SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — In court requesting investigative documents, Keith Greer, the attorney for Rebecca Zahau's family made his case.
"We've got this mismatch here of people independently looking at the facts, who are saying it's murder, and the sheriff who has looked at it now twice, and then saying that it is suicide," said Greer. "Something is not right, and the only way that we find out what is going on here is by getting the documents that the sheriff has,”
Greer says San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore withheld crucial documents, which include the inter-office communications and the instructions given to deputies.
Zahau was found dead at 32-years-old inside the Spreckles Mansion in Coronado 10-years-ago.
The sheriff's department ruled it a suicide, but her family thinks she was murdered. Zahau’s family says Gore is required by law to release files in the case, and the files he did give were not sufficient.
Gore's attorney, Thomas Deak says the law allows him to withhold the information.
"There are no factual allegations in the petition that whatever lead to the conclusion, that is sheriff’s instructions to his investigators concerning the conduct of an investigation with the sheriff’s department," said Thomas Deak, senior counsel at the San Diego County Sheriff Department. "There are no circumstances where those would be discoverable if they exist,”
Greer says the sheriff's attorney argued hard and is trying to get the case dismissed, but he feels the judge will deny the motion to dismiss and they will move onto the hearing at the end of January.
“The sheriff’s department, sheriff Gore for some reason does not want to let the public know what he told those officers, what their real instructions were,” Greer said.
Greer says the family needs this missing piece to their puzzle.
“All the final ruling will let us know is whether we can proceed to the hearing, or the case will be over and it goes up on appeal," said Greer.
A ruling from the judge is expected on Monday for a hearing to take place for documents to be released in the case in January 2022.
WATCH RELATED: It’s been 10 years since Rebecca Zahau was found dead in Coronado (July 2021)