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Background: News footage of Red Arrow Park in Marinette, Wis. (WISN). Inset (left): Gabriella Cartagena (Marinette Police Department). Inset (right): Robert Chilcote (Wright County Sheriff”s Office).
A man from Wisconsin, accused of murdering his girlfriend, claims her death was accidental. The incident has sparked significant attention due to its tragic and violent nature.
Robert Chilcote, 29, faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide following his arrest on February 5. This was the same day his girlfriend, 24-year-old Gabriella Cartagena, was discovered deceased in a wooded region of Michigan. According to a recently unsealed criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime, Chilcote admitted to shooting Cartagena in the head during a heated argument in his car on February 4, insisting that the shooting was unintentional.
However, authorities are skeptical of his account after learning from Cartagena’s mother that her daughter had pleaded for her life during their last phone conversation on February 4.
The criminal complaint details that Chilcote made his confession while detained at the Wright County Jail in Minnesota. Officers from the Marinette Police Department had traveled there to question him. Chilcote was already in custody for fleeing law enforcement and being a fugitive wanted in another state. On February 9, Chilcote reportedly contacted the Marinette Police Department expressing his willingness to divulge more information.
During the call, Chilcote allegedly declared, “It was an accident,” in reference to Cartagena’s death, before the call was disconnected. After re-establishing the connection, authorities informed him of his rights, prompting Chilcote to share his perspective on the events of February 4. Initially, he informed the lieutenant that Cartagena’s body was in Michigan, adding that he “didn’t want her out there.”
Then he was asked to talk about what happened at Red Arrow Park, where police said they found “frozen blood” that appeared to have been trailed from the park to the parking lot. Chilcote told police that he and Cartagena were in the car, having a fight. During their argument, Chilcote said “she was calling him names” and told him to leave. He said he “tried to scare her” with his gun, which subsequently “went off,” hitting her in the head.
As Law&Crime previously reported, police said Cartagena’s mother last saw her daughter around 5 p.m. on Feb. 4 when she and Chilcote went grocery shopping. In the complaint, police said when the couple did not return, Cartagena’s mother called her daughter’s phone. Cartagena answered, and her mother said she heard Cartagena say, “I’m sorry. Don’t shoot me. I’m sorry. I didn’t do nothing.” Cartagena’s mother then told police she heard the phone “tussling like it was on the ground.”
The next time she got a response from Cartagena’s phone was at 7:21 p.m., when she believed her daughter texted her to tell her she was in a meeting at Walmart.
Chilcote told police he “was scared and panicking,” and he took her out of the car to lay her on the ground. He then put her back inside the car and tossed her phone. Chilcote confirmed that the message Cartagena’s mother received from Cartagena’s phone was sent by him.
Cartagena’s mother told police that Chilcote came to her home at around 8 p.m. and “seemed off.” When she asked him where her daughter was, he replied that he “dropped her off at Walmart.”
According to police, Chilcote drove Cartagena’s body to a wooded area in Michigan. He then drove back to the Walmart where he and Cartagena both worked the night shift and where they met six months prior.
Police said they were able to track Chilcote’s whereabouts as he clocked into his job at Walmart in the hours after he said he shot Cartagena. According to the complaint, Chilcote was seen on surveillance cameras entering the Walmart parking lot at the start of his 10 p.m. shift. After buying a few food items at midnight, he told his supervisors that he was quitting “due to personal reasons.” By 12:15 a.m. on Feb. 5, he was leaving the Walmart parking lot.
According to the complaint, Chilcote told police that he dumped Cartagena’s clothing out the car window as he drove to the spot where he left her body. After following the trail of clothes, police eventually found Cartagena’s body, which was frozen solid, on Feb. 10. The medical examiner said her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.
Chilcote was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Marinette County. He remains in custody in Minnesota’s Wright County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 20.