OXYGEN TONIGHT THE REBECCA ZAHAU CASE

[Betty P]

It’s a clue that solves the case. If RZ was hell bent on committing suicide, she would have just hung herself inside the home. Even if she chose to do it on the balcony, she would have just hung herself directly from the balcony! Now, think of the reasons why it had to be that she was hung from the bedpost inside the home. It means another person did it, and needed the cover and concealment of being indoors and out of site to tie knots, complete staging, etc...

Yes, the staging part never made a lot of sense until Keith Greer brought up AS's previous background in theater. That was a real "aha!" moment and suddenly it all made sense.

 

[Crime Keleesi]

Almost in passing last night, Paul Holes mentioned RZ had to have been lowered down over the balcony by the killer to make sure she didn't reach the ground. I wish they'd talked about this more since it's such an obvious question: how could RZ have known how much rope, exactly, was needed to hang herself, taking into account how tight the rope would pull, how far the bed might move, distance to the ground, etc.

Overall, I thought the series was well done & informative, and I hope the added attention puts some pressure on SDSO, and/or somehow brings a bit of peace or hope to Rebecca's family.

Duh, she was Asian so she was really good at math. (((ROLLING MY EYES))) Sorry, just had to be sarcastic to go along with the stupid "Asian honor" comment JS made.

 

[Tiffanie]

None of the "reenactments" show the actress binding her feet, then her neck, then gagging herself, THEN binding her hands behind her and maneuvering to a balcony ledge. All of their rope experts have practiced and still only show that it's technically possible to bind your own hands and get them behind you. They ignore the rest of what they claim were the circumstances: extremely distraught, figuring it out as she went, getting rope lengths exactly right, stuffing shirt sleeves in your mouth and still having to complete the binding. etc.

I liked Episode 2 of the Oxygen series. The comments about the handwriting being bold and blocky and angry - not flowy and contrite - made perfect sense. A victim disrobing as a sign of contrition but leaving a snarky, angry message? You can't have it both ways, IMO. I appreciated the insight into Asian culture and the guy's opinion that nudity doesn't fit with "honor". And the psychologist (?) who said that bad news - even extremely bad news - doesn't push a stable person to immediate suicide. If there was a voicemail with the info JS claims, and if RZ listened to it, it seems her immediate reaction would have been to try to comfort him in any way possible - reaching out to him or maybe deciding to return to the hospital to be with him.

Thank you for your post! I am assuming when she bound her feet (insert eyeroll here) she was sitting down. She was on her period, so where is the blood spot she would have left behind. More "lack of evidence." The truth is, she was probably in a horizontal position and post mortem when she was bound.
I have faith one day justice will be served.

 

[cynic]

The re-creation done as part of “Death at the Mansion” serves to underscore that the SDSO should have done the very same thing. Instead, they chose to train someone how to self-bind and post the results.
Had they done a re-creation, they would have seen that the dynamics of the fall do not mesh with the results of the neck injuries outlined in the autopsy.
How can anyone reconcile the following statement from the autopsy with what is seen in the video below?
”There are no fractures of the cervical vertebrae and no epidural, subdural, or subarachnoid hemorrhage of the spinal cord. There is no spinal cord softening”.

The injuries to the front of Rebecca's neck are more consistent with manual strangulation than hanging.