Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
ABC 20/20’s Bad Romance will look into the murder of Rhoni Reuter, the girlfriend of former Chicago Bears player Shaun Gayle. The upcoming episode, titled “Death at the Door,” airs on the network this Monday, March 11, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET.
The official synopsis says, “When a former NFL star’s pregnant girlfriend is found murdered on the kitchen floor of her apartment, police begin looking for the killer, but it’s a wired conversation with a friend that leads them right to the killer.”
On October 4, 2007, Rhoni Reuter was seven months pregnant when she was gunned down in her apartment in Deerfield, Illinois. ABC News stated She suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her abdomen. Since Reuter and Shaun Gayle shared an unconventional relationship, investigators began looking at Gayle and the other women he had been seeing at the time.
Police then received several tips that led them to Marni Yang, an aspiring fitness model and mom of three. They found incriminating evidence on Yang’s computer along with a string of other clues that linked her to the crime. Oxygen reported that Yang allegedly confessed to the crime in a conversation with her close friend.
Who was convicted of Rhoni Reuter’s murder?
According to CBS News, in 2011, a jury convicted Marni Yang of Rhoni Reuter’s murder. Prosecutors had alleged that Yang fatally shot Reuter, the long-time girlfriend of former NFL star Shaun Gayle. Moreover, she was pregnant with their daughter at the time of the murder.
Prosecutors believed Yang, who was also romantically involved with Gayle, was jealous of Reuter. During the trial, they played an audio of Yang confessing to the crime to a close friend in an undercover recording. Oxygen stated that she admitted to putting the gun in a bucket of concrete and throwing it in a dumpster. She also claimed to have worn a disguise when she murdered Reuter.
During the initial investigation, authorities knew someone from Shaun Gayle’s complicated love life was behind Rhoni Reuter’s murder. Gayle named Monika Kurowska, a Polish fitness trainer, a possible suspect. The two had met at a Bears event and dated for nine months. However, Kurowska believed they were in a monogamous relationship and was enraged that he had been seeing other women. Gayle later got a protective order against her, reported ABC News.
Kurowska told the outlet in a statement that although she was upset, she decided to end the relationship. She claimed that she never saw Gayle again. However, the former Bears player told police he believed she was sending harassing letters to various people in his life. These people included Reuter, her mother, and the other women he was seeing at the time.
The outlet stated that Kurowska denied sending the letters and maintained her innocence. Additionally, she had a solid alibi – she was at a training session with a client at the time of Rhoni Reuter’s murder. Police eventually ruled out both Kurowska and Gayle as suspects and began focusing on Marni Yang.
How was Marni Yang linked to Rhoni Reuter’s murder?
According to Oxygen, investigators found that Marni Yang had searched the map on Google to Rhoni Reuter’s home on her work computer. She had also bought guidebooks to make a silencer at home in the months leading up to the murder. Moreover, Yang told police she once owned a .9mm gun that had gone missing. The killer had used the same type of weapon to shoot Reuter.
Investigators would eventually find a car rental receipt for a black Volkswagen Rabbit. Surveillance footage had captured a similar vehicle at a gas station near the victim’s house on the morning the murder occurred. Then came the strongest piece of evidence – a confession. Yang’s close friend Christi Paschen wore a wire and secretly recorded their conversation, during which she confessed to the crime.
Marni Yang reportedly said, “I had a wig. I had dark sunglasses this big covering my face—a hoodie on. OK? I had dark makeup on my face and I had gloves on. She opened up the door—she started screaming. I took — took the first shot.”
The case against Yang eventually led to her arrest and conviction in Rhoni Reuter’s murder in 2011. Following this, she received two life sentences. However, she maintains that her confession was false, per ABC7 Chicago. In an interview from prison with her defense attorney, Yang alleged she gave a false confession because police were threatening to arrest her son for the crime.
Yang said, “I made up everything I said. As soon as I saw that wire, I thought it was an opportunity to do it. I was not speaking to her [Christi Paschen], I was speaking to the police through her.”
The convict further said, “I was just not thinking, beyond putting a stop to what was happening to my children. I believed once the case got into the hands of the legal system it would be clear I did not commit this crime.”
ABC’s Bad Romance episode on Rhoni Reuter’s murder by Marni Yang will air this March 11, 2024.
