and adam shacknai worked on the mississippi river as a tug boat captain. he ties things off, he uses a figure eight, and then closes it with a single hitch or two. guess what? knots are tied on both her legs and her hands, figure eights, tied off, with a single him or two. reporter: sheriff investigators had questioned adam extensively after rebecca s death. you didn t hold anything back from investigators? nothing. you helped them to the extent that you could? yeah, exhaustively. you thought you had nothing to hide? i knew i had nothing to hide. reporter: and when investigators determined there was no evidence placing adam at the scene they cleared you? they did. did you think this was over at that point? yeah, i did. reporter: it wasn t over. rebecca s sister was determined to hold someone accountable. i m guessing that somebody
he s going to be okay. reporter: max was unconscious. dina and jonah took up a vigil at the hospital. jonah s brother, adam, flew in from his home in tennessee. you came out to support jonah? correct. how well did you know max? i knew max well. he was a doted upon, just kunld kind of a really wonderful kid. what was the story you were hearing happened to max? they were still trying to piece together what happened. at that point nobody was sure what it was? i don t think so. but that really wasn t the focus when i got there. it was about him getting better? right. reporter: at max s bedside, jonah asked one of the doctors for his prognosis. dr. peterson looked at him and said, i don t know, i don t know.
reporter: all the things you say when you know you re going to lose. exactly. reporter: this was it, a decision. and even keith greer was in for quite a plot twist. number one, did adam shacknai touch rebecca zahau before rebecca zahau s death with the intent to harm her? the answer is yes. number two, did that touching cause the death of rebecca zahau? answer is yes. reporter: yes. meaning that the jury found adam shacknai responsible for rebecca zahau s death. i just broke down. i was just like, okay. i m not crazy. i m not the only one who believes that adam murdered my sister. reporter: that s not quite what the jury said. finding someone libel in a civil case is not the same as finding them guilty of murder. what s more, the verdict in this case did not have to be unanimous, and it wasn t. nine jurors found adam responsible, three did not.
is there anything that adam has ever done in his life that would cause you to believe that he ever would have done the acts that he s accused of in this case? never anything. it s inconceivable. reporter: adam took the stand, too. did you hit rebecca on the head? i never hit rebecca on the head or anywhere else for that matter. then did you devise this scheme to cover up your wrongdoing by painting the saying on the door and making it look like she had been hanged by someone else? absolutely, positively not. reporter: the case went to the jury. did you feel confident as deliberations began? i felt we could possibly win very convincingly. reporter: less than four hours later, a verdict. i sat down next to mary, and i said, i m sorry, this is probably not good news, the jury coming back this quick. it s probably going to be a defense verdict. we know we did our job, you didn t let rebecca die in vain.
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