Taylor Schabusiness appeared in court on July 5, 2022. (Image via screengrab from the Law&Crime Network.)
The Wisconsin woman charged with chopping off her sex partner’s head, putting it in a bucket, and directing the authorities where to look for the victim’s body parts pleaded not guilty in a Brown County courtroom on Tuesday.
Taylor Denise Schabusiness, 24, of Green Bay is charged with first-degree intentional homicide — Wisconsin’s highest murder charge — along with mutilating a corpse and third-degree sexual assault.
The charges stem from what’s alleged to have been a meth-fueled episode of sex and murder in late February. The romp ended with Shad Thyrion, 25, being killed and and cut to pieces by means of a serrated bread knife, the authorities have said.
Shad Rock Thyrion appears in an Oct. 22, 2021 Brown County Jail mugshot. He was charged at the time with disorderly conduct and resisting or obstructing an officer.
Prosecutors say Schabusiness murdered her victim, admittedly had sex with his body for several hours, and then mutilated his corpse.
Schabusiness “responded that the police were going to have fun trying to find all of the organs,” Brown County Assistant District Attorney Caleb Saunders said earlier in the case when discussing the defendant’s arrest. Schabusiness is also said to have explained to the authorities that the serrated knife did the best job of severing her victim’s body parts when compared against other possible kitchen implements.
Thyron’s mother found his head in a bucket, Law&Crime has previously reported.
Taylor Schabusiness appears in twin mugshots taken by the Brown County, Wis. Jail.
One longtime Wisconsin journalist said earlier this year that Schabusiness has an infatuation-like appreciation for serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
In court on Tuesday, Schabusiness pleaded not guilty to the aforementioned three charges. Her attorney, Quinn T. Jolly, entered the not guilty pleas on her behalf.
Circuit Court Judge Thomas J. Walsh set a trial date of Oct. 24, 2022. Other pretrial hearings were scheduled on Sept. 1 and Oct. 19, and the parties present suggested additional pretrial court dates would also need to be set at some point in the future.
In a previous hearing, Jolly said Schabusiness has been receiving mental health treatment since she was in seventh grade. He also said Schabusiness has previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
According to the court record, Schabusiness is also known as Taylor Denise Coronado.
Watch the brief proceeding below.
[Images as noted.]