A Wisconsin Woman Decapitated Her Lover and Cut Off His Penis During a Meth-Fueled Sex Rampage. Now, She'll Spend Life Behind Bars.
Sept. 27 2023, Published 2:03 p.m. ET
A Wisconsin woman convicted of killing and dismembering her lover in 2022 during a meth-fueled rampage has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In July jurors deliberated for 30 minutes before finding 25-year-old Taylor Schabusiness guilty of the murder of Shad Thyrion, according to WBAY. She was found guilty on all charges against her: first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and third-degree sexual assault.
As Front Page Detectives previously reported, Schabusiness confessed to being on drugs when she strangled Thyrion with a metal chain while having sex in the basement of his family’s Brown County house.
Schabusiness then hid his mutilated body parts throughout the home and in a car.
Despite a bipolar diagnosis and her use of drugs to treat that condition, Judge Thomas Walsh said the defendant was still culpable for Thyrion’s slaying, WBAY reported.
Police responded to the residence on Feb. 23, 2022, and found Thyrion’s severed head and penis in a bucket. Trial testimony revealed that Thyrion’s mother initially believed her son’s head was fake, WBAY reported.
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Pictures of Thyrion’s decapitated head from an autopsy were shown to jurors during the trial. Dr. Vincent Tranchida, a medical examiner for Dane County who performed the autopsy, testified it would have taken Schabusiness hours to dismember Thyrion, according to WBAY.
Schabusiness was found mentally fit to stand trial. Her first attorney withdrew after Schabusiness attacked him during a court hearing in February, as Front Page Detectives previously reported.
Schabusiness did not testify during her trial and reserved her right to remain silent.
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Schabusiness had pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, but the jury also found that she wasn't mentally ill when she killed Thyrion, CBS News reported.
During her Sept. 26 sentencing, Brown County Circuit Judge Thomas Walsh said that "the offense in this case can't be overstated," CBS News reported.
Schabusiness' defense attorney, Christopher Froelich, told the court that "she's not a monster," before the sentence was delivered.
Walsh told Schabusiness that "[She is] not responsible for where [she] came from, but [she has] to be responsible for where [she's] going," according to CBS News.
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