Wisconsin woman gets life without parole for killing, dismembering man after drugs and sex

GREEN BAY, Wis. (TCD) -- A 25-year-old woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for killing and dismembering a man after doing drugs with him and having sex with his corpse.

On Tuesday, Sept. 26, a Brown County judge sentenced Taylor Schabusiness to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering Shad Thyrion in early 2022. Judge Thomas Walsh also handed Schabusiness 7 1/2 years in prison with four years of extended release for mutilating a corpse and three years for third-degree sexual assault with four years of extended release.

Schabusiness appeared in court wearing a spit hood, which covered most of her face. In February, she attacked her attorney in court during a competency hearing. She refused to speak when Walsh asked if there was anything she wanted to say before he sentenced her.

WBAY-TV reports Walsh said, "This crime offends human decency. This crime offends human dignity."

Schabusiness initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and underwent several competency hearings. The jury however, determined she was stable when she killed Thyrion.

In the early hours of Feb. 23, 2022, Thyrion’s mother called Green Bay Police after finding her son’s head in a bucket in the basement. The criminal complaint says police learned Schabusiness was the last person seen with Thyrion, and when they found her, she had blood on her clothing and hands. Officers looked in her car and found a Crock-Pot box, which contained other body parts, including Thyrion’s legs.

Investigators obtained a search warrant for the home and discovered another bucket with "a male organ, along with body fluid and two knives," as well as knives in shopping bags and a torso in a storage tote.

Schabusiness told detectives she and Thyrion smoked meth, then had sex. She put a chain around his neck during intercourse, then started choking him with it as "part of the sex act."

According to the criminal complaint, Schabusiness "stated she could feel the Victim’s heart beating still as she was choking him, so she kept pulling and choking him harder, but the Victim would not die and that he just kept 'rebuilding into muscle.'"

She reportedly "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 performed various sex acts on Thyrion after he died.

WBAY reports her attorney argued she is "not a monster" and that she could get better with the help of rehabilitation

Walsh said, "You are not responsible for where you come from, but you have to be responsible for where you’re going."

According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Thyrion’s father, Michael, said in his victim impact statement, "I believe everybody makes bad choices, maybe not to this scale. It does no good to hate you. I know you’ve got a heart, got a mind."

MORE:

• Taylor Schabusiness sentenced - WBAY
• Taylor Schabusiness gets life without parole for murder, dismemberment - WBAY
• Taylor Schabusiness sentenced to life in prison for killing, decapitating Shad Thyrion of Green Bay - Green Bay Press-Gazette
• State of Wisconsin vs. Taylor Denise Schabusiness
• Wis. woman convicted of killing, dismembering man after having sex, 7/27/2023 - TCD
• Taylor Schabusiness criminal complaint