Police Execute Search Warrant At Coronado Mansion

Rebecca M. Zahau Found Naked, Bound At Spreckels Mansion; Death Ruled 'Very Suspicious'

Posted: 07/16/2011
Last Updated: 705 days ago

Detectives with the Coronado Police Department on Friday executed a search warrant at a Coronado mansion where a woman was found dead on Wednesday.

On Friday night, investigators could be seen shining flashlights on the railing of the home's grand staircase, where a 6-year-old boy was reportedly injured on Monday.

The parents of the boy were at their son's bedside on Saturday, as detectives investigated the death of a 32-year-old woman found hanging nude from a balcony on Wednesday.

Investigators would neither confirm nor deny if a criminal investigation into the boy's fall was under way. They would only say that the search warrant was being executed in regards to their investigation.

A spokesman for Rady Children's Hospital said they could not confirm broadcast reports that the boy, Max Shacknai, was brain dead. The spokesman cited privacy laws related to medical records.

According to 10News' media partner XETV Channel 6, Jonah and Dina Shacknai were at the boy's bedside on Saturday, while doctors were arranging for his organs to be donated. 10News learned the Medical Examiner's office said they have been contacted involving the boy but they would not elaborate.

The boy fell down some stairs in the main house, according to police. Coronado police Chief Lou Scanlon said the boy had no pulse and was not breathing when he was taken to a hospital on Monday.

The woman found Wednesday morning was initially identified as Rebecca Nalepa, but she had dropped that surname from a previous marriage and reverted to her maiden name, Zahau.

Max Shacknai was under the care of Zahau at the time of his fall on Monday.

Jonah Shacknai, the owner of the 27-room mansion and founder of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., is divorced and reportedly had been living with Zahau at the mansion built in 1908 by sugar magnate John D. Spreckels.

Shacknai's brother, Adam, found the body and cut it down. The woman's hands were bound behind her back and her feet were partially bound, authorities said. Officials have yet to rule the death as a suicide or a homicide.

Jonah Shacknai, 54, apparently was not home when the woman's body was found.

Autopsy results and evidence gathered in the case will not be available to the public as the investigation continues, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said Friday.

An autopsy on Zahau was done at the Medical Examiner's Office Thursday, but no information about the woman's cause of death has been released. Officials say they are withholding results until they get the results of toxicology tests.

Authorities said that the two tragic incidents are not believed to be related.

Copyright Do you have more information about this story? Click here to contact usCopyright 2012 by 10News.com. City News Service contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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