchen. She finds Rebecca's phone. It takes her a hot minute to get her unlock to call 911. She's never used this phone before. And the whole time she could hear Rebecca freaking out. she's trying to perform CPR on Max. She keeps screaming, Max, Max, Max! But he's unconscious, he's not trying to wake up!

Finally, Ariel dials 911 and puts the phone on speaker, and from the get-go, I mean, this call is a wreck. Ariel and Rebecca are both trying to tell the dispatch frantically, everything that's going on. And since English wasn't Ariel's first language, she's really struggling. So instead of saying a little boy had an accident, she said, my sister is trying to, and she can't think of the right word, and Rebecca screams, resuscitate him, resuscitate him. And she's like, ah, resuscitate him.

Dispatch is like, resuscitate who? Where are you calling from? So Rebecca screams the address, and now the dispatch transfers Ariel to the fire department. Listen, I don't know why. Maybe they're trying to get police officers out there, but they're also going to give Rebecca clear instructions on how to resuscitate someone. So there's like a fire department person talking to her, and that's where more miscommunication happens.

Ariel kept referring to Max as she. So it just got really complicated. So it was almost implied like Rebecca was the one that was passed out. So then later he's like, okay, will she still passed out? And then she's like, no, she's breathing. She's just a little bit stressed right now. But you know, he's thinking about Max, but she's talking about Rebecca at that point. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah. Like it's getting so complicated. And there's just so much time being wasted on like a wait, who's Who's the one that needs to help?

And in the commotion of everything, Rebecca gives the wrong house number to the fire department and it's just a lot. This batch is also asking Ariel a bunch of questions. Like how old are you? Is that your mom in the background? Is your mom there? I don't really need to talk to your mom.

I'm just asking if she's there. What about your sister? Is your sister awake? Is your sister breathing now? So again, they think that the sister is max. Is she just having trouble breathing? So I mean, it's just really confusing, like just send someone. I think even Ariel at this point, she's not even trying to answer the questions.

I mean, maybe she is, but it seems like, come on, let's just get through it. Why don't you just send someone? Why are you asking me all these questions? Like, if my mom is here, does it matter if my mom is here? And to make all of this more frustrating, you just hear the dog going crazy in the background So it's so hard for them to like listen to each other and communicate with each other and overall What you need to take from this is that it was a mess and there's a lot of speculation on why that dog was barking Maybe it's a commotion. Maybe it's the chaos, maybe someone was in the house.

I mean, this is a huge house, this is a mansion, this is a three building mansion. Now the police arrive at the scene, they see Max lying on his back with the scooter over his leg, glass shards all over him and he's unconscious. They say, was he laying on his back when you found him or did you flip him over? I don't know, I can't remember. And now that the police are there, Rebecca grabs her phone and calls Jonah. So he's at the gym and she doesn't want to freak him out too much, so she just tells him, there was an emergency at home and you need to come back.

He shows up, there's police cars everywhere, ambulances, medical responders, he's freaking out. The police won't let him go inside. He's like, let me inside, this is my house, why can't I go inside? Sir, there was an accident. It's your son and Jonas sees Max being wheeled out on the stretcher and loaded into an ambulance He's rushed to the ER and Jonah he runs inside He's greeted by a pool of blood where Max was lying and it was it was bad

He jumps into the car and Rebecca's trying to go with him and he's like no don't come to the ER Dean is gonna be there. I don't need you to fighting not right now. Don't come to the car and Rebecca is trying to go with him and he's like, no, don't come to the ER. Deena is going to be there. I don't need you to fighting, not right now. Don't come to the ER. Jonah follows the ambulance to the hospital, leaving Rebecca with Ariel and Rebecca is super stressed by the way. She's telling her sister, Deena is going to kill me. And at first it seems like someone would say, right, innocent, casual even.

But in hindsight it feels really ominous. And the police are still studying the scene at the house and they notice something very peculiar. The cords of the chandelier look like it had been severed. It didn't look like it just fell off by impact. So I imagine maybe if something because the police theory is that Max fell overboard like over the railing and he grabbed onto the chandelier. But in that situation, like it'd be a very different snap, maybe the ceiling would have some damage, but it just looked like it had been severed. That's what they said, but I don't know, right?

Rebecca and Ariel were giving the AOK to clean up the glass shards, so they start sweeping, and as Ariel is carrying the plastic bag of glass shards to the trash can outside, one of the pieces pierces through the bag and cuts her leg. There was blood everywhere. And Rebecca is full on panicking at this point. In the span of an hour, two miners have been injured in her care. And also it's her sister. So she's worried.

She's like, well, we can't go to the ER because I can't meet Deena in the ER. So she takes a picture to her older sister Mary, who's a nurse. And she's like, yeah, you don't need to go to the ER, but you should go to Urgent Care. And the ER is going to keep you waiting too long anyway. Ariel probably needs a couple stitches, that's it. So at Urgent Care, the nurses are there, and Rebecca is kind of out of it. She was on the phone with a man.

They couldn't really hear what the man was saying, but it was like the tone of it seemed like the man was really mad. And Rebecca just kept repeating, I'm sorry, I didn't know, I'm sorry, I didn't know. Wouldn't that be the dad, the husband? See initially that makes sense. But the phone records later show that the phone number used to call Rebecca was a private unknown number. So they couldn't actually get the phone number, which is weird.

So I mean I'm sure if it was Joana, why would he just call using his phone? Or even if he used a hospital phone, that's going to show on records. So that's weird. Did someone go out of their way to... Okay. ...just weird. So Ariel's getting her stitches done and Rebecca looks super stressed. I mean, she looks like she's not even really there. At this point, she starts healing faint and she needs to sit down and...

the doctors have no idea what just happened to Max. So they just assume that it's from her watching her sister get stitches. I mean, a lot of people have the air of needles. Meanwhile, in the year, the doctors are doing everything possible to try and save Max's life. It wasn't looking good. His heart had stopped for 25 to 30 minutes.

In addition to that, they suspected that Max had a heart condition that was probably not diagnosed yet. It's a condition that causes a person's heart to stop for no reason. Even if that person is healthy and athletic. They had to drill a hole on top of Max's head and insert an intercranial pressure valve, so their hope was to reduce the swelling of the brain to keep him alive. He was unconscious and nobody knew if he was going to make it.

The only thing that the doctors were betting on was that Rebecca was trying to resuscitate him for 25 to 30 minutes. So hopefully that would help and that would be on his side. Jonah was there at the hospital and Dina gets there escorted by police officers and she's like, what happened? What happened? And Jonah tells her, well, Max fell over the stair banister and he grabbed onto the chandelier to keep himself

from falling, but the chandelier came crashing down instead. And the family dog started barking and that's what alerted Rebecca to rush out of the bathroom to check downstairs. She started resuscitating Max. Rebecca saved Max's life. So the two parents they can't really do much, but wait and hope and pray. Rebecca keeps calling Jonah to see if she can come and he just tells her, we don't know what's going on yet, we don't have any updates. Don't come to the ER, Dean is here. I don't want you

to argue. It's like you can't really blame him but at the same time I guess he really didn't care or think about Rebecca. Like he never really gave her any assurance which I get it, it's not his job and there's a lot going on and this his priority is his child, of course, but it was affecting Rebecca. So I think this is one of those situations where it's life. You can't really be upset with anyone because I mean, would we really act differently in the situation? We don't know.

What do you mean? He should have given Rebecca some reassurance. Reassurance, like, hey, thanks for everything you've done. Like, I don't blame you. Just sit tight. Yeah, but think about if your kids could die any second. Exactly. So it's like, you see both sides.

And I don't think I would have behaved differently in that point if that is truly what Jonah was doing in that moment, right? So if that's truly what he was doing, I don't even blame him. But Rebecca started to act super strange. So the first thing that she did was send Ariel back to Missouri to her parents.

She did not want her sister to be further traumatized. She just wanted to move her from the situation. Then she decided she wants a dog gone. So she starts calling up different animal shelters and adoption centers and dog kennels and asking if they could take the dog. But they couldn't because he was missing a vaccine. So she found a professional dog sitter and he decided to take the dog and then offer to put him up for adoption later.

So Rebecca is desperate to get rid of this dog. So for her, when it's just strange, right, there's like a couple theories. So one of the theories is that Rebecca believed that Max's last word to her was ocean, which is her dog's name. So she kind of believes maybe ocean had something to do with the fall. But then some people think, no, it's not weird because maybe she just didn't want the extra responsibility of caring for a dog. Maybe she felt like if Max was going to recover and he comes home, I mean, she's probably going to have to help with this recovery. It's going to be intense. Maybe she doesn't have time for a dog.

But I mean, it's up in the air. Most people would want to keep their dog after a trauma like this, right? Especially a dog that's pretty capable of being a guard dog. You don't know when Jonas gonna be home and do you really want to be alone in this big mansion? Probably not. So what makes it even weirder is that later she tells a friend, I wish we kept the doberman. I really regret not keeping it. So it's like, oh, but she wanted a guard dog, so why did she send her a dog away?

I mean, it's not gonna be as trained as a doberman, but it's still odd. Now, Dina's twin sister, Nina, was flying to be with her sister. And since Dina and Jonah were super busy with Max, Rebecca offered to pick her out from the airport. So this is really awkward. This is Dina's twin sister. And imagine, you know, you and Dina are not close. How close could you possibly be to Dean's twin sister? But Nina is surprised. The minute that she gets out of the airport, Rebecca gets out of the car

and gives her a big bear hug and says, I'm so glad you're here. They get into the car and now this is all from Nina's perspective. This is all her story, so you know, do with it what you will. So Nina starts talking about Maxi and she just keeps saying, I think it's so weird. Like, she was walking up the stairs and he had cardiac arrest.

Like, that doesn't make sense. The boy is sick, he plays soccer, he's healthy. Rebecca says, I know. Well, where did he fall from? He fell from the bedroom. She's like, wait, what? I thought he fell from the stairs. How do you know that?

Did you see him fall from the bedroom? But Rebecca doesn't answer this question. Allegedly, she asks, Nina, are you good with directions and passes her the phone? So Nina never gets an answer. She gives her the directions to the hospital. And when they get there, Rebecca's not going inside and just drops off Nina.

Later that day, Jonah comes home to shower and change. And he's headed back to the hospital and he keeps trying to reconstruct the events. But Rebecca doesn't know. She just kept saying, I don't know. I don't know. I wasn't there. I didn't see him fall. So Jonah goes back to the hospital to be with Maxie

and he starts taking shifts with Dina. Someone was always there with Max. Rebecca tried to go to the hospital, but every time she'd be turned down. Jonah would say, I'm sorry, I don't think it's good for you to be here. You're already so upset and only saying Max in this condition

is gonna make it worse for everyone. There's nothing you can do. And she would just stand there in the doorway crying, and she would leave. Jonah also started staying at a hotel. So the hospital was 20 minutes away from the mansion, but, you know, he started staying at a hotel that was a lot closer. Meanwhile, Adam was debating whether or not to fly out to support his brother. So this is Jonah's brother.

He's like, oh, should I fly out and support my brother and my nephew? To most normal people, you're like, what the hell? Yeah, like Nina flew out. What are you doing? Come on. If you don't have like a time sensitive job, you're going to be there for your family. But Adam apparently had a huge fear of flying. So he really had to contemplate it. He even called Rebecca to ask for her opinion. Do you think I should fly over there? I don't know. I think you should follow your heart. So that afternoon, Adam flies to California and Rebecca picks him up. And that evening, Rebecca, Adam, Jonah, and one of Jonah's friends, they decide to have dinner together. Before Jonah has to go back to the hospital, and honestly, this dinner was so awkward.

It was quiet. Nobody really knew what to say. And while they're waiting for the food, Jonah breaks the silence and says, Rebecca, we're trying to piece together the sequence of events. Can you remember any more details? This is important. She said, I don't know, I just found him there. I don't know what happened.

So they ordered some sushi and salads and stuff and Rebecca barely ate anything at all. She said you would eat when she gets home later. After we're at the Rebecca drove Jonah to the hospital and since Adam was in the car, she said, hey, can you give me a second? And she went upstairs to Jonah's room. And they were hugging.

Jonah said that Rebecca was hugging him really tight and she was sobbing for like five to six minutes. Now, Jonah didn't like go, but at the time he felt like Rebecca was being too needy. That's what he said. So I guess he didn't factor in that Rebecca herself had gone through something traumatic as well. And again, it's like, if this is truly what happened, it's hard to blame him. But we don't know if this is truly what happened.

So it's just suspicious later, right? But up until this point, you're like, okay, we get it. Like he, this is his child. He's going through a lot, right? The last thing he needs to do is like comfort everyone around him. He's the one that needs to comfort, right? But looking back, Jonas says he wishes he was more considerate and thoughtful about how she felt, but he wasn't.

Because that would be the last hug that Jonah and Rebecca ever share. Afterwards, Rebecca and Adam drive home. And in the car, Adam said he kept bringing up the accident. And it was just, I mean, she just says like, oh, he was, Max was blue when I found him. I tried to do CPR and he claims that she said things would have been different if the doberman were still here, but he didn't ask any further questions about it, which is weird. So around 12.30 in the morning, Jonah leaves the hospital and goes back to the hotel.

Meanwhile, Rebecca is in the guest room of the second floor of this main mansion. And Adam, the brother, he's in the guest house. So the detached guest house. It's not the same mansion. So anyways, 12.30 a.m. Jonah leaves the hospital and goes back to the hotel. Now he claims that he tried to call Rebecca around 11, or 1 a.m. and we do have record of that, but she wasn't answering.

So he left her a 62 second voicemail, and he claims, because there's no proof. I mean, this could be true. Don't sue me, but he claims, in it, that he was a racku, is crying, sobbing, and he told Rebecca that the doctor said, even under the best scenario, Max will never walk or talk again, and in the worst scenario, Max will die. So he's emotional, and the subject was emotional. If this is true, the voicemail was very emotional and Rebecca didn't call her texts him back so he just assumed that she was in the shower or she fell asleep or something. So he left his phone and went to bed. I mean he was just so drained mentally. He later said that he wishes he left a very different voicemail instead. One that

said, Hey, can you call me back? We have some updates. But because this voicemail is oddly and creepily deleted from Rebecca's phone, we don't know what the contents of that voicemail really were. We do know that he left a voicemail, but we don't know what he said or how he said it or anything. He leaves that voicemail. He wakes up around 5 in the morning and he said that he just had this really bad feeling. It wasn't good.

So he rubbed his eyes, picked up his phone, called the hospital, and thankfully Max was in some way stable condition. And he fell back asleep. He went to the hospital at 7 in the morning. Rebecca still did not text her calling back, which he thought he was strange, because he had no idea what was going on at home. So July 13th, just two days after Max's accident,

just before 7 in the morning, Adam calls 911. Hey, I got a girl and she hung herself in the house in the guest room. So later, Adam would tell people that he woke up around three in the morning to use the restroom, and he checked his watch a few times during the night, and he was just super stressed out,

couldn't go back to sleep, then he woke up around six in the morning, and he watched porn, and some sources say that he specified that he watched Asian porn, which nobody asked him what he did at this point, so he was just giving a lot of information. So I don't know for sure if he watched Asian porn, but I do know that he watched porn and he pleasureed himself, he masturbated, and then he went to go take a shower, got dressed, and his plan was to go into town and get a bagel and some coffee.

And he thought, why not bring Rebecca with me? So he leaves the guest house, walks towards the main house through the courtyard, and something just caught the corner of his eye. And he looked over and he saw a mannequin. But it was just kind of like suspending over the second floor balcony. So he takes a closer look, because that's weird.

And it was not a mannequin. It was Rebecca's naked body hanging from the second floor balcony. She had a news around her neck, a red cord around her neck. Her ankles and her wrists were bound. What? Her wrists were bound behind her back. What? She had a t-shirt wrapped around her neck and it was also stuffed into her mouth like a

gag. Are you kidding me? Oh, you're going to get more mad. And it was a really shocking scene. So at this point, Adam is going to tell you a few different versions of what happened afterwards. But the overall theme was that he cut her down and called 911. Or he was cutting her down while he was talking to 911.

He told like three different versions, okay? But the 911 dispatch asked Adam for an address and he says, I don't know. So they asked her is she still alive and he said, I don't know. And if you're thinking, well, how do you not know? He later said it's because Rebecca was Asian and had a different skin color than his so he couldn't tell if she was blue and stuff. That was his little quote like blue and stuff. So the whole time dispatch is trying to get information from Adam and he's just like grunting in the background. So he later tells them that he was trying to get a table and drag it near Rebecca because

he wasn't tall enough to cut down Rebecca's body. So he dragged the table to the courtyard and it was this old and wooden table and one of the legs bounced off while he was dragging it. And this would later be really confusing because how incredibly difficult would it be to balance your weight on a three-legged table and cut down somebody else's body and then get her safely to the ground while not injuring her or yourself. So he cuts her down with that table, places her body on the lawn, and the dispatch is like listening to all of this and like, hello, are you there? And he's like grunting in the background, but he's not responding. So maybe he could be cutting my back a down, right?

Are you alive? Hello? And he says, hello? Yes, sir, we're still here. Okay, well, did you get the address? No, sir, we need the address. Okay, well, I'm gonna try to induce CPR right now, but I know that you came here yesterday to pick up a little boy. You should know the address.

The dispatch was so confused, because, I mean, she wasn't working yesterday and Max's accident was actually two days ago. So it was just even more confusing by adding that, but eventually dispatch asked around, found the address, sent out first responders. Regardless, Adam gets transferred to the fire department so that they can guide him through the CPR. Now, these 911 calls, there's a lot of... A lot of interesting theories about it, because some people think that there was

an extra voice in the background from Adam's side. So, was there someone else there? We don't know. So, the fire department picks up and says, what's wrong? And he says, she hung herself, I just woke up. Well, when's the last time you saw her? Last night. Okay, do you think she's beyond help?

I've been trying to give some, I'm compressing her chest right now. Did you get her down? Yes, I did. We'll count down and you can count loud if you want to. So the whole time Adam is answering questions, but when he goes to count, he starts at 28, 29, 30. So I mean, it's weird. Was he counting while he was answering questions? Was it a guess? I mean, he could have been doing compressions the whole time, but just kind of a nod thing to note. If I were answering while I was still doing compressions and then he was like, oh, count out loud, I would go, okay, one, two, you know?

And throughout the entire nine one one call, he only ever referred to Rebecca as that girl or his brother's girlfriend. He never even said her name. And later, a lot of people asked him about it, like, what? And he said, well, we weren't that close. I don't even know her last name. But you know her first name, which is so strange.

And he just keeps saying that girl hung herself at the guest room. Or sometimes he would say that girl hung herself at the guest house, but that wasn't correct because her body was hanging from the guest room of the main house. So the police arrived. They run through the front door that was wide open. They rush to the courtyard. And the weird thing is, Rebecca was lying on the ground in a really awkward position.

She was contorted like her legs were off to the side, and they thought it was weird because it's not really the position to give someone CPR. So they asked him, why don't you just free her legs and put her in the proper position, like just laying flat on her back? And he said, I don't know. I don't know what you're supposed to do

when you give CPR, I'm just trying my best. So the medical responders, they touched Rebecca's cheek, which by the way, the coroner was not there for like hours. So they just let her body sit out for like a day. Honestly, it was insane. So the medical responder touches Rebecca's cheek and was like, oh, it's cold.

And he noticed that she was stiff, so Rig or Mortis had set in. He didn't even try to bother and save her. She was just pronounced dead at the spot. So they estimated that she died two to three hours prior. Adam called Jonah and let him know, but he did it like this. Rebecca took her own life. I don't know. I mean, I'm imagining if I didn't, if I wasn't into true crime, and I saw someone tied up, gagged, and hanging, I still don't think that I would think it's suicide. Like it's one of those movie scenes.

We were like, oh, definitely someone did something. Jonah was so shocked that he hung up and he had a call back. He could not process what Adam had just said. Adam also refused to give Jonah any more details because he was going through so much. There was no argument. Jonah wouldn't ask questions till a few days later. So after the phone called Jonah, Adam calls Mary, his girlfriend,

and breaks the news of what happened to her, and he said it really weird. He said this on the phone. The plot thickens. Rebecca has taken her own life. Would you mean the plot? I mean, I guess the guy has an odd sense of humor, but the whole thing is beyond strange to me. I could never imagine saying something like that.

But there have been hints here and there from interviews and statements that it seems like Adam is a bit socially awkward. I don't know. It's still weird. So some people are trying to defend him saying he's the type of person that's like horrible at like reading the room, right? But again, still weird. He also wondered out loud to the detectives, again, not doing himself any favors here,

but he said, did Rebecca do this so that I would find her in the morning? So that she wouldn't be like hanging there for a while, someone would actually find her? And he even said, I hope it was in a message to me or some shit, because that was the first thing I saw when I came out of the guest house. It's like, it's not about you. What's going on? And without prompting, Adam talks about how you watched porn and masturbated before finding Rebecca.

So either this is a guy who's trying to be overly honest or maybe, maybe that's an indication of like, hey, don't ask me why I showered or don't ask me about my weird search history about potentially allegedly Asian porn because I'm just going to you how right, because I'm such an honest person. And if you happen to find Siemens, and where, you know, I did just masturbate. I'm trying to think, like, if it were me, and I had just watched porn, would I tell the police officers?

Because I'm like, I'm just like trying to be overly honest. Because I'm like, oh, it's on me, I'm not guilty. Like, I'm gonna tell you everything. You were, yeah. Yeah, but I don't know this guy, right? I mean, it's just kind of odd. So he also kept mentioning, without. Yeah, but I don't know this guy, right? I mean, it's just kind of odd. So he also kept mentioning without them asking that he genuinely felt in the deepest part of his heart

that Rebecca took her own life. That's never a good sign when they start giving police officers their theories overly aggressively, and he said that he was shocked and shaken that he had to remove the gag from her mouth so that he could give her mouth to mouth CPR. So like always, people react to grief and shock differently, but like, sir, this is a bit much.

Even the officers were suspicious. They asked, Adam, do you have any injuries on you right now? Not that I know of, you want to check me? We might. Listen, I understand that you guys have to do your thing, but it makes you think twice about being a good smaritan. So he's saying, like, I get it. You might have to check me for injuries, but man, it makes you really think twice about being a good person and like helping someone and cutting them

down. So he was really upset that he was being treated like a potential suspect. He said, my brother said most people wouldn't even have cut her down. So now he's trying to imply that he's like a hero instead of like a suspicious weirdo, which very odd thing to do. Well Adam. What do you think happened? Well, I assume she killed herself. Oh, here's a kicker Maybe there's some kind of cultural. I don't know. I never really thought that through all that time But we all have our down moments So if you're like what what what did he just say cultural you're confused? You're like what is this guy talking about?

Well the cultural comment is out of pocket pocket it's disrespectful from being honest with you actually both Adam and Jonah later said it probably had to do with her culture no they said quote Asian culture they were like oh the reason that she's all tied up is because it has to do with I don't know Asian culture I don't know which Asian culture but like an Asian culture. I don't know which Asian culture, but like an Asian culture. And at one point, one of the brothers even mentioned Harakiri, which is a movie, but it's about Sepiku, which is a ritual suicide in Japan. So she's not even Japanese. I don't even think she's ever been to Japan. But it's a ritual suicide that helps you restore honor to yourself. So if you're captured by the enemy, a lot of samurai's used to do this.

Instead of falling into the hands of the enemy, they would kill themselves with their samurai swords. Sometimes if you were caught doing something dishonorable, you would disembowel yourself in front of everyone as a way of restoring your honor to your name, but to your family. Because that's part of their culture. You're not just tainting your name, but your families. So I mean, it's incredibly painful and wild, but this is really bothersome because she's not even Japanese and whatever happened to a loving Asian, like it's so weird. The whole thing is weird. You can't just

be confused about a crime and then say, up must be Asian culture. You then you got to define where in the culture, in which culture does it say that you need to be tied up with red robe and hang yourself from about, like what are you saying? So Adam is asked to come in and take a polygraph and he says, yeah, but first I have to talk to my brother and my girlfriend. So he calls them both up and they just say,

I mean, you don't need an attorney, you have nothing to hide, just go through with it and whatever helps the police get to the bottom of it is what we need. So the next day he goes, he takes the polygraph. It lasted two hours and during these two hours he gets two phone calls from the same number. He doesn't answer either of them. I guess the detectives were looking at him pretty suspiciously because he went out of his

way to tell them, ah, it's my attorney's calling me. And I know what they're going to say, they're going to say, don't take the polygraph, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I'm going to say, get't take the polygraph blah blah blah and I'm gonna say get KISS MY ASS. So he's implying that he's going against his attorney's word, his best interest, but he has nothing to hide, he just wants to help. His polygraph results were inconclusive. Some polygraph experts would disagree and say that no, it wasn't inconclusive. Adam is clearly showing signs of deception, so this guy is lying, and he failed his polygraph.

But it's kind of up in the air. Now, Adam wasn't the only one that seemed to be shady, though. The police were being really strange. So initially, when the police went to the scene, they canvassed the house. An officer went upstairs to the guest bedroom, which is the balcony where Rebecca's body was hanging from. Now, this is like her guest bedroom slash art room,

so she spent a lot of time there. And the officer said that there were four tiny drops of blood on the carpet in the hallway in front of the art room. So she spent a lot of time there. And the officer said that there were four tiny drops of blood on the carpet in the hallway in front of the guest room. And next to the droplets of blood was like a green and white striped towel, which also had some blood on it. And then there on the door of the guest room was a hand painted message in black paint.

It was two lines. She saved him. Can you save her? That's crazy. They were written in block letters, capital, letter by letter, and they opened the door inside the room. There was a bed. And one of the legs had a red rope around it, and it was looped around the leg.

Then it went to the balcony, rooped around the railing of the balcony, and that is where she was suspending from. Now, the police walked over to the balcony and he notices it's really dusty out on the balcony and there's a small print and it wasn't a footprint. It looked more like a V-shape print. That's what he said. Later, the police would say it's because her feet were tied together and that's why it

was a V-shape and she was hopping through the balcony to jump off. But other people would argue like it doesn't even look like a V-shape. It looks like someone is standing or leaning on one foot. There was also a lot of issues with this because there was a boot print, like a shoe print found on the balcony, but the police officers stepped on top of it. So they were like, yeah, that was it.

We didn't find any other footprints, but later it comes out, no, you did, but you had stepped on it. So there was another footprint. The doors of the balcony were another huge dispute. So the first detective that went up there said that the right door of the balcony was closed, but the left one was open.

When another investigator went up, he said that both doors were closed, but not locked. So, I mean, it's just, come on, dude. Get it together. So maybe the first detective closed the door, but that wouldn't even be a good thing because you're not supposed to do that. But it also, I mean, would that make sense?

So if Rebecca is pushed off, she hopped to the balcony and then closed it behind her and then jumped off, like that's weird too. So I mean, it's kind of good to know, right? But we don't know. That brings up another point of shady police work. The police didn't secure the guest house till about 10 30 in the morning. That's three and a half hours after Adam

called 911. I get it. This is a huge property. There is a main house, a guest house, a housekeeper property. But that means you need to be extra attentive because if there's a killer that wasn't the ones already present, they could have easily been able to hide pretty much anywhere inside this big, big property. And another point of question and confusion was that the police found a droplet of blood in the master bedroom shower, which is on the third floor. The crime, it will the scene, is on the second floor, and for whatever reason, the police did not trust Tess' this droplet blood.

They just thought, well, it's a droplet blood, not an entire gallon, and it's on a completely different floor, so it's probably unrelated. What? And then another point of frustration, it just keeps going. The rag that was in Rebecca's mouth, it was a t-shirt, a size extra small, and it looked to be a woman's. But we don't know for sure who's shirt that is. They tested the DNA on that shirt, there were three different profiles, Rebecca's, one of the police officers who collected the t-shirts for forensics, and another person. But we don't know. Most people believe that it's not Rebecca's shirt, and the DNA probably belonged to whoever's shirt that was, so who's shirt was that?

But we never find out. The police never really bothered to look into it. I mean, sure, you could say maybe Ariel left it, you know, before she left, but I'm sure she would have said something like, that's my shirt I left it. But the worst part is that the Zal family, they never received an official notice of death from the authorities. Jonah was the one that did it. He called Rebecca's older sister Mary, and she was distressed. I mean, I'm sure the police have a way of doing it. I'm sure they're trained, kind of maybe like doctors are, but Jonah called Mary and told

her, and she freaked out. She called Adam and she kept saying, I need to know everything. I need to know what happened to my sister and his response was, I don't know if I'm supposed to be talking to you. It's okay. Just tell me. It's not a good idea. Like, I don't want to push somebody else off the edge.

He's saying, I don't think I should tell you because I don't want you to be emotionally distressed, but the way he said it is like, what? You don't want to push someone else off the edge? Adam's girlfriend later said, oh, that's just how he is. He can be very inappropriate at times and he's just trying to lighten the mood. Just during difficult situations, that's his way of dealing with things. It's kind of his humor. After the incident, he was clearly out of his mind and he's using flippancy to

overcompensate, it sounds just like him. Meanwhile, Jonas in shock, and he's not really in a place to talk to Mary, according to Jonah, he said that he felt a lot of regret. He said that he wished he paid more attention to Rebecca State, in the way that Max's accident was affecting her, and suddenly he remembered all the times that she texted him and called him and asked for reassurance that everything's going to be okay, but he just ignored her. He had different priorities. His kid was dying. And now he said, I can't help but think she felt responsible in some way.

And he brought up her Asian background and said, Asians just look at things differently in terms of responsibility. He said if he put himself in that situation where he was watching someone else's kid and something happened, he too would feel responsible. I mean, who could live with that? Meanwhile, at the same time, he didn't think that Rebecca was the type to commit suicide because she would know how much it would hurt Jonah. I mean, would she really do something like that, especially when he's already in such a vulnerable, distressed state, would she take her own life and cause him more pain? So then the other question is, why would someone kill her?

Well he thinks it was Neil, the first husband, because he kept continuing contact with her and would text her randomly, I miss you, I will do anything to make this work. But that's weird, like out of nowhere, and so close to him, and then she saved him, can you save her? Like that's why would Neil write that? Jonah had some other theories too. He said there's no way it's an accident that first my son is barely alive and then my girlfriend dies two days later.

So he believes someone is out to get him. He is a wealthy CEO, it's pretty easy to make enemies, fire the wrong person, screw someone over, you know, maybe someone hired a hitman to get back at him. They tried to kill Max and that's why the dog was barking because somebody a stranger was in the house, but Rebecca saved him by resuscitating him, by getting the ambulance there, by getting him to the hospital. So they come back and they try to kill Rebecca. And they leave the message of she saved him, but can you save her?

To taunt Jonah. Maybe can you, is you Jonah, can you save her to taunt Jonah? Maybe can you is you Jonah can you save her? So I mean that's his theory Initially later he changes his mind. So right now these are all just speculations So let's talk about something a little Um, and I say a little more accurate which is Rebecca's autopsy So Rebecca's autopsy found that she had tape residue on both of her legs. So it was like this sticky residue. So it's weird. I mean, it's implying that she had duct tape, tear legs, and then was like, wait a minute,

I don't want to duct tape my legs, take off the duct tape, and then tie it herself with a rope. Yeah, why was she type her own legs? Does that make sense to you? No. I mean, I'm Asian. So I should know because Asian culture, but I don't. Yeah, it's weird. So I mean, the theories are all in the air. At one point, they were like, it's because of a Korean movie,

but that turned out to be false too. Now, there was also black paint residue all over her body, which some people believe was to write the message on the door herself. And the police said that that was her suicide note, body which some people believe was to write the message on the door herself. And the police said that that was her suicide note. Which what kind of suicide note is that first of all? Why would she refer to herself in third person?

Why wouldn't she just write, I'm sorry. Like that makes more sense if she was going to take her own life for something that she believed was her fault. Like, oh, this is my fault that maxes in the hospital. I can't live with myself. Wouldn't your last words or your last message be I'm sorry What is this mean? But if someone else did it? I mean, it's kind of painfully obvious that it doesn't feel like a suicide note, right?

So she had black paint residue on her right-nipple her left breast She had small smears on her lower back on her upper arm both her hands But not her fingertips where you might expect the actual paint to be if she were writing the note. So small things like this, I mean, they're beyond suspicious, which she also had hemorrhages on her scalp. So hemorrhaging on her skull is typically consistent with blood-force trauma, so she had broken blood vessels

on her face, eyes, and mouth, which can be consistent with either hanging or strangulation. Now the big thing to note that a lot of people are stuck on is that usually with victims who hang themselves by jumping off a ledge. So this is very different from stepping on a stool and then you could get over. Like you're propelling yourself over the ledge. So there is a lot of physics at play. You're going to see a lot of severe spinal cord damage, either the neck is broken or the head is

fully decapitated at times, because the sheer weight of your body driving you towards the ground and the cord that's pulling on your neck, you see a lot of damage there. But in this case, neither her spinal cord or her cervical vertebrae had any injuries, which everyone thought was strange. There was a full nine feet

from where she was hanging in the ground. So, I mean, it's not like a load jump. It's a pretty big one. And on the flip side, Rebecca had fractures on her thyroid cartilage. She had abrasions all over her back, abdomen, arms, legs, which appeared to be consistent with impact with large plants under the balcony. But if that were the case, if her body did hit the plants below, she would have scratches all over her face and her chest too, but she didn't. And then, there was the question of the dirt on her feet. So she had dirt on the soles of her feet. The dirt was from the garden in the courtyard, so it's confusing.

I mean, I guess you could say she took a stroll barefoot before ending her life. Maybe it was from earlier that day, but it's all weird. And then, if not one of the biggest points of contention, is that there was blood found inside her vagina and cervix. Now, there is no visible trauma or signs of sexual assault, such as semen. So the inner walls of her vaginal cavity were not injured, but she was bleeding inside. She also had a bit of blood between her thighs as well as around her feet. Now the blood was never tested because they just assumed that it was menstrual blood.

And like they can test it and find out if it's menstrual blood, right? But they were just like, oh, she's on her period. Which I thought was strange and a lot of people pointed this out. And I don't know what kind of state of mind someone is in if they were to take their own life, but it feels incredibly vulnerable to as someone who has a period and a menstrual cycle. It feels incredibly vulnerable to just be free flowing like that. Just she was naked, she was running around, tying a rope, writing a message. Now the police would later argue that the droplets of blood outside the guest, you the guest bedroom door were droplets of her menstrual cycle while she was writing the

letter. But here's the thing. They say after she wrote the little letter, her little suicide note, she came inside the guest bedroom, tied herself up, tied the rope to the bed to the balcony, and then she hopped in this carpeted room to the balcony and jumped off will propel herself, but there's no blood on the carpet from the bed to the back. She's hopping. Yeah. As someone who menstruates, listen, I hope once there's going to be blood on the ground, especially if you're writing a note outside and you get blood on the

ground, like you are pretty heavy flowing. Then there's something called levidity, which is where the blood settles in your body after you die. So this has to do with gravity. So sometimes it can kind of help figure out what position someone's in right before their death, but I'm assuming it's not that accurate all the time. And if Rebecca was hanging, it would make sense that the levidity was found in her lower extremities because she's hanging.

But it actually pointed to Rebecca being in a lying down position on her back at the time of death. But again, it's not super accurate, I guess, because not a lot of people bring it up again. Then let's talk about psychology. Because, you know, this is what the friends, ex, are telling us. This is what the autopsy is telling us, but think about something like taking your own life. There's a lot of humans, like, college behind it, and I'm sure it varies person to person but it's something to consider. Firstly, experts pointed out that Rebecca's hair was underneath her rope and the t-shirt. She's got long hair. This just countered a person's natural instinct to pull out your hair. So if you put on a t-shirt and your hair is

underneath, you're gonna immediately want to pull it out. Same with like a scarf or you know a hoodie. So if Rebecca is the one that tied herself up and did this, I mean it's not like she's in a brush per se so she would have pulled her hair out. Probably. It's just something to consider. And then the fact that she was naked, a lot of experts argue that's very odd, very rare situation. Taking your clothes off before taking your own life, not even inside the bath or something, but to hang yourself out of the balcony outside the house. Yeah, it's incredibly vulnerable if anything It's humiliating. Yeah, so it makes more sense that if you hate someone a lot of killers will leave You know the lost your killers will leave women's bodies in degrading positions. It's more so like that

And her family agrees, she's pretty modest. She wouldn't put her entire body on display that doesn't make any sense. Now, some other things to consider. The knots on her hands. If you were tying a rope to tie your wrist together by yourself, where would the knots be? In between your palms?

Yes, in the palms of your hand, where you can manipulate it, right? But instead it was on the back of her hands. Like, how do you even argue this? Exactly. They're like, well, maybe she tied the knots and then slipped her hands in. And the sheriff later argued, well, one of the wrist knots were super loose. So the other one was tight. So she probably tied one and then just kind of slipped her hand in the other one.

And we know this because we easily just slipped her hand out. They even went on to have a female officer demo tying the knots, but couple problems with that. So why was she tied the freaking knot? Exactly. If she can just slip in and out. Exactly. That means the knot is not there for its purpose.

Yes, because people were arguing that the knot is there so that she wouldn't change her mind about the suicide. And she was scared. But then like if the knot is loose, then that counter, it doesn't make sense. And then they went on to have a female officer demo tying the knots. I hate these. I hate these recreations so much because how many times did this officer practice this?

Probably a lot. The knots that she did also were far less complex than the ones on Rebecca's wrist. And the type of rope that they used was a lot more flexible and more easily maneuvered. So you're not really demoing anything. You're just going out of your way to try and prove a point that isn't point proven. And then allegedly, a Korean movie was taken from the house. The house made.

Now, this is a very famous Korean movie that I've talked about before, but it's maybe now, it's more famous internationally because the hype that Korean TV shows and movies are getting with like Squid Game and all of these things parasite. But back then, I tell you, I would never meet someone, it'd be incredibly, incredibly rare to meet someone who

was in Korean who knew this movie. And the only reason I'm saying that is because, allegedly, it was found in her house. And it's a movie about a maid who falls in love with the husband of her employer. They start having an affair. She's very poor, the husband is obviously very rich. The maid gets pregnant with his child, and the wife of the rich man, she pays her to abort the baby, but the maid refuses.

So then she goes out of her way to try to hurt her by pushing her off a ladder to abort the baby, but the baby doesn't get aborted or the baby doesn't get injured. And then finally, she feeds her some medication under the guise of like a olive branch and this kills the child. The maid has to go to the hospital to get the baby surgically removed.

And she is so distraught that she gets revenge on the entire family by throwing herself off the second floor brailing and hanging herself from the chandelier and simultaneously lighting herself on fire. This is important because a lot of people argued well this movie probably inspired Rebecca to take her own life in such a strange way. Maybe she was upset with the family of for making her feel like it was her fault. Maybe she did feel like it was her fault and she had all feel like it was her fault, and she had all these complex emotions, and you know, this is how she did it.

But then later the police say, oopsie, that DVD that was entered into evidence was a clerical mistake, and it actually wasn't even found in the house. What? Yeah, so like what, what, what? And then three days after Rebecca's death, June 16th, Max was declared brain dead. He was kept alive

a little bit longer so that his organs could be donated, but they could not save him. Now after all of that, and after the autopsy, an investigation was launched into Rebecca and Max's deaths, and was it suicide, was it homicide for either of them, the police went and asked all the neighbors, did you hear something? Did you see something? And one of the an elderly neighbor, she said actually yes. I was watching TV at exactly around 11.30 p.m. I know this because I was waiting for the show to come on and it comes out in 11.30 p.m. and I heard some kids playing outside and at some point I heard a woman scream help me. So I turned down the volume of the show and I waited for another sound but nothing. So I

decided not to call the police and not investigate, and I kept watching my TV show. Now the police immediately heard this and they were like, wow, you probably didn't hear Rebecca, you probably heard like one of the kids playing. And for some reason they were probably yelling, help me. Something to consider. No, I don't know why they didn't find the kids and ask them, hey, did you want to be guys scream help me or like, what were you guys playing? I don't know, maybe they did. Maybe they didn't.

It's not specified anywhere that I could find. And they just kind of let it go. Then another man contacted the San Diego Sheriff's Department, and he said that night he was going for a bike ride, and he rode past the Spreckles mansion. And there was a woman in the front near the front door. And she looked strange. She seemed like it wasn't her house.

That's why he noticed. She was looking around. It looked like she was either waiting for someone to open the door or seeing if someone was home. Later Nina comes forward and said, that that was me. I was in town, obviously, to Sportina and Dina lived 15 minutes away from the Spreckles mansion. And I had texted Rebecca, hey, can I come over to talk? And I just didn't understand what she was saying in the car. Remember how she had mentioned, like, he fell from the bedroom. And I wanted to clear things up. It was just eating away at me. But she never responded.

So I figured, I mean, it's only five minutes away. I can just go for a casual stroll and see if she's up. So I get there 10, 10, 30, which is pretty late for an unannounced visit. And she sees a light on side inside the mansion. She figures Rebecca probably fell asleep or doesn't want to talk to her. So she left.

The witness wishes photos of Nina and Dina by the police and he said, no, no, it's definitely this one and pointed at Dina. Something to note, Dina and Nina are fraternal twins. So they're not completely identical, but they do look similar. But he had never seen them before. It's kind of dark, so it's up in the air, maybe it was Nina, but he said, no, I'm pretty sure it was Dina because Nina's hair is lighter, and I know that Dina had dark hair.

He also described the woman as having a very dark colored purse, whereas Nina was known for carrying a pink purse. So was it Dina? Well, the family argues no, because she was at Max's bedside at the hospital. Now, there was CCTV of her entering the hospital, but unless someone's there to say she stayed the whole time, the hospital's only 20 minutes away from the mansion. So I don't know if it's the best alibi.

I'm not accusing Dina of anything, but is it the most airtight alibi, objectively speaking, I don't know. Jonah even said that when Dina found out that Rebecca was dead she had a very strange reaction. He said that she almost looked giddy, but she was under a ton of stress so maybe this is just her having an uncomfortable reaction. Jonah said, I mean if this is murder, who has the motive? If it's foul play definitely Dina.

Since Max got injured she must have asked me 50 times on Monday night and on Tuesday, ask Rebecca what happened. I've got to know what happened. Can I speak to her myself? Can I speak to the little girl myself?" But at the same time, Jonas said that Dina could not have taken on Rebecca herself. Because Rebecca was strong, she did martial arts, she stayed in shape. Between the two of them, Rebecca would have no problem taking Dina out. Maybe Dina hired a hitman or something. She was so mad that Rebecca was watching Max

and this happened, maybe that's why. But Jonah would always try and tell her, you should be thinking Rebecca. She gave him CPR. If it weren't for her, he wouldn't even be a live right now. Which makes people feel like Dina was the killer. Imagine your son is in the hospital, and the person babysitting was your ex-husband's new girlfriend, you hate her, and you feel like it's her fault. Why weren't you watching him better?

Why weren't you supervising better? And the only thing your ex-husband keeps telling you is, if it weren't for Rebecca, he'd be dead right now. So then the note, she saved him, but can you save her? It could potentially be a targeted thing? Of like maybe only Jonah would know, like a little weird revenge. Now the problem with this theory that some people believed is flawed is that Dina was actually overly hopeful and optimistic, so people that knew Dina said that she was kind

of in denial. She felt like Max was definitely going to not start school next semester, he would miss some soccer games, but she felt like it would be a long recovery and then he would eventually be healthy and happy again. And why would she avenge his death when she didn't believe that there was a chance that he was going to die? And on top of that, she wanted answers and Rebecca wasn't giving any answers and when Rebecca died, her sister said, it's almost like Rebecca committed suicide and she took every piece of information she had with her.

And my sister wanted answers. She wanted, you know, she wanted to know what happened. Now, Rebecca's family initially did believe that Nina and Dina were involved, but they later apologized and believed that the sisters potentially are not, but that's also muddy. We'll get into it. Back to the investigation. There were other parts that were mishandled by the police. Investigators found women's clothes like panties, clear liquid, and make-a-bikes on the nightstand of the guest house, and some in the guest house bathroom. And at first,

the police were criticized for not testing these items, but later the teenage daughter came forward and said that it was her friends. So again, it's like, I don't know because everything is like coming inside the family. When I was a teenage daughter, I'm sure my parents could have told me to say something to the police and I would have, and I'm not accusing her of doing anything like that. I'm just saying, you know, why didn't they just test it? Why didn't the police do their job? Rebecca's fingerprints were found leading to the guest bedroom, and there was a knife inside that room.

So maybe that was used to cut the red cords. Rebecca's prints were also found on the leg of the bed where the rope was anchored. The knife that was used to cut the cord had trace amounts of blood and Rebecca's DNA on it. So which when the investigators were asked like why did she have blood on the knife, they said we should have wound on her middle finger. And then Rebecca's prints were found and there was no other DNA or prints that could be linked to Adam, Nina or Ariel. So they were excluded as suspects based on the lack of DNA evidence. Investigators didn't look for Jonah or Dina's prints at the scene

because they said the two of them had alibis and they were at the hospital. Others suspicious things. Remember Jonah called Rebecca and left her a voicemail that night where he claimed that he was told that Max Mayer may not make it and he was super emotional? While Rebecca's phone said that the message was viewed

and deleted. So we don't know if it was Rebecca who viewed and deleted it, if it was someone else, but it's also super strange. And now we have no idea what Joanna really said in that voicemail. He could very well be telling the truth, but the fact that it was deleted makes everyone question everything. The police searched Rebecca's laptop and the night before she died, someone had used her computer to go on a ton of porn sites, starting at like 1.30 am, and they were on there for a few hours, and the timeline is confusing, but this wasn't the night before she died, someone had used her computer to go on a ton of porn sites, starting at like 1.30 a.m. and they were on there for a few hours and the timeline is confusing but this wasn't the night before. So Adam wasn't in California yet.

And the searches were kind of always associated with him. I do believe that he may be, may have stated that he was watching Asian porn that morning. I do know that he was watching porn, but I don't know specifically what kind, but these searches are always just kind of pinned on Adam for an interesting reason, but it all started on YouTube with like wizards of Waverly Place, which is like a Disney show, I believe, Nickelodeon Disney. And then I went to porn sites, and then some of them

were Asian porn sites. Eventually the content got more violent, bondage-related, some depicted anime porn of women being tied up and assaulted or being tortured and tied up. Later, Ariel admitted that she was the one that searched on those sites. And I'm only mentioning this because a lot of people associate these searches with Adam. Now, I'm not saying that Adam is innocent or he's not shady, I think he's really shady, but I just thought I should clear that up. So after about three months of investigating, the police ruled Max's death a tragic accident and Rebecca's death a suicide. The sheriff said, the conclusions presented today are based on the good methodical investigative

work in science. Science is our best witness in this case. Science is not biased and it does not lie. There really is no other logical explanation for what happened to Rebecca Zau. So this is what they believe happened. With Max, they believe that he was running down the hallway on the second floor and something caused him to trip. It could have even been the dog or the ball or whatever it was.

It caused him to fall over the top of the staircase. He grabbed the chandelier on his way down and that caused his body to twist midair. He smashed into the back of the railing below. He landed next to the stairway because the chandelier gave way and fell down. He hit his head on the floor and there was no mention of the scooter on his leg. The reason that Max stopped breathing was because the fall caused his spinal cord to hyper extend and bend his head backward compressing his breathing center.

As for Rebecca, she felt so guilty about Max's great condition she decided to take her own life. The process in which it happened was she took off her clothes or was already naked for some reason, painted the cryptic message on the door, meanwhile dropping menstrual blood there and on the towel. And then she went back inside, suddenly her period was like, oh, I'm just going to stay dormant for a while.

She cut the rope into sections using a steak knife, placed the t-shirt around her neck, fashioned her bindings, leaned forward over the exterior balcony railing, and went over head first. The V-shape on the balcony dust imprint is consistent with her feet and ankles being bound together, and she was hopping towards the railing. And the blood in her vagina and her thighs, well, it is not sexual assault, but it is menstrual blood. The hamondering on her head is that it's usually consistent with blood force trauma. What we think, it's because when she went over the balcony, she kind of dove, we said head first, right? She probably struck her head on the balcony on the way down.

So it seems like a lot of assumptions, not really science. Well, what about the duct tape residue? Do we just believe that she was going to duct tape herself and then changed her mind and then went with the rope instead? I mean, it's very confusing. Was it suicide? That's what they're saying? Well, Rebecca's family and most of the world

do not believe it was, because even Mary, Rebecca's sister had texted her that night. How is Maxie doing? Maxie still isn't doing great, but the doctor has reduced the amount of coma. He seems more alive. Now the problem with this text is that it seems like even Rebecca believes Maxie is going to recover, and it's not as bad as it actually was. So Mary says, Rebecca, do you want me to tell mom and dad?

No, I'll call them in the morning and tell them. I'm just going to go to bed right now. So it kind of implies like she was going to, again, I know that things like taking your own life, they could be very impulsive and very rushed, but just another indicator of she had plans to call her parents. That was the last time Rebecca talked to Mary. This text exchange amongst other things leads the family to believe Rebecca didn't commit suicide.

They were also devout Christians ever since they were young, and they said, I know my sister, she would never commit suicide. Never. She believed in heaven and in hell, and she believed that anyone killed themselves would go to hell. And eventually when the family were able to set eyes on the suicide letter, they were like, that's what Rebecca's handwriting. And why would she write that in third person, and if she's gonna leave a letter? Why would she not even address her family? Like none of this makes sense. They also didn't like the fact that she was naked like none of that makes sense. What it would it's with the bindings? Why would she tie herself up? They did not have money and the police would not listen to them So they get an attorney and Brenner who took the case pro bono and she explained that Rebecca's family believed that she was murdered She also claimed Jonah Shacknye had influence over the investigation due to his wealth.

This got her a season-disaced from Jonah's very prominent attorney. Jonah was also later accused of having personal ties with the San Diego Sheriff's Department Sheriff Gore, that's his name. That's a very unpleasant last name for a sheriff. Very interesting. But apparently Jonas Attorney also briefly wrapped one of Gore's FBI colleagues. So there's just a lot.

Jonah denied all these allegations. And he sent a letter to then Attorney General Kamala Harris, now vice president, Kamala Harris. He requested that Harris's office review the SDSD and Coronados investigation methods and conclusions. He said it's not because he doesn't believe that I was suicide. He thinks it was, but the public deserves clarity, dignity, and ultimately closure. He said that he himself was satisfied with the investigation and felt the findings were sound scientific and supported by a thorough and competent investigation,

but look at the public, they're outraged, so can you do something something about it? Like that's kind of what it sounds like to me. The public started getting intrigued by this case and reporters realized that the detectives never even attempted unscientific reenactments of the hanging. So reporters did it. They got punching bags the same way as Rebecca's body. Based off the experiments, they felt that the bed would have been moved five times further from the wall if Rebecca truly flung herself over the railing. The Zal family attorney also hired an expert to examine the scene of the death and the expert said that there was no drag or brush pattern on the carpet where the bed frame legs were.

So that felt like to them that the bed was lifted off the carpet and placed down manually. To look like it had dragged as part of a suicide. placed down manually to look like it had dragged as part of a suicide. So the new theory was the killer strangled her in the garden and it explains the dirt on her feet and instead of hoisting her up and bringing her to the second floor of the main house because that's a lot of movement, they got the rope, cut it, set it up and then tied it after. Like they hoisted her up. Instead of her going down, they hoisted her up,

and she was already dead at this point. That would also explain why her neck wasn't broken in the fall, that was their conclusion. Now, the family, they had Rebecca's body exhumed, and they went on Dr. Phil to talk about it. The second autopsy, the expert said that none of her injuries made sense. Meanwhile, at this time, Duna started her own investigation

and some very suspicious things came up. For what, Max only weighed 44 pounds and not 57 like the autopsy stated, because his center of gravity was below the railing, even with the four inches of scooter if he was on his scooter at the time that he felt it just didn't make sense. And no scenario they ran ended up with Max's scooter on his leg on top of him

Like it fell with him. Yeah, that's strange. So the scooter flew flew over the well Yeah, but then he grabbed the chandelier But also on top of that he didn't have any cuts to his hands if he grabbed the chandelier So that didn't make sense. We are never gonna get answers to this It seems regardless Coronado police refused to reopen his case and they just believed it was a tragic accident. Which led a lot of people to believe Rebecca must have known a little bit more about his fall.

Did she contribute somehow even if accidentally to his death? Some people speculate that Jonah had something to do with it. Maybe it wasn't Dina. Maybe it was Jonah who is so upset that he either had his brother or somebody else kill Rebecca. Now, this one is kind of confusing. Some people think that Adam killed Rebecca just because that's his nephew, but Adam's really not that close with Jonah or Max, it seems.

So I don't think he would have done it for the love of his nephew and to avenge his nephew, but Jonah being involved, I feel like that makes things more complicated. I don't know. Do I think maybe Jonah knew more than what he's leading on? Maybe did Jonah have influence over the investigation? I don't know, maybe, right? These were like weird hypotheticals that I don't have the answer to and like, please don't sue me.

But it's I'm trying to imagine a scenario where he had hired or ordered her death. And it's it's kind of hard to get to the logistics He did go to Rebecca's funeral in Missouri where most of her family lived and he did pay for the funeral He surprised everyone by showing up with an armed bodyguard So I mean, I guess this adds to my feeling of like do I think maybe he had some influence even unknowingly? Like he didn't even know he's influencing the investigation, but everyone's putting him first because he is the wealthy one maybe, maybe, but I feel like that kind of goes to show how paranoid he was.

I feel like Jonah kind of deep down felt like he was the one being targeted. So he brought an armed bodyguard. Rebecca's dad died two years after her in July of 2013. Everyone believes that he died of a heart attack. Jonah went on to name one of his private philanthropic organizations Max A. Shacknye Foundation. It would help benefits children's welfare and give scholarships to young athletes. He just wanted Max's name to live on. In 2012, Dina founded Maxie's house, which stands for Hope, Outreach, Understanding, Safety,

and Education, and the purpose was to protect the emotional and physical wellbeing of children who lived in blended families. In 2013, Zao's family attorney filed a lawsuit against the sheriff, the chief medical examiner, but they needed $535,000 to go up against this lawsuit and they could not fund it. So instead they filed a wrongful death suit accusing Adam, Dina, and Nina of conspiring

carrying out and concealing a scheme to assault and murder Rebecca. They sought $10 million in damages. The lawsuit named Dina as the mastermind, and they claimed that Dina blamed Max's condition on Rebecca, and was jealous of her and Jonas relationship, and that night, Dina, as the mastermind, and they claimed that Dina blamed Max's condition on Rebecca, and was jealous of her and Jonas' relationship, and that night, Dina and Dina went to the mansion to murder Rebecca, and in the commotion Adam, who had taken an ambient to fall asleep, which is how convenient, he stepped in to help, not Rebecca of course, but the two sisters, because that was his nephew after all. Even though he wasn't really in their lives.

So the black paint found all over Rebecca's body was consistent with pornographic states of mind, the family attorney stated, so Adam had admitted to watching porn and it looked like someone had pinched her nipple, like the black paint was really strange. It looked almost like someone wanted to humiliate her before her death. And he was the strongest of the three, so he probably strangled her. This is what the lawsuit says, This is not what I'm saying. Deena told him to paint the message on the door so he did. And in 2014 the lawsuit was amended to a ledge that the three of them restrained Rebecca with tape, gagged her, then tied her up with a ski rope, removed the tape,

disposed of it, offsite, and then it was amended again in 2016 to say that Rebecca tried to run away but Adam hit her on the head and strangled her before throwing her over the railing. Then in 2017, Dina and Nina were dismissed from the lawsuit and the family apologized for accusing them of wrongdoing. This announcement came after Nina's insurance made a settlement with the Zal family for $100,000. Even though neither Dina nor Nina wanted to settle. The attorney got cell phone records in a hospital CCTV and it turns out Dina was there and Nina was at Dina's house all night

after leaving the mansion. That's what it's alleged. So the main theory was then, all on Adam Shacknye. The theory was that he assaulted Rebecca and killed her to keep her quiet. The trial began in 2018 and the theory was that he sexually assaulted her, which describes the placements of the paint.

Tied the knots and the knots on Rebecca were very nautical and Adam was a tugboat captain. Meanwhile Rebecca didn't have much experience with ropes or bindings. The note was also pretty high up on the door and it had to be done by someone who was 5-10 or 6 feet tall. This theory was later kind of disproved, but you know, they brought it to court, and Adam was wearing gloves, so his prints wouldn't be on anything. They also argued that Adam didn't shed any DNA because some people are just not good shedders. They don't leave a lot of DNA behind. They also alleged that there was no evidence of sexual assault,

but Adam had raped Rebecca with the knife handle, And that's why there was blood on there. The only problem with that I think people found was how do you do that without cutting yourself since I presume you'd be holding the blade. Anyway, during this trial though, they bring in a dummy, I guess more mannequin, but they call it a dummy. And it was made to look exactly like Rebecca, down to the painted toenails. The dummy was nude. And they showed how the knots were made, but also like Rebecca down to the painted toenails, and the Debbie was nude.

And they showed how the knots were made, but also how Rebecca's body was hanging. I mean, it got their point across, but it was, it was a lot. It was a lot. Jonah was also a cross-examante, and he argued that the knots mean nothing. He and Rebecca went boating at least once a week, and she would jump off the boat and tie the lines to secure the boat. I mean, it's not unbelievable that she knows how to tie a knot. So they asked Jonah, have you ever seen her tie a knot like this?

No. Can you demonstrate how you would tie a boat and he did a figure eight motion? They're like, so there's no knot in that one, right? No, there's not. So it just, you know, and like these knots, if you guys have ever tried to do an actual knot, it's really hard. It's really hard. So the jury awarded the Zal family $5.7 million for the loss of Rebecca's love, emotional companionship and financial assistance because Rebecca had been sending money to her family.

Almost a year later, in February of 2019, Adam appealed the judgment and Adam's insurance company and the Zal family reached a settlement of $600,000. That would vacate the original $5 million judgment. But Adam didn't like this. He felt like he shouldn't have to pay anything. And if he was asked if he killed Rebecca, he would say, hellf**king no, I wouldn't waste my time killing Rebecca Zau. The author of the book, Caitlin, she was contacted by Adam and Mary and they spoke on numerous times. Caitlin said that Adam was an odd bird who was easily triggered, but he also wasn't poor as he kind of presented himself to be, well, maybe people just gathered, and he didn't present himself like that. But he wasn't poor, it's said that he was making about

$500 a day on the river. So he's not doing horribly. Also Mary is standing by Adam and she believes that there's nothing in his character that would make him do anything like this. He's a convenient scapegoat to accuse for a lot of reasons. She says I've known him for 25 years, it's just not like him. But he did go on to send to the author of this book a ton of harassing emails. He insulted her personally, allegedly called her evil, a mental midget, and an Nazi. He never threatened her though, and Caitlin never responded. In 2020, the Zal family renewed their $100,000 reward to any information leading

to the arrest and conviction of Adam Shackney. They believe that the San Diego Sheriff's Department was racially and socio-economically biased in their investigation. Meanwhile, Adams at the Zao family is brain dead, and he wishes that they would just admit to what happened. After all, that negative press. Yeah, there's more. A bunch of women came forward and claimed Jonah and the male leadership at Medici Pharmaceutical Company were creating hostile work environments for women and discriminating against them.

That they experienced sexual harassment, that they received smaller bonuses and overall suppression of promotion. They said that it was like joining a boys club. The female employees were objectified, grouped, sexually propositioned, forced to stay out late to drink with clients and male managers, and they were made to feel

that they were sexually available to their superiors. Jonah denies all of this. He said that all the women, the plaintiffs, were fired for performance issues, and they were mad at the Medici's layoffs. So Jonah was pretty, he was forced into a corner, and he was forced to sell his company for the small price of $41 million.

And that is what's going on right now. There's still no answers. This is probably one of the most mind-bending cases ever. I think it's got a lot of people confused, a lot of web suits, a lot of true crime people are just, I just think it's not a suicide because, and this is my opinion of someone who knows nothing. I just can't imagine so many things would have to lie now. Like you have to explain every little thing

and it's like, I guess in a really weird situation I could see that happening, but if I have to say that for every little thing, it's like, what are the odds? Yeah, I just don't see it, yeah. Yeah, it just doesn't make any sense. Maybe if it was one part where I was like, oh, everything makes sense except for this one thing,

but I guess there's kind of this really weird obscure explanation than fine, but this is weird. And that is the case of Rebecca's Owl. What are your thoughts on this one? And this one was kind of a long one. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye! Sunday for the mini-sud. Bye!