It was a bumpy, chaotic road, but Taylor Schabusiness, 25, finally faces jurors for allegedly murdering and dismembering her lover, Shad Thyrion, 25.
Prosecutors in Brown County, Wisconsin, said she took advantage of the victim during sex and fatally choked him with a chain in February 2022 before dismembering him and leaving his head in the basement.
From the criminal complaint:
The Victim coughed up blood and she was just waiting for him to die while she was watching his face. Schabusiness made the comment that she was “already this far” so she just kept on, referring to choking the Victim. Schabusiness said in a lower tone of voice, “Ya I liked it,” and Detective Graf believed her to be referring to when she was choking the Victim. Schabusiness stated she thought it took 3-5 minutes for the Victim to die. Detective Kempf clarified with Schabusiness that when the Victim began to cough up blood she just did keep on choking the Victim because she wanted to see what happens.

Taylor Schabusiness brutally murdered her lover, Shad Thyrion, said prosecutors. At right, she can be seen attacking her then-attorney Quinn Jolly on Feb. 14, 2023. (Screenshots: Law&Crime Network)
This happened in the basement of his mother’s home.
The criminal complaint says the mother told police that her son and Schabusiness were in the basement during the day on Feb. 22, 2022, while she (the mother) and her boyfriend were out of the home. She said she woke up early the next morning between 2:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. because she heard a storm door being slammed.
Hearing a vehicle, she assumed Schabusiness had left. She checked the basement, only to discover her son’s head in a bucket next to the bottom of the stairs, according to court documents.
Read Related Also: Escaped Murder Suspect Still on the Run, Believed to Be in Same Area
Schabusiness allegedly dismembered Thyrion to a nauseating degree; the complaint details the many separate body parts that law enforcement discovered. She planned on bringing all his body parts to her van, but she did not, telling investigators that she “got lazy,” according to documents.
Schabusiness allegedly told police they were “going to have fun trying to find all of the organs.” She admitted to using knives from the victim’s mother’s kitchen and that “a bread knife worked the best because of the serrated blade.”
Her mental state was a recurring issue during the pretrial process, though the judge ruled her competent for trial on Friday.
The case had hit a screeching halt this February when she attacked her then-attorney Quinn Jolly in court after he asked the court to delay the trial. Christopher Froelich will represent Schabusiness before jurors.
More coverage link: Florida woman sentenced for murder and ‘workman-like dismemberment’ of boyfriend, whose remains she lived with for months
Vanessa Bein contributed to this report.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]