Zahau Family Waits for Investigative Files

The Zahau family's anger has flared anew after investigative records promised to them Friday failed to materialize.

Family members, , want to review the files detectives complied on her death to bolster the family's argument that a new probe should be launched.

Snowem Horwath, one of Zahau's sisters, said she is not surprised by the delay, because she does not believe the authorities have been straightforward with her family since the investigation began.

“It's quite frustrating for us right now,” Horwath said, by phone from her home in Hamburg, Germany.  

, the oceanfront home owned by her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai, a pharmaceuticals mogul. Shacknai's brother Adam said he spotted her hanging from a second-floor balcony and cut her down.

She died two days after Shacknai's son Max, 6, suffered head injuries in a fall on the mansion's staircase. .

Coronado police determined that Shacknai's son died in an accident. that she carefully cut and wrapped rope around her neck, legs and wrists, before slipping one hand free to place her hands behind her back, shuffle to the balcony railing and tip herself over to her death.

The family argues that she would not have killed herself and that head injuries and marks on her body revealed in her autopsy should have led detectives to explore other options.

. She said she made the original request for the files Sept. 20 and expected to receive them within 10 days.

“We are frustrated as we are so anxious to move ahead,” Bremner said via email.

Horwath also wants to hear the 911 recordings connected to both incidents and hopes they are submitted with the investigative files. 911 tapes are often released publicly, but have not been in the Spreckels cases.

In addition, Zahau's loved ones have sought release of her cell phone and computer without success, though officials declared the investigation closed Sept. 2.

and will appear on the Oct. 24 edition of the Dr. Phil talk show. Zahau's loved ones, Horwath said, have come to understand challenging the investigation is going to be “a long fight” and are prepared for it. But they want the records so they can begin in earnest.

“We've waited long enough,” Horwath said. “It's too long.”