Murder of Shad Thyrion

Shad Thyrion was a 24-year-old man from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Between February 21 and February 23, 2022, he was killed and dismembered by Taylor Schabusiness, a woman with whom he was in a sexual relationship. On the evening of February 21, Schabusiness picked Thyrion up from his mother's house; the two, joined briefly by a friend, went to an apartment where they smoked methamphetamine and, Schabusiness told investigators, injected trazodone, before returning to the house. Thyrion's mother and her boyfriend were away at the time.

In the basement, the couple had sexual intercourse. Schabusiness told investigators that she and Thyrion had engaged in erotic asphyxiation during prior encounters and that metal chains were used on this occasion. She strangled Thyrion, continuing after he began coughing up blood, until he died, a process she said took three to five minutes. Schabusiness remained with the body for several hours afterward before dismembering it the following morning using knives she found in the house. She beheaded the body over a bucket and a storage tote, poured blood down a basement shower drain, and placed the removed organs into plastic bags, cardboard boxes, and the bucket.

In the early morning hours of February 23, 2022, Thyrion's mother went downstairs to check on her son and found his severed head, covered by a towel, inside the bucket. Her boyfriend called police, who searched the home and recovered further remains, including Thyrion's torso and a severed foot inside the storage tote. Additional body parts were later found inside a minivan associated with Schabusiness at a nearby apartment complex, where she was located later that day; investigators noted blood on her clothing, a cut on her thumb, and scratches on her arms.

Schabusiness was arrested and charged on March 1, 2022, with murder, mutilation of a corpse, and third-degree sexual assault. Weeks earlier, on January 3, 2022, she had been convicted and sentenced to three months for a separate offense of fleeing, eluding, and obstructing police; she had removed a court-ordered GPS ankle monitor at some point before the killing, and it was unclear whether she was on work release at the time.

Schabusiness's defense entered a not guilty by reason of insanity plea in September 2022. Proceedings were delayed after a February 2023 courtroom competency hearing, during which Schabusiness attacked her attorney; she was restrained by a sheriff's officer, no one was seriously injured, and a new attorney was later appointed. On July 26, 2023, a jury convicted Schabusiness of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, and third-degree sexual assault. On September 26, 2023, the court sentenced her to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, with the judge stating the sentence was necessary to protect the public and describing the crime as an offense against human decency. Thyrion's father said he forgave Schabusiness.

Schabusiness is incarcerated at the Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. In December 2025, while incarcerated, she was sentenced to an additional 90 days for attacking staff members.