SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (CBS 8) - The mother of a six-year-old boy who died at the Spreckels Mansion on Coronado last year is requesting authorities reopen the investigation into his death.
On Monday, Dina Shacknai presented the Coronado Police Department with results of an independent investigation that refutes authorities' conclusion that her son Max died after falling from a second-floor staircase on July 11, 2011.
At the time of the accident, Max Shacknai was under the care of his father's girlfriend Rebecca Zahau. Zahau died July 13, 2011 at the Spreckels Mansion. Investigators have classified Zahau's death as a suicide.
According to the independent experts, Max Shacknai's death should have been classified a homicide.
In her first sit-down interview after the report was released, Dina Shacknai said the findings of the investigation into her son's death "didn't make sense. It didn't add up."
Shacknai says, "I know they had done such a thorough job that when I read the findings I was devastated to learn that Maxie was the victim of a homicide - an assault and a homicide."
"I was surprised that my 6-year-old, that anyone would hurt Maxie. He was a gentle, sweet, loving child, and I couldn't imagine someone assaulting him. And that he was the victim of... someone killed him."
The Coronado Police Department is reviewing the recently completed independent report, a representative of the department confirmed.
Shacknai released a statement saying, "Even though nothing will bring my only child Maxie back, I owe it to him, as his mother, to make sure the true facts of his death are known. It's important that his story be told, because this could happen to anyone's child."