The mother of a woman who was found hanging from the balcony of her millionaire boyfriend’s mansion in 2011 broke down in tears during her testimony against the man she believes killed her daughter for revenge.
Rebecca Zahau, 32, was found naked hanging from a second-story balcony at a mansion owned by her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai, in July 2011. Her hands were tied behind her back, her feet were bound and a T-shirt was wrapped around her lower face.
Law enforcement officials concluded that her death was a suicide, but her mother and sister believe that Shacknai’s brother, Adam Shacknai, is to blame.
‘They killed her,’ Zahau’s mother, Parri Zahua, said through tears during her testimony on day two of a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Adam.
The family allege in the $10 million lawsuit that Adam killed Rebecca in revenge for Jonah’s son’s death.
Two days before Zahau was found dead, Jonah’s six-year-old son Max had fallen off a staircase in their Spreckels mansion and was found mortally injured next to a shattered chandelier. He died days later in the hospital.
Zahau’s family claims that Adam blamed Max’s death on Zahau because she was responsible for the boy at the time. Zahau was the only adult at the house when the boy fell. The child’s death was ruled an accident.
Parri Zahau (pictured), the mother of Rebecca Zahau, who was found hanging from the balcony of her millionaire boyfriend’s mansion in 2011 broke down in tears during her testimony against the man she believes killed her daughter for revenge
Adam Shacknai sits in court during the civil trial underway Wednesday in San Diego for the wrongful death lawsuit of Rebecca Zahau, 32
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
Adam, a tugboat captain from Tennessee, appeared in court on Wednesday for the opening statements in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Zahau’s mother, sister, and other family members.
He has maintained his innocence and was never charged in Zahau’s death.
In their lawsuit, Zahau’s mother and sister allege that Adam killed Zahau 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 Zahau died.
In his opening statements presented on Wednesday, the attorney C Keith Greer argued that Adam Shacknai strangled Zahau to death after a failed sexual assault, according to 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.
Shacknai’s attorney, Dan Webb, countered by telling the jury that there is no credible evidence linking Adam Shacknai, 54, to Zahau’s death and stressed that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
‘There is no evidence to show that Adam Shacknai did any of those things described by Greer,’ Webb said. ‘I believe there will be a complete failure of proof in this case.’
Zahau (left) was found hanging from a second-story balcony at her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai’s mansion in July 2011. Her family filed the lawsuit alleging that Adam Shacknai killed Zahau for revenge after his nephew Max (right) was mortally injured while in her care
Zahau (pictured with Jonah), an immigrant from Myanmar, had been dating Jonah since 2008. They are pictured here together
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
Because it is a civil case, Adam Shacknai cannot be sentenced to prison, regardless of the trial’s outcome.
The family of Zahau filed the $10million wrongful death suit in 2013, claiming that she was murdered. The suit came nearl two years to the day after her death.
Authorities ruled Zahau’s death on July 13, 2011, a suicide.
‘My sister was murdered,’ Mary Zahau-Loehner said on the witness stand Wednesday. ‘It is pretty obvious that she was murdered.’
It was the second bizarre tragedy in days at the multimillion-dollar Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California, which belonged to Zahau’s boyfriend, Jonah – 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 and was mortally injured. Zahau was the only adult present at the time of the boy’s injury.
Jonah Shacknai sat down for an exclusive interview with ABC’s 20/20, which will air at 10pm Friday night, just days after the wrongful death civil lawsuit against his brother Adam went to trial in San Diego.
Zahau was the only adult present at the time of the boy’s injury.
Her sister and mother are alleging in the lawsuit that Zahau did not kill herself – but was murdered.
Zahau was living with her boyfriend, Jonah, at his San Diego mansion (pictured)
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 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 is not named in the lawsuit. He 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.
Authorities said Zahau killed herself because she was distraught over the fall that Shacknai’s son suffered on her watch.
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.
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.
In a deposition, Adam said he felt sorry for Zahau 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. Zahau 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.
Zahau’s family claims that Shacknai’s brother Adam (pictured) blamed Zahau for the tragedy because she was responsible for the boy at the time
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
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 Zahau’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-old, 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.
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
Adam Shacknai was staying in a guesthouse at his brother’s mansion (pictured) at the time of her death
Lavish property: The remodeled mansion was sold last month for $9million to the owner of a private aircraft company in Utah