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 faces charges of murder after his girlfriend was discovered dead in a different state, a death he describes as “accidental.”
Robert Chilcote, aged 29, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide following his arrest on February 5, the same day authorities found 24-year-old Gabriella Cartagena deceased in a wooded area of Michigan. According to a criminal complaint recently made public and examined by Law&Crime, police reported that Chilcote admitted to shooting Cartagena in the head during a heated argument in his car on February 4, though he insisted the shooting was unintentional.
Investigators, however, suspect otherwise, especially after Cartagena’s mother recounted hearing her daughter pleading for her life during their last phone conversation on February 4.
The complaint reveals that Chilcote made his confession while detained at the Wright County Jail in Minnesota, where officers from the Marinette Police Department had traveled to interrogate him. He had been captured for evading law enforcement and was a fugitive wanted in another jurisdiction. On February 9, Chilcote reportedly called the Marinette Police Department, expressing his willingness to “talk more.”
During this conversation, Chilcote asserted, “It was an accident,” in relation to Cartagena’s demise, before the call abruptly ended. Once reconnected, he was read his rights and began recounting his account of the events on February 4. Initially, he informed the lieutenant he spoke with that Cartagena’s body was in Michigan, though he “didn’t want her out there.”
He was then prompted to describe the incident at Red Arrow Park, where officers discovered “frozen blood” seemingly leading from the park to the parking area. Chilcote explained that he and Cartagena had been arguing in the car. Amid their confrontation, he claimed she was “calling him names” and told him to leave. In an attempt to “scare her,” he brandished his gun, which then “went off,” striking 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.
