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 SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego jury Wednesday awarded more than $5 million in damages to the mother of a woman who authorities said committed suicide by hanging herself at a Coronado mansion in 2011, determining that the brother of her boyfriend was liable for her death. 
  
 Rebecca Zahau, 32, was found dead two days after her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai's 6-year-old son, Max, fell from a second-story landing at the Spreckels mansion. The boy died five days later. 
  
 Full Coverage of Rebecca Zahau wrongful death case 
  
 Zahau's mother, Pari Zahau, and older sister, Mary Zahau-Loehner, rejected the suicide finding and filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2013 against Shacknai's brother, Adam, claiming the defendant confronted and battered Zahau the day after his nephew fell. 
  
 The attorney for the plaintiffs, Keith Greer, alleged that Adam Shacknai delivered four blows to Zahau's head, rendering her partially or fully unconscious. Greer also claimed the defendant sexually assaulted Zahau, tied her hands and feet, put a noose around her neck and threw her body off a second- story balcony. 
  
 Greer said a phrase scrawled on a bedroom door with black paint that read "She saved him, can he save her," was written by Adam Shacknai. 
  
 After less than a day of deliberations, jurors found that the 54-year- old defendant touched and battered Zahau before her death with the intent of harming her. 
  
 Jurors awarded Pari Zahau more than $5 million for loss of comfort and companionship and loss of money that the victim would have given to support her mother. 
  
 Jury splits 9-12 in wrongful Rebecca Zahau's death case awards family 5 million dollars for the loss of their daughter. Jury Finds Adam Shacknai responsible for battery and death #Fox5news — jaime chambers (@jaimechambers) April 4, 2018 
  
 Greer said a second phase of trial in which the jury would consider punitive damages might not be necessary. 
  
 The attorney called on the San Diego County Sheriff's Department to reopen its investigation into Zahau's death. 
  
 "We know that Rebecca did not commit suicide," Greer said outside court. "We knew right away." 
  
 A statement released late Wednesday afternoon by the department asserts that it "stands by the findings of the Medical Examiner's Office and our investigators." 
  
 "These findings were supported by forensic evidence and medical examinations," the statement said. 
  
 However, it adds that sheriff's officials "are always open to reviewing any evidence that could impact our conclusions" and are "willing to meet with the Zahau family to look at any new evidence that came out of the civil trial." 
  
 The Zahau family's attorney described those court proceedings as a way to get the truth in front of the public. 
  
 "It's not about money," he said. "It's never been about the money." 
  
 Zahau-Loehner told reporters she was in "shock" upon hearing the verdict. 
  
 "For seven years, we had to fight to prove she didn't commit suicide," she said. "My sister was brutally murdered." 
  
 Zahau-Loehner said she is holding out hope that someday Adam Shacknai will be criminally charged in the case. 
  
 The defendant testified that he had nothing to do with Zahau's death. He said he was staying in the guest house at his brother's mansion the night of July 12, 2011, after traveling to San Diego from his home in Memphis to be with his brother after Max's accident. 
  
 Adam Shacknai said he emerged from his room early the next morning and saw Zahau's nude body hanging from the balcony. He said he called 911, cut Zahau down and tried to give her CPR, then called his brother to tell him his girlfriend was dead. 
  
 Jonah Shacknai -- a pharmaceuticals tycoon from Arizona -- testified during the six-week trial that it was "inconceivable" that his younger brother had anything to do with Zahau's death. ||||| A civil jury in San Diego Superior Court has found Adam Shacknai responsible for the mysterious death of Rebecca Zahau and awarded her family $5 million in punitive damages. 
  
 Zahau's July 2011 death at Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, California, had been ruled a suicide by authorities, but in 2013, her family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Adam Shacknai, the brother of Jonah Shacknai, Zahau's then-boyfriend, pharmaceutical tycoon Jonah Shacknai. 
  
 Standing with Mary Zahau-Loehner, Zahau’s sister, outside the courthouse, plaintiff's attorney C. Keith Greer said the case was never about money. 
  
 "[I] asked Mary at the end of the day, ‘Wow, what do we do? … We got a verdict.’ And she says, ‘We got to get the case reopened, that’s it.’ Our job’s not done yet," he said in a news conference on Wednesday after the verdict. 
  
 He said Zahau's family is going to petition the sheriff to "to reopen the case to declassify it as a suicide and reclassify it as an open investigation" and use their resources to investigate Zahau's death. "One thing we were really lacking was resources." 
  
 "20/20" has been following the Zahau case for years and most recently reported on it in March. 
  
 Courtesy San Diego Sheriffs Department 
  
 On July 13, 2011, Zahau, 32, was found naked with her feet bound, hands tied behind her back and a shirt stuffed in her mouth, hanging from the second story balcony outside her room. Detectives found a book on a shelf in her room titled "Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft," which showed drawings of a rite -- a naked woman with her hands tied behind her back. 
  
 A cryptic message -- "She saved him, can you save her" -- was scrawled in black paint in block lettering on the door of her room. 
  
 Only she and Adam Shacknai were staying at on the mansion ground the night she died. He said he didn't go into the main house until the next morning, on July 13, 2011, when he discovered Zahau's body. He cut her down from the rope and called 911. 
  
 Courtesy San Diego Sheriffs Department 
  
 Adam Shacknai had flown in from Tennessee after hearing that his 6-year-old nephew, Max Shacknai, Jonah Shacknai's son, had somehow fallen over a second-floor railing in the house while he was in Zahau's care just days earlier. 
  
 Suspicion surrounding Zahau's death immediately fell on Adam Shacknai who took a lie detector test the day she died. The results were inconclusive. Adam Shacknai denied having any involvement in Zahau's death and the authorities cleared him of any involvement in Zahau's death. 
  
 Authorities determined that she had tied her own hands and feet, gagged herself and committed suicide after listening to a voicemail from Jonah Shacknai informing her of Max's grave condition. Three days later, Max died in the hospital. 
  
 The Zahau family, however, refused to accept the suicide ruling and took the case to the media. The Zahau family exhumed Zahau's remains and renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht performed a second autopsy. 
  
 On "Dr. Phil," Wecht said he found there was enough evidence to suspect foul play. 
  
 The Zahaus petitioned the California Attorney General's Office to reopen the case but their request was denied. 
  
 Obtained by ABC News 
  
 In July 2013, two years after Zahau was found dead, her family filed a wrongful-death suit that named Adam Shacknai, along with Jonah Shacknai's ex-wife and Max's mother, Dina Shacknai, and her twin sister, Nina Romano, as defendants. Jonah Shacknai was not named in the lawsuit. 
  
 Dina Shacknai called the allegations made against her in the lawsuit a "disgraceful abuse of the legal system." She told ABC News, "To create this fantastical story and insert us in something like this was beyond the pale of humane." 
  
 After hospital footage revealed that Dina Shacknai was at the hospital the night of Zahau's death, the attorney for the Zahau family dropped her and her sister from the lawsuit and publicly apologized. 
  
 Adam Shacknai remained named in the family's lawsuit. 
  
 On the night of Zahau's death, Adam Shacknai says he never left the guest house. Only Zahau's fingerprints and DNA were found at the scene, according to authorities, even though Adam Shacknai told them he had cut Zahau down from the rope, then performed chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in an effort to revive her. 
  
 Courtesy San Diego Sheriffs Department 
  
 In his interview for “20/20”, Jonah Shacknai said he believes that his brother is innocent of any wrongdoing and that the lawsuit is outrageous. 
  
 "This is all about finding the truth," Zahau-Loehner said in March. "That people understand that my sister did not commit suicide." |||||
What is a summary?
– Rebecca Zahau was found hanged naked with her hands and feet bound in a California mansion in July 2011, and investigators concluded it was suicide. The 32-year-old's family alleged it was murder, and on Wednesday a San Diego jury decided someone else was responsible for her death. The Arizona Republic has the latest on Zahau's "bizarre" death, which occurred in the home of her boyfriend, pharmaceuticals tycoon Jonah Shacknai. The only other person on the property at the time was Shacknai's brother, Adam, and jurors in the civil trial found Adam Shacknai responsible for her death. This though there was no DNA or fingerprint evidence connecting Shacknai to Zahau's hanging, which occurred the day after Jonah Shacknai's 6-year-old son fell from a second-story landing in the home. The boy died days later, and in their wrongful death suit, Zahau's family alleged Adam confronted Zahau over the boy's fall, reports Fox 5 San Diego. The family's attorney alleged Adam struck her in the head four times and sexually assaulted her before binding her hands and feet and sending her over a balcony; Keith Greer also alleged Adam was the one who wrote a message found on a bedroom door: "She saved him, can he save her." While the Republic notes civil verdicts are frequently appealed, jurors have awarded Zahau's family nearly $5.2 million in damages. Greer says the family will now have the resources to investigate what happened to Zahau, and that they plan to fight to get the case declassified as a suicide and relabeled as an open investigation, reports ABC News.