Suicide or Homicide: Death of Rebecca Zahau
52:50 Share

Hi Forensic Tales listeners. This week, I'm doing something that I have never done on the show before. I want to tell you the complete story, the facts, the theories, and the forensic science of the case. And then, I want you to decide what you think really happened.

It's a 2011 case that has been officially ruled as a suicide. But there are so many people out there, including the victim's family and close friends, that believe this is no suicide. The story has been featured on a number of investigative true crime shows over the years, including a recent 2019 TV miniseries called Death at the Mansion.

Experts in the field of forensic science have been able to reconstruct the scene with many experts coming to very different conclusions based on the forensic evidence. Hear the story, learn the facts, consider the theories, explore the forensic evidence, and then you become the expert. You decide what you think really happened.

This week on Forensic Tales, we discuss the death of Rebecca Zahau. We will go through all the forensic evidence in the case, and you can decide for yourself, was this a tragic suicide, or was it something far more sinister?

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney. Each Monday, we release a new episode that discusses real, bone-chilling true crime stories and how forensic science has been used in the case.

Some cases have been solved through cutting-edge forensic techniques, while other cases have been left sitting on the shelf collecting dust in the cold case division, just waiting to be solved by forensic science. If you love the show, please leave us a review. This will greatly help promote the show to other true crime addicts.

Also, please consider supporting the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash forensic tales. Patreon is an amazing platform that helps support small businesses and productions just like my show.

This is also where you can access Patreon-only content like bonus episodes and extras from the show. So please visit patreon.com slash Forensic Tales to get even more true crime content. Now, let's get to our story.

Rebecca Zahao is from a very small town in the Chin Hills of what used to be known as Burma, located in the southeastern part of Asia. Rebecca was born on March 15, 1979, in a family of Chin ethnicity, one of the founding groups of people to establish the Union of Burma. They're a group of people who are known to speak a wide variety of languages, but they

but also share many of the same traditions and cultures. Rebecca grew up with her older sister, Mary, and younger sister, Snowen. When Rebecca was just three years old, her and her family moved to the capital of Nepal because Rebecca's parents wanted a better life for her and her sisters, something that they didn't think that they would get if they stayed in Burma.

While in Nepal, Rebecca learned to speak one of the many languages that she would eventually know. But after a few years in Nepal, Rebecca's father was granted political asylum in Germany, so the family moved to a town about two hours outside of Frankfurt, Germany.

At this point, Rebecca is a young teenager, and she learns to speak both German and English while attending high school in Germany. She finishes high school in Germany and goes out to attend the Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe in Milstadt, Austria. In 2002, while attending college, she met then 36-year-old Neil Nalepa.

who is actually an American citizen from New York. Although they were over 14 years apart in age, the two really hit it off. And within the first year of meeting each other, Rebecca and Neil were engaged. And since they were engaged to be married, and Neil was a U.S. citizen, this allowed Rebecca to legally immigrate to the United States with him. Rebecca and Neil married in 2002 in Long Island, New York.

Now remember, Rebecca is still really young at this point. She's barely 20 years old when she comes to the United States. She still has ambitions of wanting to work and start a career of her own. So she decided to attend school to become a licensed eye technician, which would allow her to assist in eye procedures like cataract surgery or even LASIK. Over the next couple years, Rebecca and Neil moved around quite a bit.

Her family also came to the United States and settled into the state of Missouri. So Rebecca and Neil moved out of New York to Colorado Springs. But the couple didn't stay there very long because Rebecca really didn't like the cold, which as a Southern California girl myself, I can totally relate to that.

So they left Colorado Springs in 2007 and settled into the city of Temecula in Southern California. And while in Southern California, right near San Diego, Neal started working as a carpenter. But just like Colorado Springs, their time in Southern California really didn't last very long.

Rebecca and Neil left Temecula, California and headed out east where they eventually settled into Phoenix, Arizona. While living in Phoenix, Neil decided to go back to school to finish his nursing degree and Rebecca found work at a local eye clinic where she could really use her skills and talents.

But by the year 2008, after nine years together, the marriage between Rebecca and Neil started to fall apart. The couple grew distant from one another and eventually decided to file for divorce. A couple months after Rebecca and Neil filed for divorce after nine years together, Rebecca met Jonah Shackney.

Jonah Shackney was the CEO of Metis Pharmaceutical, a medical cosmetic company based in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Jonah also served as a chief aide to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee for Public Health. Jonah was actually the ninth highest paid CEO in the state of Arizona.

Reports indicate that Jonah was making a pretty nice salary of about $6.4 million in the year 2010. So by all accounts, Jonah Shachnai was an extremely successful businessman, and to Rebecca, probably seemed like a match made in heaven.

Jonah Shachnai was significantly older than Rebecca when the two first met. In fact, he was about 22 years her senior. And at the time Rebecca and Jonah met and started dating, Jonah was actually recently separated from his second wife, Dina, who he shared a son with named Max. From everything that I could find about Jonah and Dina's marriage, it was pretty much described as a turbulent relationship.

Police reports from the Paradise Valley Police Department indicate that police responded to Jonah and Dina's residence for domestic-related disputes at least three separate times. On one occasion, Dina claimed Jonah had their large German Shepherd dog attack her intentionally, and Jonah claimed Dina had physically assaulted him on several occasions. Not what you would describe as the ideal relationship.

Although police in Arizona responded to several calls at the Shackney residence, for reasons I don't know, there were no arrests ever made. Prior to his marriage with Dina, Jonah was previously married to Kimberly James, his first wife. Jonah and Kimberly shared two children together, which also led to a turbulent custody battle.

In 2008, when Jonah met Rebecca, who was also recently separated from her husband, it kind of appeared that the two were in very similar spots both in their lives and in their relationships. Jonah described his relationship with Rebecca to his friends as the most tranquil relationship that he's ever had.

Their relationship was so much different than the turbulent relationship he had with his second wife, Dina. And for Rebecca, she described her relationship with Jonah as the fairytale ending to her story. Now, of course, there were friends of Jonah who questioned Rebecca's intentions with him.

Remember, Jonah was over 20 years older than her. He was a multi-millionaire pharmaceutical CEO. So I can understand how on the outside looking in, how things might appear in the relationship.

But that really wasn't the case here with Rebecca and Jonah. The couple were both super happy together, and they were both super into living a active, healthy lifestyle, and they were both described as both kind of being health nuts. Rebecca didn't drink a sip of alcohol, she didn't smoke, and you really couldn't even force her to eat fast food.

Although Rebecca described her relationship with Jonah as her fairytale ending to things, things weren't exactly perfect, right? A few months after Rebecca and Jonah met, in August 2009, the upbeat and active Rebecca was actually arrested for shoplifting after she stole about $1,000 worth of jewelry from a Macy's in Phoenix, Arizona.

When police detained Rebecca, she told them that she just totally forgot that she had the jewelry in her bag because she was on a phone call that caught her completely off guard. So her explanation to things was that she just simply forgot that she had the jewelry when she walked out of the Macy's because she was just so distracted by the phone call.

And Rebecca basically got a slap on the wrist for the shoplifting incident. And she had to pay about $500 in court fees and had to complete this shoplifter diversion course offered by the court.

The whole thing just seemed to be completely out of character for Rebecca. Because prior to this incident in August 2009, she had never even made a single contact with police and she never had any contact since then.

There are reports from some of Rebecca's friends that around this same time, Rebecca appeared to be losing some weight and she appeared to be super stressed out all the time and she wasn't exercising as much as she used to.

which all of these things and signs, especially when they're put together and considered as a whole, are definite signs that an individual is experiencing some sort of inner turmoil in their life. So the divorce between Rebecca and her husband Neil became finalized in February 2011. And by all accounts, Rebecca's relationship with her new boyfriend, Jonah Shackney, seemed to be going really well.

And by July of that same year, Rebecca and Jonah were staying at one of Jonah's properties in Coronado, California. Coronado, if you're not familiar, is a resort-type city on the peninsula across from the San Diego Bay.

And I have stayed in Coronado for a weekend a while back. And you guys, it's a very nice and really small area of San Diego. And there are some pretty incredible mansions in Coronado. If you live there, you definitely have some money, that's for sure.

So Rebecca and Jonah were staying at Jonah's mansion in Coronado because that's typically where they lived during the summer months. And I can't blame them. The weather would have been absolutely incredible. It's super close to the water. It's a perfect place to spend the summer. The mansion that Jonah and Rebecca were staying in was a 27-room house facing the Pacific Ocean.

and Jonah bought the property for a little over $12 million in 2007. On July 8, 2011, Jonah Shachnai called up one of his super close friends, George Kopp, and the two of them were actually congressional aides around the same time together.

Jonah reportedly told George that he was just spending the summer afternoon kicking around a soccer ball with his sons, Max and Ethan, and he told his friend how his daughter, Gabby, was preparing for her upcoming volunteer trip to Africa in August. George reported that his friend Jonah seemed really happy that he was having the absolutely perfect day with his kids and with his girlfriend, Rebecca Zahow.

Three days later, on Monday, August 11, 2011, Jonah Shackney drove his 6-year-old son, Max, 13-year-old Ethan, and 14-year-old Gabby to the San Diego airport. And this is because Ethan and Gabby, the children that Jonah shared with his first wife, were going to Arizona to stay with their mother for a little bit.

After dropping off his two older children, Jonah drove back to his Coronado mansion with six-year-old Max. Jonah and Max had plans to go to the San Diego Zoo later on that afternoon, but Jonah decided that he wanted to get in a quick workout at the Hollywood Fitness Gym that was only about a few blocks away from the mansion.

So Jonah went off to the gym and Rebecca stayed at the mansion with her 16-year-old sister, Zina, who was staying in town visiting. Rebecca and Zina stayed behind to watch 6-year-old Max at the house. Shortly after Jonah left for the gym, Max was upstairs playing by himself on the second floor.

Now, you guys, full disclosure, what happens next is not exactly clear and even to this day. But reports indicate that Max was either kicking around a soccer ball or he was upstairs riding his scooter, both of which he was known to do.

But whatever he was doing that afternoon, Max tripped over something. And again, this part is not exactly clear. He may have tripped over the family's puppy or he tripped over something else. But whatever Max tripped over, it caused him to catapult himself over the guardrail to the U-shaped stairwell that was inside the house.

And once Max was catapulted over the guardrail, he tried to save himself by grabbing on to a large chandelier that hung over the middle section of the entryway and was located in between the U-shaped stairwell. From the weight pulling down, the chandelier broke loose from the ceiling and came crashing down to the first floor.

Along with the chandelier, six-year-old Max came crashing down head first into the first floor tile. Rebecca, who was in the first floor bathroom at the time, heard the loud crash and came running out to see what happened. And this is where she discovered her boyfriend Jonah's son lying on the floor covered by the chandelier.

Rebecca screamed for her teenage sister, Zena, to call 911. Rebecca began performing CPR on Max until paramedics would arrive. And according to 911 records, the 911 call was logged at 1010 a.m.

and dispatchers described having a really hard time understanding Zena. It was clear to dispatchers that the caller was in complete shock and had a really hard time describing where the house was located. But luckily, paramedics were able to respond and get to the mansion by 10.12 a.m.

And once paramedics arrive at the mansion, Max is not breathing and he's completely unresponsive. While paramedics work on reviving Max, Rebecca calls her boyfriend Jonah, who was still at the gym just a few blocks away. Jonah answers, which isn't something that he typically does while he's at the gym, and he rushes back to the beachside mansion.

Jonah made it home just as Max was being loaded into the ambulance to be transported to the hospital. The six-year-old was rushed to Ratty Children's Hospital, the largest children's hospital in all of California. And from the beginning, it wasn't looking too good for Max. He had suffered massive head trauma, and he had to be placed under a medically induced coma shortly after arriving at the hospital.

During a time of tragedy and chaos like this, there's a lot of things going on and people are coming and going from the hospital and there's just a lot of moving parts. Max's mom and Jonah's ex-wife Dina arrived shortly after and there was just so much going on. No one was sure if Max was even going to survive the accident.

The following day, on July 12th, Rebecca dropped off her teenage sister Zina at the airport because she was going to get on a flight back to Missouri where the rest of Rebecca's family lived. After she dropped off her sister, it was arranged for Rebecca to stay at the airport because Jonah's brother Adam was supposed to be arriving in San Diego to be with the family and help out in any way possible.

Again, no one was sure if Max was going to live or not. That night, Rebecca, Jonah, and his brother Adam all had dinner together. And I can't even imagine what they would have been able to say to one another. But after dinner, Jonah goes back to the hospital to be with his ex-wife Dina and continue to pray by Max's hospital bed that he's going to be able to pull through.

While Jonah is at the hospital, Rebecca stays behind in the Coronado mansion with Jonah's brother Adam. Obviously, it's been an extremely long and exhausting last 36 hours or so for everybody. So Rebecca and Adam kind of just say their goodbyes to each other. Adam goes to the guest house where he's staying and Rebecca goes to her bedroom.

There's not really much discussion or conversation between them, which is totally understandable when they're both trying to understand and really come to terms with the idea that Max most likely won't survive the accident. So the two of them go their separate ways in the mansion and call it a night.

The following morning, so this is now July 13th, at approximately 6.30 a.m., Jonah's brother Adam, who flew in the following day and was staying in the mansion's guest house, came out of the house and saw Rebecca hanging by her neck from the second floor balcony.

Rebecca was completely nude, except for a turquoise long-sleeved shirt that had been wrapped around her head with the sleeves double-knotted and stuffed inside her mouth. Her hands were tied behind her back and her ankles were bound together.

Okay, pause. I know that's a lot to take in. And full disclosure, the next part of this story is according to Adam, Jonah's brother who was staying in the guest house. And I'm not saying that his story isn't true, but since there are no other eyewitnesses here, I want to be perfectly clear that some of this is Adam's versions of events.

So a frantic Adam ran back to the guest house to get a knife and he pulled a nearby wooden table and he stands up on it and he cuts Rebecca down from the rope. He was able to cut through the rope and get Rebecca down to the grass where he pulled the shirt out of her mouth and started performing CPR.

At 6.48 a.m., Adam called 911 in order to get an ambulance to come help Rebecca, who by all accounts appeared to already be dead. And once paramedics arrived at the mansion, they tried to revive her. They did everything possible. But after just a few short minutes, they realized they were way too late.

and Rebecca Zaha was pronounced dead at the scene. A resort town like Coronado has never seen a case like this, so the Coronado Police Department contacted the San Diego Sheriff's Department Homicide Unit to get a little bit of help in the case, and it wasn't immediately clear to first responders what exactly happened inside that beachfront mansion.

Although Rebecca was found hanging in an apparent suicide, how could they explain that her hands and ankles were bound? Or the t-shirt that was used as a gag inside of her mouth? Or even more disturbing was that she was found completely naked. Committing suicide while being completely naked, especially for a female, is simply unheard of.

So the speculation of foul play in Rebecca Zahao's death started to swirl right from the very beginning. Was this a suicide or was this a homicide? And here's where the story takes another devastating turn.

Three days after Rebecca Zahow was found hanging from the second floor balcony and six days after Max's accident, Max passed away in the hospital on July 16, 2011 due to the brain damage he suffered from the accident. Max was just six years old.

His death was ruled an accident, concluding that he must have tripped over something that caused him to fall over the second floor railing and come falling right down to the first floor. Okay, so just to recap, because I know this story has a lot of moving parts to it. Jonah's son Max's accident occurred on July 11th.

Two days later, on the morning of July 13th, Jonah's girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, is found hanging, completely naked, bound and gagged from the second floor balcony of the Coronado mansion. Then, three days later, on July 16th, Max is pronounced dead from the accident.

And here's the part of the story that I want you to decide for yourself what you think happened to Rebecca Zahau. Did she commit suicide because she was so devastated by her boyfriend's son's tragic death and because she was the one in charge of watching him that morning? Or was she brutally murdered and her death was staged to look like a suicide?

possibly as revenge for what happened to Max. Now, let's get to the forensic evidence. So, let's start with how Rebecca Zahau's body was found. When Rebecca was discovered hanging from the second floor balcony, her hands and ankles were bound. Rebecca's hands were tied behind her back in an overhand clove hitch knot, a pretty intricate style knot.

If someone told me to tie my hands in a clove hitch knot style, I would have no idea what they're talking about. So I will post pictures to ForensicTales.com of the knots so that you guys can get a better idea of what they looked like. A similar style knot was used to tie Rebecca's ankles together.

Rebecca also had a turquoise colored t-shirt that was used as a gag found inside of her mouth. As I mentioned before, Rebecca was completely naked. On her body, black paint was discovered on her breasts, almost as if they were pinched. But no black paint was found on her hands or palms to suggest that she pinched herself with the black paint.

The rope around her neck was tied to a bed in the second floor bedroom. Following the suicide theory, Rebecca would have to take all of her clothes off, tie her hands behind her back with a clove hitch style knot,

tie her ankles together in a similar way, place the t-shirt inside of her mouth, and make her way out onto the balcony. Get herself up a couple feet and then tip herself off of the balcony rail. At Rebecca's autopsy, the medical examiner found four instances of head trauma.

Supporters of the suicide theory suggest that the head injuries were likely caused when Rebecca went over the balcony in a non-vertical position and that she could have struck her head on the balcony on her way down, causing the head trauma. But supporters of the homicide theory suggest that it's really unlikely that she would have hit her head four separate times on the way over the railing.

There's also been a lot of questions about the injuries to Rebecca's neck, specifically whether or not the injuries found on her neck are consistent with a long drop hanging. A long drop hanging typically results in a lot of trauma to the neck, and it's even possible that with a long drop hanging, the individual can suffer a broken neck and even internal or external decapitation.

These injuries can occur when someone has dropped from just 9 to 10 feet, which is a lot shorter than the distance Rebecca's body would have been dropped. But the injuries to Rebecca's neck were far less severe. The medical examiner only noticed a broken hyoid bone, and that's it.

Supporters of the homicide theory argue that a broken hyoid is far more consistent with manual strangulation than it is with hangings. In fact, breaking a hyoid is not an easy thing to do with just a ligature around someone's neck. According to a number of medical examiners, a broken hyoid in hangings is extremely rare.

Important forensic evidence was also discovered in the bedroom where Rebecca Zahal was found hanging from. A message had been painted in black paint on the door leading to the balcony. The message read, quote, She saved him. Can you save her? End quote.

The tube of black paint used to write the message was also found in the bedroom and according to the San Diego Sheriff's Department, had Rebecca's fingerprint on the cap. Remember, black paint was also found around Rebecca's breasts, but no black paint was found on either her hands or her palms. Rebecca did have a history of painting as one of her hobbies.

But Rebecca's family has insisted that the handwriting used to paint the message on the door does not match her handwriting and doesn't appear to be something that she would have written. Investigators recovered two knives in the bedroom where Rebecca was found hanging. And just a warning here, this next part is a little graphic.

but one of the knives in the bedroom was covered in Rebecca's menstrual blood. Rebecca's blood was found on all four sides of the knife's handle, and the blood that was found was identified as menstrual fluid, opening up the possibility that Rebecca may have been sexually assaulted before her death, which would certainly rule out any theory of suicide.

If Rebecca was sexually assaulted before her death, as possible evidenced by the discovery of her menstrual blood on the handle of the knife, it's really unlikely that she committed suicide. Rebecca's fingerprints weren't the only prints discovered on the knife. Police investigators also recovered DNA from two different people on that knife.

but the DNA sample had an insufficient amount of DNA to complete any type of DNA comparisons. This suggests that at least one other person besides Rebecca touched and handled the knife before her death.

The San Diego Sheriff's Department has claimed that Rebecca was not sexually assaulted and claimed that the menstrual fluid could have been left on the knife handle in other ways. But supporters of the homicide theory, including Rebecca Zahow's family, greatly disagree. It's also been pointed out that the proper tests were never performed on the knife by the Sheriff's Department.

which means they cannot rule out the possibility of a sexual assault. I, for one, cannot come to a conclusion in my head, no matter how many times I've thought about this, as to how her menstrual fluid would have been on the knife's handle without considering the possibility of a sexual assault sometime prior to her death.

A forensic search of Rebecca's house cell phone was done shortly after her death. The search revealed that from approximately 8 p.m. until 10 p.m., the night before the discovery of her body, Rebecca had texted with her older sister Mary. And at 10.48 p.m., Rebecca received a text message from Nina Romero, who was the twin sister of Jonah's ex-wife, Dina.

Nina texted Rebecca because she wanted to stop by the mansion to talk about Max's accident. Remember, Rebecca and her young teenage sister were the only two people inside the mansion when the accident happened. But Rebecca never responded back to that text message.

And there's no activity on Rebecca's cell phone until 12.50 a.m., when Rebecca checked her voicemail. Records indicate that she listened to at least one voice message, but deleted it afterwards. So police were unable to recover exactly what the voice message said.

And that was the last known time that Rebecca used her cell phone before her body was discovered around 6.30 a.m. Supporters of the homicide theory have argued that the way in which Rebecca hung herself is just not consistent with female suicides.

Rebecca hung herself completely nude while on her menstrual cycle for basically the entire world to see. This is a very public and very unusual way to commit suicide.

she would have known that her family, her very own parents, her friends would have all seen her this way. Which, speaking from a female's perspective, this just seems like such an unusual and such a humiliating way to commit suicide. I couldn't even imagine any woman doing something like this in such a degrading way to themselves.

So for me, personally speaking, I just don't understand this aspect of her death. The way Rebecca was found is extremely humiliating, male or female. And what we know about sexual assaults and sex crimes suggest that perpetrators of sex crimes like to punish their victims and they like to humiliate them.

which is consistent with what we see in the case of Rebecca Zahau. If someone other than Rebecca herself is responsible for her death, whoever the perpetrator is in this case wanted to humiliate her. They wanted the entire world to see her this way.

In addition to the forensic evidence of the case, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence that should be considered when determining whether Rebecca Zahow killed herself or possibly something else happened to her. Let's start with the timing of Rebecca's death. Her body was discovered on the morning of July 13th, just two days after Max's accident.

Although Max's condition was pretty grave at the time, Max wasn't dead. By July 13th, it's completely unclear whether or not he was going to survive. We all hear about medical miracles happening all the time in our lives.

Rebecca's sister Mary has come forward to say that the day before Rebecca's death, she was texting her about the detailed plans she had for the next day, which would be the day she died. Rebecca told her sister she wanted to take things to the hospital and that she was going to fix Jonas something to eat.

Rebecca even told her sister to tell their mom that she was going to call her on her way to the hospital the following morning. So if Rebecca was planning on hanging herself, it's not clear why she would be making plans when she knows that she's not going to be around. And again, Max is not dead.

Of course, she must have been devastated over what happened to him, and I'm sure she felt some sort of guilt because she was the one in charge of watching him that day. But I just don't know if she would have killed herself three days before Max was officially pronounced dead from the accident.

I guess if she had hung herself after Max was pronounced dead, maybe the timeline would fit a little bit better in the eyes of Rebecca's family and the supporters of a homicide theory. Rebecca Zahal's death was officially ruled a suicide by the San Diego Sheriff's Department. Since then, Rebecca's family has continued to fight for her case to be ruled a homicide.

Those who believe Rebecca killed herself believe it's because of the guilt and the sadness she felt from Max's accident. Investigators have reconstructed the scene in which they demonstrate how someone could easily tie the knots on their ankles and on their wrists.

They also demonstrate how after being bound, one could tip themselves over a balcony railing. Is it difficult? Yes, but possible. They believe the message wrote in black paint on the door was meant to be Rebecca's suicide note. The message read, she saved him, can you save her? Possibly referring to Max's accident and her suicide note.

The explanation as to why Rebecca decided to hang herself completely nude isn't known. Although it's extremely rare, research has shown that naked hangings aren't unheard of. As to the idea that a sexual assault may have taken place sometime before her death, based on the blood found on the knife handle, the San Diego Sheriff's Department has claimed no sexual assault took place.

Again, they claim the menstrual fluid could have gotten on the knife some other way. Their explanation as to how that could have happened has never been released. But what if what happened to Rebecca Zahow wasn't a suicide?

Outside of Rebecca's family, there are a lot of people, including a number of renowned criminalist and true crime investigative reporters, that believe there is still a lot of unanswered questions in the case. But if Rebecca Zahow didn't commit suicide, what really happened? There's a number of theories, and I want to stress that these are simply theories.

Many people looked at Adam Shackney, Jonah's brother who was staying in the guest house the night Rebecca died. Adam was also the one who discovered Rebecca's body hanging from the balcony. Adam arrived in Coronado from Memphis, Tennessee where he works as a tugboat captain after learning about Max's accident.

According to Adam, after he and Rebecca returned home to the mansion, he went straight to the guest house, made a couple phone calls, and then went to bed around 9 p.m. He claimed that he didn't hear anything from Rebecca's bedroom that night. He said he woke up the next morning and wanted to walk to a nearby coffee shop, but on his way out the door, he saw something that caught his eye, which is when he discovered Rebecca.

Many people question why Adam decided to cut Rebecca down before calling 911. There is also a question as to the lack of Adam's DNA where Rebecca's body was cut down from. According to Adam, he performed CPR on Rebecca, but absolutely none of his DNA was found anywhere on her body.

But what would Adam's motive be to kill Rebecca? Well, remember, Rebecca was the one babysitting Max when the accident happened. So it is possible that Adam attacked Rebecca out of anger for the accident. Let's also look at the possibility of the sexual assault. There's enough forensic evidence that points to the possibility that Rebecca was sexually assaulted before her death.

Although none of Adam's DNA was found on Rebecca's body, a sexual assault would explain the menstrual fluid found on the knife handle. There were also two other DNA profiles that did not belong to Rebecca on the knife. We also know that the two knives found in the bedroom came from inside the house. Adam Shackney was the only other person in the mansion that night.

There's no evidence to suggest that anyone broke into the house or that Rebecca invited anyone else over. Believing that Adam could have the motive to kill her and stage it as a suicide leaves him the only person that could have done it. Let's look at the reality. Rebecca was Jonah's girlfriend, who was over 20 years younger than him.

She was the one in charge of keeping an eye on Max that day. And it's possible to say that she's the one responsible for letting the accident happen. That she wasn't watching him as closely as she should have been. And now, six-year-old Max is in the hospital dying. Certainly, that can be seen as a potential motive to kill Rebecca Zahal.

So, are you leaning more towards suicide or homicide? Well, we know that the San Diego Sheriff's Department ruled Rebecca Zahow's case a suicide. But this didn't stop the Zahow family from filing a civil case against Adam Shackney for her death. The Zahow family filed a civil suit against Adam Shackney for the wrongful death of Rebecca Zahow.

Their lawyers presented all the evidence that pointed to the case being a homicide and not a suicide. Their lawyers argued that Adam certainly had the motive to kill Rebecca and that he staged it to look like a suicide. Well, despite the coroner's finding that it was a suicide, a civil jury actually found Adam Shackney liable for Rebecca Zahao's death.

The civil jury awarded Rebecca's mother more than $5 million in damages for her death. But Adam Shackney didn't accept responsibility for Rebecca's murder, and he filed an appeal to the civil judgment. From the beginning, Adam has claimed his innocence in the case, siding with the coroner's findings that she killed herself.

So after Adam Shackney submitted his appeal to the civil judgment that ruled him liable for Rebecca's death, the attorneys for the Zahau family came forward requesting that the case be dismissed. Yes, dismissed. The lawyers for the Zahau family requested the case against Adam Shackney be dismissed, even after being awarded over $5 million in damages.

The case was dismissed against Adam Shackney because the Zahal family settled with insurers outside of court for an undisclosed amount of money. So it essentially dismisses the civil case against Adam, although he was found liable from a civil jury. Outside of the civil judgment, Adam Shackney has never been arrested or charged criminally for Rebecca's murder.

Police looked into the possibility, but have never officially called him a person of interest or suspect in the case. The death of Rebecca Zahow has officially been ruled a suicide, but that is how the case remains today.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, there is a ton of people outside of the Zahao family that believe more work needs to be done. Not suggesting that this has to be a homicide, but there is more investigative and forensic work to be done in the case. There are far too many unanswered questions here.

If you're interested in this story as much as I am, I highly recommend watching the TV miniseries called Death at the Mansion, featuring retired cold case investigator Paul Holes and true crime investigative journalist Billy Jensen, both of which are the hosts of the Murder Squad podcast.

Death at the Mansion explores in detail all of the forensic and circumstantial evidence we looked at in this episode. Now, I would love to hear from you what you think really happened to Rebecca Zahau. Do you think she committed suicide out of an extreme amount of guilt for what happened to her boyfriend's son, Max?

Or was she murdered out of rage for the lack of care while babysitting him? I want to hear your theories and your opinions. Let's start a discussion on Instagram at Forensic Tales or on Facebook. You can even send me an email directly with your thoughts on the case at Courtney at ForensicTales.com.

If you want to check out pictures and see images from the things that we discussed in this episode, go to our website at ForensicTales.com. Also, in the blog post containing the episode photos, I will also write my personal opinion on what I think happened to Rebecca Zahau. So, what do you think? Suicide or homicide?

Forensic Tales is a Rockefeller Audio Production. To read more about the death of Rebecca Zahow and check out photos from the case, head over to our website, ForensicTales.com. If you guys love the show, please make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your shows. Don't forget to leave us a rating with a review. I would love to hear your feedback.

Consider supporting the show on Patreon. If you'd like to help me to continue to produce the true crime content that you just can't get enough of, please visit patreon.com slash forensic tales. Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers, Tony Areola and Nicole Leasing.

If you'd like to become a Patreon producer of the show, please check out our page or email me at Courtney at ForensicTales.com to find out how you can become involved.

Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Please join me next week. We release a new episode each and every Monday to satisfy your true crime obsession. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.

you