Episode 188 - A Mother’s Worst Nightmare - The Murder Of Shad Thyrion
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The opinions expressed in the following episode do not necessarily reflect those of the Minds of Madness podcast. Listener discretion is advised.

In the dark morning hours of February 23rd, 2022, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Tara Paknick was awakened by a loud bang. Warm under her blankets, still groggy from a sound sleep, the startling noise seemed like it could have been only one thing. The storm door.

As Tara got out of bed to investigate, she noticed the lights still on in the basement where her 24-year-old son, Shad Therion, had been hanging out for the last couple of days. As she headed back up the basement stairs, something strange suddenly caught her eye. A bucket with a beach towel draped over it.

As she carefully lifted the towel, Tara discovered something hidden at the bottom of the bucket that no person, let alone a parent, should ever have to see. A true nightmare. Her son's head.

Join me now as we uncover the grisly crime that took the life of Shad Therion, a talented young man who found himself dabbling in a dangerous lifestyle, edging closer and closer to the point of no return. You'll learn how Shad went to his mother's home on a cold winter day, never to emerge from her basement again.

We've all heard the phrase, "If anything happens to me, delete my browser history."

Something often joked about in the true crime community. Because, let's be honest, taken out of context, simple curiosity into the realm of criminal cases can look rather suspicious. Searches like, how long does it take for a body to decompose? How to remove all traces of blood from a crime scene? Poisonous plants and their effects? How to dispose of a weapon?

Thankfully, just because we can find ourselves interested in the darker side of humanity doesn't mean we're all budding serial killers. But in the world of criminal investigations, when a murder has been committed, law enforcement are quick to swoop in and take a look at what the victim and potential suspects have been doing online.

because a person's browser history can determine a person's interests, plans, and state of mind leading up to the time of the crime. That's what Wisconsin detectives were trying to determine when they began looking into the internet search history of 25-year-old Taylor Shabiznas when they found searches for things like... Satanic Bible...

Flaming Pentagram, Satan, Jeff Boyardee, Jeffrey Dahmer, Cadaver Definition, Jeffrey Dahmer's Butt, Jeffrey Dahmer Walking In All Sexy In Court, Rare Jeffrey Dahmer GIF, GIF, and things of that sort.

Were these just the searches of a person with a morbid curiosity and a dark sense of humor? Or did they point to something far more sinister? Based on context, investigators believed it was the latter.

Because on February 23rd, 2022, about 10 days after Taylor had made those searches, her close friend and lover, Shad Therion, met a brutal end within the confines of his mother's Green Bay home.

Realizing that sometimes a person's online footprint can tell a story, detectives looked further into Taylor's, and the more they looked, the more horrifying her story became.

♪♪

The city of Green Bay itself is a thriving community of over 100,000 people, cradled on the shores of Lake Michigan in the northeastern part of the state. A place where industrial heritage mingles seamlessly with fervent sports devotion and a profound love for the great outdoors.

On the city's west side lived Tara Pakanik, mother of 24-year-old Shad Therion. Born on September 7, 1997, Shad left school in 2015 and began working with his father and grandfather. He had two sisters and a brother, as well as a big extended family who he loved spending time with.

It was no surprise he enjoyed camping, being born in a place as beautiful as Wisconsin, and he also had a knack for wood carving. Like many young people, Shad was passionate about music and had also made a few questionable choices along the way. A brush or two with the law, as well as the decision to ink his temple with a tattoo, one of those impulsive decisions many teens end up regretting later in life.

Still, there wasn't anything going on with Shad that seemed too out of place. More than anything, he was a young man growing into the person he would become, figuring out who he was and who he wasn't. In February 2022, Shad had been visiting his mother on and off, despite living with his father, Michael. He'd swing by for meals, do some laundry, and sometimes stay overnight.

On the night of February 23rd, as far as Tara knew, Shad was hanging out down in her basement with his friend Taylor. But the last time Tara had actually seen her son was two days earlier on the 21st, when his friend Taylor picked him up and the pair went out for the evening.

Taylor Coronado was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 23, 1997, where she lived with her parents until they moved to Wisconsin when she was in the fourth grade. It was here while attending public school Taylor first became friends with Shad and even dated for a couple of years. It was also around this time Taylor first started exhibiting behavioral problems.

Taylor had struggled with her mental health since she was a child. However, she'd had no reported troubles with the law or drugs, up until the point she met her husband, Warren Chabot, who also went by the name Chabizness, a name Taylor adopted after marrying him in February 2020.

That year, Taylor was arrested for battery or threat to a law enforcement officer and resisting or obstructing an officer. She got three years probation and a psych evaluation. Later that year, she was charged with bail jumping, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting again, and finally for fleeing in a vehicle.

In 2021, she had a child with Warren and a year after that, was sentenced in January 2022 for her earlier charges to three months in jail and two years of probation.

But Taylor's jail sentence was reduced to house arrest with a GPS monitor put on her ankle. Meanwhile, Warren went to jail for possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and Taylor's grandparents in Texas were granted custody of their son. Throughout the entire time, Taylor and Shad had remained on good terms and once she was placed on house arrest, the two began spending more time together.

And February 21st, 2022 was supposed to be another one of their hangout sessions.

That evening, Taylor picked up Shad from his mother Tara's house around 9:30 p.m. and returned later that night. After Tara's boyfriend Steve let them in, Taylor and Shad headed down to the basement. Although Shad's mother hadn't actually seen either of them the next day, Steve had encountered Taylor briefly in the morning when she asked him for a pair of reading glasses.

Later that evening, Tara noticed Taylor's van still parked out front as she got ready for bed. Then on the 23rd, between 2.30 and 3 in the morning, Tara was suddenly startled awake by a loud bang.

Guessing it must have been the storm door down in the basement, she got out of bed to investigate. As she headed down, she heard what she assumed was Taylor's van driving off. As Tara approached the basement, she could see the light was still on and decided it was time to venture down and check on her son. But as Tara crept down the stairs, it was eerily quiet.

It seemed there was no sign of her son. At first she thought perhaps Shad had left with Taylor. That's until she headed back up the basement steps and something caught her eye. Something out of place. A black bucket at the foot of the stairs with a white and multicolored striped beach towel draped over it. When Tara lifted the towel, she found something no person

let alone a mother should ever have to see. At the bottom of the bucket was her son's decapitated head. Tara's boyfriend, Steve, was the one to call 911. Okay, tell me what's happening there again. I have no clue what's happening. My girl at Square said she's found her severed head of her son in the basement.

Did she just wake up and say that? And who is, who, who, whose head is it? How old is her son? Has he been missing or?

No, yeah, he was here yesterday with some chick and then all of a sudden nobody's here. And she came up to use the restroom a couple times and she keeps calling and calling and now she's saying that she hears the phone down there too. Is she with you right now? Yes, I, yeah, she's up there. She's a little freaked out and I don't know what to do. Okay, alright, she's gonna lie. And you said you went down there, correct?

When police arrived, they walked into a scene straight out of someone's worst nightmare. And as they searched the basement, it would only get worse with every discovery.

Crunching through the fresh snow, police arrived at Tara's home at 3:25 AM. Bodycam footage shows two officers entering the home, with one remaining upstairs to speak with Shad's mother and her boyfriend, as the other heads to the basement. Uncovering the bucket, the officer confirms what Tara thought she'd seen: a severed human head. What else would they find down there?

In a short period of time, it kind of came into perspective that we weren't looking for a whole body. And then we knew we were going to be doing a recovery of multiple parts. On a nearby mattress, blood was drying into the fabric with more blood on the floor around it that had been attempted to be cleaned up. And the more the officers searched, the more they found. I mean, the

The obvious observation was the red tissue and staining on the handle and on the blade. One thing I particularly noticed was a serrated bread knife, that the sharp pointed part of the knife were virtually ground down, dulled, if you will. So that is a knife that was serrated, is that correct? Yes. And what do you mean by ground down? I mean, it was a bread knife, you know, it's a large serrated knife to cut bread.

Pointeans are shallowed, more flattened, dulled. In a Jimmy Choo bag, police discovered multiple knives, bent, dull, and one in particular with the tip broken off. More bags and boxes containing more body parts, including a tote bag where they found the upper part of a torso.

Medical investigators opened that backpack? We did. And what was found inside there? Inside this backpack, there's human remains, including small parts of remains and a larger part of human remains, some of which were laying loose inside the backpack, some of which were wrapped inside like a plastic shopping bag.

Inside the bucket, beneath the head, officers would find a pair of knives as well as male genitalia. But given the gruesome crime scene, the expected amount of blood was surprisingly absent. While continuing to take inventory of the basement, a glass methamphetamine pipe and a baggie of white powder was also found.

Knowing for certain that the last person known to have been with Shad was Taylor Shabizness, police immediately set off to locate her, which was fairly easy.

Officers swiftly located Taylor's last known address on Eastman Avenue, a mere 15-minute drive away. A neighborhood primarily comprised of residential homes adorned with snowmen on the front yards. There, they found the minivan Taylor had been driving, conveniently parked outside, before even knocking on her door. Officers spotted what appeared to be bloody footprints in the snow.

Is this blood? Does this look like blood to you? Or am I just tripping? Bloody footprints. You see this right here? Could possibly be blood. As the officers were looking at the footprints leading from the van to Taylor's door, Taylor herself came outside on her own. Hi, Taylor. How's it going? Officer Russell with the crew bed police department. Just make sure you got nothing on your ears. With Taylor. Contacted.

You got blood on your hands.

As officers apprehended Taylor, they realized she was covered in blood. It was all over her black hoodie, her black sweatpants, and smeared on her hands. When they inspected her vehicle, they found even more evidence. And did you locate anything of significance or any human remains within the vehicle? Yes, we ultimately did find a crockpot box that had human remains.

in the box. Do you recall specifically what you recovered in the crockpot? We would have recovered parts of both lower limbs.

When Taylor was arrested and brought into the police station, detectives also discovered that Taylor was covered in scratches on her hands and arms and a cut on her thumb. But Taylor told the detective she'd made the injuries herself. Getting straight to the point, the detective asked Taylor what had happened to Shad. Taylor replied, "That's a good question." She explained she'd blacked out,

but what she could tell them was that they'd been smoking meth together and no one else had come down into the basement. Her story didn't leave a lot of room for other suspects. According to Taylor, it was true that she'd picked up Shad on the night of the 21st at around 9.30 p.m.,

That night, they'd spent the evening smoking pot and meth, along with another friend at her apartment. Afterward, Taylor said they crushed up and injected trazodone, a prescription antidepressant, with sedative effects. After that bizarre cocktail, Taylor and Shad returned to Tara's house and went down to the basement together. And that's when things went from bad to worse.

Almost as soon as they got to the basement, Taylor said she and Shad began having a kinky intimate encounter, putting choke chains around their necks. Apparently, this hadn't been a new element in their sexual relationship, but what happened next definitely was.

As Shad laid face down on the bed, Taylor claimed she got on top of him and began choking him from behind. But instead of letting up, in her words, she just went crazy and continued choking him until his face turned purple and blood began seeping from his mouth. When asked why she just didn't stop, her response was, "I was already this far.

According to Taylor, she was curious to see what would happen if she kept going and didn't stop until she knew for certain Shad was dead, which took three to five agonizing minutes. Though Taylor had claimed to have blacked out at some point, she admitted she'd enjoyed it. During her interrogation, Taylor asked detectives, "Do you know what it's like to love something so much that you kill it?"

Instead of being overcome with the horror of what she'd done to her friend and lover, Taylor was overcome with another kind of feeling.

After murdering Shad, Taylor admitted to sexually assaulting his corpse for hours, spending the entire day of February 22nd with his body, before moving on with the next part of her plan, dismembering Shad's body using knives from his mother's kitchen. Taylor told detectives she'd used a bucket to collect most of the blood before pouring it down the shower drain.

According to Taylor, her original plan was to bring all of his body parts with her, but said she nodded off occasionally, got lazy, and only brought the legs to the minivan. Taylor placed the rest into whatever bags and bins she could find, and then chillingly remarked how detectives were going to have fun trying to find all of his organs. Everything Taylor was relaying to detectives about what had happened was

was consistent with the evidence authorities were already finding. But throughout Taylor's interrogation, she maintained she never planned on killing him, that it hadn't been until she started choking him, and that she realized she liked it so much and didn't want to stop.

Taylor was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and third-degree sexual assault with her bond set at $2 million. It would be fair to say that the first 24 years of Taylor's life leading up to the murder had been chaotic. The first major traumatic event in Taylor's life occurred.

appeared to have been when her mother died at 41 from cirrhosis and alcoholism, with her father Arturo remarrying soon after. His new wife, who already had three children of her own, didn't see eye to eye with Taylor, and so reportedly, Taylor and her brother were shuffled down to live in the basement.

At age 11, Taylor moved to Texas to live with her grandparents, and by the time she was a seventh grader, was already receiving mental health treatment for ADHD and depression. At 14, she was sent to a psychiatric unit for depression and hallucinations. Diagnosed with bipolar 1 and severe depression with psychosis, Taylor was prescribed antipsychotics.

Meanwhile, Taylor's father's marriage had fallen apart and in 2017, he was charged with domestic abuse. The

The following year, he was charged with second-degree sexual assault of a child in his care and was found guilty, receiving a 12-year prison sentence. Given her mental health background, Taylor's attorney Quinn Jolly submitted a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on September 1st, 2022.

Fast forward to Valentine's Day 2023, Quinn requested Taylor's trial to be pushed back so they could have more time to determine her competency. Which is when Taylor exploded and attacked her lawyer in the courtroom. As Quinn jolly attempted to shield himself from Taylor, she was quickly tackled to the ground by an officer of the court until she calmed down. You went off on your journey, Taylor.

Understandably, Quinn immediately requested to be removed from the case and a new attorney, Christopher Fralick, was assigned. Taylor's three-day trial began in July 2023 with the prosecution's opening statements. You'll hear testimony and evidence will show that

In the early morning of February 23rd, it's a Tuesday, Tara Paknich is awoken by a storm door shut, 2:30, 3:00 a.m., somewhere in there. She's aware at that point that her son, Chad, was in the basement with a friend, Taylor. They had been over the day before, February 22nd, February 21st, in that timeframe. And she kind of goes and sees what's going on, right? We hear this noise late in the night, early in the morning, and she sees the basement light is on.

At that point, you know, she's aware that they were down there throughout the day of the 22nd and she goes down and she's seeing what's going on. And you'll see sort of the sea sort of go down the stairs to a normal basement. It's partially finished on one half, partially like a utility area, laundry, that kind of storage area. And right next to the stairs, there's a five gallon bucket that you get at a home center.

And she lifts a towel that's covering the bucket. It's a beach towel. And unfortunately, sees essentially a mother's worst nightmare. Her son's head is in the bucket. But as we know, it didn't stop there. There's a tote, a teal tote, kind of a larger Tupperware that has knives as well as body parts of shad. There's bags everywhere.

sort of duffel bag type item, a backpack, all of which contained parts of Shazba, as well as knives that were used in the dismemberment. The prosecution had evidence, a roster of witnesses, and a full confession. What defense could her attorney possibly have? And in this case, Taylor Shabizis is presumed to be innocent. She doesn't have to prove anything. The defense does not have to prove anything in this case.

Why? Because the complete burden of proof rests with the district attorney's office, with the state of Wisconsin. They have to prove up all the facts.

It became immediately clear that Taylor didn't really have any defense at all. At least, not when it came to the guilt phase of the bifurcated trial. In Wisconsin, insanity trials are broken up into two separate parts: the guilt phase and the sentencing phase. During the guilt phase, jurors are asked to determine whether or not a defendant has physically committed the crime they're accused of.

During the sentencing phase, only the mental state of the accused is taken into consideration. During the guilt phase, the prosecution presented to the jury with overwhelming evidence that Taylor had committed the crime she'd been accused of. Starting off with the officers describing what they encountered that cold February morning back in 2022.

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. Just to verify we had an actual head in the bucket. Lifted the towel off and there was in fact a human severed head in the bucket. Did you notice any areas of potential blood? Yes. And where was that? Beyond the stack of mattresses. There appeared to be blood on the floor and then small chunks of human flesh.

In other areas of that basement, did you locate any obvious signs of blood? There was a dried blood stain on the mattresses, and that was all that I remember seeing. The medical examiner made a point to note that there was something conspicuous missing from the murder scene.

One of my first observations, I guess, would have been that they really, as you walk into the basement, there really wasn't a significant amount of blood that we could see as you walked in. We would have later noted once we moved some things off the bed that there was some what appeared to be blood staining on the mattress.

and perhaps some small little pieces of tissue that were suspected to be human tissue in the carpeted area. But there was a shower in a laundry room nearby, and they seemed to be, again, some small pieces of what could have been human tissue. Is it fair to say that relative to the amount of damage to the body that you observed, there was not a lot of blood or tissue that was readily available outside of the containers?

Correct. I would definitely say that I would have thought there would have been more blood on the scene. That was because Taylor had dumped as much of the blood as possible down the shower drain. What sorts of items of evidence did you collect as well? I collected a Clorox wipe container, a Pantene shampoo container. There was two dog choke collars I collected, a wooden box, dildo,

You went through some of the items that you collected. When you were in the basement of the Stony Brook residence, did you also collect items that were determined to be knives? Yes. Okay. Do you recall approximately how many knives were located in that basement? There were six of them. Do you remember where they were located? I located three of them in one of the bags, two of them in the pail, the black bucket, and then one of them in the teal coat.

Taylor's fingerprints would be found on the Clorox bottle and knives. The medical examiner then went a long way in explaining just exactly what had been done to Shad, and the details were horrific. There was evidence of skeletal trauma, including sawing, chop injuries, start and stop injuries of the bone, consistent with dismemberment. Such an act couldn't have been accomplished quickly.

It is my medical opinion that this would be quite a few hours. We have decapitation, we have dismemberment, we have transection of the torso. Subsequently, internally, the body has been eviscerated.

In other words, we have entered inside the body through various cuts, both at the abdomen and between the ribs, where the victim's organs have been removed largely one by one. The decedent has been castrated as well. We have cutting or sawing through, uh, chop mark injuries of the bones. It is my medical opinion that this would have taken quite a great deal of time. In my examination, there was extensive post-mortem mutilation of the body.

And I believe that this is post-mortem mutilation because there is no hemorrhage associated with these injuries. In other words, I have multiple shock force trauma with multiple stab wounds, multiple punctures, multiple incised wounds, deep cuts within the muscles and tendons and soft tissue, deep cuts within the bone. But all of these cuts are non-hemorrhagic. In other words, there's no blood or bleeding associated with it.

The medical examiner determined Taylor had done all of this after she killed Chad. When asked how he died, the medical examiner explained: "It is my medical opinion that the cause of death of Chad Therrien is strangulation and that the manner of death is homicide." But there was something else missing from the brutal scene.

As you were going through the room, did you know that it was possible you did not have the entire body present in that room? Yes, I did. Did you know specifically what was missing? On my inventory, I believe I was missing the right thigh, specifically from about the waist to about the knee. I was also missing the left thigh and left leg.

That led to the grim parcel Taylor had been traveling with when she'd driven the van back to her apartment. The crockpot box was turned upright. In the opening, there's the flesh-colored material that's the thigh. And then there's what I believe is a pair of shorts over the top of it. And then there's additional remains underneath that thigh. During Taylor's arrest, the officer had noted something on her clothes.

When the matter that appeared to be blood was tested, it came back conclusive.

What was your analysis as it related to that item? This item H4, another swabbing of a reddish-brown stain on the right leg of the sweatpants. I developed a single-source male profile, and I concluded that Shad Thurian is the source of that DNA. When Detective David Graff was called to the stand, he was asked to describe what Taylor had told him during her interrogation.

She said that Shad had produced a chain, like a dog collar, and put it around his neck. Initially, it sounded like it might have been some sort of foreplay, but it got to the point that she started to strangle Mr. Therrien and just continued to do so, according to her, for several minutes until he passed away.

And did you ask her whether or not Shad had struggled at all when she was choking him? She said that he did. And what was her response to that? My understanding is that Shad had been laying on the bed, prone, face down, and she was on top of him. And so she was able to choke and control his body, so to speak, that even though he was struggling, she was able to still maintain control.

And what did Taylor say when she was asked how she felt about what she did? Her response was that she liked it. And she also at some point expressed some remorse so that she didn't necessarily want this to happen. Initially, that was some of her comments was that, you know, it hadn't intended. But once she started to strangle Chad, that she found that she could enjoy it. And so she kept on strangling him.

And finally, why exactly did Taylor put Shad's head in a bucket? Did she discuss with you what her intention was with respect to Shad's head? One of the first things that she did say was that she did like the head and that it was her intent to take the head as well as the genitalia that was in a bucket with her. That's why she specifically placed those items in the bucket.

She'd intended to take them away, but she forgot, leaving behind the most traumatizing thing a mother could stumble upon. When authorities inspected Taylor's phone, they also found disturbing searches suggesting her state of mind leading up to the murder. She searched Jeffrey Dahmer, and then she searched cadaver definition, Jeff Boyardee, blow-up doll, customized face.

Things such as flaming pentagram, Jeffrey Dahmer, things like that. KKK, I believe, is one of them. But Taylor's lawyer didn't want these searches admitted as evidence. I would argue that this information is highly prejudicial. And any probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. I believe, and I would argue on behalf of my client...

that if this information comes in, she's going to be painted in the worst light possible. His argument was overruled. Taylor even went as far as to do her best to get a selfie with Jeffrey Dahmer. She's got a cell phone next to her head. There's a picture of Jeffrey Dahmer on the screen of the cell phone, and she's taking a selfie with it and smiling like they're taking a selfie together.

Throughout the trial, Taylor sometimes appeared bored, staring down at her hands, or pained, brows drawing together in a frown. She sometimes laughed or smiled.

She also appeared at one point wearing a spit hood covering her face, making it difficult to read her expression. But reading someone like Taylor wasn't easy, even if her face wasn't uncovered. In the end, the closing arguments by the prosecution summed everything up neatly. This was a deliberate choice on her part to kill Shad Therion, and she knew that her actions were going to cause that.

And in fact, she was asked whether or not she liked it. And she confirmed that she liked it. She was asked whether she was sexually aroused by killing him. And she said she was. Her mental purpose was clear. As to mutilating the corpse, again, there's no doubt that she intentionally did that. She described the detail. She described her frustration as she's mutilating this corpse. And she described her purpose in doing so.

How else am I going to get the body out of the house? How else am I going to get away with this if I don't cut this body up? And she didn't just cut it up and leave it there. She cut it up. She packaged it. She cleaned up after herself. Her purpose in dismembering Shad was clear. She wanted to attempt to get away with this crime.

Taylor's defense claimed she'd suffered from meth-induced psychosis, although her meth use was self-reported. The defense also sought to have the sexual assault charge dropped, since Shad had been deceased at the time of the assault, but it was upheld.

On July 26, 2023, a jury deliberated for just over 30 minutes and found Taylor guilty of all three charges. The following day, experts from both sides argued about Taylor's mental health to determine her responsibility due to mental disease or defects at the time of the crime.

The defense aimed to prove Taylor's incapability to appreciate the wrongness of her actions during the crime. If found not responsible, she could be placed in an institution or possibly released if not deemed a danger. The prosecution, however, had a critical point to convey to the jury.

A mental disease is not antisocial conduct. It's not conduct brought about by use of a controlled substance, a temporary mental state caused by a controlled substance. A person is not mentally ill just because they commit something that's unnatural, that's so enormous, that just is beyond comprehension. You'll be instructed that those are not mental diseases or defects.

You'll hear about, and you've already heard about, confounding all of this is the defendant's drug use immediately before the offense. We've all heard about that, defendants admitting that and acknowledging that. You'll hear about how methamphetamine has those effects, has effects of psychosis, has that result in people. And again, it's not a mental disease or defect if you're using controlled substances and it causes that result.

Taylor's defense first brought in Taylor's father, Arturo, to speak about his daughter's lifelong mental health. The convicted child sex offender appeared in court wearing an orange jumpsuit and chains. Was there a point where she got pregnant about a year and a half ago, maybe? Okay.

And she had a baby, correct? Yes, she did. And the baby is currently living in Texas with the grandparents, correct? Yeah. How is that relevant to anything here? Why do we need to talk about him? Let me ask you this. Before the baby was born, was she placed at Nicolet Psychiatric Center? Yeah, she wasn't. She was not in a right state of mind at all. So I feared that she would hurt herself. So that's why I took her. Was she ever experiencing any hallucinations or anything like that? Yeah. Can you tell me about that?

Taylor's father went on to explain how things had been going well for Taylor up until a certain point.

I turned everything upside down yeah in part because of the methamphetamine used right yep so Taylor was doing pretty well and then she started using the drugs no further questions pretty bad drug too anything uh on that Mr fralick what was the drug no meth meth heroin whatever else I don't know marijuana yeah I don't know the kid was already doing that before and just a loser and he got my daughter involved in that thank you sir nothing else

Next, Taylor's defense presented a forensic psychologist who detailed her mental health history starting from age seven until her arrest, encompassing various symptoms, treatments, and related issues. Her history showed multiple psychiatric admittances, thought disturbances, hallucinations, delusions, suicidal ideations, depression, bipolar I, and psychosis.

Among the many drugs and treatments prescribed to her, Taylor also used marijuana, meth, and heroin. Over the years, there had also been emergency room visits, psychiatric commitments, observed bizarre behaviors, and multiple jail stints.

After being arrested for murdering Shad, Taylor's behavior only became increasingly erratic, including becoming non-verbal and smearing her walls with feces and menstrual blood. Although she was prescribed more medication in jail, as the doctor put it, she was non-compliant.

During their initial interview, Taylor threw a chair at the doctor. In a subsequent interview, the doctor diagnosed Taylor with psychosis marked by disorganized, delusional thinking and hallucinations.

My opinion is that she qualifies for the not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. My opinions are that she was not responsible, was not responsible because of a mental disease. She wasn't responsible

for the criminal conduct because at the time of the event she had the mental disease and it both affected she lacked substantial capacity to both appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct at the time the homicide occurred but also she couldn't conform she lacked volitional control she couldn't

conform her conduct to the requirements of law. She was lacking in her ability to control herself, the volitional control was lacking.

That's my opinion. Based on my experience and training, that's a psychotic person right there. And that's what's causing this really weird, bizarre, and I'm telling you, to me it's off the scale. 32 years, I've seen a lot of psychotic people, bipolar, psychotic, manic, and I just haven't seen very many like this. Very exceptional, very exceptional.

During the prosecution's cross-examination of the doctor, the focus was on Taylor's drug use and how it might have exacerbated her symptoms. They emphasized how Taylor's signs of mental illness often improved at the end of psychiatric stays with the absence of meth use, and how symptoms some experts considered bipolar 1 could be attributed to methamphetamine use by others.

The prosecution's stance was that Taylor's drug use wasn't a mental disease or defect, and that she may have fabricated or exaggerated symptoms during trial evaluations. The prosecution also called on court-appointed psychologists, one of whom had a contrasting experience with Taylor, compared to the defense's psychologist.

I did not notice the evident distraction that was evidently apparent during the interview with Dr. Litton. The defendant easily maintained focus and was able to supply coherent, relevant responses to questioning. She remained behaviorally appropriate and was able to engage in in-detail discussion of her legal situation. There was a brief moment in which

she referenced claiming to see a supposed green train within the room which was something that was evidently very distracting during the interview with dr leighton i essentially ignored when that symptom was mentioned and there was no further mention of it thereafter and there was no evidence that she was in any way distracted by that or any similar psychotic symptom

Taylor's heavy meth use complicated the diagnosis of bipolar 1, with the psychologist noting inconsistent and exaggerated symptom presentation. Taylor's admission of high meth doses raised the issue of voluntary substance intoxication, not a mental defect.

Another psychologist described Taylor as functioning relatively well until the murder, with her working, addressing legal matters, and spending time with her son. Until Taylor relapsed, which she attributed to hearing voices, ultimately concluding when she took Shad's life.

This psychologist believed that Taylor exaggerated her mental illness descriptions and that her mental health issues were attributed to meth use. I reached the opinion that while she did have a mental health conditions, these did not appear to qualify as mental diseases and defects.

In the end, the jury determined that Taylor was not suffering from a mental disease or defect when the crime occurred. Before sentencing, several people spoke on behalf of both Taylor and Chad. Taylor's cousin Valerie, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, aimed to provide insight into Taylor's circumstances and expressed hope for Taylor's future. So Taylor, she comes from a loving family. I know her.

to be loving. I know her to have empathy. She's capable of love. I believe she has suffered immense trauma in her young life, first with losing her mother in 2009. Anytime somebody loses their mother at any age, it's a great trauma and a tragedy. I would like her to be considered for parole. I would like her to get a chance later in life to get to know her son.

I think that would be very important to her to be able to spend some time with him in person as she gets older and other family members who are still around. Do you agree that she needs mental health counseling? Absolutely. And she needs to deal with her extensive trauma history. Do you believe that she may need medication management? Yes, I do. Absolutely. Is she a lost cause? She's not a lost cause. Is she a monster? No, she's not a monster.

Shad's uncle Kelly spoke as well, and he didn't mince words. You can't blame it on childhood. You know, there's help out there. And if you take the path to go get the help, you wouldn't be in this situation right now. None of us would be in this situation. But to take the cowardly path that you did and to make other people suffer because you are suffering is pretty shitty. So that name, Taylor, shit business, fits you well. And I'm not a praying man, but...

After Judge Walsh here sends you today, I will pray that you meet the same fate as your idolistic Jeffrey Dahmer. So have a good life, shit business. Shad's father also took the stand. Nothing out of the ordinary, just the way she was. You know, she wasn't real speakative, didn't talk a lot, but she was polite and respectful and always kind, you know.

Now Shad's father wanted the judge to know what he hoped for Taylor. A stunning display of empathy for a man who had just lost his son. Taylor, I just wanted to say that I forgive you for what you've done to my son. And yeah, you made a bad choice and now you have to live with it. But, you know, I'm going to miss Shad. He was a wonderful child too. Growing up just mild-mannered and just happy and

And I know you made a bad choice and like I said, I forgive you. And I'm going to ask the judge if she can see the streets again sometime. It may not be soon, but I believe everybody makes bad choices and maybe not to this scale, but I think there's a lot of hope for you. I think you can make use of your time and be a better person and do great things, Jack.

After considering the opinions and perspectives of various family members, including a letter from Taylor's father, stating he believed the system had failed his daughter, the judge had this to say...

Because you know what, it's not the job of the system to raise people's children. The system tries to do that. The system is not perfect. Like our fight against methamphetamine is not perfect, but we carry the fight on. It all starts, frankly, at somebody's home and what they have to offer to their children. And so anyways, I reflect on that. But I'm also convinced that no one is responsible for where they come from, but you are responsible for where you're going.

On September 26th, Taylor was sentenced to life without the possibility of extended supervision, which is similar to parole, except extended supervision happens after the full sentence is served, whereas parole happens instead of serving the full sentence. The judge also suggested Taylor attend treatment for mental health and drugs.

Shad's murder was undeniably tragic and challenging to comprehend. As for Shad's family, they've experienced the loss of a loved one that can never be rectified. Left to bear the consequences of circumstances beyond their control, a heartbreaking convergence of sad situations leading to an irreversible tragedy.

Not only grappling with the loss of Shad, but also the financial burden that accompanies such grief, Shad's family started to GoFundMe, which you can find by searching Shad Theory on GoFundMe or by checking out the links in our show notes.

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