Man Who ‘Found’ Bound and Gagged Woman’s Body Watched Asian Bondage Porn Day Before Her Brutal ‘Suicide’

According to the official report, Shacknai told authorities that he had discovered Zahau’s naked body hanging by her neck from the second-story balcony overlooking the Coronado, California home she shared with her live-in boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. Her hands were bound behind her back and her legs were tied together with red rope, although duct tape residue was also determined to be present in conflicting reports. She had been gagged with a blue, long-sleeved tee shirt, the sleeves double-knotted and forced into her mouth. She also had four unexplained bruises on her head, which experts believe were caused by blunt force trauma. There was also a cryptic message written on the bedroom door, which read “She saved him. Can you save her?”

Shacknai told authorities he scrambled to find a knife to cut her down, then removed the shirt from her mouth, and began to perform CPR. Unsuccessful in his attempts to save her, he dialed 911 at 6:48 a.m.

Although the death was ruled as a suicide, the Zahau family firmly believes that she was murdered; as they prepare their case, more evidence resurfaces that implicates Adam Shacknai as the possible killer.

Jonah Shacknai and Zahau were already dealing with six-year-old Max Shacknai’s critical injuries he had sustained on July 11, 2011, when Adam Shacknai flew in from Tennessee to visit the pair on July 12, 2011, staying in the guesthouse of the Coronado, California mansion. As he was the first person to find her unresponsive, naked body, he was called in by police to undergo a polygraph test; the results were inconclusive.

“A finding of inconclusive on a lie detector test indicates operator error. We think there were problems with the test and with the questions; and so, it should be disregarded,” said family attorney, Marty Rudoy. Polygraph evidence is not admissible in court.

The intricately-knotted shirt found in her mouth also casts suspicion on Adam Shacknai, who, as a tugboat captain, would have in-depth knowledge on knots.

“This wasn’t a novice. You had to have some understanding of knot tying. There are marine knot characteristics involved and principles which is consistent with Adam being a tugboat captain,” said attorney Keith Greer.

Perhaps the most incriminating piece of evidence was found later by investigators at the San Diego Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory. Officials found two computers inside the mansion, one of which was found to contain previous search terms such as  “raped, sexy Asian girls, and bondage anime”, and that whoever searched for these terms possessed an airline account.

“It’s important to the investigation because there is an image from anime, and its called bond anime and it shows an Asian women bound; at least her hands are bound behind her back,” said Seattle-based Anne Bremner attorney.

Bremner had posted on her FaceBook page that, “…a person of interest in the case viewed porn on his iPhone before ‘discovering’ her body.'” Although the post has since been deleted, she re-iterated that, not only was Adam Shacknai the one who found Zahau’s body, he also admitted in the polygraph test that he had been viewing porn on his phone during the time of the discovery.

“When they searched computers and her phone, they didn’t find any searches for rope, suicide, hanging – anything like that,” said Bremner. “What they did find was this (pornography), which is consistent with somebody else doing it. There was somebody interested in doing her harm, with these kinds of searches.”

The family is aiming to present their case in a trial tentatively set for February.

Featured Image via YouTube / (Left): ABC 10 News | FaceBook / (Right): Justice For Rebecca Zahau