Rebecca Nalepa - suicide or murder? #4

[peace9274]

Some questions that I keep coming back to that make me think suicide vs murder: 1) Wouldn't she have screamed loudly if someone was attempting to tie up her hands & feet, unless she had been drugged? I can't see a lone perp holding a hand over her mouth to silence her while binding her hands & feet at the same time. 2) Was Adam Shacknai in the guest house the night before she was found? If so, it seems he would have heard her scream or at least heard something & come out to investigate. 3) Was there a gag over her mouth? Someone posted they thought they saw a scarf around her neck. If so, could that have been used to gag & silence her?

I have gone over & over the scant details that have been published. I am leaning towards she committed suicide. I don't think her state of mind could have been that good, given the circumstances. She may have been putting on a brave face so her family wouldn't worry when she spoke to her sister that night. Just think about the fact that her boyfriend's son lay in the hospital in a coma, d/t an accident that occurred while in her care.

Now her boyfriend is at the hospital, bonding with his ex-wife, while she is at home alone, with no one there to support her. Jonah Shacknai made a statement to the effect that he had intended to propose to Rebecca and wished he had done so sooner. That statement could be interpreted in different ways. Almost sounds like guilt to me. Maybe he felt that Rebecca would have
been more secure about him & their relationship & would not have become despondent. Did he say something to her after the accident that left her feeling he might leave her? Even if not, she might have been afraid that he would blame her for Max's accident & leave her.

I read somewhere that a lot could be determined by the knots that were found in the bindings. How long can that take to analyze? Surely a knowledgeable investigator could have made a determination by now. Could be they are pretty sure it was a suicide & they think she was substance impaired, waiting on toxicology results for confirmation.

I keep going back to the theory that she was dead before she was hanged due to the
rigor in her arms and legs. The legs are bent as though she had been sitting in a chair,
arms tied behind her and ankles tied to the chair legs.

I think the blue "scarf" was used to gag her. She died in the chair, was left there long
enough for rigor to set in and then she was hanged.

I also think there was loud music to drown out any noises &/or screams.

 

[lauriej]

---snipped---

I don't think the table had a leg broken. I think it was a three legged table in its original state. They can be as sturdy as a 4 legged table because the legs are positioned for balance. My husband has a three legged Jawhorse and it is very sturdy. As much or more so than a regular sawhorse.

..i do know this---it was originally a 4-legged table.

..the broken table leg is shown on the ground-------

..the missing leg evident here as they remove it----

 

[Inobu]

mentalsolstice

ok you gotta do this. Play your scenario out while you are looking at the image and see if it makes sense.

lauriej posted a better image


Also so you think that table could supports 270 lbs? 110 her 160 him

 

[jjenny]

So, did the leg broke off when AS got onto the table to cut her down?
Did the table fell as he was doing it?

 

[Wendy101]

http://www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/f...s-mansion-murder-mystery-real-life-film-noir/

this site shows a pic of the guest house in location to Rebeccas body

 

[i.b.nora]

It appears that there is a slat or two on the top of the table that is broken through.

 

[daisy.faithfull]

Just so many strange things about this alleged suicide.
Why would she use a cord to bind her hands and feet? If to prevent her from reaching the rope, why not use a belt? If she felt guilty over child's upcoming death, the child wasn't dead yet, and why commit suicide in such a spectacular fashion? While some people do commit suicide naked, it's usually indoors, so totality of circumstances appear to be very bizarre for a suicide.

When I first started reading the thread on this case I wasn't really sure what happened, then I started leaning towards suicide and my ideas were pretty much in lock step with Oceanblueeyes.

I don't know if she would agree my thinking on this, but oddly enough I lean more towards its being a suicide because of how bizarre this whole thing is.

Either way ITA with those who are not comfortable pointing fingers at those close to the family without any kind of proof.

 

[Charlie09]

mentalsolstice

ok you gotta do this. Play your scenario out while you are looking at the image and see if it makes sense.

lauriej posted a better image


Also so you think that table could supports 270 lbs? 110 her 160 him

How do you know what he weighs?
Are you willing to consider anyone BUT AS?

 

[mentalsolstice]

This is my last post.

In the abcnews go video pause it at 00:06

Look at the position of the tether. It shows the path traveled. The table was there first. You can see the tether outlines the table. It show that the path is from the walkway onto the grass, the void space between her and the table is the the area where the person was standing when they put her down.

The reason the tether goes to her back is because it was trapped between her back and the person's arm carrying her.

That tether is like foot prints in the snow.

Note: You have to look at everything.

Look at the main video and that does not appear to be not a happy moment.......Everything reported in this case is contradicting.

Unbelievable....

A lot of videos out there by the big networks. Just telling us to go to ABC isn't enough, you need to link to the specific video...otherwise, I'm not going to waste my time/hours looking for what you claim to see. Unless you're an expert or you have some very inside knowledge of this case, you are simply speculating here just as the rest of us are.

 

[Wendy101]

..i do know this---it was originally a 4-legged table.

..the broken table leg is shown on the ground-------

..the missing leg evident here as they remove it----

What I don't understand is, why is that cord so long?

The length of Rebeccas body + the length of the cord we see in the pic above leads me to believe that Adam must have cut the cord from where it was attached to the balcony or whatever it was attached to....

 

[Inobu]

How do you know what he weighs?
Are you willing to consider anyone BUT AS?

Just low ball guess weight which still makes it more than the table appears to be able to handle.

I starting with AS concerning the hanging. I feel that it is a cover up and he is responsible for a cover up.

The violent death is another issue in its self. I'm just back tracking from the hanging cover up to get to the actual killer.

I got a feeling there was an interrogation that went wrong or too far. I think AS knows who that person was.

 

[i.b.nora]

A real criminal profiler would ask themself the question: Does he weigh MORE THAN or LESS THAN Roy Kronk? And, if so, is he NOT happy or not HAPPY? Can he collaborate the story, or corroborate the story? Those are just for starters.

One has to really know how to ask the questions.

 

[lauriej]

Exactly, and in the press conference, A journalist asks him " When Adam made the 911 call, he said what?", and Capt. Curran replies "That there was a woman on the property and that she appeared to be dead". This would tell me he knew when he made the call that she was dead, what I find interesting is that he said "there was a woman on the property" as if disconnecting any connection to RN, why not say my brothers girlfriend?

BBM

---there have been a few replies based on this statement ----attributing it to adam as what he said during his 911 call

---i was just taking another listen to the press conference-------that's not what captain curran says at all.

curran----"At approx. 06:48 hrs. yesterday morning units from the coronado police department went to that address in response to a 911 call. The reporting party , later identified as adam shaknai told the responding officers that he had found nalepa with a rope around her neck, and hanging from a balcony off the main house.

When the Coronado units arrived at the scene, they located a female on the property who appeared to be deceased."

http://www.cbs8.com/story/15075598/...mansion-owners-son-girlfriend?redirected=true
--press conference--

 

[Inobu]

A lot of videos out there by the big networks. Just telling us to go to ABC isn't enough, you need to link to the specific video...otherwise, I'm not going to waste my time/hours looking for what you claim to see. Unless you're an expert or you have some very inside knowledge of this case, you are simply speculating here just as the rest of us are.

Its the same link I posted up a few thread up but you don't have to look.

 

[pferrin]

When I first started reading the thread on this case I wasn't really sure what happened, then I started leaning towards suicide and my ideas were pretty much in lock step with Oceanblueeyes.

I don't know if she would agree my thinking on this, but oddly enough I lean more towards its being a suicide because of how bizarre this whole thing is.

Either way ITA with those who are not comfortable pointing fingers at those close to the family without any kind of proof.

Hi daisy..I am learning alot from Oceanblueeyes. She has incited me to be more thorough because she is so thorough. Although I believe this is a homicde for many reasons.

Yet I would not have done near the work had it not been for Ocean..she is the best.

I still dont know who and how and why..Yet IMO it is homicide.

After looking at the descriptions of her friends and family about RN..for me there is no way she would have done anything this hurtful to Jonah. I believe she loved the boy.

If the death wasn't so in your face nasty..then maybe.

If she would have put her car in the garage and started the motor... pills..hanged in the shower..etc...then maybe. But not this way. IMO

 

[CuriousAmazon]

Snipped from this link:
http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2011/07/22/what-went-down-at-the-shacknai-mansion/

Initial reports state Adam was the only one there, but new reports state that Dina (Max’s mother) was “a witness in Zahau’s death”. Does this mean Dina was at the home sometime in the early morning hours of July 13th? It should be pointed out that Dina’s home is just down the road from the Shacknai mansion. Friends state both of Max’s parents were at his bedside at the time of Rebecca’s death. However, authorities have not stated that yet. Does it mean Dina is privy to information concerning Rebecca’s death? In either case, by the end of the day of the 13th attorney Paul Pfingst was retained to “represent someone connected with this case”, someone assumed to be a family member.

Two search warrants have been served to search the mansion. It is reported that during one of those searches police took several photographs of the stairs where Max’s accident occurred.

 

[mentalsolstice]

mentalsolstice

ok you gotta do this. Play your scenario out while you are looking at the image and see if it makes sense.

lauriej posted a better image


Also so you think that table could supports 270 lbs? 110 her 160 him

Actually, lauriej's photo supports my claim that AS didn't carry her very far to put her in the grass (or dump her per your words), in fact it was inches to a foot. Looking at the table in that picture as well as the patio (looks like some clutter there) and assuming, as it appears in other images, that the patio and balcony have similar dimensions, everything looks quite right to support my theory that AS was uninvolved in her death except to cut her down.

I don't know what the table was made of, I do know from other photos there was a matching Adirondack chair on the patio. And we can only surmise what angle AS approached her from, and did he fully stand on the table, simply use it to boost him or her up, etc., without putting his full weight on it. Where was her noose cut? Closer to her neck, or closer to where it was tied? The cord coming from under her body tells me nothing...it could have been from her neck or her hands. Sorry, I'm still at the same place I was this morning. Until I know more, AS isn't on my hinky meter.

BTW, my dad was the first one to discover my maternal grandmother's suspicious death, however, I seriously doubt he killed her. And my mom was the last to see her alive, but she's not at the top of my list either. Actually, it was just a good old plain suicide, absent a note. Sometimes it is what it is.

 

[IzzyBlanche]

MentalSolstice:

This is not directed at you, but I would like to use your very sound logic to make a similar point (bolded changes by me).

MOO, I just don't understand the fixation on [DS] as the prime suspect at this point. Until more evidence is made public, myself and many others here are not ready to paint [her] (or in fact anyone else) as the villain.

..., there isn't anything tying [her] to a murder or suicide. NOTHING there. If and when LE comes up with evidence against [her], then I'll start looking at [her] as a POI. Right now it is pure speculation, and [she] is merely a witness. I don't see a motive, apart from speculation it was jealousy mixed with revenge for her son's death, but we've no concrete proof she was jealous of RN, nor can I think of another case where a parent has murdered a caretaker because his/her child died in that person's care and I don't see anything in [her] behavior that suggests [she] killed RN. [In fact, we've seen absolutely nothing of her behavior surrounding recent events, aside from news reports that she was at her son's side at the hospital. All I see is a grasping at straws, while we're waiting for LE to come out with something official. MOO

And I might also say the same about JS.

There's no reason to think either of them read here, but if they do, whoa. I can't imagine the awfulness of first losing my child and then being blamed for murder solely on imagination and speculation.

 

[mentalsolstice]

A real criminal profiler would ask themself the question: Does he weigh MORE THAN or LESS THAN Roy Kronk? And, if so, is he NOT happy or not HAPPY? Can he collaborate the story, or corroborate the story? Those are just for starters.

One has to really know how to ask the questions.

You owe me a new keyboard. :crazy:

 

[CuriousAmazon]

I tried inserting the staircase pic and even attaching it, but it says wrong file type so the pic is found at the below link right under the snipped statement.

Snipped:
Concerning Max’s accidental death. When I first read about this accident I thought to myself, okay, falling down a staircase definitely could end up killing you, though I believe it is more uncommon for a child (not a baby or toddler, but a 6-year-old child) to die this way. It really depends on several factors: how steep are the stairs, what is the surface of the stairs (i.e. carpet covered, granite, etc.), from what height? Do they mean he tripped and fell down the stairs proper? or do they mean he fell OVER the stairs. If he was older, say 9 or 10, I could see him able to climb up on the rail and fall, but 6 is a bit short to do that, unless he had a chair or something he could get up on. I envisioned the stairs as a grand staircase either straight or curved. But then I found this picture and learned they are not. They have a landing.
Snipped from this link:
http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2011/07/22/what-went-down-at-the-shacknai-mansion/