Jurors in the Wisconsin trial of Taylor Schabusiness were shown bodycam footage of the disturbing moment police discovered her boyfriend’s severed head and penis in a bucket in his mother’s basement.
Schabusiness, 25, is accused of strangling 25-year-old Shad Thyrion to death during a 2022 meth-fueled BDSM romp, then sexually abusing his body before dismembering and mutilating it with a bread knife.
Thyrion’s head was discovered by his mother, Tara Pakanich, shortly after Schabusiness left the scene on February 22. She placed a panicked call to police, who responded to the Green Bay home and confirmed the grisly find.
“Oh my f–king God,” the officers could be heard saying in bodycam footage from the moment shown to jurors on Monday.
“Jesus,” they then said, along with a number of groans and expletives.
The officers searched the home with their guns drawn, while calling in backup and saying, “We’ve got quite a bit of blood down here.”
“I went downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, to the right, there was a green bucket with a shower towel on top of it,” Officer Alex Wanish said in court.
“Just to verify we had an actual head in the bucket, lifted the towel off and there was in fact a human head, severed head in the bucket.”
He also described finding chunks of flesh alongside a bloody mattress.
Investigators later discovered parts of Thyrion’s body throughout the basement, including his torso, which had been emptied of its organs and had his foot shoved into the chest cavity.
“This body was essentially bloodless,” testified Dr. Vincent Tranchida, of the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office, according to the Daily Beast.
“We have decapitation, we have dismemberment, we have transection of the torso … we have entered inside the body through various cuts … the victim’s organs have been removed one by one.”
“The deceased was castrated as well … it is my medical opinion that this would have taken a great deal of time,” he added.
Tranchida also said Thyrion’s torso had been cut in two, and that his back “was fileted.”
Schabusiness stands charged with first-degree intentional homicide, third-degree sexual assault, and mutilating a corpse. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
After cops found Thyrion’s remains, Schabusiness was located covered in dried blood.
When Thyrion’s legs and feet were discovered in Schabusiness’ van, she allegedly told police that she “got lazy and only ended up putting the leg/foot in the van and she forgot the head.”
She also allegedly admitted to the murder under questioning, telling police she and Thyrion had been choking each other with chains when she went “crazy” and strangled him.
Schabusiness then allegedly sexually abused his body before cutting it to pieces, and said “that the police were going to have fun trying to find all of the organs.”
