Testimony begins in Taylor Schabusiness murder trial

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - The trial for a high-profile murder in Green Bay resumed with the first testimony Monday at the Brown County courthouse.

Action 2 News is streaming gavel-to-gavel coverage of Taylor Schabusiness’s trial online at wbay.com/breaking. NOTE: The video feed will switch away when there’s a risk of showing jurors. We’ll also try to avoid showing graphic evidence but testimony may be disturbing to some viewers.

Schabusiness didn’t show any emotion as the court heard the 911 call from victim Shad Thyrion’s mother and the mother’s boyfriend about discovering Thyrion’s severed head in a 5-gallon bucket in the basement.

The dispatcher, who said officers were on their way, asked the mother if it could be a fake head. He asked if she saw blood when she was in the basement and she said no. The first officer on the scene testified he found a human head, confirmed it with a second officer, and called for more officers. In bodycam video shown to the court, the officer said there was “quite a bit of blood.” Schabusiness seemed to watch the officer’s bodycam video with interest.

Thyrion’s mother and her boyfriend were the first witnesses called who weren’t with law enforcement. They testified Shad Thyrion lived with his father but would come to his mother’s house to eat or for other things, such as to do his laundry.

The boyfriend said he was woken up by Thyrion’s mother saying her son’s head was in a bucket. He wondered if she was having a mental episode. He said he didn’t call 911 but used the non-emergency number to reach the police department because he wasn’t sure what was in the bucket and didn’t want a big police response with lights and sirens.

The mother testified she was awakened by a storm door slamming. She went to check on the basement and found the bucket with a beach blanket over it. The defense asked how long it took them to call police. Thyrion’s mother said she argued with her boyfriend that he should call 911 but only for a minute or so.

The jury also heard from the victim’s sister. She said she came home late and saw a van in the driveway. She heard a female voice downstairs but went straight to her bedroom. She woke up when police banged on her door. She never went in the basement.

In cross-examination, the defense asked them questions about any people or vehicles they saw, whether doors were accessible, and whether they saw Thyrion or Schabusiness.

After the lunch break, a medical expert testified that the head in the bucket was identified as Shad Thyrion’s because of a question mark tattoo on one of his temples. Petra Schwab, director of operations in the Brown County Medical Examiner’s Office, described police found a torso with arms attached in a tote bag. There was not a lot of blood, she said, but they found what appeared to be blood and human tissue once they moved the bed and more possible tissue in a shower in the laundry area. Schwab said she would have expected more blood, which “sparked questions” of whether the person was murdered there and how.

Schwab testified once they finished examining the basement they were missing a “significant” amount of a human body, particularly the lower limbs. The investigation led to a minivan, which police secured and towed to a storage unit while waiting for medical experts to examine what was inside. Schwab said they found a crockpot box that contained both lower limbs.

Later in the day, photos from the crime scene were displayed in court during testimony, including pictures of the bucket and towel.

Schabusiness’s defense attorneys failed a number of times to convince the judge she’s not competent to face trial, including Friday hours before jury selection. A jury of 12 plus 4 alternates -- 9 women and 7 men -- is hearing Schabusiness’s trial.

There is potential for two phases in the trial. In the first one, jurors will decide if she’s guilty of three felony charges in Thyrion’s death in February 2022. If the jury finds her guilty on any of the charges, the second phase will focus on whether she was responsible for the crime or suffered from a mental disease or defect.

The court scheduled one week for the trial, ending Friday.

We will also first alert you to new developments in the courtroom on-air and online.

Copyright 2023 WBAY. All rights reserved.