Caitlin Rother - Death on Ocean Boulevard

Table of Contents

Authors Note and Acknowledgments

I still cant say for sure what happened to Rebecca. There were parallels between my husbands and Rebeccas lives, but there were also differences. As complicated and controversial as this story was to write, it chose me, and Ive been compelled to stick with it. In so doing, I applied the same unbiased, investigative, and exploratory approach to this multifaceted case that I always do, following the evidence no matter where it took me. Knowing that I have a unique perspective on this topic, however, I kept an open mind, hoping to elevate the level of understanding about what really happened and let readers reach their own conclusions right along with me.

Adam Shacknais inflammatory emails made me rethink things, and after speaking with Jonah, I had to rethink them once again.

Lest anyone think Im exorcising my demons by writing this book, as Adam alleged, my professional interest in suicides and bizarre deaths came long before my husband died in 1999, starting with my studies in abnormal psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where I earned my bachelors degree.

Years later, the Union-Tribune nominated me for a Pulitzer Prize for my 1998 investigative feature story about a nineteen-year-old who came to a painful end after setting himself on fire outside a Walmart. I also won an award for a story about a lonely divorced man who failed to kill himself in multiple ways, but finally succeeded in starving himself to death. He was found mummified in bed eighteen months later, hidden behind the foil-covered windows of his condo.

If youre interested in learning more about my personal story and my husbands suicide, its chronicled in a short memoir, Secrets, Lies, and Shoelaces, which took me nineteen years to finishafter watching the Zahau trial.

I believe that the community at large still actively engages in conspiracy theories about this case partly because many evidentiary details werent released until the Zahaus lawsuit went to trial, and even then, only a portion of them came out. Ive tried to remedy that here, by exploring all the evidence and theoriesin context. The result is a more detailed, balanced, and current account of what happened to Max and Rebecca than youll find anywhere else.

Based on my previous reporting, I can tell you that a victims family often doesnt see a suicide coming or know their loved one as well as they think. By the same token, no one has heard of a suicide quite like this, and many people, including a good number of outside experts, still cant see how a woman could or would have done this to herself.

Ive already written several narrative nonfiction crime books involving staged murder and suicide scenes, created to mislead investigators, and its clear to me that Rebeccas death was staged to look like something it wasnt. But we may never know, definitively, whether the perpetrator was Rebecca or her alleged killer(s).

Despite the sheriffs firmly-held accident and suicide scenarios for Max and Rebecca, her family and Maxs mother still believe their loved ones were murdered. The bottom line is, if Rebecca didnt commit suicide, then her killer is still out there.

As someone who has become an unwitting suicide expert, both personally and professionally, my continuing investigation placed me squarely into this story. But in the end, I had no agenda, no verdict, and no financial settlement to protect.

I reached out to all the key players involved in this story, as I always do. Some didnt want to cooperate, saying theyre working on their own books, or felt theyve already said enough. Others didnt respond or couldnt be reached. That said, I was still able to represent their views here from court testimony or interviews with law enforcement and the media.

After observing the entire civil trial, I set out to write a book to incorporate as many never-released details as possible. In addition to culling through public records, I thankfully have good sources who supplied me with inside information, including the sheriffs investigative files and photos, discovery materials from the various lawsuits, witness interview transcripts and audio files, trial depositions, and outside expert analysis. I also conducted countless interviews myself.

Ive given several people pseudonyms to protect their privacy. Also, some quotes have been edited down for storytelling purposes, such as the removal of repetitive verbal tics, stumbling, or extra words that interrupt the natural flow of conversation. But nothing has been changed or added to alter the context or meaning, and no details have been embellished, exaggerated, or created. Any errors are unintentional.

On a more personal note, as I sat in the courtroom during the trial, I also served as a pool photographer when professionals like Nelvin C. Cepeda couldnt be there. Nel, an old friend and former colleague from the Union-Tribune , took many of the shots in the photo insert.

When Nel and I flew to a military base in Pennsylvania for a week to do a series of stories on Kosovar refugees in 1999, it was my first assignment back from bereavement leave after my husbands suicide. Nel was a great partner to work with at that fragile point in my life, and that series also won a journalism award. So, it felt like synchronicity when we sat side by side in this trial nearly twenty years later.

Many days, also right beside me was Union-Tribune reporter Pauline Repard, with whom I wrote the first news article on the Kristin Rossum case in 2001, the topic of my first book, Poisoned Love . Pauline and I go back to 1993, when we both worked for the editor who was married to private investigator Bill Garcia, the one who brought my husbands ashes back from Mexico in 1999. Small world.

Im grateful to Bill, Nel, and all the other people who helped me produce this book, and I want to thank them for their contributions: Anne Bremner, Jonah Shacknai, Michael Berger, Alma Cesena, John Gibbins, John McCutchen, Pauline Repard, Michelle Madigan Herman, David Gotfredson, Keith Greer, Sheriff Bill Gore, Sergeant Paul Michalke, Lieutenant Justin White, Denys Williams, Mary Ann Castellano, Steve Walker, Paul Pfingst, Doug Loehner, Mike Workman, Mary Bedwell, Dwight Smith, Jackie Bensinger, Kris Grant, J.W. August, Paul Ciolino, Tara Schneider, Maurice Godwin, Tricia Arrington Griffith, Howard Breuer, and Ben Metcalf.

A big thanks also goes to my beta readersmy mother, Carole Scott, and my fellow author Georgeanne Irvine. To my partner, Gza Keller; my editor, Michaela Hamilton; and my agent, Peter Rubie, I express my deep gratitude for their longtime and consistent support of and belief in my work.

A LSO BY C AITLIN R OTHER

Poisoned Love

Twisted Triangle

(by Caitlin Rother with John Hess)

Body Parts

Where Hope Begins/Deadly Devotion
(by Alysia Sofios with Caitlin Rother)

My Life, Deleted
(by Scott and Joan Bolzan and Caitlin Rother)

Lost Girls

Ill Take Care of You

Then No One Can Have Her

Hunting Charles Manson

(by Lis Wiehl with Caitlin Rother)

Naked Addiction

Love Gone Wrong

Secrets, Lies, and Shoelaces

Dead Reckoning

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times bestselling author C AITLIN R OTHER has written or coauthored fourteen books. Her previous titles are: Dead Reckoning, Hunting Charles Manson, Secrets, Lies, and Shoelaces, Love Gone Wrong, Then No One Can Have Her, Naked Addiction, Ill Take Care of You, Lost Girls, Poisoned Love, Body Parts, Twisted Triangle, Deadly Devotion, and My Life, Deleted. Rother, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, worked as an investigative reporter at daily newspapers for nineteen years before deciding to write books full-time. Her work has been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The Daily Beast. As a TV crime commentator, her more than two hundred media appearances include 20/20, People Magazine Investigates, Crime Watch Daily, Australias World News, Nancy Grace, Snapped, and numerous shows on Netflix, Investigation Discovery, HLN, Reelz, Oxygen, E!, A&E, C-SPAN, and numerous PBS affiliates. Rother also works as a writing/research coach and consultant, and plays keyboards and sings in an acoustic band. Please visit her website at caitlinrother.com.