Robert Chilcote

MARINETTE – A 29-year-old man has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide after admitting to killing his girlfriend, whose body was found last week in Menominee County.

Robert Alan Chilcote was charged with homicide on Saturday. According to a criminal complaint, Chilcote called Marinette Police on Feb. 9 from a Minnesota jail and admitted to shooting his girlfriend, Gabriella Cartagena, during an argument on Feb. 4 in Marinette. Chilcote told investigators he shot Cartagena in the head while attempting to scare her and claimed the shooting was accidental.

Marinette Police found the body of Cartagena on the morning of Feb. 10, in a wooded area near Birch Creek Road in Menominee County. An autopsy performed Saturday determined her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. Law enforcement used cellphone location data, along with information Chilcote later provided to police, to locate the body.

“[Chilcote] said he shot her in the head and he went around to the other side of the car and laid her on the ground,” wrote Marinette Police in the complaint. That initial incident happened at Red Arrow Park in Marinette.

Chilcote told police, Cartagena was bleeding and he was scared and panicking. “Robert said he moved her a bit and confirmed he moved her in front of the dock,” according to the police report.

Authorities further reported finding what appeared to be a trail of blood in the parking lot at Red Arrow Park extending southwest toward the water. Large amounts of blood were also found in the snow between the dock and the shoreline, leading officers to believe a body had been dragged from the parking lot to in front of the dock.

Chilcote told police he initially drove back to Cartagena’s mother’s apartment, where he had been staying for the last few months. He reported he spoke with his girlfriend’s mother, packed his clothes in his car and returned to Red Arrow Park where he put Cartagena in the back passenger side of his car and drove her to Michigan.

The Marinette Police Department initially received a report of a possible missing person on Thursday, Feb. 5 at approximately 11:40 a.m.

Cartagena’s mother reported her daughter had last been seen around 5 p.m. the previous evening, when she left home with Chilcote to get juice for her child, whom she does not share with Chilcote. When the pair did not return after about an hour, Cartagena’s mother called her daughter.

“[Cartagena’s mother] said she heard [Cartagena] pick up the phone and say ‘I’m sorry. Don’t shoot me. I’m sorry. I didn’t do nothing.’ [Cartagena’s mother] said she thought maybe the police had her,” wrote Det. Amy Schoen of the Marinette Police Department in the complaint. The mother also later noted she heard her daughter say “my mom.”

Cartagena’s mother told police that the next time she heard from her daughter was a text at 7:21 p.m. saying her daughter was at WalMart where she worked but she “couldn’t talk right now.” Cartagena and Chilcote both worked at WalMart and first met there. They dated for about six months prior to her death, according to a statement made by Chilcote.

Another text was sent to the mother from Cartagena’s phone, stating she wouldn’t be back before her shift at WalMart, which was 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and Chilcote would come and pick up her clothes for work, which was reportedly not normal for her. It was later determined these texts were sent by Chilcote posing as Cartagena.

Marinette Police arrived at Red Arrow Park shortly after receiving the initial report. Officers “immediately recognized evidence that indicated this area was a potential crime scene,” stated Public Information Officer Brad Beyle during a press conference Thursday.

Nearly two and a half hours after Cartagena was reported missing, the department sent a request for assistance to the Wright County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota as they identified Chilcote as a person of interest in Cartagena’s case.

During the department’s investigation, they were able to locate video from the park area of Chilcote leaving Red Arrow Park and heading to Birch Creek Boat Launch. Residential cameras placed Chilcote in Menominee.

Chilcote’s vehicle’s color and plate number were then sent out statewide. Law enforcement determined Chilcote fled to Minnesota where he was arrested by the Wright County Sheriff’s Office after he leading deputies on a 16-minute chase reaching speeds of 100 mph.

Minnesota authorities said they located three pistols in Chilcote’s vehicle, an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, a shotgun that appeared to be new in the box, a quantity of ammunition in 9mm, 12 ga. and AR rounds.

Chilcote is being held in the Wright County, MN Jail on a $100,000 bond. There are currently no hearings scheduled for Chilcote.

The agencies that assisted the Marinette Police Department include the Marinette County Sheriff’s Office, the Menominee Police Department, the Menominee County Sheriff’s Office, the Wright County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota and the Marinette County District Attorney’s Office.