Investigators said a missing woman’s final phone call, location data and a later confession helped turn the case into a homicide prosecution.

MARINETTE, Wis. — A Marinette man has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide after investigators said he shot his girlfriend in the head during an argument, moved her body into Michigan and later told police the shooting was an accident.

The charge against 29-year-old Robert Chilcote followed the disappearance and death of 24-year-old Gabriella Cartagena, who was last seen Feb. 4 after leaving home with him in his car. Prosecutors said the case matters because it moved quickly from a missing-person report to a cross-state homicide investigation, with detectives relying on a final phone call, surveillance, cellphone data and Chilcote’s own statements. By late February, he was being held on a multimillion-dollar bond as Wisconsin prosecutors pursued a charge that carries a possible life sentence.

Investigators said Cartagena left home around 5 p.m. on Feb. 4 with Chilcote for what appeared to be a routine errand. Her mother later told police she called her daughter and heard a frightened voice on the line. According to the criminal complaint described in local reports, Cartagena could be heard saying, “I’m sorry. Don’t shoot me. I’m sorry. I didn’t do nothing.” Detectives later placed her phone in the area of Red Arrow Park in Marinette during that call. Authorities said Cartagena never arrived at Walmart, where she was expected to work that evening. Her mother later received a text from Cartagena’s phone saying she was at work and could not talk, but investigators said that account did not match what they found. Police also said Chilcote went to Cartagena’s family home afterward and told relatives she had asked him to bring her clothes to work. She was reported missing the next day.

As detectives began working backward through the timeline, they found evidence that pointed away from a disappearance and toward a violent crime. Investigators reported finding what appeared to be blood in the snow at Red Arrow Park, along with signs that something may have been dragged there. Cellphone location data placed Chilcote’s phone in the same area that evening. Police also learned he later went to work at Walmart at about 10 p.m., stayed until about midnight, bought items and told a supervisor he quit. After that, authorities tracked his movements out of Wisconsin and into Michigan, then to Minnesota. Chilcote was arrested Feb. 5 in Wright County, Minnesota, after a high-speed chase. While in jail, investigators said, he called Marinette police and admitted shooting Cartagena during an argument in the car. According to the complaint, he said she had been calling him names, that he wanted to scare her with a gun and that the weapon went off.

The case turned even more serious when police found Cartagena’s body on Feb. 10 in a wooded area near Birch Creek Road in Menominee County, Michigan, not far from the Wisconsin border. Reports on the complaint said the body was found more than 100 feet from the roadway and covered with snow. Authorities said Chilcote later told investigators that after the shooting he drove into Michigan, dragged Cartagena into the woods and left her there. An autopsy found that she died from a gunshot wound to the head. Public records also described major trauma to her face and body, especially around the eye area. The findings undercut the claim that the shooting was merely accidental, though the exact argument inside the car and the full sequence of movements afterward have not been laid out in open court in detail. What is clear from the charging documents is that detectives believe the fatal shot was fired in Marinette and the disposal of the body happened later in Michigan.

The broader setting gives the case a sharp regional shape. Marinette sits on Wisconsin’s northeast edge along the Menominee River, with Michigan only minutes away. That geography mattered from the start because investigators were not dealing with a crime contained in one county or even one state. The evidence trail crossed from Red Arrow Park in Wisconsin into the woods of Menominee County, requiring detectives to tie together phone records, surveillance evidence, roadside searches and a later recovery scene in another jurisdiction. The victim and defendant also worked at the same Walmart, a detail that made the timeline more concrete for police and showed how ordinary the evening may have looked at first. Publicly available reports do not indicate that investigators had identified a larger motive beyond the argument in the car. They also do not show any public defense explanation beyond Chilcote’s statement that he was trying to scare Cartagena, not kill her.

The legal case is now moving through Marinette County court. Chilcote is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and appeared in court in late February. A judge set his bond at $2 million. If convicted, he could face life in prison under Wisconsin law. The next stages are expected to include further hearings on the evidence gathered from the park, the cellphone data, the recovery of the body in Michigan and the statements he allegedly made after his arrest. Prosecutors will likely center the case on the final phone call, the physical evidence in the snow and Chilcote’s admission that he fired the gun. Defense lawyers are expected to test whether the state can prove intent beyond his claim that the weapon discharged while he was trying to frighten her. For now, though, the court record presents a direct and damaging outline: a missing girlfriend, a park stained with blood, a body found in the woods and a boyfriend charged with homicide.

Chilcote remains jailed as the Wisconsin case proceeds. The next milestone is the court’s review of the evidence behind the homicide charge and whether prosecutors move the case toward trial or a negotiated resolution.

Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.