Wrongful death trial begins. Trial coverage and discussion

[Emi]

In the last couple of days, someone posted vile stuff on the page via several nasty comments there. I alerted the people and they removed the remarks right away and banned the person, but it was the same nastiness that we've seen on this board and on the kitty litter site over the past years. Vicious. SMH

I have seen negative and hateful comments on Twitter as well

 

[Tricia]

In the last couple of days, someone posted vile stuff on the page via several nasty comments there. I alerted the people and they removed the remarks right away and banned the person, but it was the same nastiness that we've seen on this board and on the kitty litter site over the past years. Vicious. SMH

Please tell me you alerted on any post that was in any way "nasty", rude, crude, or all around disgusting.

Always alert. Our mods don't randomly read threads trying to find out if there are TOS violations. That's why we absolutely depend on you to alert on
any post you feel violates our Terms of Service.

Thank you.

Tricia
PS. People who post that nasty junk are plain cowards. You would never get them to say it to any of Rebecca's family in person.

 

[cynic]

The motion by Shacknai’s legal team to exclude Greer’s handwriting expert has been denied by the judge.
Michael Wakshull testified this afternoon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ZdCjqPmXE

 

[bourne]

News clip of psychologist who talked to RZ after Max's accident

http://www.cbs8.com/story/37650714/civil-trial-resumes-in-death-of-rebecca-zahau

She spoke with her twice and said RZ gave no indication that she was suicidal.

Zahaus had good expert witnesses today. Handwriting expert who showed that the letters painted on the door closely matched Adam's than Rebecca's, and the psychologist who stated Rebecca was not suicidal.

 

[bourne]

You should check out the photos of the exhibit comparing Adam's writing to the words painted on the door. Very similar. You can view it in this video

https://www.10news.com/news/evidenc...s-death-of-rebecca-zahau-at-spreckels-mansion



BTW link to news story today with testimony of first officer to arrive. Officer says he submitted his boots for analysis but personally does not know if the print on the balcony was his

https://www.10news.com/news/coronad...ifies-about-rebecca-zahau-death-investigation

So ludicrous that the Sergeant stepped on the dusty murder balcony and claims he does not even remember doing it! How incompetent is this investigator who conveniently has amnesia.

 

[bourne]

I have seen negative and hateful comments on Twitter as well

The nasty comments appear to be made by the same alter egos in every single social media site. My conclusion is that they are the same two people, namely the person who calls itself a scientist and its sibling.

 

[clearskies1]

How could anyone believe that she would gag herself and bind her arms and legs and then throw herself over a balcony? That is ludicrous. <modsnip>. Very scary. JMO.

 

[Emi]

The nasty comments appear to be made by the same alter egos in every single social media site. My conclusion is that they are the same two people, namely the person who calls itself a scientist and its sibling.

More than 2 people on Twitter

 

[cynic]

You should check out the photos of the exhibit comparing Adam's writing to the words painted on the door. Very similar. You can view it in this video

https://www.10news.com/news/evidenc...s-death-of-rebecca-zahau-at-spreckels-mansion



BTW link to news story today with testimony of first officer to arrive. Officer says he submitted his boots for analysis but personally does not know if the print on the balcony was his

https://www.10news.com/news/coronad...ifies-about-rebecca-zahau-death-investigation

Adam's handwriting compared.

 

[K_Z]

This is encouraging! Rebecca's case is trending nationally-- I opened the msn home page and there was Rebecca's beautiful picture looking back!

Nothing new in the article, but I'm so glad it's getting national exposure.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/m...rt/ar-BBJCBt5?li=AA4ZnC&ocid=ientp&li=BBnb7Kz

 

[MsFacetious]

I still cannot grasp caring about ANYTHING except my baby boy in that situation. I can't imagine caring about the scene, or protecting people or anything. However, I also wouldn't refuse to have kids my partner badly wanted because I didn't want my partner to get fat so.... clearly I can't grasp the mindset.

<modsnip>

Now this idea here might make sense. I still haven't quite figured out how a fairly cautious child like Max ended up in this situation. MY kid might swing from a chandelier (if we had any) or ride a scooter down the stairs... but nobody has given the impression that Max was fearless. Not sure how this could be an accident.
It has been a while so if I got any facts wrong here let me know. :thinking:

Please tell me you alerted on any post that was in any way "nasty", rude, crude, or all around disgusting.

Always alert. Our mods don't randomly read threads trying to find out if there are TOS violations. That's why we absolutely depend on you to alert on
any post you feel violates our Terms of Service.

Thank you.

Tricia
PS. People who post that nasty junk are plain cowards. You would never get them to say it to any of Rebecca's family in person.

I spent the last 2 weeks catching up for the trial and saw dozens of awful posts that would never stand if posted today and the posters would likely be banned. (Most are not members anymore.)

I'm sorry, it didn't even occur to me to alert on posts that were so old, from people who are no longer members, I didn't want to make more work for the mods. :facepalm:
There are some pretty brutal ones though. Especially in the evidence thread. :thud:

 

[cynic]

does anyone here have any pictures of the bedroom please, in particular the wicker chair which was overturned? ( cynic has amazing pictures by the way...with the copy detail - super helpful)

The pic is part of this SDSO presentation.
http://www.sdsheriff.net/coronado/rz.pdf

 

[Betty P]

So ludicrous that the Sergeant stepped on the dusty murder balcony and claims he does not even remember doing it! How incompetent is this investigator who conveniently has amnesia.

I kind of got the impression from the video of his testimony that he's not sure the boot print was his. He was told by investigators that it was, but he's never seen proof of it. Could be possible he didn't really step on the balcony, but someone in LE told him he did.

 

[MyBelle]

You should check out the photos of the exhibit comparing Adam's writing to the words painted on the door. Very similar. You can view it in this video

https://www.10news.com/news/evidenc...s-death-of-rebecca-zahau-at-spreckels-mansion



BTW link to news story today with testimony of first officer to arrive. Officer says he submitted his boots for analysis but personally does not know if the print on the balcony was his

https://www.10news.com/news/coronad...ifies-about-rebecca-zahau-death-investigation

Did he testify he has reasons to doubt the conclusions of the evidence analysts?

 

[Seajay]

New to this case. I remember seeing it on the news when it happened and doubted it was suicide, just by the way she was found. Nothing is see here has changed my mind yet.

Because I'm new to this case, might I ask if it was established where the bright red rope came from? Was it already at the house, or was their a receipt that it was recently bought? I'd like to know here the rope came from.

Reading what you all have here, my head wants to explode. So many things say this is not a suicide but I have no idea what did happen to her.

What to me is most bothersome was how she could have flung herself over the balcony all trussed up like that, with a gag in her mouth and not have extensive injuries to her neck from the force of flinging her body over the side and the weight on her neck. To me she was lowered, or strung up from below. But who is the question.

Sorry to rehash stuff you all have been discussing for years.

 

[Tricia]

I spent the last 2 weeks catching up for the trial and saw dozens of awful posts that would never stand if posted today and the posters would likely be banned. (Most are not members anymore.)

I'm sorry, it didn't even occur to me to alert on posts that were so old, from people who are no longer members, I didn't want to make more work for the mods. :facepalm:
There are some pretty brutal ones though. Especially in the evidence thread. :thud:

UGH. Reading this makes my head numb and my eyeballs roll back in my head like a slot machine. LOL

 

[MsFacetious]

New to this case. I remember seeing it on the news when it happened and doubted it was suicide, just by the way she was found. Nothing is see here has changed my mind yet.

Because I'm new to this case, might I ask if it was established where the bright red rope came from? Was it already at the house, or was their a receipt that it was recently bought? I'd like to know here the rope came from.

Reading what you all have here, my head wants to explode. So many things say this is not a suicide but I have no idea what did happen to her.

What to me is most bothersome was how she could have flung herself over the balcony all trussed up like that, with a gag in her mouth and not have extensive injuries to her neck from the force of flinging her body over the side and the weight on her neck. To me she was lowered, or strung up from below. But who is the question.

Sorry to rehash stuff you all have been discussing for years.

I believe the rope was allegedly from the garage. I remember noticing the red rope as well as the bent legs when we were watching the breaking news live. I assumed murder just because of those things. It's still insane to me anyone could think anything else.

I agree on the lack of injuries to her neck. There was a kid who fell off a DESK with a rope around his neck and required stitches in his neck. There is no way she wouldn't have at least been partially decapitated if she jumped. If it's just rope burn that's different, but when that amount of weight and gravity hits... that's just not how it works.

That's also why children should remain rear facing in the car until age 4+. When they are forward facing too early they can be internally decapitated by the force of a crash. Their head is so much larger than their body and their neck vertebrae are not fused yet. Not exactly the same thing but similar.

Physics don't change because SDSO doesn't like them...

 

[K_Z]

I hope this is ok to bring here-- I know we're ordinarily not supposed to link to fundraising sites, but perhaps Tricia will consider allowing these updates without a link. I'll alert this post so Tricia can make a decision.

Mary Zahau is posting updates about the progress in court a couple times a day on their fundraising site, with a lot of courtroom details I haven't read in the MSM summaries. This is from about 10 pm last night.

After lunch, the judge denied the motion to exclude our handwriting expert’s testimony. The handwriting expert testified that the probability that it’s Adam’s handwriting and not Rebecca’s on the door. The testimony will resume since we ran out of time. The defendant’s attorneys asked the same questions over and over repeatedly and run the clock out. They did same thing with the fingerprint expert. They are trying so hard to discredit our experts. The San Diego sheriffs department tried to say its Rebecca’s handwriting but the expert says there is nothing in Rebecca’s known handwriting that looks close to what was written on the door “She saved him, Can you save her”

Today the defendant’s attorney argued and Rebecca’s handwriting was not allowed in court for exhibits because they claimed it was hear say since she is not alive.

There are some comments on this site previously accusing my family of raising funds and getting funds for my sister Rebecca’s Justice. Any money that was raised 4-6 years ago went to our previous attorney Anne Bremner and fighting the motions that the Schacknai’s have filed in court to get Rebecca’s case thrown out. All media interviews and any TV show I have done are in hopes to raise public awareness and did not include any monetary gain. The media has not paid a dime to Rebecca’s cause or the family.

My sister was human and was not perfect but she lived! She lived for the day and always tried to cheer her family and friends and anyone around her. Adam Schacknai killed my sister and Jonah Schacknai covered it up with his money and political connections. I am not giving up!

Help spread the word!

 

[*Lash*]

This is encouraging! Rebecca's case is trending nationally-- I opened the msn home page and there was Rebecca's beautiful picture looking back!

Nothing new in the article, but I'm so glad it's getting national exposure.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/m...rt/ar-BBJCBt5?li=AA4ZnC&ocid=ientp&li=BBnb7Kz

 

[K_Z]

(Warning-- some may find these comments too graphic or disturbing.)

Regarding the extent of injuries to her neck-- they were hardly what I'd describe as minor, or moderate. Her SCM muscles and strap muscles were essentially torn in half on one side. They also include evidence that her heart was beating at the time (significant hemorrhage at the torn muscle sites documented in the AR, which would have looked different if her heart had not been beating at the time of the muscle tears). Many years ago I also posted that I thought that with the lengthy drop it was amazing she wasn't decapitated. (Sorry for the gruesome detail.)

Because of the injury pattern-- both tearing of the muscle and soft tissue structures, with concurrent circumferential crush injuries to her larynx, I believe she was alive with a beating heart (perhaps semi conscious or unconscious, from blows, and/ or perhaps partial/ incomplete strangulation) when she went over the railing.

As to the force applied to get her over the railing-- tossed, tipped, somehow lowered down at the end of the rope, IDK. But the "hanging or raising her from below" theory about "staging" her hanging never reconciled with her neck injuries for me. I also think that the AR injuries could indicate she wasn't entirely limp at the time of the hanging (was moving against the rope, either involuntary reflexes, or in the last seconds of consciousness)-- and if so, that could account for the circumferential crush injuries to the larynx.

Not all long drops produce cervical fractures, and Rebecca didn't have cervical fractures. There is plenty of discussion in the literature about that. Some believe that the absence of cervical fractures means she couldn't have experienced the long drop.

I'll look forward to the medical examiner's testimony (Cyril Wecht, IIRC), but also recognize that this level of detail may not be brought up in this case. These kind of details might be less appropriate for the level of evidence in a civil trial, IDK. I'm recalling Mr. Greer's interview comments where he said they had to make decisions about what to present, and not all details, lab tests, and experts were necessary for them to win their case.

Rest in peace, Rebecca-- lots of people are on your side fighting for you, and love survives the grave.