[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Well, this case just went from horrific to… we don’t even have a word for what this is. Grotesque, perverse, cruel… nothing seems to quite cover it.
OK, so we’re talking about the case of Taylor Schabusiness (above, left), the Wisconsin woman who was Sex-decapitated-Penis-bucket/”>accused of murdering and dismembering her lover, 24-year-old Shad Thyrion (above, right). The disturbing story began when Shad’s own mother found her son’s decapitated head in a bucket — and then his severed penis. Police quickly tracked down his girlfriend, who allegedly still had blood on her clothes. And in her van they found “a crockpot with human remains, including legs.”
Schabusiness was found guilty on Wednesday of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and third-degree sexual assault. This came at the end of Day 3 of her trial, in which some of the most damning evidence we’ve ever seen was presented.
Video: Watch Schabusiness Attack Her Own Attorney In Court
Green Bay Police Department Detective David Graf took the stand, and part of his testimony included revealing video of the interviews Graf conducted with Schabusiness after her arrest. And what she says in these conversations is, frankly, way more effed up than most horror films.
To set the tone, she begins by complaining:
“I hate this f**king outfit.”
That’s in reference to the yellow prison jumpsuit she’s forced to wear. Clearly her priorities are out of whack for someone facing a murder rap. And when the homicide detective describes the scene at Shad’s mother’s home, blood covering the floors, the young man’s head in a bucket, Schabusiness offers a weak:
“That’s f**ked up.”
Not exactly remorseful. Schabusiness, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, admits in the videos to her actions but says she “blacked out” at the house.
However, she does remember enough to describe the slaughter in sickening detail. She says the couple were on meth and engaging in rough sex when they started doing some choking play:
“There was this chain thing, right? And I was playing around with it… he put it around his neck, while we were playing around and s**t and I was tugging on it.”
She tells the detective she’s just having a “weird flashback” to the events — which were just the pair being “kinky” when things got out of hand:
“I don’t even know anymore. I was riding him like a donkey, I started pulling and I don’t know.”
Schabusiness, now about 25 years old, said she and Shad both enjoyed choking and being choked. But this time she “just didn’t stop,” even when his face turned purple and he began coughing up blood:
“I don’t know why I didn’t stop.”
Calling Shad her “buddy” she swears she “didn’t want him to die” — but she “wanted to see what would happen.” And so she “kept on going.” She even recalls the moment she consciously decided to end his life, deciding she had gone too far to stop:
“I felt bad, I was like, damn, he’s gonna be wheezing after this, I might as well just kill him.”
What the serious eff…
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“I was sucking and cutting at the same time… I liked it. I didn’t know what to do.”
Describing how she dismembered her buddy’s body, she explains she went upstairs to the family’s kitchen and grabbed a few knives, including a bread knife. His head, she explained, was the “first thing” she cut off. During the act of cutting up her lover, she says she got spooked as she “kept on hearing footsteps.” At one point, she recalls Shad’s mother coming downstairs with the cat but can’t be sure when that happened.
In one creepy confession, Schabusiness says she intended to bring all the body pieces with her but “got lazy” and forgot some of it:
“I know I forgot the head, I wanted the head.”
She also remembers leaving “body parts in the van” — where police eventually found them.
A crucial couple questions for the prosecution’s case? Detective Graf tells her she’s probably going to prison, which surprises her. When he asks if someone who did this should go to prison, she admits:
“Oh f**k yeah, this s**t was f**ked up.”
And when he asks if she thought she was doing the right thing, she answers:
“No, I did it anyway.”
The thing about pleading not guilty by reason of insanity is, it’s not just a question of whether what the person did was effing unhinged. Otherwise every single serial and spree killer would have a get-out-of-jail-free card.
What’s key is whether they knew what they were doing was wrong — and it sounds like this is how the jury got their answer. They found her guilty on all three counts after deliberating less than an hour. Did we mention Schabusiness reportedly laughed while the video played? Yeah. Not a shocking verdict there.
See highlights of the video for yourself, if you can stomach it (below):
[Image via Brown County Jail/Law&Crime/YouTube.]