Zahau Family Presses for New Probe

Snowem Horwath has examined phone records and search warrants gathered by an attorney, investigators and experts looking into the .

She has been suspicious for weeks about , when she was found nude and bound in the courtyard of the Spreckels mansion.

Yet , Horwath said, have left her stunned at what she calls “the slackness and inadequacy” of the investigation. 

“It really surprises me that so many things are coming out, thank God for that, but at same time it grieves me all the more,” she said.

Though what Bremner has uncovered has renewed Horwath's hopes that a law enforcement agency will review the conclusion that Zahau hung herself, little interests her more than the possibility that one or more witnesses heard a woman cry for help on Ocean Boulevard late on July 12.

That's more than three hours before the medical examiner places Zahau's time of death, which detectives explained by saying the woman was distressed over grim news about the condition of Max Shacknai, the son of her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. The child, who suffered injuries in a fall, later died.

To further establish her poor state of mind, investigators also noted the words of a witness who told them Zahau complained in January of feeling stressed. She had been losing weight and did not feel up to working out, an activity that the fit woman greatly enjoyed.

A new witness coming forward could be crucial to the potential for reopening the case, but for Horwath, it's even more personal: She was the person who told authorities about her sister's mental state in January, when she left Germany to spent a month with Zahau in Arizona.

That memory, Horwath said, was a small part of a nearly two-hour talk with a female detective who she now accuses of taking her words out of context to bolster the suicide finding.

“The context was more important than that sentence they picked out,” Horwath said. “That hurt and at the same time showed the lack of professionalism in their work.”

Bremner plans to submit a detailed request to state Attorney General Kamala Harris outlining the reasons to launch a new investigation. The new information includes: 

• Phone records obtained by the family that do not reflect the crucial early morning call that investigators cited as the impetus for Zahau's suicide.
• Warrants that note that some records weren't sought by the authorities until Aug. 24, six weeks into the investigation and seven days before they told the family Zahau committed suicide. 
• A polygraph taken by Adam Shacknai, Jonah Shacknai's brother, was labeled inconclusive, but accepted based on the administrator's opinion. He said he found Zahau's body hanging from a second-floor balcony and cut her down before police arrived.
• An expert who contends the condition of Zahau's remains indicate she could not have died in a hanging.

Horwath also is troubled by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's decision to re-examine Zahau's phone. The family had sought return of her gadgets, including the phone and a computer.

“For me, it's very hard to believe they really mean it, that it is something honest,” she said. “I just don't trust them anymore.”

Horwath opened a home decorating shop near her Hamburg home five months ago. She said Zahau was delighted by the venture and wanted to partner up, selling the wares stateside while her sister worked in Germany. Yet she became busy with her boyfriend's family, Horwath said, and couldn't follow through.

Now Horwath runs her shop during the day and does anything she can at night to consult with Bremner and her family to secure a new investigation into her sister's death.

“Everyone should know and needs to know that she was murdered and the person who murdered her has to deal with the consequences,” she said. “I am fighting every day to be a step closer to the end.”