This is a very bizarre death. It was baffling from the start. A young woman dead at her millionaire boyfriends mansion. 911 emergency. What are you reporting . A young girl hung herself. My heart started racing. You found her hanging . I did. Detectives ruled it a suicide. But what was it . At the scene a cryptic phrase. Her hands were tied, her feet were tied, she was naked. This was sending a message. That wasnt 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 nothing to hide. I knew i had nothing to hide. The worst shock in probably my life. Hello and welcome to dateline. Victims families have often described their feeling of loss simply as surreal. And so it was for both the shakt nye and zahau families. Their tragedies were tangled in one riveting mystery that captivate
Ropes. A cryptic phrase. Her hands were tied. Her feet were tied. She was naked. This was sending a message. That wasnt the only suspicious death here. No mom wants to hear that her son was the 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. Reporter you thought you had nothing to hide. I knew i had nothing to hide. The worst shock in probably my entire life. Hello, welcome to dateline. Victims families have often described their feeling of loss simply as surreal. So it was for both of these families. Their tragedies were tangled in one riveting mystery that captain separat captivated the nation. Two puzzling deaths and lingering suspicions. The search for the truth would pit the families against each other in a battle sparking more questions than answers. Heres Josh Mankiewicz with the mansion on ocean boulevard. Reporter some places feel secluded. Insulated. Se
there is 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 things 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 loves the beach, he loved the water. he used to tell me on the way to coronado, mommy this is our place. she and maxes father jonah met in 1997.
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 ones hands in a suicide is uncommon, the medical examiner said that it is 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 does happen. the location of the apparent suicide note was also uncommon. there was a message painted on the door leading to the room, i m going to show you a message, we will not be revealing with 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
her effort, it was exactly because of her effort, and that s why it is 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? i don t know how she died, but i was in the hospital all night. in 2013, keefe greer filed a civil wrongful death law suit 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 third defendant, the man who called 9-1-1, jonas brother, adam shacknai. did you have anything to do