The millionaire founder of a pharmaceutical company is speaking out for the first time in seven years about the mysterious deaths of his six-year-old son and his girlfriend, which took place just two days apart at his historic California mansion in 2011.
Jonah Shacknai sat down for an exclusive interview with ABC’s 20/20 airing at 10pm on Friday night, just days after a wrongful death civil lawsuit against his brother Adam went to trial in San Diego.
Law enforcement officials law enforcement officials have concluded the that July 2011 hanging death of 32-year-old Rebecca Zahau at her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai’s Spreckels mansion in Coronado was a suicide, but her mother and sister believe that Adam is to blame.
Breaking his silence: Millionaire Jonah Shacknai (left) sat down for an exclusive interview with ABC’s 20/20 to discuss the 2011 death of his girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau (right), which is now the subject of a $10million wrongful death lawsuit targeting his brother
Adam Shacknai sits in court during the civil trial underway Wednesday in San Diego for the wrongful death of Zahau
Zahau was found hanging naked from a second-story balcony at the sprawling house, with her hands tied behind her back, her feet bound and a T-shirt wrapped around her lower face.
Two days earlier, Jonah’s son Max had fallen off a staircase in the home and was found mortally injured next to a shattered chandelier. He died days later in the hospital.
Zahau was the only adult at the house at the time of the boy’s fatal fall. The six-year-old’s death was ruled an accident.
Adam Shacknai, a tugboat captain from Tennessee, has maintained his innocence and was never charged in Zahau’s deaths.
In their lawsuit, Zahau’s mother and sister allege that Adam killed Rebecca in revenge for Max’s death because she was responsible for the boy at the time.
It is claimed that Adam was the only other person in the house when Rebecca died and also that her legs and arms had been bound.
In his opening statements presented on Wednesday, the plaintiffs’ lawyer argued that Adam Shacknai strangled Zahau to death after a failed sexual assault, reported AZCentral.com.
He then allegedly staged the scene to look like a suicide by hanging her body from the balcony in order to cover up the murder.
The defense countered by telling the jury that there is no credible evidence linking Shacknai to Zahau’s death and stressing that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Because it is a civil case, Shacknai cannot be sentenced to prison, regardless of the trial’s outcome.
The family of a woman who was found dead in a San Diego mansion (pictured) launched a $10million civil case against her millionaire boyfriend’s brother accusing him of her murder
Zahau was found hanging from this second-floor balcony (left). It happened just two days after Shacknai’s six-year-old son Max (right) died
Max Shacknai, aged six, was in Zahau’s care when he plunged to his death off a staircase and was found on the first floor, next to a shattered chandelier (pictured)
Other views of the staircase that allegedly claimed Max’s life at his family home
The family of Zahau filed the $10million wrongful death suit claiming that she was murdered in 2013 – almost two years to the day after her death.
Authorities ruled Rebecca Zahau’s death on July 13, 2011 a suicide.
It was the second bizarre tragedy in days at the multimillion-dollar Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California, which belonged to Zahau’s boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai – the twice-divorced CEO of Medicis Pharmaceutical, which makes Restylane and Dysport for treating facial wrinkles.
Just two days earlier, six-year-old Max Shacknai, Jonah’s son by his second wife, Dina, fell off a staircase in the home and was found mortally injured next to a shattered chandelier. He died days later in the hospital.
Rebecca Zahau was found naked and hanging from a balcony at the mansion owned by her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. They are pictured here together
Zahau was the only adult at the house at the time of Max’s fatal fall. His father was at the gym
Implement of death: A red rope is seen tied to the leg of a bed on the second floor of the mansion. The other end of the rope was tied to Zahau’s neck
The rope that Zahau allegedly used to hang herself is seen hanging over the balcony railing
A knife is seen in the second-floor bedroom after Zahau’s suspected suicide
Zahau was the only adult present at the time of the boy’s injury.
Zahau’s sister and her mother are alleging in the lawsuit that Zahau did not kill herself – but was murdered.
The court filing doesn’t provide any specific evidence, but alleges ‘defendants planned and prepared to batter and murder Rebecca and did thereafter brutally, and with malice aforethought, stalk, attack, choke, bound and hang her.’
Other Shacknai relatives were implicated by the Zahaus in 2013, including Max’s mother Dina and her sister Nina Romano, but last year the family’s attorney Keith Greer dismissed the sisters from the lawsuit and publicly apologized to them, reported Town&Country at the time.
Jonah Shacknai, the billionaire founder of Arizona-based Medicis Pharmaceutical, which he sold in 2012 to another company for $2.6billion, is not named in the lawsuit.
Shacknai and Zahau, an immigrant from Myanmar, had been dating since 2008.
An extensive investigation by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office found no criminal wrongdoing in either death and no charges were ever filed.
A San Diego Sheriffs Department diagram showing the northeast bedroom at the Spreckels Mansion on the day of Zahau’s death, alongside scene photos
A diagram of the Spreckels Mansion courtyard on the day of Zahau’s death, alongside photos from the scene of the incident
The family claim that Mr Shacknai’s brother Adam (pictured) blamed her for the tragedy because she was responsible for the boy at the time
Adam Shacknai was staying in a guesthouse at his brother’s mansion (pictured)
Authorities said Zahau killed herself because she was distraught over the fall that Shacknai’s son suffered on her watch.
Max’s death also was ruled accidental.
Adam Shacknai, then aged 48, was staying in a guesthouse at his brother’s historic Spreckels Mansion on Ocean Boulevard at the time of Zahau’s death, the U-T reported.
Adam told police he found Zahau hanging naked from a red rope from a second-story balcony at the mansion, and cut her down. The other end of the rope was tied to the leg of a bed.
Her hands were bound behind her back, her feet were bound and a T-shirt was wrapped around her lower face.
In a deposition, Adam said he felt sorry for Rebecca after Max’s fatal fall, and that on the eve of her death he told her she could seek him out if she wanted to talk.
He then retired to the guesthouse, took an Ambien and went to sleep. Rebecca spent the night alone in the 27-room mansion.
Early the next day, Adam walked over to the main house to get a cup of coffee and found Zahau’s naked and bound body hanging from the balcony, after which he placed a 911 call.
Lavish property: The remodeled mansion was sold last month for $9million to the owner of a private aircraft company in Utah
Officers who responded to the scene found a pair of knives, black paint, brushes, and a cryptic message painted on the door that read: ‘She saved him can you save her.’
Dina told Town&Country last year that she and Jonah were at Max’s bedside as he lay dying at the hospital when the call came in about Rebecca’s suicide.
She recalled asking her ex-husband why she would do that, and he allegedly mimicked the motion of stabbing himself in the stomach and replied, ‘Asian honor.’
Dina Shacknai told the magazine she is convinced that Max’s and Rebecca’s deaths are intertwined, but she she does not believe that the woman had attacked the six-year, nor does she believe that she then died of a suicide, nor that Adam was the culprit.
In both cases, Dina Shacknai suspects that there was someone else whom police never investigated.
The remodeled Spreckels Mansion was sold last month for $9million to the owner of a private aircraft company in Utah.