Page 6 - Novem December 2016

A Hanging at the Beach House: Female Suicide or Murder?

Rebecca Zahau, 32, was the girlfriend of 54-year-old Jonah Shacknai, a wealthy
business owner whose company manufactures health and beauty supplements. In

the early hours of July 13, Rebecca hung herself over a second-floor balcony. Her
naked body was found on the ground below, by her boyfriend’s brother, who was
living on the property in a guest house. D

E
Her death was part of a strange sequence of events in the home. Two days prior to C

Rebecca’s death, Jonah Shacknai’s six-year-old son, Max, was seriously injured E
in a fall from the second story staircase at the home. Child abuse and homicide P

investigators believe Max tripped over something or fell as he was jumping down T
the staircase and sustained a life-threatening head injury. They do not believe the I
boy was pushed or was assaulted in any way. O

The assumption is that Rebecca blamed herself for Max’s injuries to such a degree N
that she killed herself out of remorse or shame. Prior to her death, she had learned

that he would not survive his accidental fall and indeed, he died two days after she
killed herself.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, just after one a.m., while Max was dying at
the hospital, Rebecca Zahau took a shower, removed her clothes, and used a paint

brush and a tube of black paint to write a message on the door of a guest room
where she kept her art supplies. The message said, “SHE SAVED HIM/CAN HE

SAVE HER?”

She then tied a length of red nylon rope, which she may have retrieved from the
garage where boating equipment was stored, to the foot of her bed frame. She

wrapped the rope over a long-sleeved shirt she had placed around her neck, bound
her feet with the rope, tied her hands behind her back with a series of twisted loops,

shuffled over to a small balcony off the window, and leaned or jumped over the
railing. She fell about nine feet and the force of the jump strangled her.

Not surprisingly, this case first fascinated residents of the cities of Coronado and
San Diego, before it became national and international news. How could this house

become the scene of two suspicious deaths in such a short time? Was the little
boy killed or did he fall? Was Rebecca murdered or did she kill herself because

she actually abused the boy or because she felt guilt about not supervising him
properly? In a two-hour news conference, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department

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