The Murder of Rhoni Reuter
In yet another story of a twisted love triangle, a woman and her unborn baby are dead. It also includes a once famous Chicago Bears football player who was a womanizer. I recently watched the 20/20 episode about this case titled ‘Murder and Scandal in Chicagoland.’ It’s also featured on an episode of Snapped on Oxygen. Before I get into the details of the crime, I will introduce the people involved in this case.
Rhoni Reuter, the victim
Rhoni
Rhoni Reuter was a 42 year old woman when she was murdered. She worked at Macy’s and lived in Deerfield, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), and was expecting her first daughter, with her boyfriend Shaun Gayle. They were technically together, but Shaun had many different girlfriends. Regardless, if Shaun was going to be around for their daughter, Rhoni wanted to have a baby.
Shaun Gayle, the womanizer
Shaun and Rhoni
Shaun Gayle is a former football player. He was a defensive back, and played 12 seasons in the NFL. He played 11 seasons with the Chicago Bears and 1 season with San Diego Chargers.
He was in a relationship with Rhoni, and he told her he was happy about their baby, but told his other girlfriends, he wasn’t. He would talk about it the most with a woman named Marni Yang, who was a fitness model. She was also his “real estate agent,” but Shaun would be her only client.
Marni Yang, the other woman
Marni Yang was a divorced mother of 3. She was also with Shaun the night before the murder. They had a sexual relationship, but he would never commit to her. She also claimed to know of Rhoni, but never met her.
Marni Yang
Murder
On October 4th, 2007, Rhoni was at home getting ready for work when she was shot in the stomach. Her neighbor called 911, shortly before 8am and said she heard a “pop, pop, and heard a woman screaming.” She said it sounded like it was coming from her upstairs neighbor who was pregnant.
When the police arrived, they found Rhoni dead on her kitchen floor. They noticed that most of the shots were aimed at Rhoni’s unborn baby.
An eyewitness said that they saw a short African American man running away from the scene. Once the police learned that Shaun Gayle was Rhoni’s boyfriend, he became their lead suspect.
Investigation
They didn’t have to try to find Shaun Gayle because he called them. He said he was getting calls from the media about Rhoni, and if he was involved. He said he was going to go to Rhoni’s house, and they said to meet them at the Deerfield Police station.
When they interviewed Shaun, they said he was very calm. They asked him where he was that day, and he said he worked out and had gotten a haircut around 10am. The police then asked if anyone else would have wanted to hurt Rhoni, and he gave them a list of about 16 other women he was seeing. He also gave them a name: Monica. He said Rhoni and other women had received letters listing other women that Shaun was involved with. The police had found that very letter in Rhoni’s purse at the scene.
Monica was cleared, she was a fitness instructor and was with a client at the time of the murder. They then moved on to a different woman: Marni Yang. They had gotten a tip from one of Marni’s exes that she might be involved.
Evidence
Marni with was with Shaun the night before the murder. She said they had sex, and then she went home. The police had gotten a search warrant to search Marni’s home. They found stamps and envelopes, just like the ones that were found sent to Shaun’s other girlfriends, and believed Marni sent the letters. She denied this, of course. They also found 2 books she had ordered on how to make a silencer. Apparently, when they found the bullets at the scene, there were some bullets still intact. The investigators said someone who didn’t know what they were doing could have put the silencer together incorrectly.
A friend of Marni’s named Christy Paschen, who was self proclaimed psychic came forward and said she was with Marni when Marni disposed of some evidence, and that Marni had confessed to her. Christy had agreed to work with the police, and wear a wire to get Marni to confess.
Marni met Christy for lunch, and told her:
““[Reuter] started screaming … At that point, I realized we are now at the point of no return, OK? ... And I just started emptying the clip,” “I took maybe one or two steps into the kitchen to finish the job.””
The other damning evidence against Marni is that she rented a car after she said she had “car troubles.” She returned the car a few hours after the murder.
Conviction
On March 15th, 2011, Marni was found guilty of first degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child. She was given 2 life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Marni
Other
Marni claims she knows that she was being recorded that day, and that she was making up the story. She also tried to say this at her trial, and the police were confused about how what she was saying actually matched the crime scene. (I think it’s a load of shit as well). Today, she claims that she’s innocent and her children are on her side.
Marni also claims that her and Christy weren't friends but acquaintances. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have lunch with my acquaintances or spill my deepest darkest secrets to them.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I believe the right person is in jail for this murder. I also think Shaun talked about how he didn’t want to be a father or be tied down to one person, and Marni being infatuated with Shaun killed Rhoni. I believe Marni was obsessed with Shaun, and thought if Rhoni was gone, Shaun would thank her and would want to commit to her.
I also believe Marni is a liar. She’s trying to say that she knew she was being recorded, then why confess to everything and try to say you were making up a story about murdering someone, that’s a little messed up in my opinion.
Sources
https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/marni-yang-today-2020-update/
https://heavy.com/entertainment/2020/05/rhoni-reuter-shaun-gayle-girlfriend-death/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Gayle
