Death on Ocean Boulevard: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case

The six-year old son of a wealthy pharmaceutical CEO mysteriously falls from a mansion staircase while in the care of the man’s younger live-in girlfriend. Two days later, with the boy’s chances of survival dwindling, she’s found hanging from an exterior balcony of the home gagged and naked with her hands bound behind her back and her ankles bound together with red nylon rope.  A message is scrawled in black painted block letters on a bedroom door:

SHE SAVED HIM

CAN YOU SAVE HER

The CEO’s younger brother is the only other person on the property at the time, and he claims he cut the rope to get her body down before authorities arrived.

The police say it’s suicide. Her family and friends say “ No way” and are convinced the brother murdered her.

Is this the latest thriller I’ve read?

Sadly no. It’s the 2011 case of the suspicious deaths of Rebecca Zauhau and six-year-old Max Shacknai, the girlfriend and son respectively, of one-time Medicis CEO Jonah Shacknai.

In a case where most of the people on both sides of the story are as questionable as the investigative findings, it’s nearly impossible to walk away with any firm conclusion about what really happened to Rebecca and Max other than … wow, it’s all so messed up.  

Try as I might, it’s hard to buy into the investigation’s finding that Rebecca Zauhau went to such elaborate and dramatic lengths to stage her own death. That’s asking too much of most rational people, though I’ll admit, much of the evidence certainly seems to back that conclusion. I’ll leave readers to discover what that evidence is.

Guilty or not, Jonah’s brother Adam has done himself no favors in the eyes of many with his bizarre angry rantings and behavior. Was he simply a good Samaritan who got caught up in another person’s darkest moment or is his true involvement in Rebecca’s death yet to be determined?

That answer may never come, though not if the Zauhau family has anything to say about it.

Investigative journalist Caitlin Rother’s book had its interesting moments, but I finished it with the same feeling I have when I’ve gotten invested in a story and am waiting for the big revelational moment to come, only to find out there is none. For all intents and purposes, the story is just over - the epilogue has no real promise of actual truth to come, which is so sad for everyone involved.

If you enjoy non-fiction, true crime stories, a deeply complicated investigation and civil trial, and stories of wealth, power and influence, all wrapped in mystery, secrets and real-life drama … this will work. Despite Rother’s best efforts, though, the book left me with more questions than answers. I hope the full truth eventually comes out.