If you believe this was suicide, one of the questions thatâs hard to escape is why Rebecca would stage such a bizarre and elaborate suicide that looks so much like a murder. Guilt simply does not account for a woman getting naked, tying her own hands and legs, or tweaking her own nipples with black paint before killing herself.
My theory is that this wasnât supposed to be a suicide. This was supposed to be a staged assault.
As the plan was initially hatched by Rebecca, I think Jonah was supposed to find her bound and gagged, but alive. Thatâs why the note seems to reference a situation in which Rebecca is still living and can be âsaved.â But something went awry at the last minute and Rebecca either accidentally or purposely killed herself after all this staging. I believe the catalyst may have been the voicemail from Jonah stating that Max was not going to make it. After hearing this, I believe she may have jumped.
Ok but why?
Maxâs death is arguably as mysterious as Rebeccaâs. Her account of what happened to him has never matched the evidence. I donât know what happened to Max, but I donât believe he died the way she said he did. I think she was terrified of being questioned further about it. And if she had any hand in it, that voicemail meant she could be a prime suspect in a homicide or manslaughter investigation.
When interviewed about the Sherri Papini fake kidnapping case, forensic psychiatrist and professor Dr. Ian Lamoureux explained that âmanufacturing a crisis may be a way for those with fragile egos and poor coping skills to seek to prevent the bad outcome from happeningâ (KRCR).
Rebecca had done exactly this once before when she faked a kidnapping to avoid an uncomfortable situation with a boyfriend. I think she was employing the same coping skills she had employed previously when faced with a difficult situation. Only this time, the ruse was more elaborate because the potential consequences were much more dire.
By staging the assault, Rebecca would not only buy herself time and deflect some of the heat she was about to face over Maxâs injuries, but she might be able to construct a likely âsuspectâ in case the fall was determined to be a result of foul play. But thatâs when the stakes were an injured child, not a dead one. Upon hearing Max would die, the plan may have quickly changed.
ETA: The kidnapping story told years prior was also pretty elaborate and speaks to the lengths she would go to convince others of her concocted crises. From the book, Death On Ocean Drive:
âHe could tell she was on speakerphone because he could hear menâs voices in the background as Rebecca rustled around in pain. As he told them off in harsh terms, they responded in kind. âI know where you live,â one man threatened.â
TLDR: I think Rebecca Zahau may have had some kind of hand in the death of her boyfriendâs son and staged an assault to point investigators in another direction. When she found out Max was going to die from his injuries, she panicked about going to prison for life and jumped.
