police say the man who called 911 said he found zahau dangling from a balcony.rother is the victim's boyfriend. >> probably only a few percent of patients -- >> reporter: a well multimillionaire businessman who founded a pharmaceutical company in arizona. but the morning zahau's body was discovered, police say jonas wasn't home. >> there are numerous items of evidence. the scene was pretty suspicious. >> adding to the mystery, police say a tragic accident took place here just two days before zahau's body was found. monday jonah's 6-year-old son max fell down a flight of stairs. this weekend, word came max had died. police say zahau may have been the woman who called 911. >> right now we don't see any connection between the two incidents. >> reporter: no connection and still no word on whether rebecca zahau committed suicide or was murdered in her boyfriend's mansion. and yet another twist in this case. a prominent san diego defense attorney was seen entering the mansion last week. he would not give any comment about who he was representing. the brothers have rel

zahau's body was discovered by his brother, adam. >> suicide and homicide can look similar. why it's so important to pay attention to the details. >> reporter: this morning, abc news is learning new details about the relationship between the two victims and shacknai. sources say zahau and shacknai dated for nearly three years and had a happy and loving relationship. >> she was the sweetest girl you could possibly imagine. >> reporter: her trainer said that zahau often brought the 6-year-old to the gym. >> she was always smiling with him. and they had a really good relationship. >> reporter: shacknai had been married twice before. his last marriage to max's mother, dina shacknai, ended in divorce with accusations of verbal and physical assault. in these photos obtained by abc news you can see scratches on her shoulder and cuts on her arm and knees. she told police she was attacked by shacknai's german shepherd. in a police report she said she feared her husband and wrote "she was scared of what he's capable of doing to me physically and the lengths he would go to try to destr

of course the death investigation that is still unsolved is that of rebecca zahau. here in the home behind me on wednesday, last wednesday. her nude body was discovered laid out in the courtyard. she was lifeless. her hands were bound behind her back. her feet were tied together too. the man that called 911, adam shacknai, said he cut her down from a second floor balcony. adam shacknai is the brother -- his brother is rebecca zahau's boyfriend, jonah shacknai. he is the ceo of a multimillion dollar cosmetic company based out of arizona so investigators say he was not here during the time of that incident. one might think that he was at his son's hospital bedside. as you mentioned, there was an accident here that is unrelated to this where his 6-year-old son fell down a flight of stairs and was killed, apparently over the weekend he was pronounced dead. that information has just come to light. but police say there is no ruling of death, no death for jonah shacknai's 32-year-old girlfriend, rebecca zahau. that is still part of this investigation. >> miguel almaguer in

last monday zahau was home when max had an accident. on a master staircase.cs went to the scene. >> they found the child at the foot of the stairs, the child was not breathing and did not have a pulse. >> reporter: max was revivived d hospitalized. just two days later zahau was discovered hanging by a noose from the second floor balcony at the mansion, found naked, wrists and ankles bound. shacknai wasn't home. his brother found her r dy and called police. investigigors took evidence from the home but are still piecing together what happened. not sure yet if she was killll or if she killed herself. >> sometimes people commit suicide and they do very unusual things and we're wide open to all possibilities. >> reporter: but zahau's sister tells abc news rebecca wouldn't take her own life saying she was a beautiful, vibrant, loving and kind person and would never do this to herself. she said rebecca dated him for nearly three years and they were a happy couple and then on sunday, nearly a week after his accident, shacknai announced that max had died from his inj

max, of course, that's from mary zahau-loehner, the girlfriend of the ceo, who was found hanged inside that mansion last wednesday, two days after max -- that's who she was referring to in that statement -- the 6-year-old son of jonah had fallen down the stairs. he would eventually die of those injuries on sunday. we had a chance to talk to the san diego sheriff's department looking at the zahau death, the coronado police department is looking at max's death which they still have determined as being an accident. however, his autopsy will be coming back. when we talked to sergeant roy frank, we asked him, we said, you know, when someone is found hanging with their own arms, their own feet bound, that doesn't necessarily lead a lot of people to believe that they would take their own life, maybe something like a homicide. here's what he said. >> people are very creative whether it's working with homicide or in a suicide situation. they put a lot of thought into how they're going to do that if it's a suicide or vice versa. so, again, we always want to step back, and it may seem odd to anyb

it's been nine days since the body of rebecca zahau was discovered here at the mansion.the beginning investigators called the case, quote, suspicious and strange. but even today they still haven't determined how the young beauty died. the county sheriff says 15 detectives are now working this case and investigators will soon re-create rebecca zahau's death. her nude body was found in the courtyard of her boyfriend's mansion. police say a caller to 911 said she was hanging from a balcony. investigators say her feet were tied together, her hands bound behind her back. and despite describing the death scene as, quote, violent and suspicious, police here say they don't know if this was a homicide or a suicide. >> we have had cases where people have secured their hands behind their back or secured their legs. it's not unusual to see cases like that. >> reporter: retired homicide detective says that doesn't make sense to him. >> i just can't see how this girl did this by herself. >> reporter: he isn't involved in this case, but he spent 16 years in law enforcement. would you p

rebecca zahau, her sister is saying rebecca wasn't depressed, had no reason to commit suicide.ou more as the case unfolds. >>> now former presidential candidate john edwards is set to take a big financial hit. we'll tell you why, coming up. >>> all right. teaching your pooch to sit, beg and roll over seems pretty cool. that is, until you see what this ninja dog can do. you've got to see this. [ barking ] >> let's see that again. that is one smart little pooch. i know it's news and all that, but i could watch that all day. look how cool that is. pretty smart little fella. >>> all right. if big hollywood blockbusters aren't enough renal to hit the theaters, how about the air conditioning? that's what one theater is banks on. read their marquee. "we have ac. who cares what's playing?" that's good enough. >>> you know, "the situation room" is coming up at the top of the hour. wolf has a preview. it's always cool in the "the situation room." that's because wolf is there. what do you have on the show? >> very cool in "the situation room," because i like it cold. it's cold in here. ha

police say zahau may have been the woman had who called 911. >> right now, we don't see any connectionection, and no word on whether she committed suicide or was murdered in her boyfriend's mansion. another twist, a prominent san  diego defense attorney was seen walking into the mansion behind me, but would not comment. nbc has reached out to the brothers. neither would comment on the story. >> miguel, thank you. >>> and now for a look on what's trending today, our quick roundup of what has you talking online. soccer fans sent a record 7,000 tweets a second during the women's world cup final sunday between the u.s. and japan. japan tied the game at 2 and won with a 3-1 penalty kick shootout. >>> facebook fans are liking the boy wizard box office magic. "harry potter and the deathly hallows 2" shattered records and putting it on course to become the first billion dollar potter flick. >>> and who knew the marine corps ball would be the hottest event of the season? marine sergeant lewis is the latest leather neck to ask a celebrity to the ball. >> i would like to take betty white. she's

it's been a week since the body of 32-year-old rebecca zahau was discovered here, but today they still haven't identified how she died. they found her body just two days after a fatal accident involving a 6-year-old boy here, a bizarre set of events that continues to baffle investigators. the mansion's owner is the multimillionaire ceo of an arizona-based company that sells cosmetic drugs. >> we're going to be hitting the market hard with very favorable data. >> reporter: he has not been seen here since the death of his girlfriend and so far has declined to be interviewed. police say she found her dead body in the mansion, her hands and feet, they say, bound with rope. just 48 hours earlier in the same house, police say shacknai's 6-year-old son, max, was found at the bottom of a staircase unconscious and without a pulse. he died this past weekend. >> we have no reason to believe that it's anything other than a tragic accident at this point. but we are awaiting the results of the coroner's inquest. >> reporter: on monday police in arizona released reports that show a series of argument