- I'm craig melvin,
And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- I know my sister would have fought.
We used to tell each other
That if somebody ever tried to hurt us,
That we would do everything we can
To leave something behind,
So the other one can figure it out.
I believe that she was murdered.
- This is a very bizarre death.
- It was baffling from the start--
A young woman dead
At her millionaire boyfriend's mansion.
- My heart started racing.
- You found her hanging. - I did.
- Detectives ruled it a suicide, but was it?
At the scene, knives, ropes, a cryptic phrase.
- Her hands were tied. Her feet were tied.
She was naked. - This was sending a message.
- That wasn't the only suspicious death here.
- No mom wants to hear that
Her son was a victim of a homicide.
Something happened at the top of the stairs.
- What really went on in that mansion?
Hear from the man at the center
In his first television interview.
- You thought you had nothin' to hide.
- I knew I had nothing to hide.
- The worst shock in probably my entire life.
♪♪
- Hello and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
The story you are about to see is a tale of tangled tragedies
And lingering suspicions.
It starts with two mysterious deaths
At the same [indistinct] address.
Two grieving families became locked in battle
As they tried to unravel the secrets
Of this seaside estate,
But their quest would leave them
With more questions than answers.
Here's josh mankiewicz
With "the mansion on ocean boulevard."
♪♪
- Some places feel secluded, insulated, secure.
- And I can remember saying that,
And feeling that,
And saying nothing bad could ever happen here.
- Here is coronado, california,
Just over a bridge from san diego,
A town of beautiful beaches, people,
And homes like this one on ocean boulevard,
Except that in the summer of 2011,
This mansion became ground zero for a mystery.
- This is a very bizarre death.
There's no doubt about it.
- Well, actually, there's been plenty of doubt
And plenty of theories.
- My sister was dead,
And did a lot of thing go through my mind?
Yes.
- Secrets both suspected and imagined.
- Is it possible that other people
Know more than they're saying?
Yes. - It's certainly possible.
Beyond that, it's hard to say for sure,
Especially when it seems everyone has a story to tell,
And those stories lead to accusations,
Often with zero proof.
- People are gonna believe what they wanna believe
With no evidence.
♪♪
- Paradise valley, arizona
Was home for the shacknai family,
But the summers they spent in coronado were special
For dina and her son, max.
- Max loved the beach.
He loved the water, and he used to tell me
On the way to coronado, "mommy, this is our place."
- She and max's dad, jonah, met in 1997.
- We had a instant connection.
Um, it's very rare you meet someone like that.
- They married in 2001, a second marriage for jonah,
Who was already the father of two.
He'd gotten rich owning a pharmaceutical company
Called medicis.
She went back to school to get a phd
In developmental psychology.
And then along came max. - And then along came maxie.
He's almost to the edge. Oh, my, he did it!
[gasps]
How do you feel, max shacknai?
- He was an active kid who loved sports
And performing for his mother and her camera.
- Mom, this is my song, right?
- It is. Yeah.
♪♪
- During one of those summers in coronado,
The mansion on ocean boulevard was on the market.
- And I said, "well, let's just go by and look."
- They bought it in 2007,
But soon there was trouble in paradise
And a bitter divorce in 2009 when max was four.
They shared custody and worked to be civil,
And it wasn't long before jonah met someone new.
- Maxie told me about it, and I said,
"well-well, maybe I should meet her,"
And he said, "that would be great, mommy."
- Rebecca zahau was 32, born in myanmar.
She'd moved to the u.S. In her 20s.
You were okay with her spending time with max.
- Well, max said he had-- he-he had feelings for her.
He liked her.
At that time, I had no concerns
Because I trusted that jonah -- based on our history,
Max would be safe there.
- And safe in coronado
Where nothing bad is supposed to happen.
July 11, 2011, max was staying with his dad and rebecca.
Dina was in coronado, too, at a home just down the street.
That's when jonah called her.
- And he said, "dina, you've gotta get here right away."
- As rebecca explained it to police,
Jonah had been at the gym.
Six-year-old max was home with her.
Rebecca said she heard a crash and found max on the floor
Near the staircase.
The mansion's heavy chandelier had fallen to the floor
Next to him.
Rebecca said max wasn't breathing,
And she started cpr.
Rebecca's 13-year-old sister, xena,
Who was visiting, called 911.
Police and paramedics arrived within minutes.
Jonah called dina from the hospital.
- And he tells me,
"thank god that she was able to give him cpr."
I think to myself, "oh, my god, like, thank you.
"thank god."
- He's gonna be okay. - He's-he's gonna be okay.
- Max was unconscious.
Dina and jonah took up a vigil at the hospital.
Jonah's brother, adam,
Flew in from his home in tennessee.
You came out to support jonah. - Correct.
- How well had you known max? - I knew max well.
He was a really wonderful kid.
- At max's bedside, jonah asked one of the doctors
For his prognosis.
- Dr. Peterson looked at him and said,
"well, I don't know. I don't know.
"I'm not sure if he's gonna walk or talk."
- That sounds like about the worst news you can get.
- But it wasn't real. I would've bet my life on it,
At that time, that max was gonna be okay.
- There was more bad news on the way.
- Coming up...
What had happened in that house?
Police uncover some disturbing clues.
- They located a female on the property.
The victim's hands and feet were bound.
- I guarantee ya my heart started racing.
- Who was this victim?
Soon, detectives would be investigating
Not just one puzzling death here but two.
- It was the worst shock in probably my entire life.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- The early morning hours of July 13, 2011,
As family members kept a vigil by the hospital bed
Of six-year-old max shacknai, a breathless man called 911.
Once again, police raced through the streets
Of quiet coronado island, and, once again,
Their destination was the mansion on ocean boulevard.
Jonah's girlfriend, rebecca, was staying there.
Jonah's brother, adam,
Had spent the night in the guest house.
You wake up. You walk out.
Tell me what you see. - Uh, a woman hanging.
Um, at the time, I didn't necessarily, uh,
Think to myself,
"oh, my goodness, she's bound or whatever."
But just rebecca is hangin'.
- Naked, bound hand and foot,
Rebecca zahau was hanging by the neck
From a second floor balcony.
- I said, "I guarantee ya my heart started racing."
This is actually happening.
- Even as he called 911,
Adam says he thought she was dead.
But you tried to do something.
- I tried to do something, absolutely,
And it was not-- never even occurred to me
That somebody would look at this as, like,
A, you know, crime scene or somethin' like that.
I mean, that was the-the furthest thing from my mind.
- So, you-you-you cut her body down?
- Yeah. - And?
- Um, started, uh, cpr.
- To no avail. - To no avail.
- When the coronado units arrived at the scene, they, uh,
Located a female on the property who appeared to be deceased.
- Rebecca's sister, mary zahau-loehner,
Was hundreds of miles away in missouri
When her husband, doug, came to her work
To bring her the awful news.
- I remember him saying, "rebecca is gone,"
And-and I said, "what do you mean?
"I just talked to her last night."
- In that phone call, rebecca told her sister
About what happened to max.
It was the same story she told police.
- She said she was in the bathroom,
And she heard a loud noise, a loud crash,
And when she came out, max was there on the floor,
And the chandelier was close to him,
And he was unconscious.
- How'd she describe jonah during those days?
- That he was upset,
And it broke her heart to see him upset.
- They'd met when rebecca worked for an eye doctor,
And jonah was a patient.
He came in for an appointment, and they started talking.
- That's correct.
- And next thing ya know, they're goin' out.
- Apparently, yes, um--
- You are making an expression that makes me think that
You thought that wasn't a particularly good idea.
- I never approved of the relationship,
If that's what you're asking me.
- Because?
- First of all, he is almost twice her age.
- This would have been one of those bad choices
That your parents tried to push you away from?
- Potentially. It's just one of those things.
As an older sister, I was a, you know,
A little cautious about it, and I said,
"okay, the guy is, you know, a lot older than you."
Um-- - and married before and--
- And married before and just gotten a divorce.
- And has a whole other family.
- And he's a ceo, and I said, "he's way out of our league."
- Her free-spirited sister fell for jonah anyway.
Did they seem happy? They seem in love?
- I think my sister loved him in her way.
To her, it-- she was somewhat in awe of him,
I think, to a certain extent.
- Mary says that while rebecca and max were close,
Rebecca gave the impression
She didn't get along well with max's mom,
And when max had his fall, mary said,
Rebecca worried how dina would react.
- She was upset about it, um, and she said,
"dina is going to kill me."
- She said, "dina is gonna kill me."
- That's correct.
- Rebecca seem upset? Stressed?
You get any sense that she blamed herself
For what had happened?
- She seemed stressed but not inappropriately so.
- 'cause everybody was stressed.
- Everybody was stressed,
And I actually sympathized with her,
And-and maybe mentioned that of just it's gotta be,
You know, tough on you. Um, how terrible.
- Soon, rebecca's death became national news
In large part because of details revealed
By sheriff's investigators.
- The victim's hands and feet were bound,
And she was completely nude.
It has yet to be determined if this will become
A criminal matter
Or will remain as a death investigation.
- In other words, did rebecca hang herself,
Or was someone else involved?
A neighbor reported hearing screams the night before.
Was that rebecca?
There was a scream that somebody heard.
You hear that?
- Well, my windows were closed.
I did not hear a scream.
- Meanwhile, at the hospital,
Dina says she was only focused on max.
She kept watch by his bedside, willing him to open his eyes.
It was Saturday, July 16, 2011, five days after max's fall.
- And I noticed that his eeg was just flat,
And I thought-I thought the machine was broken,
And I'm shaking the machine, and I'm thinking,
"it's not working. It's malfunctioning."
I'm shaking, and then I'm saying, you know,
"um, the eeg machine is not working.
"the eeg is not working."
- But it was working.
Six-year-old max was gone, and dina was devastated.
- I mean, it was the worst shock in probably my entire life.
- A mother in shock and in mourning
But also questioning.
How exactly had max's fatal fall happened?
Others asked what led to rebecca's hanging.
The mystery at this mansion was only getting deeper.
- The evidence inside that oceanfront estate
Is about to tell a story, and it is a stunner.
Coming up...
Ropes, knives, a curious phrase at the scene.
- There as a message painted in black paint
On the door leading to the room.
- But to some, the most curious thing of all,
The police theory of what really happened.
- This is a very unusual circumstance.
- We conducted an experiment to determine if it is possible
For a person to secure their hands behind their back
In the fashion we found.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- In July 2011, a private funeral was held
For six-year-old max shacknai in arizona.
Just a few days later,
Rebecca zahau was laid to rest in missouri.
Back in coronado, the mansion on ocean boulevard
Was the focus of overflowing numbers
Of both questions and rumors.
- There's roughly 200 years of experience
In the sheriff's homicide unit.
They all agree.
This is a very unusual circumstance.
- Rebecca was found hanging, naked, bound hand and foot.
If it was suicide,
It looked like a highly unusual one.
And remember, rebecca was in the house
When max shacknai fell.
- Right now, we don't see any connection be--
Between the two incidents.
- The sheriff's department investigated for two months.
Coronado held its breath.
Then, at a news conference, sheriff bill gore
Laid out the facts as his investigators saw them.
- Was max's death a homicide? The answer is no.
It was a tragic accident.
Was rebecca's death a homicide?
Again, the answer is no. It was a suicide.
- Sergeant dave nemeth said the evidence told a sad tale
In which one tragedy led to another.
When rebecca checked her voicemail
Just before 1 a.M., sergeant nemeth said
She heard a grim message from her boyfriend,
Max's dad, jonah.
- That message that was left on her phone
Was to inform rebecca of maxie's grave condition
And imminent death.
- Did rebecca blame herself for the child's severe injuries
And then take her own life?
The sergeant showed photos from inside the bedroom
Where rebecca spent her final moments.
There was a rope tied to the bed.
The other end had been looped around rebecca's neck.
There were also two knives in the bedroom
Apparently used to cut the rope.
Everything was swabbed for dna.
- Dna profiles were only from rebecca.
- So, what about rebecca's hands and feet being tied?
Didn't that show another person was involved?
Sergeant nemeth said it did not.
- We conducted an experiment to determine if it is possible
For a person to secure their hands behind their back
In the fashion we found.
- They even showed a video demonstration,
And while tying one's hands in a suicide is uncommon,
The medical examiner said it's not unheard of.
- People do it.
The thinking is that they bind themselves
So that they won't change their mind
Midway through.
It's unusual at first glance, but it-it does happen.
- The location of the apparent suicide note
Was also uncommon.
- There was a message painted in black paint
On the door leading to the room.
I am going to show you a picture of the door.
We will not be revealing what the message said.
- The investigation left some people unsatisfied,
None more so than rebecca's family.
- I know, in my heart, she did not commit suicide.
- Also unsatisfied, dina shacknai.
Sheriff's investigators illustrated their findings
With this graphic.
They said max was riding his scooter
On the second floor landing, somehow fell over the railing,
Then hit or grabbed the chandelier
And took it down with him.
- That sounds to me like, is max some sort of, you know,
A stuntman bruce lee? That's ridiculous.
- Why is it ridiculous? He's six years old.
Kids that age do crazy things. When I was seven years old,
I jumped off the roof of the garage
Holding an umbrella as a parachute.
- No, no. I'm absolutely positive.
He was a very smart six-year-old.
He was very athletic.
He was very coordinated,
And he was a very careful person,
A-a thoughtful person.
- Dina didn't just insist something wasn't right.
She opened her checkbook and hired her own experts,
Including dr. Judy melinek,
A respected forensic pathologist,
Who reviewed the autopsy report and photos
And who also disagreed with the official conclusion.
- Max had too many injuries to be explained with
A simple accidental fall.
- Dr. Melinek thought max's injuries
Indicated he'd been assaulted before he fell.
What's more, she questioned whether the fall itself
Could've happened
As the sheriff's department described it.
Measurements showed the railing was 32 inches high.
Six-year-old max was only 45 inches tall.
- His center of gravity was too low.
Even on the razor scooter,
His center of gravity is too low to go over that banister.
- It all pointed to a chilling alternate scenario.
According to dr. Melinek, someone assaulted max,
And then he somehow went over the banister.
In other words, this was a homicide.
- I would much rather have them say, "you know what?
"this was an accident, and here is why."
No mom wants to hear that
Her son was as victim of a homicide.
That's not something that somebody wants to hear
Because then you have to actually deal with the fact
That your son or daughter's last minutes were--
That he was in fear, he was scared,
He was hurt, and that is horrible.
- And if someone killed max, dr. Melinek's theory
Focused on one person.
- I think rebecca was somehow involved,
But how much she was involved and to what degree,
She took that to the grave.
- That alarming suspicion was only the beginning
Because it wasn't just dina who was investigating.
Rebecca's sister, mary, was equally convinced
Rebecca would never hurt max or kill herself out of guilt.
Two women coping with terrible tragedies.
Neither willing to accept
The sheriff department's conclusions.
Mary was about to make some incredible accusations,
And she wouldn't back down.
- And mary was prepared to back up her allegations
With stunning new evidence.
Coming up...
Could rebecca have been killed?
A second autopsy magnifies the mystery.
- Some deep bruising and, uh, internal bleeding,
Which couldn't be explained by the hanging.
- But could be explained by what?
- By somebody knocking her down from behind
And hogtying her, something along those lines,
A struggle.
- A twist was coming.
- Did you have anything to do with rebecca's death?
- Absolutely not.
- You thought you had nothin' to hide.
- I knew I had nothing to hide.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- The official investigation was over.
The crime scene tape and evidence markers long gone.
That said, an unofficial search for clues
Was just beginning.
Online message boards buzzed with theories
From the farfetched to the implausible.
Through it all, rebecca's sister, mary,
Didn't buy the official finding of suicide.
Was she fragile? Was she easily upset?
Is she kind of person who would fall apart
After a crisis?
- Not at all.
- So, when detectives said that voicemail,
The one jonah shacknai left for rebecca
With the grim news about max,
May have caused rebecca to hang herself,
Mary wasn't having it.
- I was not about to have my sister's name smeared,
And the world remember her as this crazy woman
Who committed her suicide because of a phone call.
- Was all this just about how rebecca would be remembered?
After her death came some revelations,
Things even mary hadn't known about,
Like in 2005, in california,
When rebecca didn't show up for work and just vanished.
Her boyfriend reported her missing
To the local police department.
Rebecca turned up a few days later
Saying it was just a misunderstanding.
You're persuaded that,
If she did sort of mysteriously disappear
Back then for a day or two,
It was something that she willingly did
And not some sign of mental fragility.
- I-I really don't know what happened at that time.
- Now, she said she needed to know how rebecca died.
She had rebecca's body exhumed,
And media friendly forensic pathologist
Dr. Cyril wecht performed a second autopsy.
His conclusion? Homicide.
Was rebecca murdered?
Her family thought so, and, eventually,
The case found its way to this man.
- It was intriguing from the beginning.
- San diego attorney keith greer.
- Dr. Wecht did identify some deep bruising
And, uh, internal bleeding, which couldn't be explained
By the hanging. - Wait one sec.
It couldn't be explained by the hanging
But could be explained by what?
- By somebody knocking her down from behind
And hogtying her, something along those lines.
A struggle. A struggle.
- Plus, greer says, the force of falling nine feet
From the balcony should have caused more severe injuries
To rebecca's neck.
Greer, like dr. Wecht, believed someone killed rebecca
And then placed her body at the end of the rope,
And he began to develop a theory as to who.
- The writing on the door is the key to the case.
- Remember the message painted on the bedroom door?
Sheriff's investigators initially declined
To reveal what it said.
Greer eventually found out.
The message scrawled in black acrylic paint read,
"she saved him.
Can you save her?"
Greer believed the message was not written by rebecca.
It was written about her.
Who'd she save? She didn't save max.
- She saved max.
She did save max, at the time.
You have to look at this in context.
- Remember, rebecca said she did cpr on max
After he fell.
So, at the time those words were written,
Max was still alive. - Max was alive.
- And maybe because of her efforts.
- It wasn't maybe because of her efforts.
It was exactly because of her efforts,
And that's why it's the key to the case
Because I know whoever committed the murder
Knew that rebecca had saved max.
- It was, he said, a small circle, mostly family.
- I had an eyewitness who put dina shacknai
At the scene of the murder that evening.
- Dina, the grief-stricken mom,
Could she have blamed rebecca and then sought revenge?
Remember, mary recalled her sister saying,
"dina is going to kill me."
Where were you when rebecca zahau died?
- Well, I don't know what time rebecca zahau died
During that time, but I was at the hospital all night.
- In 2013, keith greer filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit
On behalf of the zahau family.
Based on his eyewitness, he named dina as a defendant,
Along with her twin sister, nina.
There was also a third defendant,
The man who called 911,
Jonah's brother, adam shacknai.
Did you have anything to do with rebecca's death?
- Absolutely not.
- Greer disagreed.
He pointed to those knots
Tied around rebecca's wrists and ankles.
- Figuring 'em out in the first place is really hard.
Tying them, almost impossible.
- Greer believed whoever tied the knots
Had to be an expert, possibly a sailor,
And adam shacknai worked on the mississippi river
As a tugboat captain.
- When he ties things off, he uses a figure eight
And then closes it with a single hitch or two.
Guess what knots are tied on both her legs
And her hands?
Figure eights tied off with a single hitch or two.
- Sheriff's investigators had questioned adam extensively
After rebecca's death.
You didn't hold anything back from investigators.
- Nothing.
- You helped them to the extent that you could.
- Yeah, exhaustively.
- You thought you had nothin' to hide.
- I knew I had nothing to hide.
- And when investigators determined there was no evidence
Placing adam at the scene--
They cleared you. - Um, they did.
- Did you think this was over, at that point?
- Yeah, I did. - It wasn't over.
Rebecca's sister was determined to hold someone accountable.
I'm guessing that somebody said to you
That filing a lawsuit, a civil lawsuit,
To find answers in a criminal matter
Is generally an extremely unsatisfying way
Of pursuing justice. - That may be,
But my only recourse was the lawsuit.
- Soon, they would start to get answers,
Just not the ones they expected.
- Coming up...
Where was dina the night of rebecca's death?
- This eyewitness was adamant.
He was very clear, no doubt about it.
- Powerful new video evidence.
And the dna evidence, where was it?
- Adam shacknai admits that, that morning,
He cut rebecca down.
He loosened the ropes on her wrist to check her pulse.
He gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation.
He gave cpr pumps to her chest.
- And there's no dna. - Zero.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Seven years after the death of her son, max,
Dina shacknai lived alone in the arizona home
She once shared with her family.
How are you even standing upright today?
- Max, my son.
My love for him was so great.
We were a perfect fit. We were lucky.
I still feel lucky. - Even though he's gone.
- Yeah, I told him every day,
"maxie, I love you more than anything in all the universes,
"and I'm the luckiest mommy that ever lived in this world
"because I have you."
He knew that very well, and I can say that today.
Maxie, I am the luckiest that ever lived in this universe
'cause I still have you,
Because love doesn't disappear
Just because the person is not right--
You can't see them.
- In the years following max's death,
Dina continued to investigate
And hired a woman named tara schneider.
You're convinced that max died
Not as the result of an accident, but a murder.
- Yes, homicide.
- Tara has no law enforcement background.
She calls herself an intelligence analyst.
She and dina have floated several theories over the years.
The current theory?
Whoever killed max, it was not rebecca zahau.
These days, their suspicion is focused on information
From a neighbor that's never been verified,
The story of a wild party at the mansion
The night before max's fall.
- He has not interviewed by the police,
And he has not come forward.
- But what connection it might have to max's death,
You have no idea what that is.
- I don't, but I think it should be explored.
- She said police never spoke with the neighbor, but we did,
And he doesn't remember anything about a party.
And max's dad, jonah shacknai, who was in the house that night,
Told us there was no party.
Jonah says he never doubted the official investigation
But wanted to rebut the theories
Offered by dina and others.
His lawyers hired
The highly regarded investigative firm kroll.
The resulting report says....
How many people said to you,
"you need to let this go and move on?"
- Many, so many.
- Even if she'd wanted to move on,
It really wasn't possible, because dina, remember,
Was being sued by the family of rebecca zahau
Who blamed dina, in part, for rebecca's death.
Through it all, dina stuck to her story
That she'd been at max's bedside at the hospital
The night rebecca died
Even though the zahau's attorney,
Keith greer, had an eyewitness willing to testify
That he saw dina outside the mansion that night.
- And this eyewitness was adamant.
He was very clear, no doubt about it.
- And turned out to be dead bang wrong.
- And turned out to be wrong.
- In April 2017, after four years of litigation,
This security camera video came to light.
It's from the hospital where max shacknai was being treated
The same night rebecca zahau died.
Clearly visible, dina shacknai.
I mean, at some point, you look at that footage
From the hospital, and you realize I'm wrong.
- Mm-hmm. - And my witness is wrong.
Dina wasn't there.
She was at the hospital, provably.
- Absolutely. I got mad.
I got really mad.
- Greer called a press conference
To publicly eat some crow.
- When these pictures come out, though,
You-you can't refute 'em.
- He removed dina from the lawsuit,
Along with her sister, nina.
And the zahau family attorney apologized to you.
Was that enough?
- He made a public apology,
And I would say that not as many people
Saw the public apology
As who saw continuous accusations against us.
- Greer pushed forward anyway with just one defendant,
Adam shacknai.
That says to me this is some scattershot attempt,
And you are suing everybody that comes into your line of sight,
Lookin' for a sympathetic jury.
- That's it,
And a lot of people looked at it that way.
- Why shouldn't that shatter the credibility
Of the rest of your case?
- I-I think the reality of it is
That we always had adam involved all through the process.
- In the lawsuit, greer outlined quite a detailed
And unsubstantiated narrative.
He argued rebecca was killed not to avenge max
But instead during a sexual assault.
Greer's theory is that it began when rebecca
Stepped out of the shower
And found adam in her bedroom watching her.
- She then gets uncomfortable-- tries to escape.
She screams for help about 11:30 that night.
- Greer says that explains the screams heard by a neighbor.
- Right after that, to silence her,
Adam hits her on the back of the head,
Knocks her at least partially unconscious.
Then he has time to think, and he grabs the black paint,
And he paints this phrase on the door.
- "she saved him. Can you save her?"
If I'm gonna kill somebody
And try to make it look like a suicide,
I'm not gonna write a cryptic phrase behind.
I'm gonna write a phrase that says, "I'm sorry.
"I'm guilty. I did it."
- Yeah, it wasn't staged to be a suicide.
- Even greer says evidence placing adam
At the scene is weak.
Adam shacknai have any marks, or scrapes, or cuts on him
That would suggest he'd been in a struggle with someone?
- None, none.
- Same with adam's dna.
It's pretty hard to get rid of your dna.
- Hard to get rid of dna. All right.
Adam shacknai admits that,
That morning, he cut rebecca down.
He loosened the ropes on her wrist to check her pulse.
He gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation.
He gave cpr pumps to her chest.
- And there's no dna.
- And how much dna and how many fingerprints
Are found on the knife, the rope, her body?
How much? - None.
- Zero, zero.
- Zero of adam's that is.
Rebecca's dna and fingerprints were everywhere.
According to greer,
That means adam, who had no criminal history,
Knew exactly how to wipe down the scene,
Somehow removing his own fingerprints and dna
But leaving just rebecca's.
Of course, it could also mean
That adam simply wasn't there when rebecca died,
Which is exactly what law enforcement
Came to believe.
I'm guessing that if you walked in a court on any case,
And opposing counsel said,
"there is no evidence here, there is no fingerprints,
"and there is no dna, and that is the proof
"of the case that I am bringing,"
You would think to yourself, "I got a ground ball here."
- The absence of evidence isn't the evidence of absence.
And so, we know it's murder 'cause it's wiped down.
We know it's not suicide.
- Would a jury agree?
Greer had to prove adam shacknai was somehow responsible
For rebecca's death,
That his own actions made him liable.
In a wrongful death civil case, the standard is,
More likely than not,
A significantly lower bar than beyond a reasonable doubt,
Which is the standard in a criminal case.
It is, however, still a challenge,
And when the case went to trial,
Keith greer would be up against a topnotch defense team.
You feel overmatched? [chuckles]
- Oh, I was so outgunned. It was pathetic.
- Coming up...
Two families connected by tragedy
Prepare to go head to head in a courtroom.
- Did you attack her? - No.
- Did you sexually assault her? - No.
- Did you tie those knots on her body?
- No.
- Would a jury believe him?
- I sat down next to mary. I said, "mary, I'm sorry.
"this is probably not good news."
- The verdict.
- Number one, did adam shacknai
Touch rebecca zahau before rebecca zahau's death
With the intent to harm her?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Welcome back.
What really happened to rebecca zahau?
Police ruled her hanging a suicide,
But her sister, mary, believed evidence uncovered
By her own investigators proved rebecca was murdered
By adam shacknai.
Now, the two were facing off in a civil lawsuit
Where a jury would decide
Who was responsible for rebecca's death,
And the verdict would leave both sides stunned.
Here's josh mankiewicz with the conclusion
Of "the mansion on ocean boulevard."
♪♪
- The plaintiff's attorney has got--
He's got a good imagination.
- Adam shacknai says it's simple.
He had nothing to do with the death of rebecca zahau.
Were you present when rebecca died?
- No.
- Did you attack her? - No.
- Did you sexually assault her? - No.
- Did you tie those knots on her body?
- No.
- Are those kind of knots that only a sailor
Or somebody who worked around boats in the water would know?
- Uh, no, those are common knots.
- Sheriff's investigators found no evidence adam
Was present when rebecca died, and they cleared him.
That didn't stop rebecca's family
From suing in civil court.
The lawsuit, the long string of accusations,
What do you think is goin' on here?
- It's denial.
It's they don't want it to be seen
That their, uh, sister committed suicide.
- We asked rebecca's sister, mary, about that.
A lot of times,
Families do not want to admit
That someone committed suicide
Because they blame themselves
For not maybe having seen the signs.
Is that what you're doin' here?
- Nope, and I have been accused of that
Multiple times, including the sheriff's department.
- Is it possible that rebecca was depressed,
And you missed it? - No.
- In March 2018, the wrongful death lawsuit
Began in san diego.
Defending adam was dan webb, a former u.S. Attorney
And a veteran of many courtrooms.
- There'll be no evidence that shows that adam shacknai
Had anything to do with the death of rebecca zahau.
- In particular, no dna or fingerprints from adam
Were found at the death scene.
Plaintiff's attorney, keith greer,
Called several experts who testified
That the lack of physical evidence
Could show adam had cleaned up after himself.
- There was nothing on the doorknobs whatsoever in-in--
As far as prints.
- Again, that's consistent with it being wiped down.
- Yes.
- And a handwriting expert
Who looked at that message the door.
- The writing on the door is more to-to--
More comports with adam than it does with rebecca.
- Greer also claimed rebecca had been sexually assaulted
With a knife prior to her murder.
His expert testified a steak knife
Found in the bedroom had her blood on the handle.
Greer said the sheriff's department
Overlooked that evidence.
- That's nowhere in any of the sheriff's records.
They never considered that. They never analyzed that.
- The defense called a forensic technician,
Who testified she did find the blood on the knife
And with it a simple explanation,
A recent cut on rebecca's right hand.
And when greer asked her if the blood could have come
From a sexual assault...
- I didn't see any evidence of that.
- No evidence, a point the defense hammered home.
- I saw no fingerprint evidence,
Um, that was identified or directed towards adam shacknai.
- Of all the items I tested,
He was excluded on all the items.
- Adam's brother, jonah, took the stand.
He called rebecca's death unfathomable,
But said adam was not responsible.
- Is there anything that adam has ever done in his life
That would cause you to believe that he ever would have done
The acts that he's accused of in this case?
- Uh, never anything. It's inconceivable.
- Adam took the stand, too.
- Did you hit rebecca on the head?
- I never hit rebecca on the head,
Or anywhere else, for that matter.
- And then did you devise this scheme
To try and cover up your wrongdoing
By painting the saying on the door
And making it look like she had been hanged by someone else?
- Absolutely, positively not.
- The case went to the jury.
Do you feel confident as deliberations began?
- Um, we-- I felt we could
Possibly win very convincingly.
- Less than four hours later, a verdict.
- I sat down next to mary. I said, "mary, I'm sorry.
"this is probably not good news."
- This was it, a decision,
And even keith greer would be in for quite a plot twist.
- Number one, did adam shacknai
Touch rebecca zahau before rebecca zahau's death
With the intent to harm her?
The answer is yes.
Number two, did that touching
Cause the death of rebecca zahau?
The answer is yes.
- Yes, meaning that the jury found adam shacknai
Responsible for rebecca zahau's death.
- I just broke down.
I was just like, okay, I'm not crazy.
I'm not the only one who believes
That adam murdered my sister.
- That's not quite what the jury said.
Finding someone liable in a civil case
Is not the same as finding them guilty of murder.
What's more, the verdict in this case
Did not have to be unanimous, and it wasn't.
Nine jurors found adam responsible.
Three did not.
The jury did award the zahau family $5 million.
Courtrooms are supposed to be a place
Where justice is dispensed.
Was this about justice? - No, it wasn't.
- Since this wasn't a criminal case,
Adam didn't go to jail.
He returned home to tennessee and filed a motion
For a new trial,
Which was denied in January 2019.
Then, in February, adam's insurance company
And rebecca's family reached a settlement of $600,000,
And the case was dismissed.
After the civil trial, the sheriff's department
Took a fresh look at rebecca's death.
Eight months later, that review also concluded
That rebecca died by suicide.
Dina shacknai would like to see authorities reinvestigate
Her son's case.
Do you think they will reinvestigate max's death?
- I think it's the right thing to do.
Do I think it will happen?
I really don't know.
- How does a mother ever truly accept the tragic loss
Of a child?
The ripples keep on spreading to this day
In a place where nothing bad was supposed to happen.
- That's all for this edition of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm craig melvin.
Thank you for watching.