An Arizona pharmaceuticals tycoon has asked California's attorney general to review investigators' findings that his girlfriend killed herself by tying her wrists and ankles and hanging herself naked from a balcony of his historic mansion.
Jonah Shacknai said he hoped the review would give "confidence, comfort and resolution" to those questioning that Rebecca Zahau committed suicide July 13 at his Coronado mansion near San Diego.
Shacknai said he had no reason to doubt findings by authorities in San Diego County that Zahau, 32, killed herself two days after Shacknai's 6-year-old son accidentally fell while under her watch. Max Shacknai died days later.
"At the same time I believe the only way to achieve some dignified resolution for everyone who has been touched by the horrible events of this summer will be through the efforts of your office," Shacknai wrote California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Monday.
Zahau's family immediately questioned the findings. Shacknai acknowledged in his letter that the circumstances were "undeniably strange."
Local investigators believe Zahau tied rope to bedposts and around her wrists and ankles. They think she loosely bound her wrists, took one arm out and put both arms behind her back before tightening the noose.
Jonah Shacknai is founder and chief executive of Medicis Pharmaceuticals Corp. and owner of the 27-room waterfront mansion. Zahau was his girlfriend of two years. Max was his son from a marriage that ended in divorce.
