reporter: the early morning hours of july 13, 2011. as family members kept a vigil by the hospital bed of 6-year-old max shacknai, a breathless man called 911. reporter: once again, police raced through the streets of quiet coronado island, and once again their destination was the mansion on ocean boulevard. jonah s girlfriend rebecca was staying there. you wake up, you walk out, tell me what you see. the woman hanging at the time, i didn t necessarily think to myself, oh, my goodness, she s bound or whatever. but just rebecca is hanging. reporter: naked, bound hand and foot. rebecca zahau was hanging by the
reporter: july 11, 2011, max was staying with his dad and rebecca. dina was in coronado, too, at a home just down the street. that s when jonah called her. he said dina, you have do get here right away. reporter: as rebecca explained to police, jonah has at the gym. 6-year-old max was home with her. rebecca said she heard a crash and found max on the floor near the staircase. the mansion s heavy chandelier has fallen to the floor next to him. rebecca said max wasn t breathing and started cpr. rebecca s 13-year-old sister called 911. reporter: police and paramedics arrived within minutes. jonah called dina from the hospital. he tells me, thank god that she was able to give him cpr.
accident but a murder? yes, homicide. tara has no luft background. she calls herself an intelligence analyst. she and dina have floated several theorys over the years. the current theory? whoever killed max, it was not rebecca zahau. these days, their suspicion is focused on information from a neighbor that s never been verified. the story of a wild party at the mansion the night before max s fall. he has not been interviewed by the police and he s not come forward. what connection it might have to max s death you have no idea what that is? i don t, but i think it should be explored. reporter: she said police never spoke with the neighbor, but we did. and he doesn t remember anything about a party. and max s dad, jonah shacknai, who was in the house that night, told us there was no party. jonah says he never doubted the official investigation. but wanted to reput the theorys offered by dina and others.
rebecca zahau died during that time, but i was at the hospital all night. reporter: in 2013, keith greer filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the zahau family. based on his eyewitness, he named dina as a defendant, along with her twin sister, nina. there was also a third defendant. the man who called 911, jonah s brother, adam shacknai. reporter: did you have anything to do with rebecca s death? absolutely not. reporter: greer disagreed. he pointed to those knots tied around rebecca s wrists and ankles. figuring them out in the first place is really hard. tying them, almost impossible. reporter: greer believed whoever tied the knots had to be an expert, possibly a sailor. and adam shacknai worked on the mississippi river as a tugboat captain. when he ties things off, he uses a figure eight and then