A sheriff in California said he’ll take a “fresh review” of the 2011 death of a woman found hanging inside a mansion after a civil jury ruled earlier this month that she didn’t die as investigators originally believed.
In a statement issued Monday, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said the review of Rebecca Zahau’s death inside a Coronado mansion is expected to take at least 90 days.
“After a productive conversation with the family’s attorney, Keith Greer, Sheriff Bill Gore determined that, while no new evidence was presented, new analysis of existing evidence was presented in the recently concluded civil trial,” Gore said. “In the spirit of transparency and open-mindedness, we have agreed to undertake a fresh review of the case, by investigators who have had no prior involvement with the case, to evaluate the new information.”
Zahau, 32, was found dead and hanging from a balcony with her hands tied in a mansion owned by her boyfriend, pharmaceutical executive Jonah Shacknai. Investigators determined she committed suicide, but her mother sued, claiming the boyfriend’s brother, Adam Shacknai, 54, sexually assaulted her before killing her and then staged her death to make it appear she killed herself.
A jury in the wrongful-death trial earlier this month ruled that Adam Shacknai was liable for her death and must pay $5 million to Zahau’s family, as well as $167,000 for the loss of financial support she would have given her mother and siblings.
C. Keith Greer, an attorney for Zahau’s family, said the family is “very excited” about the news that authorities will reopen the case.
“I had a great discussion with Sheriff Grove,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “He was very professional, very accommodating. He seemed genuinely interested in doing the right thing.”
Adam Shacknai, meanwhile, has continued to deny any responsibility in Zahau’s death, saying in a statement to the newspaper that he would cooperate with investigators.
“As I have maintained from the beginning, I was in no way involved with Rebecca’s death,” he said in the statement. “I will be pleased to assist the investigation in any way requested, as I have all along.”
Greer argued during the wrongful-death trial that Adam Shacknai “brutally” murdered Zahau and then staged her body to make it appear as if she committed suicide, saying his motivation was “one of the oldest reasons in the world — sex.”
Monday’s announcement was the “first step in the right direction” to reopen the case, the goal of the family’s civil lawsuit, Greer said.
