Prosecutors say a Marinette man shot Gabriella Cartagena during an argument, moved her body to Michigan and later told police it was an accident.
MARINETTE, Wis. — A Wisconsin man charged in the killing of his girlfriend told police he shot her in the head during an argument inside a car and claimed the gun fired by accident, according to a criminal complaint that lays out a timeline from a phone call for help to a body found in Michigan woods.
The case has drawn broad attention in northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan because of the phone call Cartagena’s mother said she overheard, the search that crossed state lines and the later confession described by investigators. Robert Chilcote, 29, is charged in Marinette County with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Gabriella Cartagena, 24. After waiving extradition in Minnesota, he was returned to Wisconsin, where a judge set a $2 million cash bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 2.
According to the complaint, Cartagena left home at about 5 p.m. Feb. 4 to run errands with Chilcote, and both were expected later at their night-shift jobs at Walmart. Her mother told investigators she became alarmed when the pair did not return and she reached her daughter by phone. During that call, the mother said, she heard yelling and then heard Cartagena say, “I’m sorry. Don’t shoot me. I’m sorry. I didn’t do nothing.” The call then sounded as if the phone fell to the ground. At 7:21 p.m., the mother received a text from Cartagena’s phone saying she was at Walmart. Investigators later said Chilcote admitted sending that message. The complaint says he then went to the family home around 8 p.m., appeared unsettled and told Cartagena’s mother he had dropped her off at Walmart. Cartagena never reported for her 7 p.m. shift, police said, but Chilcote arrived for his own 10 p.m. shift and clocked out shortly after midnight, telling a manager he was quitting for personal reasons.
Investigators said the case began as a welfare check on Feb. 5 and quickly turned into a homicide inquiry. Police went to Red Arrow Park in Marinette after reviewing location information and found what the complaint describes as a large red area in the snow and a trail that appeared to show blood dragged across the parking lot toward the water. Officers collected swabs and photographed the scene. The complaint says there was no usable city camera footage from the park that day, but other surveillance cameras caught a red Toyota Prius investigators tied to Chilcote traveling toward the boat launch and later leaving the area. Additional video reviewed by police showed the same car heading north toward the Ogden Street bridge and into Michigan later that night. Investigators also used cell phone location data during the search. The complaint says some questions remain unsettled, including exactly how long Cartagena survived after she was shot and whether any other physical evidence inside the vehicle will add to the timeline prosecutors already laid out.
The complaint says Chilcote was arrested in Wright County, Minnesota, after a pursuit and initially held on local charges there, including fleeing police in a motor vehicle. Marinette investigators later traveled to speak with him in jail. During a Feb. 9 call to police, according to the complaint, Chilcote said he was ready to talk more and then told a detective, “It was an accident,” before saying Cartagena was in Michigan. After detectives read him his rights again, the complaint says, he described an argument in the car and said Cartagena had been calling him names. He said he tried to scare her with a .22 pistol, that the gun went off inside the car and that he shot her in the head. He told police he got out, laid her on the ground, panicked, later put her back in the car and drove north. The complaint says he also admitted throwing her phone away and discarding clothing along the route. During a search of his car in Minnesota, authorities found multiple firearms, ammunition and other tactical gear, according to the complaint. Prosecutors have not said in court filings made public so far whether those recovered weapons are all tied to the charged killing.
Search teams from Wisconsin and Michigan later focused on an area near Birch Creek No. 6 Road in Menominee County after detectives said Chilcote helped narrow the location on a map. Officers first found clothing near the roadside, including a black jacket and a black robe in snow near the tree line. Investigators then formed a line and moved into the woods. The complaint says an officer spotted two human feet sticking out of the snow about 30 yards in, and the body was found at about 10:07 a.m. Feb. 10. Investigators measured the body at 114 feet, 9 inches from the roadway and said that roughly matched Chilcote’s statement that he had gone no more than 40 yards into the woods. The complaint says officers identified Cartagena in part by butterfly tattoos visible on her right wrist and forearm. An autopsy performed Feb. 12 determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators also noted trauma to the face and an apparent injury to the right hand, though the body’s frozen condition limited what could be examined at the scene.
The case has also highlighted a compressed and striking sequence of events after the shooting prosecutors describe. Police say Chilcote went to work after leaving Cartagena’s body in Michigan, a detail that became one of the most talked-about facts in local coverage because both he and Cartagena worked the same overnight shift. The complaint says the couple had been dating about six months and had lived together for four or five months. Cartagena’s mother told police that behavior on Feb. 4 was unlike her daughter, who cared for a 3-year-old child and would not normally disappear without contact. Court coverage after the charge was filed showed the case moving quickly through extradition and first appearance stages. Chilcote waived extradition in Minnesota, was returned to Wisconsin and made his first appearance in Marinette County in late February. Judge James Morrison set bond at $2 million cash. At a March 5 status conference, the court set an April 2 preliminary hearing, the next major step in deciding whether the felony case will proceed toward arraignment and later trial.
Outside the court filings, the story has carried the weight of a small-city search that spread across county and state lines before turning into a homicide prosecution. Police had first treated Cartagena as an involuntary missing person after her family reported the disturbing phone call and after she failed to show up for work. In news conferences and follow-up reporting, authorities described broad help from local agencies and community members during the search. The complaint itself gives a stark picture of winter conditions, with fresh snow, plowed parking lots, clothing scattered along roads and a body found partly exposed in the woods days after the disappearance. The details have made the court record central to the case: the mother’s account of the call, surveillance images of the Prius, the alleged confession from jail and measurements taken at the recovery site. Defense arguments have not been detailed in the public filings reviewed so far, and no trial date has been set.
For now, the case stands at the preliminary hearing stage, with Chilcote jailed in Wisconsin on the homicide charge and prosecutors preparing for the next court appearance on April 2. The key public milestone ahead is whether a judge finds probable cause to keep the case moving toward trial.
Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.