Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
They were fooball royality in Deerfield Illinois ,
Rhoni Reuter is pictured with former Chicago Bears safety Shaun Gayle.
Shaun the much adored chigaco bear.
Shaun Gayle
Det. G. Filenko : anybody who´s associated wih their team is a local herot.
And rhoni Reuter stunning brunette working her way up in the fashion field.
Det. G. Filenko : Rohni would light up a room when she walked in.people instantly liked her .
Retired Detective George Filenko says the they too met at a Bears training camp near Rohni´s hometown in Wisconsin
Det. G. Filenko : i believe her and shaun began engaging in conversation there and now was the beginning of the relationship.
For nearly two decades Rohni and shaun are bilssfully inseparable ,traveliing the globe.
then new that blindsides the couple last 41 rohni discover shes pregnant
The older mom takes every safety precaution, she even wears a pearl MedicalAlert bracelet,that way if anything happens to her doctors would know to save baby skyler.
Det. G. Filenko :she wore the bracelet all the time ,never took it of.
Initially the football star doesn´t seem as thrilled about becoming a dad ,but over time state attorney Ari fitz says shaun tells friends he+s wamed up to the idea
Ari Fisz: the books was actually found at his home regarding being a father .
On the morning of october 4th. with just little more than a month away from delivering her miracl baby rohnie heads off to work, but when she opens her front door a nightmare is there to greet her with a loaded gun.
Rhonie´s neighbor tells the operator she heard seven to eight shots followed by a loud thud.
Det. G. Filenko :she described hearing a pop ,pop
and she told detectives the shots sounded strangely muffled
Ari Fisz: she had recently seen a movie where there was a gun thar was fired using silencer and and she said that s´s what it sounded like.
when police arrived thet find the pregnant mother dead on the kitchen floor. witha sonogram hanging over her head on the refrigerator
Det. G. Filenko : The door partially open ,they walk in the first thing they see is Rohni laying on the kitchen floor. it was pretty clear that something had happened.
Ari Fisz: police and responded right away but it was very obviouse there was nothing they could do for rohnie ir her child.
Det. G. Filenko :this was targeted. no,way that we ever suspect this was random .
the police assumed rohnie was the target until the get a closer look.
Det. G. Filenko : ther first shot apperad to be taget right at her stomach .
Police say dsuring rohnies last breath she cradled her unborn babygirl trying to protect skyler from tha hail of bullets. but she couldn´t save the baby and the final bullet would make sure that rohnie wouldn´t survive. etiher .
Det. G. Filenko :the final wounds . sort of was a Kudegra, very cold blooded ,was a shot to the head to the back of the head ,almost like an assassination type of final ending.
and the shot to the baby? could that be the motive?
Det. G. Filenko : we didn´t know what the motive was
Cops say there was no forced entry into her apartment or fingerprints. just some unspent
9-millimeter shell casing scattered haphazardly around rohnies body.
Det. G. Filenko :normaly in case lilke that…umh. the guns jamming for some reason.
police tracked down a neighbor who reported seeing a dark -skinned male running from the scene.
Ari Fisz: one of the witnesses indicated that the person they saw walking away was a short thin african -american looking person in apperance with dark curly hair.
Another witness tells cops they remember a black car speeding away .
Ari Fisz: that´s was the information from the witnesses.
News of a possible killer on the loose rocks the city .
Ari Fisz: nothing bad never happens in Deerfield so word of the shoting spread quickly.
Across town shaun gets a call from a local reporter telling him a pregnant lady had just been shot in rohnies neighborhood.
Det. G. Filenko :he was very upset on the phone, you could barely make out what he was saying.
while many rushed to console the grieving shaun ,Deerfield police weren´t bying his tears.
Det. G. Filenko :initially shaun was considered a person of interest almost immediately
Shaun tells police he had nothing to do with Rhoni´s murder.
Ari Fisz: he was getting his hear cut in North Chicago.
What about that eyewitnesses description of the slim african-american man spotted fleeing the scene?
Ari Fisz: like he is a former professional footbal player.so he was a bigger guy and the physical building didnt match at all .
Still cops couldn´t rule out the possibility shaun had an accomplice or hired a hitman .
Det. G. Filenko :unfortunately supect number one is gonna be the other half.
The big question cops couldn´t answer ,why would shaun want to kill rhonie and his unborn baby girl?
Det. G. Filenko : we still didn´t know the whole story.so we we´re still trying to piece things together , but shaun was still a primary person of interest .
Then investigators stumble a bizzare letter inside Rhonie´s purse ,written in broken english
Det. G. Filenko : it was a letter drafted to a number of women, i believe there may have been 15,16 17 women in this letter including Rhonie.
cops soon discover the women on the list had one thing in common, they were all sleeping with Shaun gayle.
Cops in Deerfield Illinois are staring at a possible motive for rhonie reuters murder.
17 of them in fact all here in a bizarre letter found near rhonie´s body. the letter written in broken english lists the names of 17 vomen and their phone numbers all of them girlfriend´s or lovers of the father of Rhonie´s baby. former chicago bear shaune gale .
Det. G. Filenko : it basically was very blunt, he´s having relationships with all these women ,he´s out there playing all of you.
Rhoni and Shaun appeared tobe the picture -perfect couple.
retired detective Det.G.Filenko quickly learne their privat life was complicated and extremely crowded
Det. G. Filenko : the best way to describe it was an open relationship on Shaun´s part.
When cops question Shaun about the letter his says Rhonie knew he was seeing other women but detectives were hearing a very different story.
Det. G. Filenko :from the indications we got from some of Rhonie´s friends , she wasn´t exactly 100% bought into that . they were all ongoing.
At first cops wonder if Rhonie confronted shaun about about the other women and he he snapped or if one of the 17 players on shaun´s sex team didn´t want the baby to take the football grade out of the game.
Det. G. Filenko :everybody was working bits and pieces of this trying to come up with all sorts of theories.
as cops was zeroing as their prime suspect, something unexpected happens. shaun handed the Deerfield police his own number one – suspect.
Ari Fisz: one of the first people that he mentioned to the police as possible suspect was Monica kurowska .
Monica kurowska a beautiful fitness model an personal trainer hwho happened to be the first name on te list . shawn had been sseeing the polish bombshell for a few years but their relationship had recently ended. badly.very badly.
Det. G. Filenko :apparently Monica thought that the relationship was monogamous ,she tunrs up at Shaun´s house unexpectedly one evening looks through the window and sees shaun with another women.
Shaun says monica became violent,busted out a window at his home and then began leaving threatening phone messages. he even suspected monica had somehow hacked to his email account
Det. G. Filenko :it finally got to the point where he felt that she was stalking him.
The tough football player was so terrified that just days before Rhoni was murdered he had filed a restraining order against monica. Shaun tells cops he also believes monica a poilsh immigrant is the one who wrote the letters.
Ari Fisz: there was broken english in the way that the letters were written and monica was from poland and spoken broken english.
But monica denies sending the letters and tells police she was wit a client at the exact time rhoni and her unborn baby were gunned down.
Ari Fisz: she couldn not have done it.
The investigation continued . all eyes shift`s back to shaun gayle.
Three weeks after Rhoni vicious murder ,cops seized shaun´s computer and find something that sets of warning bells. shaun had a cyber stalker ,someone had ghosted his hard drive and had been controlling his computer remotely trackingthe former football player shaun´s every move and they´ve been doing it for nearly two years.
Det. G. Filenko : emails ,names, adresses,personal information like that. so they access everything.
cops say it certainly wasn´t monica,so then who?
Det. G. Filenko :we were starting geting frustrated .this are the cases that they´re tough but you just don´t give up.
The detectives go back to that lineup of the 17 and then a retired cop blows the whistle on one of them .
Det. G. Filenko : they said if anybody´s done it´s marni yang.
Turns out Marni yang is number 15 on that list from Rhoni´s purse.
Len Dorman:two things drove her ,getting attention.and sex.
One by one police in Deerfield Illinois have been checking off the 17 names on that bizzare letter found found at the murder scene. then detectives hit nunber 15.
Marni Yang was one on of the several women sleeping with Rhoni´s longtime love. shaun
Ari Fisz: i think it was somewhere betweena around 17 or 18 other women.
but shaun wasn´t marni yangs only lover either. one chicago cop who had sex with marni yang told detective
,they should pay a lot of attention to her while investigating Rhoni´s murder.
Det. G. Filenko : he ha a relationship with he and he had broken it off. it didn´t go well. marni threatened him ,threatened his family .
The officers says she even tried to blackmail him when he treathened to break up with her.
shaun moved his family . out of sight ,out of the state.
Det. G. Filenko : he was worried enough . he was close to retirement. he put in his paper and moved his entire family .out of town , and out of sight . they moved out of state .
Cops were intrigued , now they wanted to know all they can about marni yang.
yang a mother of three dabbled in real estate had a side gig as a fitnes model and a xecret reputation as maneater. sexually predatorial.
Len Dorman was marni yangs photographer and friend. Len says yang bragged about her relationship with shaun but he says marni was obsessed with dating cops and often showed up to station to study how they investigated crimes.
Len Dorman: she has had lessons from other chicago police officer on how to shoot a gun and how to cover up a crime.
searching for clues ,derrfield detectives head to marni yangs condo. and dive first into her garbage.
Det. G. Filenko : this is very very fundamental police work is dumpster diving. once somebody by law pushes their garbage out onto the public . it´s open game.
Ari Fisz: they would drive over there they would empty her trash cans into a van, drive away bring it back to the police departement and look through her trash.
And in the trash they find what they think is a treasure of evidence
Det. G. Filenko : they recovered som receipts that were extremely interesting.
The first receipt is to a very specific online bookstore.
Det. G. Filenko : we tracked the order and it was for a book on how to build silencers .
Det. G. Filenko : then there was another receipt from a local home depot and that receipt actually listed out th e items . we looked through the books , the items and in most of the homemade silencer fit the items on the home depot receipt . we verified that it was her making an purchase through a video ,additionally we saw her purchasing a bucket and quick drying cement.
detectives take in marni yang in for questioning.
Marni claims the book a gag gift for a cop she was dating but how would she explain bying all the materials needed to build a silencer.
what about that bucket and bag of concrete she´s seen buying here on a store surveillance camera.
yang tells detecrive it was just for the tile in the basement. she bougt the gallon bucket and concret mix .but investigators thought it was for a “whack job” but there was something that didn´t klick according to the investigators.
here´s the problem . yang also has an alibi. she said that the car broke down and she needed help.
Det. G. Filenko : she said that the battery was dead. she called a friend of hers. who was a cook county bailiff a court officer who was constantly there to help
yang claimes without a car she was stuck at home at the exact time Rhoni was murdered.but before yang leaves she tops this ,telling detectives she believe someone may actually be stalking her . at this point police are officially stumped
Len Dorman: everybody had an alibi and they didn´t know who ,so yeah. that added the mystery as to hwo did this heinous crime. nobody knew and it almost just completely faded from the headlines as an unsolved case.
Then a possible break.police locate surveillance images of a dark -colored car leaving the secene of the murder.
That black volkswagen leads police to a car rental company.
Deerfield Illinois police believe the person behind the wheel of thar black volkswagen unloaded a 9- millimeter semi-atomatic beretta into Rhoni reuter.killing rhoni and shaun gayles unborn baby girl , skyler.
Det. G. Filenko : you ´ve got a double homicide here.it doesn´t get any worse than this.
The car caught on surveillance cameras doesn´t match shaun´s vehicle or any of the 17 current or former lovers of the football player .but a detective working the case has a hunch.
Det. G. Filenko : he sat down and opened up a beer and just started putting relational names into this dastabase.
then he checks to see if any of them had rented a car recently . he strikes gold.
Ari Fisz: he told me that he almost fell off his chair. when the rental history popped up and he saw that marni yang herself.rented a vechicle.
A local rental company comfirms that marni yang rented a black volkswagen the day before rhoni´ was gunned down.
it was just like the one on the surveillance images caught leaving the scene of the murder.
and the rental agent remembers yang was very selective about the car. she wanted.
Det. G. Filenko : the first vehicle shegot was a very descriptive vheicle and had this really wild blue color to to it. she brout it right back and said i want a dark -colored vehicle that´s very plain looking.
but here´s the stange part . the rental compan says they didn´t delivered t thecar to yang´s adress.
Det. G. Filenko : the adress that she used was christi paschen
Ari Fisz: christi paschen was marni yang´s best friend.
adding to cop suspicion , the milage when yang returned the rental car.
Ari Fisz:there were 40 miles that were on the vechiclethat marni had rented and returned. when the police measured the distance from the rental car place to christi paschen home and then from christi´s home to the Deerfield home of the victim Rhoni reuter and then back to christi paschen´s home and back to the rental car company.it was exactly 40 miles.
then discover yang had a twisted obsession with shaun gayle, she was th one who had been cybers stalking the football champ for the past wo years.
so how did marni gain acess to shaun´s email account ?
Det. G. Filenko : the theory is that, while she was over shaun´s house she ghosted or copied the hard drive of the computer and
And the night before Rhoni and her unborn baby were killed yang and gayle had a wild nighy of sex.
yang was so fixated detectives claims she paid for detailed background checks on the other women in shaun´s life . and she tracked one womens home adress,that women Rhoni reuter.
Now cops have some tough questions for the women who seems to have an answer for everything.
Yang , a mother of three says s she wanted to make sure that shaun wasn´t dating anyone waco.
police had also been tipped of by one of yangs cop boyfriends, she´s a gun enthsiast.
Yang admits she had a nine-millimeter beretta the same caliber used to kill Rhoni and her unborn baby .but but yang tells cops it had recently been stolen from her condo.
what about the black rental car she rented and had delivered to her best friend christi paschen.
simple , yang tells cops paschen didn´t have a credit card and she was just helping her out .
but christi paschen doesn´ sound very appreciative on this secretly recorded phone call with marni yang.
christi: ” they looked at me and they went , so why was a rental car delivered, your adress that was seen around the crime scene.
Cops found out christi pashen is a telemarketer and tap into her phone line , now their ears are burning.
christi:” don´t **** remember where the **** i was ,marni.”
marni:” wait , what are you talking about ?when?
christi: ” the night of the….”
marni :“oh”
christi:” the night befor that stupid murder”
marni yang is trying to calm down her best friend christi paschen ,but cops have called christi and she´s freaked out.
christi:“well, yeas i´m flipping out ,i´ve been **** flipping out all **** week”
ever since cops first contacted christi to find out what she knows about the murder of Rhoni reuter.now they want her to come down to the station .
chirsti:” i´m in too much **** as it stands.i´ve got to go.
marni: ” i don´t think it´s a god idea.”
Cops suspect yang is behind the murder of Rhoni reuter. and her unborn baby . the motive she wanted Rhoni´s longtime former footballplayer shaun gayle for herself.now yang is trying to coach christi to stick to the game plan.
christi : i think i remember everything.”
marni :” they are going to come up with all kinds of phony ******.”
chirsti: “what ever , i´m just going to go over and get this the***** over with.”
After christi´s grilled by detectives she calls back this time she´s the calm one.
chirsti: i´mean i went over everything with hem ,i could remember but ther are like on and on about the car.
Telling yang she thinks she actually shook cops off their tail.
christi: ” told them i didn´t know what they were talking about , i have no fricking clue. so , finally they just let me go.”
but now christi got a secret.she spilled her guts to investigators.
Det. G. Filenko :i think even christi began to understand that she was either going to be a great witness or possible a co-conspirator.
christie confess that marni had been talking about getting rid of Rhoni for quite sometime.
Ari Fisz:she told the police that she tried to talk marni out of doing it and marni if she did commit the murder she would call christi at work next morning and ask her to dinner and that was the code that they use .
the next morning christi paschen got this call .
christi:“christi pascen ,how can i help you?
marni:“do you want to go to dinner?”
christi: ” okej”.
During the interrogation christi tells the detectives that yang was obsessed with the football star and when she found out. shaun´s girlfriend Rhoni was pregnant yang spiraled into a jealous rage fearing the baby would s sideline her relationship
Ari Fisz: we believe that was the moment that she decided to kill Rhoni and she put a very carefully executed plan in place .
Yang put her evil plan in motion on the morning october 4th, she covered her face with dark makeup and her long hair with an afro wig ,then yang attached her homemade silencer to her nine millimeter beretta drove over to Rhoni´s condo in the black rental car and opened fire.
Ari Fisz: this was the moste premeditated and carefully executed crime i´ve ever seen .
chrisis confesses after the murder she drove yang all over town to dump the evidence at one point yang told christi to pull over and stop behind a banwuet hall .
Ari Fisz: marni got out of the car , open the trunk took out a little handheld shovel , had something in her other hand , walked away from the vechicle and buried something in the ground.
now more than a year after Rhoni´s murder christi leads police back to that spot .
Det. G. Filenko :our evidence techicians came out with a metal detector , i think were were expecting to find a gun. they dig this up and they find this bracelet.
it´s that medical alert pregancy brecelet Rhoni never took of.
Det. G. Filenko: that´s was a huge discovery because now we got physical evidence linking marni to the crime scene.
To save her own skin christi agrees to go undercover for the lake county major crime task force
Ari Fisz:christi agreed to wear a body wire and have a conversation with marni and record the conversation.
They set up a meeting at Denny´s and cops are listening in as marni yang dishes her own dirt.
but as christi is walking in disaster.christi´s wire comes undone.christi tucks in the wire but she knows yangs savvy and if she´s suspecious she wont talk.
christi:” so of course i´m going to finally ask the question .**** told you i never ever wanted to know .when you hid the gun, did you hid it reall well?
marni:“it´s gone.”
marni tells christi she buried the gun in a bucket of cement. then trew it in a dumpster.
marni:“it´s uinder tons and tons and tons of chicago trash.it´s gone.
christi´s clear that marni never suspects her best friend just served her up to the cops .but without the gun cops still don´t have what they need to nail marni yang forfirst -degree murder
detectives asked christi tomeet yang one more time at that Denny´s and tihs time marni yang cooks her own goose.
christi: ” i really did not believe you would do it .
marni: i” i didn´t believe i would either
Ari Fisz:it´ss very sad.i mean she talks about how she waited outside of Rhoni´s apartement and she hid behind the alcove ,waiting to hear the sound of the door opening and Rhoni leaving.
christi: “what did you see?
marni:“it was so dark i wasn´t even positive that i was making straight shots.and , she started screaming a nd i took the first shot”
Det. G. Filenko:and she starts describing . i´m emptied the clip onto her.
marni: ” and then when she went down,i just took one last shot and finished her off.
Marni yang is senteced to life , she will never step foot out of prison.
Yang´s attorney asked for a new trial saying the cnfession she gave at that resturant was taped illegally ,they also argue that yang was denied the oportunity to get a haircut or wear makeup during the trial , which made her appear guilty in the eyes of the jurors . that appeal has been denied ,she´ll will spend the rest of her life locked up without the possibility of parole