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 Wisconsin man who was charged with murdering his girlfriend after she was found dead in another state said her death was an "accident."
Robert Chilcote, 29, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide after he was apprehended on Feb. 5, the same day his girlfriend, 24-year-old Gabriella Cartagena, was found dead in a wooded area in Michigan. In a newly unsealed criminal complaint that was reviewed by Law&Crime, police said Chilcote confessed to shooting Cartagena in the head while the two were having a fight in his car on Feb. 4. He claimed that the shooting was "an accident."
Authorities believed otherwise after Cartagena's mother told them she heard her daughter begging for her life on their final phone call on Feb. 4.
According to the complaint, Chilcote made the confession while he was in custody at the Wright County Jail in Minnesota, where members of the Marinette Police Department had traveled to speak to him. He had been arrested for fleeing a peace officer and for being a fugitive wanted in another state. On Feb. 9, Chilcote reportedly placed a call to the Marinette Police Department and said he "was ready to talk more."
Chilcote allegedly stated, "It was an accident," referring to Cartagena's death, before his call was cut off. Once they reconnected, Chilcote was read his rights and started recounting his version of the events of Feb. 4. First, he told the lieutenant he called that Cartagena's body was in Michigan, but 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.