Five days after Gabriella Cartagena’s family heard her pleading for her life before vanishing, the Wisconsin woman was found dead in a wooded area in Michigan – and her boyfriend is in custody.
The 24-year-old was last seen around 5 p.m. on February 4 at her home in Marinette, Wisconsin. Around 7:20 p.m. that same night, Cartagena made a troubling phone call to her mother.
Family members later told police that during the phone call, they heard Cartagena in distress as she cried, “Please don’t shoot me. I’m sorry.”
Cartagena was reported missing the next day. Her body was found five days later in a wooded area off Birch Creek Road in Menominee County, Michigan.
Investigators learned from the family that Cartagena was believed to be with her boyfriend, 29-year-old Robert Chilcote, at Red Arrow Park in Wisconsin. He was identified as a person of interest, police confirmed at a press conference Thursday, FOX11 reported.
When officers initially responded to the park after receiving the missing persons report, they found signs of blood and immediately treated the area as a crime scene, Marinette Police Department Chief John LaCombe said.
“While looking around the scene, we found some signs of possible blood and other disturbances in the area, which led us to believe that this was a scene we needed to focus on from the start,” LaCombe said.
Police tracked Chilcote in Minnesota and on February 5, after a 16-minute car chase that reached speeds of up to 100 mph, Chilcote was taken into custody.
“There was weapons found in the vehicle,” LaCombe said. “I don’t know if those were the weapons used in this incident or not. There was several firearms located in his vehicle at the time of his arrest in Minnesota.”
Chilcote, who is from the Marinette area, had no known ties to Minnesota, LaCombe added. It took another four days to find Cartagena’s body.
Using surveillance footage from area businesses and cell tower data to track Chilcote’s movements after her disappearance, police were led to a wooded area near Birch Creek Road in Menominee County.
Police said they searched the area repeatedly before locating Cartagena’s body Tuesday morning. LaCombe said he believes Cartagena was killed at Red Arrow Park and later transported to the wooded area in Michigan.
Chilcote is being held on a $100,000 bond in Minnesota on charges of fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle and being a fugitive from justice from another state.
Marinette County District Attorney DeShea Morrow said her office is awaiting the results of Cartagena’s autopsy before filing charges. She added that the extradition process is underway to bring Chilcote back to Wisconsin.
Authorities have not released a motive. It’s unclear how long Cartagena and Chilcote had been together, but police say the two lived together in Marinette and there were no prior domestic disturbance reports involving the couple.
LaCombe said Chilcote is the only suspect and does not believe anyone else was involved.
“We remain committed to seeking justice and ensuring the safety of our community,” LaCombe said.
Cartagena, who moved to Marinette from the Milwaukee area about a year ago with her family, leaves behind a three-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, her family said.
A GoFundMe created by Cartagena’s brother states that “their family is still trying to process this sudden loss.”
