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The body of Rebecca Zahau has been exhumed and a second autopsy performed at the request of the Zahau family. Renowned pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht conducted the second, independent autopsy last month and shared his findings Tuesday on the “Dr. Phil” show. News sources report that Dr. Wecht stated “the autopsy itself was thorough, I have no criticism…it’s the findings that were there and some that were not there that…leave me to express grave and serious doubts that the manner of death was suicide.”

According to reports, Dr. Wecht agreed with the original autopsy report that Zahau’s cause of death was hanging, but suggested that Rebecca may have been hit on the head and knocked unconscious and then placed in the noose, before she died of hanging. This would explain why there were no defensive injuries on her body, consistent with that of a struggle. He told Dr. Phil that four hemorrhages beneath Zahau’s scalp aren’t explained by a vertical hanging, “You have to have blunt force trauma…you have something of a rounded, smooth surface that impacts against the scalp, thus not producing a laceration.” Dr. Wecht was also puzzled as to why Rebecca’s neck was not broken by the force of her fall from the balcony. He concluded by stating “while I am not prepared to unequivocally, with absolute scientific certainty, say that it was a homicide and that it was not a suicide, I lean very strongly toward it being a homicide, something involving foul play. And I lean very strongly against it being a suicide.”

In September of this year, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department ruled Rebecca’s death a suicide. Officials have not been formally presented with any new evidence and Rebecca Zahau’s case remains closed.