ABC News Shaun Gayle and Rhoni Reuter
Rhoni Reuter was the girlfriend of Chicago Bears legendary safety Shaun Gayle. Thirteen years ago, the long-time couple were awaiting the arrival of their first child together when Reuter was shot and killed in her home on the morning of October 4, 2007.
On the 20/20 episode airing Friday, May 8, titled “Murder and Scandal in Chicagoland,” ABC News anchor Juju Chang sits down with the woman tried and convicted in Reuter’s murder, Marni Yang.
Here’s what you need to know about Reuter, her relationship with Gayle, and her tragic death.
1. Reuter was 7 Months Pregnant When She Was Murdered
Reuter and Gayle had been together for quite some time, having met at a Bears charity event nearly two decades earlier in Wisconsin. They settled down in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois, and were expecting their first child together — a baby girl — when Reuter was murdered.
Reuter’s brother Thad told ABC News that he’s not sure why they never got married.
“I know Rhoni wanted to be married. I think probably it was because Shaun wasn’t ready,” said Thad, adding, “I wouldn’t think that my sister would have put up with [an open] relationship, knowing her as well as I do. Rhoni was strong-willed. Just don’t believe that she would have put up with that sort of relationship.”
But Gayle told ABC News that they had an open relationship and monogamy was not expected.
2. Reuter Was Shot Twice in the Stomach
Rhoni Reuter, murdered pregnant girlfriend of Chicago Bears Shaun Gayle
According to ABC News, the 911 call from Reuter’s neighbor was quite disturbing: “I heard a woman screaming and then a ‘pop, pop’ and then it went totally silent. I called my neighbor upstairs and she is pregnant and she didn’t answer.”
Reuter, a 42-year-old Macy’s employee, was getting ready for work when someone knocked on the door. An investigator tells 20/20, “Rhoni was in her kitchen, on her way out to work, opened her door and from the shadows gets hit with several bullets.”
The police found her dead on her kitchen floor, shot multiple times with a 9mm pistol. Two of the shots were in her stomach, which led investigators to believe the shooting was aiming for the unborn baby.
“The minute I picked up the phone and heard my mom crying, I knew that something had happened,” said Thad. “It’s just something you never think is going to happen to your family. And I still think I’m going to wake up and it’s going to be just a dream.”
3. Gayle Was the Chief Suspect at First
Shaun Gayle and Rhoni Reuter
Oftentimes in murder cases, especially those inside the victim’s home, authorities look at those closest to the victim first. In this case, there was no sign of forced entry, so the police thought Reuter might have known her killer. After seeing photos of Gayle in Reuter’s apartment, they knew they had to talk to him, but the police didn’t have to go looking for Gayle because he called them before they could even contact him.
“Was it a robbery? A contract killing? Revenge? We had to look at Shaun. Shaun Gayle is the first guy,” said an investigator.
ABC News has the audio of Gayle finding out about Reuter’s murder when he called the police after hearing about the shooting.
“I’m calling about that shooting in Deerfield. This is Shaun Gayle. They’re trying to say they are naming me as a suspect? Was it Rhoni Reuter? Is she ok?” he says frantically, then upon learning she was not OK, he starts crying as he says, “She’s… she’s dead?!”
4. Gayle Pointed a Finger at an Ex Who He Claimed Was Stalking Him
Gayle immediately thought it might be Monika Kurowska, a Polish fitness model with whom he had been romantically involved about a year prior to Reuter’s death. He told the police that their break-up was violence and she had been stalking him ever since.
Gayle showed the authorities threatening letters that his friends and family had been receiving anonymously. The letters claimed Gayle had as many as 18 different girlfriends at the same time.
Reuter and her mother both received one of the letters and Gayle said it devastated Rhoni, but she stood by his side in court when he filed for a restraining order against Kurowska. The police found one of Kurowska’s letters in Reuter’s purse when they searched the apartment on the day of her murder.
5. Marni Yang Was Gayle’s (Phony) Real Estate Agent
The woman who was convicted for Reuter’s murder was Marni Yang, a divorced mother of three who had been posing as a real estate agent to Gayle. As authorities investigated her further, they discovered that Gayle was her only client, that she had stalked him online, and that she had hacked Reuter’s computer.
The prosecutors alleged she was Gayle’s casual sexual partner who had become obsessed with him and when she learned about Reuter carrying his child, she murdered her to eliminate her competition for Gayle’s attention, according to the Los Angeles Times. Initially, investigators could not get any evidence on Yang, but her friend Christi Paschen eventually agreed to secretly record conversations with her friend and in one of them, which can be heard in the 20/20 special, Yang talked about disposing of the gun.
After a lengthy trial, Yang was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, with the judge referencing the “methodical, meticulous and maniacal manner in which [she] committed this crime” in her hearing.
At the time, Gayle’s attorney Donna Rotunno gave a statement on his behalf that said, “The pain has been so unimaginable, and the desire to stop living so strong at times, I do not know how I am still here today. Some may be thinking ‘May God have mercy on your soul,’ but that’s not going to happen. If there is a hell, you will burn in the hottest part of it.”
Gayle later told the L.A. Times, ““Of course I have regrets, the fact that Rhoni is not here and we do not have a 3-year-old daughter. At least I feel Rhoni and the baby are at peace.”
However, in late 2019, a judge allowed Yang’s wrongful conviction petition to move forward. Her attorneys maintain that the confession she made to Paschen was a lie and she only made it because she thought her son was going to be arrested for Reuter’s murder. In the petition, they also argue that only someone much taller than Yang could have fired the shots at Reuter because of the angle at which they were made.
In response to the judge’s ruling, Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim said in a statement to ABC7 Chicago, “This is a formal three-stage process. During stage 1, the judge is only required to review the statements made by the defense attorney. Therefore, to make it from stage 1 to stage 2 was and is expected. At stage 2, we will have the opportunity to respond to the claims made by the defense for the first time.”
20/20 airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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