Rebecca Zahau
Credit : San Diego County Sheriff's Office

32-Year-Old California Woman Found Hanging Without Clothing from Boyfriend’s Balcony on Paradise Island

by Paul Johns

32-year-old Rebecca Zahau was found hanging naked from a second-story balcony at the historic Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California. More than a decade later, her death remains one of the most puzzling and hotly debated cases in the country.

Rebecca, a certified ophthalmic technician and the girlfriend of pharmaceutical executive Jonah Shacknai, was discovered by Shacknai’s brother, Adam, who told authorities he found her with her hands and feet bound and a gag in her mouth. He cut her down and called 911.

Just hours before her death, Rebecca had reportedly received a voicemail informing her of the critical condition of Shacknai’s 6-year-old son, Max. The boy had fallen down a staircase days earlier, while Rebecca was the only adult present. Max later died from his injuries on July 17, according to ABC News.

Initially investigated as a potential homicide, Rebecca’s death shocked the wealthy seaside community of Coronado and soon made national headlines. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department ultimately ruled her death a suicide, suggesting that guilt over Max’s accident led her to take her own life.

Investigators pointed to physical evidence to support their conclusion, including Rebecca’s fingerprints on a knife used to cut the rope and her toe prints on the balcony edge. A bizarre message scrawled in black paint on a nearby door—”She saved him, can he save her”—further deepened the mystery.

Credit: San Diego County Sheriff’s Office

Still, her family never accepted the suicide ruling. They filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Adam Shacknai, alleging he sexually assaulted and murdered Rebecca before staging her death to appear as suicide. Adam denied any wrongdoing.

In 2018, a civil jury sided with the Zahau family, awarding them $5 million in damages and holding Adam liable for Rebecca’s death. Their attorney claimed that Adam’s actions were deliberate and violent. Adam’s lawyer, Dan Webb, condemned the verdict, saying, “Falsely accusing an innocent man of murder, without a shred of credible evidence, did nothing to advance the pursuit of justice.”

Following the jury’s decision, Zahau’s family called on the sheriff’s department to reopen the investigation. Although new detectives were assigned to reexamine the case, the department reaffirmed its original conclusion that Rebecca’s death was a suicide.

In 2022, Zahau’s family petitioned the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office to change her manner of death to homicide. But in a letter from September 2023, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Steven C. Campman maintained the original findings. “After reviewing the totality of the evidence, the conclusion of this office has not changed,” he stated. Despite renewed legal efforts, the official ruling of suicide still stands, leaving the Zahau family and many others searching for answers.

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