Millionaire's beautiful lover found hanging naked with 'hands tied behind her back' at mansion days after his son fell down the staircase



Rebecca Nalepa, 32, discovered with hands and feet bound with orange electrical cord



Jonah Shacknai 's son in hospital after fall days earlier



Police: Her death was 'very violent and very suspicious'

Jonah's brother 'cut her body down before authorities arrived'



Crime scene is a 27-room 1908 landmark mansion

Loud party had been held night before

Friend says Nalepa 'would not have committed suicide'



Victim: Rebecca Nalepa, 32, was found wrapped in cord after apparently hanging at the millionaire's mansion

The beautiful young lover of a pharmaceutical millionaire found dead at his 27-room mansion was discovered naked, hanging from a second-storey balcony with her feet and hands bound with orange electrical cord, police have revealed.

Rebecca Nalepa, 32, met what officers described as a 'very violent and very suspicious end' at 54-year-old Jonah Shacknai's historic $17m Spreckels Mansion in Coronado, near San Diego.

While an autopsy has been completed, police are not releasing the details and have not yet ruled whether her grisly death was murder or suicide.

Speculation mounted it could be connected to an accident just days before, when Mr Shacknai's six-year-old son Max fell down the property's grand staircase.

Miss Nalepa, a Burmese woman who had been in a relationship with Mr Shacknai for two years, was reportedly looking after the little boy at the time.



The mystery surrounding her death, which police have described as 'bizarre', deepened as it emerged a loud party had been held at the 27-room house on Tuesday night, the day before Miss Nalepa died - and the day after the little boy's accident.

San Diego County Sheriff's Office said Miss Nalepa's naked body was discovered by Mr Shacknai's brother, Adam, early on Wednesday morning.

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Sprawling: The mansion where Nalepa's body was found, which is owned by pharmaceutical millionaire Jonah Shacknai

Adam, who had been staying at a guesthouse on the property, told detectives he found her hanging by her neck from a second floor balcony, with her hands and feet bound.

He cut her down from the balcony to try to save her, before calling 911.



Firefighters tried to revive Miss Nalepa, who they described as being 'in distress', but she was later pronounced dead at the scene.

When news cameras circled overhead, her naked body was lying sprawled in a grassy courtyard, with what appeared to be orange electrical wire trailing to one side.

Multi-Millionaire: Jonah Shacknai is the founder, chairman and CEO of the Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation

Tim Curran, with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, described the circumstances as 'very suspicious', telling NBC San Diego that it appeared the victim had died a 'violent' death.

He refused to rule out suicide, saying: 'That is a possibility. [The] circumstances are bizarre.'

THE LANDMARK $17M MANSION

Built in 1908, the luxurious 27-room Spreckels Mansion includes six bedrooms and an unfinished wine-storage room used during Prohibition.



One of the biggest residences in Coronado, it was built in 1908 as a beach home for John D. Spreckels, who owned the nearby Hotel del Coronado.



'It appears to be some type of a violent death, and I'm not going to compromise the integrity of the investigation by giving anything more than that at this time,' he added.

Mr Curran said Adam Shacknai is not currently being considered a suspect, although he was the only other person believed to have been in the 27-room mansion when Miss Nalepa died.

Both brothers and Mr Shacknai's ex-wife Dina, who is six-year-old Max's mother, are being questioned by police as witnesses, Curran said.



In May, Miss Nalepa, who had lived with Mr Shacknai for about two years, had successfully petitioned to revert to her maiden name, Rebecca Zahau.

Her ex-husband, Neil, told 10News; 'This is all overwhelming. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.

Discovery: Rebecca, left was found hanging from a balcony naked by her boyfriend's brother Adam, right



A friend told NBC San Diego Miss Nalepa was a 'survivor' who would never have allowed herself to have been seen naked and would not have considered suicide.

Nalepa's brother-in-law Doug Loehner also issued a statement, defending her boyfriend.

'Jonah is a stand-up guy. He was very devoted to Rebecca. She treated his kids as her own,' he said.

The incident was the second time in a week emergency services had been called to the landmark residence, which was built in 1908 by former newspaper and hotel magnate John Spreckels.



Violent end: Sheriff's deputies described Rebecca Nalepa's death as "very suspicious and violent"

Crime scene: The cordoned off $17m Spreckels Mansion, on San Diego's exclusive Ocean Boulevard

On Monday, Mr Shacknai's six-year-old son Max was hospitalised after a fall near the grand staircase in the same mansion.

Paramedics found the boy was not breathing and did not have a pulse after falling down the stairs, Coronado Police Chief Louis Scanlon said, describing it as a 'tragic accident',

THE TWICE-MARRIED TYCOON

Jonah Shacknai founded pharmaceutical giant Medicis and has been chairman and chief executive since 1988.



The company makes dermatological and aesthetic pharmaceutical products and took $700million in revenue last year.



Shacknai has two other children from a previous marriage to Kimberly James.



The couple married in April 1993 in Bel Air, California, before filing for divorce in 1999.



Family Court records show the couple reached a joint-custody agreement in 2001 for two children: a 14-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy.



Shacknai later married Dina Romano, the boy's mother, and the couple divorced in 2008.

The boy is being treated at Rady's Children's Hospital San Diego. He is thought to be in a come bu hospital spokesman Carlos Delgado declined to comment on his condition.



A man who came to the house to collect the dogs after Max's fall said of Miss Nalepa: 'She was very nice but very quiet and mellow.'



Nancy Romano, the boy's grandmother, said her daughter, Dina Flores, has been with ex-husband Mr Shacknai at his bedside every day.

Reacting to Miss Nalepa's death, Ms Romano, of Redwood City, California, told the Arizona Republic: 'This is horrible. What a tragedy... my stomach is in knots.'

She added: 'We don't know what happened.'

Mr Shacknai is the founder, chairman and chief executive of the Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, based in Scottsdale, Arizona.



The company manufactures products including an acne drug and a competitor to Botox.

A spokesman for the firm said: 'The Medicis family is deeply saddened to learn of a tragic incident at a California property owned by Jonah Shacknai.

'Our thoughts are with Jonah and his family and (we) ask that the family's privacy be respected during this difficult period. At this time, the company has no further comment.'



Medicis shares were down 4.9 per cent to $38.10 this morning.

Neighbours say Mr Shacknai was staying at the mansion with his girlfriend and children.



