Crime & Safety

UPDATE: All Eyes Have Turned to Coronado

National and international media shift their focus to the community as investigators pursue leads in the Spreckels death.

UPDATE 10:15 PM: Coronado police tell the Arizona Republic the 6-year-old son of Spreckels mansion owner Jonah Shacknai is alive, despite numerous broadcast reports to the contrary. Earlier in the day, police had denied to Patch that they had any information on the boy's condition. The boy was left unable to breathe and without a pulse Monday after a fall at his home; he was revived and was last known to be at Rady Children's Hospital.

 

While the community waits for answers in the death of a young woman in the Spreckels mansion, national and – and even international media – have shifted their focus to a case that has all the ingredients of a scandal: violence, sex, beauty and wealth.

Just over a week after the conclusion of latest sensational case – – the public lens appears to be zooming in on Coronado in the aftermath of .

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Even law enforcement have described the death as “bizarre,” as they discuss the possibility that she might have died by her own hand, though she was found bound, nude and hung from the second-floor balcony of the Spreckels mansion early Wednesday.

A neighbor spotted investigators at the home again Friday, where he said they put up new police tape for about an hour before leaving.

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Zahau is the girlfriend of the homeowner, Jonah Shacknai, a pharmaceuticals magnate. Shacknai, an entrepreneur who founded the Scottsdale-based Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. (NYSE:MRX), has connections across the country, from his Arizona home to his New York state roots and his early years serving a Congressional committee in Washington D.C.

Little is known of Zahau, except that she split time between Coronado and Arizona with her boyfriend, has relatives in Texas and Missouri, and appears attractive, youthful and fit in family photos. Detectives initially identified her by her married name, Nalepa, which she dropped after her divorce.

The Arizona Republic has offered extensive coverage of the case, and has been joined by prominent news outlets from across the U.S., including the Washington Post, Forbes, MSNBC and ABC News.

Britain's Daily Mail has jumped in too, alleging that the mysterious binding used on Zahau's hands and legs was the orange electrical cord seen in some broadcast footage.

Local outlets aired blurred out footage of her body as it lay on the Spreckels property, and some video appeared to show a similar cord.

Investigators have identified the material around Zahau's neck as a rope, but declined to reveal what had been used on her limbs. They also have withheld a cause of death pending further forensic tests.

Homicide investigators were unavailable to discuss the report Saturday and a Sheriffs spokesman would not summon them to address the paper's claim.

Tennessee media also have focused in on the man detectives say found and cut down Zahau's body, Jonah Shacknai's brother, Adam. He lives in Memphis, and has worked on a tugboat, according to the city's WMC-TV station.

Zahau's death is not the only the family trauma. Jonah Shacknai's son was left without a pulse following a Monday fall at the mansion. Paramedics revived him and he is being treated at Rady Children's Hospital, where officials refuse to release any information about the case.

Rumors, some dire, continue about the boy's condition. Local San Diego 6, the CW affiliate, is reporting that the child, 6, is brain dead. They cite anonymous sources.

His mother, Jonah Shacknai's ex-wife Dina, has been identified by detectives as a witness in Zahau's death.

Gloria Tierney contributed to this report.


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