[chris]

Taylor Schabusiness was convicted on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault in the death of Shad Thyrion in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The jury deliberated for a little more than 30 minutes. Schabusiness was 25 at trial; Thyrion, her former boyfriend, was 24. Both were from Green Bay. They attended middle and high school together, and his father testified that his son had known her since middle school.

The Brown County District Attorney's Office charged Schabusiness on March 1, 2022, with each offense as a repeater. She pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. On Thursday, July 27, 2023, after just under an hour, the same jury found she did not have a mental disease or defect when the crimes were committed. On September 26, 2023, Brown County Circuit Judge Thomas Walsh sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of extended supervision on the homicide count. He also imposed 7.5 years of initial confinement and 4 years of extended supervision for mutilating a corpse, and 3 years of initial confinement and 4 years of extended supervision for the sexual assault, each consecutive to the life sentence.

According to the criminal complaint, Thyrion's mother told police Schabusiness picked him up at about 9:30 p.m. on February 21, 2022, the last time she saw him alive. Prosecutors said the two used methamphetamine in the basement of his mother's home on Stony Brook Lane. Between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m. on February 23, 2022, his mother awoke to a storm door slamming, went downstairs and found his head in a bucket covered by a blanket. A search found other remains in bags and a storage tote, kitchen knives and blood staining. The medical examiner saw visual evidence of strangulation. More remains were found in a box in a minivan parked on Eastman Avenue.

Officers learned Schabusiness had last been seen with Thyrion and might be living on Eastman Avenue. A patrol officer there saw her leave an apartment building and reported apparent dried blood on her clothes and hands. She was taken into custody on February 23, 2022, and brought to the Green Bay Police Department, where a detective advised her of her rights and questioned her. He testified at trial that he interviewed her in two separate sessions and that the interview after her arrest lasted about six hours, including breaks. Published reports do not date the second interview.

According to the complaint, Schabusiness told detectives they smoked methamphetamine, Thyrion put a chain around his own neck and the strangulation was part of a sex act. She said she kept choking him after his face turned purple and he coughed up blood. She said she had not meant to kill him but kept going, then had sexual contact with the body. She told detectives she cut up the body with kitchen knives, put his head in a bucket under a blanket and intended to take all the remains with her but forgot the head. The detective testified that she understood his questions very well and showed no sign of being under the influence of drugs. Jurors were shown more than an hour of the recorded interview on July 26, 2023.

After her appointed lawyer reported finding no grounds for appeal, Schabusiness withdrew the appeal in a handwritten letter on June 18, 2025. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals dismissed it on June 19, 2025, and gave her until August 18, 2025, to file anything new on her own. No later ruling in the homicide case has been reported.

Separately, Schabusiness was charged with battery by a prisoner over a July 2024 incident at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. She pleaded in October 2025 to an amended misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. On December 1, 2025, a Fond du Lac County judge sentenced her to 90 days in jail, to be served after her life sentence.

[chris]

Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.

[chris]

Taylor Schabusiness was convicted by a Brown County jury on July 26, 2023 of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault in the death of Shad Thyrion, 24.

On July 27, the jury found that she did not have a mental disease or defect. On September 26, 2023 she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of extended supervision, plus consecutive terms on the other two counts.

Green Bay police detectives first interviewed Schabusiness at the Green Bay Police Department on February 23, 2022, the day she was taken into custody. Thyrion's head had been found in a bucket in the basement of his mother's home early that morning.

A detective advised her of her rights before questioning. According to the criminal complaint, she told detectives in that interview that she strangled Thyrion with a chain during sex, cut up his body with knives from the kitchen and left his head behind. A detective testified at trial that the interview lasted about six hours, including breaks.

Schabusiness later withdrew her appeal, and the Wisconsin Court of Appeals dismissed it on June 19, 2025.

[chris]

Part 2 of 2 of Taylor Schabusiness Questioned in Shad Thyrion's Death.