were you present when rebecca died? no. did you attack her? no. did you sexually assault her? no. did you tie those knots on her body? no. are those the kind of knots that only a sailor or somebody that worked on boats around the water would know? no, those were common knots. reporter: investigators found no evidence that adam was present when rebecca died and they cleared him. that didn t stop rebecca s family from suing in civil court. the lawsuit, the long string of accusations, what do you think is going on here? it s denial. it s they don t want it to be seen that their sister committed suicide. reporter: we asked rebecca s sister, mary, about tha a lot of times families do not want to admit that someone committed suicide because they blame themselves for not maybe having seen the signs. is that what you re doing here? nope. and i have been accused of that
the jury did award the zahau family $5 million. courtrooms are supposed to be a place why justice is dispensed. was this about justice? no, it wasn t. reporter: since this was about criminal case, adam didn t go to jail. he returned home to tennessee and filed a motion for a new trial, which was denied in january 2019. then in february, adam s insurance company and rebecca s family reached a settlement of $600,000. and the case was dismissed. after the civil trial, the sheriff s department took a fresh look at rebecca s death. eight months later, that review also concluded that rebecca died by suicide. dina shacknai would like to see authorities reinvestigate her son s case. do you think they will reinvestigate max s death? i think it a et cetera the right thing to do. do i think it will happen? i really don t know. reporter: how does a mother
reporter: greer also claimed rebecca had been sexually assaulted with a knife prior to her murder. the expert testified a steak knife found in the bedroom had we are blood on the handle. that s nowhere in any of the sheriff s records. they never considered that. reporter: the defense called a forensic technician who testified she did find the blood on the knife and with it a simple explanation. a recent cut on rebecca s right hand. when greer asked her if it could have come from a sexual assault? i didn t see any evidence of that. reporter: no evidence, a point the defense hammered home. no fingerprint evidence that was identified or directed towards adam shacknai. of all the items i tested, he was excluded on all items. reporter: adam s brother, jonah, took the stand. he called rebecca s death unfathomable, but said adam was not responsible.
multiple times, including the sheriff s department. is it possible that rebecca was depressed and you missed it? no. reporter: in march 2018, the wrongful death lawsuit began in san diego. defending adam was dan webb, a former u.s. attorney and a veteran of many courtrooms. there will be no evidence that shows that adam shacknai had anything to do with the death of rebecca zahau. reporter: in particular, no dna or fingerprints from adam were found at the death scene. plaintiff s attorney keith greer called several experts who testified the lack of physical evidence could show adam cleaned up after himself. there was nothing on the doorknobs whatsoever, as far as prints. again, that s conclusive with being wiped down? yes. reporter: and a handwriting expert who looked at that message on the door. the writing on the door is more [ inaudible ]
scatter shot attempt, and you are suing everybody that comes into your line of sight, looking for a sympathetic injury. that s it. and a lot of people looked at it that way. why shouldn t that shatter the credibility of the rest of your case? i think the reality is, we always had adam involved all through the process. reporter: in the lawsuit, greer outlined quite a detailed and unsubstantiated narrative. he argued rebecca was killed not to avenge max but during a sexual assault. greer s theory is that it began when rebecca stepped out of the shower and found adam in her bedroom watching her. she gets uncomfortable, tries to escape, she screams for help about 11:30 that night. reporter: greer says that explains the screams heard by a neighbor. right after that, adam hits her on the head and knocks her partially unconscious. he grabs the black payment and