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Max Shacknai fell down the stairs at his father's mansion July 11, 2011. He died a week later.
The mother of a 6-year-old boy who died last summer after falling down the stairs in his father’s Coronado, Calif., mansion is asking authorities to reopen the case.
Max Shacknai fell over a railing and down the stairs at his father's historic John D. Spreckels mansion on July 11, 2011, in what Coronado police called a tragic accident. The child struck the carpeted floor face first, fracturing his forehead. He was not breathing and did not have a pulse when paramedics found him. Max died a week later.
Days after the boy's fall, his father’s girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, was found hanging nude from a second-story balcony in the same house. The San Diego Sheriff's Department ruled Zahau's July 14 death a suicide.
Timeline of events in the Spreckels mansion deaths
“Things just didn’t add up to me, so I hired independent experts to review the findings,” the boy's mother, Dina Shacknai, said in a statement given to reporters on Monday. “When I started this process all I knew is that I wanted the truth, wherever that led, like any parent would.”
Forensic pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek contributed to the independent investigation, calling the classification of Max’s death "inaccurate."
“It would be more accurate to certify that manner as a homicide, where homicide is defined as death at the hands of another,” Melinek said in the statement.
For more, view NBCSanDiego.com's report on mansion death investigation
Melinek said there is the possibility of a scenario in which Max was assaulted, leading to his fall from the balcony.
Dina Shacknai isn't the only one seeking additional details following the Coronado Police Department’s conclusion of events at the mansion.
Jonah Shacknai, a pharmaceutical company executive and multimillionaire who is divorced from Max's mother, asked California Attorney General Kama Harris to review investigators' findings that his girlfriend killed herself by tying her wrists and ankles and hanging herself.
Zahau’s family also has called for a statewide investigation. The family also appeared on two episodes of the afternoon television show "Dr. Phil" in November.
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Dina Shacknai’s presented her team's findings to the Coronado Police Department last week.
"Even though nothing will bring my only child Maxie back, I owe it to him, as his mother, to make sure the true facts of his death are known,” she said in the statement. “It’s important that his story be told, because this could happen to anyone’s child.”
A police department spokeswoman said authorities will study the new challenge to their investigation.
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I grieve for the loss of this little boy. But: Can you imagine a person of humble means demanding that the authorities re-open such a case (with a snowball's hope of getting their way, I mean)? I've certainly had enough of the ultra wealthy and their demands for extra rights, an I suspect that many other Americans feel the same.
yeah, you are right, but she has the means, so why not?
i wonder if any one has checked to see if the mansion was built on a indian burial ground.
ABSOLUTELY nothing is going to bring that handsome little fella back to this Earth. He is gone....I sympathize with all parties involved especially the mother and father......I dont want to even fathom...losing one of my kids...let alone that way....
She needs to stop the Fish traps they will only Net frustration and a more MT void. The father is the only one left that REALLY knows what happen based on what the girlfriend might have told him. Other than that unless dad decides to drop a bombshell for better or worse...........anything else would be HIGHLY unlikely.
If he can get over it and live with it...........everybody else is pretty much Forced to....unless they POSSIBLE know something he does not.....it does not take rocket science to know all the screaming ...and I sympathize with her........but NONE of this is going to bring him back or MAKE HER HAPPY!!!!
" homicide is defined as death at the hands of another"
Dumbass doctor needs a legal dictionary.
...killed herself by tying her wrists and ankles and hanging herself. That is what the "investigator" determined with his Dick Tracy handbook or crime-stopper tips.
Gee, Mr. investigator, are you surprised she didn't shoot herself too, I mean after hanging herself while bound hand and foot?
Wow! I guess all the stupid people gradually drift south, until they come to Florida and the ocean stops them. Then they take the dumbest ones and make them into crime investigators.
To actual Florida residents: I'm just kidding about the stupid people remark, but I am at a loss to understand how that guy ever became an investigator, as opposed to an organic paper weight, or as the guy who holds up the targets at the shooting range.
Yowser!
dman -
you are a certified genius! Try reading it again - notice it took place in California, not Florida. For the good folks living in Florida, I will wish you a happy recovery, and hopes that you return to school!!!!!!!!
Yowser!!!!!!!!!!!!
This story amazes me how eager the police were to close the case on these two deaths so quickly, declaring them accidental and suicide,when both deaths were so suspicious and bizarre.
It's like an evil haunted house movie ..
deaths occur in a old mansion
child falls over a railing and down the stairs at his father's
(historic John D. Spreckels mansion)
child struck the carpeted floor face first, fracturing his forehead. He was not breathing and did not have a pulse when paramedics found him. Max died a week later.
Police declared it an accident.
Days after the boy's fall, his father’s girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, was found hanging nude, wrist and ankles tied from a second-story balcony in the same house.
Police declared girlfriend killed herself by tying her wrists and ankles and hanging herself.
Talk about life imitating art.. just too creepy.
The mom needs to let this go and get counseling. The longer she digs for something that is not there, the longer it will take for her to heal. I do not think that the father had anything to do with the deaths. I also don't think that the child was murdered. The girlfriend probably wasn't watching him carefully and he fell over and out of guilt, she killed herself...end of story... With Max gone, the mom will probably no longer be entitled to money from her ex-husband. If she had another child by the multimillionaire, there would probably be no investigation (sad, but true)
you could use some counseling yourself.. so if you think the child was murdered why in hell should the MOM just drop it and stop digging ? Child support some kind of bitter issue you ?
A Mother never gets over the death of a child.
@ vanna12
comment correction
you actually said.. you don't think the child was murdered..My bad
maybe the girlfriend was a witness to the child's non accidental death.. and she was silenced..
A double murder.
I forgot to mention this...If the millionaire would have killed the girlfriend, her death would have looked like an actual suicide and not a murder. He would have known that there would be red flags! (just something to keep in mind)
This whole story has had me baffled from day one. I've read almost all of the comments here and a lot of the scenarios sound feasible. The one thing that has been rolling over and over in my mind is the way the girlfriend was found. I don't know any women that would want to die and be found naked. What would be the purpose of doing that? I hope that answers will be found. Both families deserve that.
I had a problem with this when it first happened, why do investigators seem to just take the word of how something happens from the only other person in the house as the truth? First how does a person tie their own hands together and if they were going to hang themselves from a balcony why tie your hands and feet at all? The other thing is as said by people who investigate murders made to look like suicides is most women would never kill themselves totally naked, they would not want a whole slew of people seeing them in the nude, it would be degrading. The boys death should also be looked at as to was it really an accident? Just like Drew Peterson oh well the husband said she drowned then I guess she did never mind she was dry with no water in the bathtub and never mind she was in a different position when the neighbors saw her than when the paramedics came in. But no one said they moved her. Geez how obvious does it have to be to maybe come to a different conclusion than the one someone wants you to believe.
Or someone Threw him over the banister.. I think that's all the Mom really wants to know. Was it really an accident or was it murder.. The Girlfriend's death days later .. would only fuel that feeling her son's death might not be an accident.
Endless Wonder ----------
I'm with you... I believe she just wants to know and she's doing what every mother would want to do in a situation like this. There were photos of Max that Dina released today. He had so many facial bruises and on his back too. The close up photo of the dented upstairs railing is curious too. Looks as though someone was angry and threw some sharp objects that caused the dents. Then RZ was found dead right after Dr. Peterson's suspicion of suffocation, Child Protective Services were called in and a search warrant issued.
This whole story is just to bizarre to be merely coincidence.
Money talks and b.s. walks. I bet the girl friend was murdered and it was meant to look like a suicide. I also bet the girl friend of the rich father either neglected the child or the kid was probably acting like a brat and wouldn't stop so she pushed him over the stairwell to silence him. We have seen enough cases where the police drop the ball and do shoddy investigations.
Poor excuse of a father not to take care care of his own son. He should have watched over his son himself and not left it to his young girl friend. Why have kids if your not going to be a responsible parent? It doesn't matter if you are a billionaire or middle class, take care of your children and stop pawning them off on other people.
Just curious what should he do with his child while he is at work? I was wondering if you have children and if so who watches them while you work?
The girlfriend was also gagged. According to the autopsy report it was a t-shirt wrapped around her mouth.
She was not in a hanging state when her body was found.
She had tape residue on both legs.
Sorry. I meant to say police didn't find her in a hanging state. Supposedly her boyfriend's brother found her, called police saying there was a dead body at the property, then for some reason cut her down before they arrived. I found that to be another odd trait in the case. You would think every adult knows better than to tamper with a scene like that unless they think the person is clinging to life.
Loving father that had a decent relationship with his mother probably enraged this new girlfriend and she probably hit him with a game or something hard and tossed him down the stairwell maybe because he annoyed her and\or jealous of this unwanted attention. Brother (house guest living in the guest house) having so much time, as the dad worked so may hours. I surmise this brother raped the girlfriend at some point and took care of the problem (including his own indiscretions) explaining why she was naked and tied up as this brother wanted her to be found. Case closed! Investigate the guest house guy!!
The GF tied her feet together, then her wrists together then hung herself? Now, that's talent.
It was allready confirmed that the girlfriend was taking care of the little boy when he died. We will probably never know weather she pushed him or he accidentally fell. Although, it seems to me that the father probably murdered the girlfriend or forced her to commit suicide, the death of a child is a pretty strong motive.
They were both murdered, the question now is who did it? Seems the child went down with force, to have gone all the way across and hit the rail of the staircase, almost as if he was thrown. And experts say, modesty in women, naked and the way she was tied, pretty clear, she was murdered. My guess, she accidently or intentionally did the child in, and the husband did her in ??????????? we all know,with money you can get away with murder.
This is a very strange case indeed. I have been drawn by every detail but more compelling than that is the lack of detail to date - the gaps, the silence from all the players in this. For instance, how/why did the police in sleepy Coronado close this case so fast? What does mom know about girl friend that she is not revealing? Why no comment from dad? I mean I know why (no one wants to get sued) but the lack of detail and admissions about people's character in this case so far is just as compelling as what we already know!!While it sounds like a lot of the other people here have drawn similar conclusions to mine in terms of how this likely played out - here are mine with only slight deviations:
1) young gold digger girlfriend is left to babysit rich older boyfriend's young son.
2) young son hates gold digger GF and mouths off to her and GF gets pissed and slaps him. It likely escalated from there. (There was some indication that the kid had injuries inconsistent with just a fall according to the most recent info I read).
3) He struggles with her, tries to run away and trips, either falling down the stairs or is pushed over banister. My guess is she was extremely angry but just meant to scare the cute little bugger but it went too far.
5) She is now overwhelmed with guilt. Even if she wasn't directly responsible for his death, she was supposed to be watching him and keeping him safe from harm. (Can you imagine your horror if you had just accidentally killed your boyfriend's only son? And your meal ticket to boot! Holy crap that is a lot to absorb.) You know boyfriend must have had some incredibly heated conversations with GF - no doubt blaming her either directly or indirectly for his death. This exacerbates her guilt and maybe resentment too (see 6).
6) Apparently rich boyfriend had some prior history of stormy relationships (at least with his ex wife) that allegedly involved verbal if not actual physical abuse. It is not too far of a reach to suppose this attitude carried over in his other relationships with women, is it? So here she is blamed and more than likely he tells her to get the hell out of his life. Her meal ticket is going bye bye. Her priviledged life is over and now her guilt is mixed with rage and perhaps spite. Maybe he has always been a dick to her and this sends her over the edge.
7) In this state of mind, she is thinking suicide but one that gets back at her boyfriend in as personal and humiliating way as possible. So she plans for the next couple days every detail of her suicide so that it is spectacular, bizarre and no one can believe she would kill herself in such dramatic fashion. Initially people will draw a conclusion that no one would hang themselves naked - it has to be an outsider. Who but the husband might have a motive. She knows that even if he was cleared, she knows this would draw a firestorm of unwanted attention upon this man with a professional reputation at stake. If she is going down, he is going down with her.
8) Man I'm good! (Ok I know I have been reading one too many Nancy Drew mysteries but shoot, if this was a pony I would bet on it to at least place!)