A woman in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was found guilty on Wednesday of murdering her boyfriend and mutilating his corpse, leaving his severed head in a bucket in his mother’s basement.
Taylor Schabusiness, 25, was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, third-degree sexual assault, and mutilating a corpse, according to NBC 26. The verdict comes after a three-day trial, during which jurors were shown police bodycam footage of police officers discovering her boyfriend’s severed head and genitals in his mother’s basement.
Schabusiness murdered her boyfriend, Shad Thyrion, after the couple engaged in BDSM sex. She choked Thyrion to death during sex and then sexually abused him before mutilating his body. This is the first phase of Schabusiness’ trial. The second phase begins Thursday and will determine whether Schabusiness was responsible for the crime or suffering from a mental disease of defect when she murdered Thyrion.
In the video showed in court, police officers can be heard saying “Oh my f***ing God,” when some of Thyrion’s body parts were found in the basement of his mother’s house, according to People Magazine.
It was Officer Alex Wanish’s bodycam that captured the terrifying discovery. On the witness stand, he told the court that he walked down the basement stairs after speaking to homeowner Tara Pakanich and her boyfriend, who told police they found something in a bucket. Wanish removed the towel to find Thyrion’s severed head.
Wanish and his partner called for backup, telling the dispatcher, “We’ve got quite a bit of blood down here.”
WARNING: Disturbing Content
Additional bodycam footage taken later, during Schabusiness’ arrest, shows her with what appeared to be blood on her left hand. Police searched her car and found a crock pot box that contained “additional human body parts including legs,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by People.
WARNING: Disturbing Content
Police searching Pakanich’s basement found Thyrion’s upper torso in a storage tote.
Pakanich told police that her son and Schabusiness had been in the basement earlier that day while the mother and her boyfriend were out of the house. The mother further told police she woke up between 2:30 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. on the day of the incident after she heard a storm door slamming. She assumed Schabusiness left. She then went down into the basement, where she found her son’s severed head in a bucket.
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Schabusiness allegedly told police she went “crazy” while having sex with the victim, who she said put a chain around his neck as part of a sex act. Schabusiness claimed she didn’t intend to kill the man but enjoyed choking him and kept doing it until he died, according to police. The police complaint said:
Schabusiness stated she then began to choke the Victim, and she described it as the Victim lying face down on the bed with her on top of him pulling on the end of the chain. The Victim coughed up blood and she was just waiting for him to die while she was watching his face. Schabusiness made the comment that she was “already this far” so she just kept on, referring to choking the Victim. Schabusiness said in a lower tone of voice, “Ya I liked it,” and Detective Graf believed her to be referring to when she was choking the Victim. Schabusiness stated she thought it took 3-5 minutes for the Victim to die. Detective Kempf clarified with Schabusiness that when the Victim began to cough up blood she just did keep on choking the Victim because she wanted to see what happens. Schabusiness made comments that she blacked out while choking the Victim but when she woke up that the Victim was already purple, so she kept on going. Schabusiness stated she enjoyed choking him and made comments to detectives asking if they knew what it was like to love something so much that you kill it.
Schabusiness also allegedly told police she engaged in sexual activity with the victim’s corpse for two to three hours before dismembering his body with a bread knife.
“Schabusiness responded that the police were going to have fun trying to find all of the organs,” prosecutors wrote, according to Law & Crime. “Schabusiness stated all of the body parts should be in the basement. Schabusiness stated there should be a foot or a leg in the minivan. Detective Graf asked Schabusiness what she did with the head, and Schabusiness stated she had put the Victim’s head in a black bucket and put a blanket over it.”
Schabusiness allegedly told police that the knives she used to dismember the victim’s body would be in a black bag in the basement along with the man’s body parts.
“Schabusiness indicated that she would use whatever bags she found in the basement to place the body parts into. Schabusiness made the comment that at one point, she did get paranoid and lazy and that she thought it was the ‘dope that was making her paranoid,” prosecutors wrote.
Schabusiness also allegedly told police she planned to take all the body parts with her but got “lazy” and only managed to take a “leg/foot.” She allegedly told police she forgot his head.