Coronado mansion death called suicide; family objects

[WhiteTara]

Source: USA Today

snip
San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore scheduled a news briefing Friday with his investigators, medical examiners and Coronado police to report on their investigation into the deaths at the Spreckels mansion in the wealthy resort community near San Diego.

Zahau, who came to this country about a decade ago from Burma, was found hanging from a makeshift noose, unclothed and with hands bound behind her back and feet bound, in a courtyard at the mansion July 13, the sheriff's department said at the time.

That was two days after 6-year-old Max Shacknai suffered fatal injuries in what the department termed an accidental fall at the same house.

The home is owned by Zahau's boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai, father of Max and CEO of an Arizona-based cosmetic drug company, Medicis Pharmaceutical. Shacknai and Zahau lived in the mansion and maintained homes in the Phoenix area. Her body was found by Adam Shacknai, the owner's brother, who was visiting from Memphis.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-09-02/Coronado-mansion-death-ruled-suicide-family-objects/50233234/1

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Shacknai must be a republican. And I wouldn't buy any cosmetics from his company...Arizona-based cosmetic drug company, Medicis Pharmaceutical.

[liberalhistorian]

1. Can someone please explain to me how

you can bind your own hands and feet behind you and then commit suicide? Anyone? Anyone? Makes no sense to me.

[potone]

2. Yes, I would very much like to know that, too.

That is a truly astounding feat of acrobatics!

[ixion]

3. of course it makes no sense

because it probably wasn't a suicide.

[WhiteTara]

4. Of course it doesn't. No more than 2 shots to the back

of the head equal suicide, but IOKIYAR. You can buy "justice." I wonder how much justice costs in a case like this.

[cpwm17]

7. It reminds me of this Army "suicide" in Iraq:

http://lavenajohnson.com/

U.S. Army Private LaVena Johnson, who was found dead on the military base in Balad, Iraq in July, 2005. The United States Army ruled her death as a suicide resulting from a self-inflicted M-16 rifle shot wound.

She was beaten, raped, murder, set on fire, and then the tent with her body was set on fire.

Coronado is a really safe town. Though bike thievery was a problem when I lived there. Someone stole mine - damn. I'm from there and I lived there for thirteen years in the sixties and early seventies. Now it's become much more of a tourist destination. It was quiet back then.

[Blue_Tires]

11. wow...i had long forgotten about that story

thanks for the reminder...

[WhiteTara]

29. I hope her family finds justice for her

and she finds peace. :cry:

[Tess49]

9. Just wondering that myself. n/t

[bongbong]

18. Silly!

You silly guy! It's a suicide WHENEVER the chief suspect is rich and/or republican.

[stockholmer]

19. or the CIA running drugs (Gary Webb) or the military war machine (David Kelly) or.........

add in hundreds of others yourself.............

:scared:

[jwirr]

20. My grandfather tied his hands but not his feet and jumped off a

bench many years ago. I assume he could have first tied his feet, stood up on the bench, put the noose around his neck, tied his hands and jumped. It is possible (harder if the hands are behind your back) but in this case I would say not likely. Sounds like revenge for his son's death or I guess it could have been her remorse. Who knows?

[yardwork]

21. Seems to me more likely that he murdered his son and then murdered his girlfriend

maybe as a continuation of the murderous rage he was in, or because she was going to turn him in.

[Downwinder]

24. And then climb over a rail with your feet bound.

[rocktivity]

28. She obviously coudn't have bound her hands before hanged herself

so she MUST have done it afterward...

:dunce:
rocktivity

[hlthe2b]

5. Gee did they bring in that "very special" Medical Examiner from Florida

(ya know, Joe Scarborough's very own personal ME)to conduct this investigation? :eyes:

[WhiteTara]

6. Either that, or it was his cousin. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Time to drag the Coronado police department through the mud.

[kiranon]

10. Time for a civil rights suit against the city for violation of this woman's

civil rights - equal protection under the law and for the city to reopen the investigation and put the investigation in the hands of independent authorities/experts.

[junior college]

12. Coronado authorities are only investigating the boys death

They handed this thing over to SD authorities shortly after the woman's body was found. The local media covered this story for about a week and then stopped reporting on it almost entirely. It took the cops about a month to rule this a suicide. There was a party at the mansion the night before she died. Apparently, Shacknai's ex-wife and his brother were in the mansion when the death occurred. Shacknai issued a public scolding of the media for reporting past incidents of violence between he and his ex-wife.

[kiranon]

23. It's time for Miss Marple. n/t

[trud]

13. there is no woman on the planet

who is going to take off her clothes before she commits suicide, unless maybe she's walking into the ocean.

[FlaGranny]

14. That's exactly what I thought. n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. Marilyn Monroe did.

Oh. Wait a minute.

Uh, never mind.

[Xithras]

16. Naked suicides actually aren't that rare.

It's certainly not the most common way to go, but it happens often enough that it's considered an indicator of an intent to actually die. Among people who are trying suicide as a cry for help, and who aren't actually committed to dying, it's completely unheard of. When it's found, it's usually coupled with a death where it's REALLY clear that the person was intent on actually offing themselves.

Tying your hands behind your back? Now THAT'S a trick I've never seen before, and THAT'S what makes the whole thing suspicious.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. Can be done.

I could certainly do it. Even if that was the case, it implies something else disturbing. I'll paint a hypothetical for you:

If the father badgered or mistreated his son into committing suicide, one might feel such despair and malice to want to make the father pay for it, and also not want to continue living.

Put on the noose. Sit on the railing. Tie your feet. Tie your hands (I can think of a couple knots that would work for this, to tie yourself without assistance). Jump.


Not impossible. But it is highly unusual, and implies immesurable grief/malice on the part of the mother.

[yardwork]

22. The son was six years old. I doubt very much that he committed suicide.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. Harder to say now

Certainly bears looking into.

[trud]

26. AthiestCrusader

The boy wasn't her son. I'm not denying she might have bonded with him, but...

[WhiteTara]

27. Not to mention she bound her feet before jumping

over the balcony with her hands tied behind her back.