Wisconsin Woman’s ‘Second Shot at Love’ Ends In Murder

(phone ringing) - Winnipeg on 911. - Uh, a man with a shot. - Are you with the person right now? - Yes. - He breathing. - Yes. - Okay, where is the assailant? - Somewhere in the house. - Okay, it's a male, female. - Female. - Can you kind of arrest me from the murder? - I didn't do it. - If I shot somebody, I'd have a whole lot more blunt on me. - He was my second shot at love. He's not dead. He can't be dead. (dramatic music) - I don't see his death. - Yeah. - It's a family out here. - Why are you here? - I want my attorney call you. - No, I'm leaving. (dramatic music) - It's just after 5 a.m., when officers respond to an unusual report at a residence near downtown Manasha, Wisconsin, a city nestled in the peninsula of Lake Winnebago. Manasha is known for its peaceful parks and safe walkable communities. Residents use neighborhood watch apps to read posts about missing pets and fickle weather near the lake, but not usually about anything dangerous. Most of the community's crimes are barely considered misdemeanors like unlicensed dogs and underage drinking. Police in Manasha are more concerned about teens vaping or missing school than they are worried about reports of murder. Until the early morning of February 24th, 2024, when the Manasha PD gets a call that an elderly man has been shot in his own home. - Winnebago 911. - A man with shot. - Where is the fat? - Shroom Street. - Okay, are you with the person right now? - Yes. - Okay, is he breathing? - Yes. - Okay. Do you know how old he is, roughly? - I'm 71. - What part of the body was injured? - Yes. - Okay, all right. Where are you at in the house? - In the front porch. Okay. - Squad cars rushed to the scene. Outside, officers meet with the 911 caller. The caller is renting a room in the basement of the victim's home. He tells law enforcement he heard arguing upstairs, followed by a single gunshot. Officers enter the home with firearms drawn, unsure of who they might confront. - Okay, where is the assailant, do you know? - Somewhere in the house in the bathroom area. - Okay, is a male, female. - Female. - Female? - Yes. - Can you tell me what she's wearing? - No. - What they see inside the home is not what anyone expected. Officers find their suspect lying naked on the couch. She's covered by a blanket, but it's obvious she isn't wearing any clothing. The nude woman is 55-year-old Catherine Chesky. She's small about 120 pounds and five foot four inches tall. And in her current state, she doesn't appear threatening. But officers know things aren't always as they appear. Chesky denies a shooting ever took place at the home, but police have a deceased male victim upstairs with a gunshot wound. Several firearms in the home, including one in the bathroom sink, bullet casings on the carpet, and a witness outside who heard gunfire. According to Chesky, if someone did shoot a gun, it couldn't have been her. She tells police she's blind and wouldn't be able to hit a target if she tried. The naked woman has no alibi, no clothes, and apparently no idea what's going on inside her home. But she does have blood on her hands, literally. Right in the crevices of her fingers, the question now is, does it belong to her, or the man upstairs? Police put Chesky in handcuffs and struggle to place her in the back of the squad car. She's screaming, kicking, thrashing, and, yes, still naked, though police have attempted to cover her with a blanket. One officer runs inside to gather clothing for Chesky, and a female officer on scene helps her get dressed. Then they take her downtown to the Manasha Police Department. - You weren't gonna give me a smoke. - I need that. - You guys. - You can have a rest of me. - Really? Really? I didn't do anything. I think about telling myself every minute of the day. So, I got so hot, I didn't tell anybody. I wouldn't. I do have the right to see my son before I leave the station, don't I? No, no, no, no, because you've had it too long. - You're in a truck and an outside, right? I need to see my son. - I knew we were gonna have a rest of me. So you sat there and said, "No, we're just trying to hit the story." You were so full of f---ed, you were arresting me from murder. And I didn't use anything. - This unusual situation gets even stranger for investigators. Eski requests that a dog join her in the interrogation room. She claims she has trained the dog to help with her alleged disability. - Oh, I couldn't help. - I'm trying to get back from my vision. - Now, we know the dog's name. - You're in a trap. - That's when it cruts. - Would you go by it? - Please tell me something. - No, no, please. Just tell me he's not dead. Please tell me he's not dead. This is some kind of girl joking, then. - Oh my God, no. - No. - Oh my God. - Oh God. - Look, you have a f---er. - You f---er. - He's not dead. - He can't be dead. - He can't be dead. - He can't be dead. - Okay. - We have to go through a couple things. - Okay. - Please tell me he's not dead. - Okay. - My office. - I can't do that. - Oh my God, no. - Okay. - I made you the focus with us though. - Thank you. - Oh. - All right, we made you the focus. Look at us. - Oh my God. - We, we were starting a business together. - I was on a business. - No. - We had a business together. - Oh my God. - Oh my God, no. - I see, are you injured at all a cat? - No. - Cause I see some blood on your hands. - No. - Just look at your hands. Just make sure you're not injured at all. - No, no. - I probably pulled a nail or something. - No. - All right. - Just say it again. - I just want to make sure you're injured at all. - No, you're not hurt. - I take the gun away from him. - Okay, we'll be fine. - I'm going to bed for a minute. I'm just going to wait for him. Now how can he be dead? I took the gun away from him. - Cat? - I heard the gun go off. And I took it away from him, and I took it to the room. - He's cat-knooking me. - All right. I need your help so we can help you. Okay? Oh, I'm so deep breath. The shooting victim, Fucheski, refers to as her second shot at Love, love is identified as 71-year-old Air Force veteran Thomas A. Gayette, who many called Tom. After Gayette's time in the military, he opened a taxi cab company and became well-known in his community. His obituary describes him as a devoted husband, one who had been married for 30 years, but not to the woman police found lying naked on his couch. "Cat, look at me. Do you go by cat? Can I call you Cat or is it Catherine?" "No, you can call me Cat." I need you to focus to help me help you, okay? My name is Vicki, Matt's Denton. Are you good with talking to us to kind of go through some things because we got some questions for you, but we have procedures. In order to go through our procedures, it's one of the system form right here because we have lots of questions. You have lots. I know that you want to talk here and do some things. but I just need you to read you this form. - Are you okay with that? - He is, I can't read it. - I'm usually in here. - Chesky is hesitant to sign the paperwork agreeing to speak with officers because, as she puts it, she's been through the system before. - If I ask if I'm being arrested, do you have to tell me I am or not? Or can you just (beep) - No, you're not on her. - Oh well, I'm been handcuffed, I've been detained, I am been able to have a cigarette. - I've had to wait to see my dog. And I'm being told, Tom is dead, which I don't believe. I don't believe it, I hate it. - Catherine, that's just 'cause those officers that showed up out there, they don't know what's going on, right? You don't have handcuffs on you right now. - No more, I don't have money right now, but they rushed me on, I'm out of (beep) naked as (beep) and stunk without a (beep) blanket on or nothing. - And they handcuffed me and sent me back to the conference without anything at all. - You could understand where those officers are coming from, right? - No, I don't. - Because I kind of don't believe what's going on. - But Tom can't be back. - Those weapons used tonight, right? So when officers go into a scene, they gotta make sure what happened, we're trying to find out what happened. And so everyone that we spoke to, was brought back to the police department, so we have to read this way. - You're in a room with our two officers. We want to know what's going on. - Do what God would do to it. - I had to. - No, you were having bad, are you it? - It wasn't really bad, did you? - Oh my God, I don't have it. You won't find it. - You're not a no-ho, yeah, I am. Is there anything else that's, we need to know, no? - No, no, no. (laughs) - I can't fire a gun, I mean, I can't. (laughs) There's no way I could ever aim and shoot, and actually hit something. - Let's go back. - And if I did, I mean, I mean, it would be like, oh, one shot. Better play the lottery than, huh? (laughs) Evil and blind. That's what Chesky has told police about herself. Could she be leaving out that she's also a skilled marksman? Police will hear about that later. Either way, Chesky seems like an unlikely partner for a beloved Air Force vet known for making friends with anyone who hopped into the back seat of one of his taxi cabs. So who was Thomas Gayette to her? A lover and business partner? Or someone standing in the way? The more Chesky talks to police, the clearer a possible motive becomes. Cold, hard, cash. - And then, her mom's wife left him. She moved back to New York. And he got released up two years. And then he stole this company to Chris. And I can't give you less names 'cause I don't know them. A broke cab is for a lot of years 'cause I don't know. So, but he stole the company to Chris. And then, we Chris realized that Tom wanted me as a part of the company. Chris took up. Chris was living upstairs at the time. - Okay. - And then he decided to take off. - And then, don't, and then he said, "Aggie, good girl." - Good listener. - Good girl. - Okay. - You guys got to be (beep) for me. Tom. - Well, so, we-- Tom's never got away. - Yeah. - No, he's not alive. - So-- - He can't be, 'cause we're getting married. - So it's very, like that's why what you can tell us is very, very important for us. - I see. - Everything of how that happened, right? - So you want to know everything that happened tonight. - Mm-hmm, it's very important. And you don't give a (beep) about the raster. - Well, I care about the raster, absolutely. - But you don't give a (beep) about the company and all that stuff, right? - No, I think it's important. - Yeah. - How are you guys doing with the business? You drive campus? - No, I don't drive, 'cause I can't see. I'm the dispatcher from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. - Oh, wow. - No. - Okay, my mom's still in the money bag. - What do you mean by that? - My, my, my auntie left me quite a bit of money. - Okay. - So I have kind of financed this company. My time wanted to restart it. - Okay. - I took a lot of money out of my investments to restart it for her. And, because I thought I knew it would go good. I knew it would go good. I mean, he's, he had the company before and part of the reason Aggy, no, how did you meet Tom? We met in the cab. - According to Chesky, she and Guyette met after a night out on the town. Chesky had a few drinks and needed a cab ride home. She let out a whistle and Guyette opened the door for her. That's how the two became acquainted, but Chesky says they didn't become romantic until April 2023. Before that, Chesky was in an abusive relationship. Guyette was in a relationship too, married for 30 years to a woman who, according to Chesky, up and left him when she moved east to New York. Chesky alleges her own romance with Guyette blossomed around the time she underwent hip surgery. She asked Guyette to watch after her dog Aggy while she recovered, but Guyette was compassionate and unafraid of a little hard work. Chesky says he took it upon himself to care for her too. She tells police their relationship was great. The night of Guyette's death, Chesky says they enjoyed the evening together at a local supper club. Then around 5 p.m., they returned back to Guyette's home. Inside, there are guns scattered in each room. Narcotics and other medications found outside of prescription pill bottles. Cash in strange spots, alcohol bottles near the bedside and hundreds may be thousands of bullets strewn about the home. Between the cash, drugs, and Chesky's statement, there's plenty for police to speculate about motive, but nothing at the scene necessarily screams murder. Nothing except the deceased 71-year-old lying in bed with a bullet wound through the chest. And the alleged arguments that ensued right before the gun went off. "We started arguing. Oh, we're still (bleep) over because I closed my eyes while I sat back and I just wanted to relax from it. And I closed my eyes and it looked like, "Oh, now you know when I have sex no more." "What is that I have to do with me just causing my eyes?" So is that, is that kind of a kick-doth? The argument was insane. You don't have sex anymore. That was what kicked it off. Okay. From there, things escalated quickly. Chesky claims that Guyette, who was still married, allegedly accused her of trying to cheat on him. And he's like, "Well, this isn't us." And I'm like, "Okay, what do you mean this isn't us?" "Well, I went through your phone while we were at the surprise "and the store, and I saw a text message from Rich." That said, "Do you want to go see a band tonight?" And I said, "Well, did I answer it?" He said, "Well, no." I'm like, "So then, what's the issue?" I didn't answer it. I wasn't, "Oh, you're lying and you're trying to cheat behind my back." And I'm like, "No, I'm not!" I don't understand where you're coming from. And then it's just turning into this big blown-out argument, "Oh, I'm a mooney in company." And it, it, it, it, I never should have even gotten involved in. And it just turned into a big alignment. And he's like, "Oh, you just don't care about me. "You give too sh*t about me. "You just can't wait till I die." And I'm like, "What are you talking about?" You asked me a marry when I said, "Yes, even before you divorced." "What the f*ck are you talking about?" And, and next thing I knew, he went in the room, and. And the gun went off and I went in the bedroom. I heard him warning, but I didn't think he really did anything. Because he threatened me before with it. - Let's get to the point where you're still, and I don't like a job, but let's just get to the bone where you're still arguing in the outside of the bedroom. Where are you guys? - On the couch, on the couch. - We're actually on the couch. He's on the side, I'm on the side. - Okay. - All right, so are you going to this happen? Is anything physical? - No. - No. - Nothing physical. - What's the last word you remember him saying, too? - The last word he said to me was, I'm going in the bedroom. (beep) I'll tell you, I'll talk to you later. - What do you say? And when I heard the gun. - The more she speaks, the more Chesky's story begins to unravel. Starting with her claim that Gaia must have taken his own life. - He just pulled it out and said, wouldn't you like it better if I shot myself in that? I said, you know what, tell him if you're going to play that joke game on me, do what you've got to do. And maybe I was wrong for that. I always told me you would never commit suicide, because the sister commits suicide. And you would never let anybody clean up that mess. You would never do it, you would never do it, you would never do it. - So then, someone else must have pulled the trigger. And there was only one other person there. That's the naked truth. - Kermits fought out guns before it. - Did you shot out guns before in the house? - Yeah. There holes in the house, in the ceiling, in the floor. He did that before I was with him. He did it with his ex-wife, but. - So you never saw or heard him shooting before in the house? - No, when he was with me, no. The gun went on. I heard him wrong. - Did you call 911? - No, I didn't, because I thought he was (beep) and it went on to me. Because he dumbed us before. He threatened to shoot him so before. You okay? - So, you're sitting in the chair. - And you sitting in the living room, and the guy goes up. - Yep, no, this is fast. - And I can go in the bedroom, and I take the gun off the bat. And I take the gun, and I go back and sit, and I'll live in that room. - Right, and that's the point where we're at right now. You can concentrate on this part. You're sitting here. - I'm just sitting there. - I didn't do any, I didn't go anywhere, and I just got off again. I didn't do any, I just held the gun, and I sat in the chair, and I heard him morning. But I didn't do it. - No, no, you're wrong. - Did you see anyone else while you were sitting in the chair? - I think I heard Joe, come up from downstairs, but I don't remember seeing him. - You are ever seeing him? - No. - You just remember hearing him come up? - I think I heard him. I think I heard him. I don't know. I don't know from that point. - Once I took the gun, I don't know. Once I took the gun off of that, I don't know. I don't know anything. - After Chesky took the gun with her into the living room, she says she put it on the couch. She tells the investigators that she thinks the tenant in the basement might have come upstairs at some point, but she doesn't remember. What Chesky does remember and what she keeps circling back to is the alleged argument she and Gayette got into and what it was over. - We got into such a big argument. Oh, we're still full of stuff. We're really stupid stuff. - Mainly over money. It was mainly over money. - All right, and then you tonight, you had said something to her that he was hitting the walls and stuff, which walls were she hitting? - I hear, like where the bedroom door would be. - Where is the bedroom? - This is a bedroom. So where the bedroom door would be, he was standing in the doorway, like right in the doorway. He was taking the door and hitting himself in the head with that. - And where were you when he was doing that? - Where were you when he was doing that? - College. - So he was right there, there's the bedroom. - Still sitting on the recliner, y'all. - All right, and then this isn't at y'all? - No, you didn't throw anything at me. - All right. - Not that I can't remember, right? - You don't remember anything but wads of money? - Oh, yeah, he threw money at me, because I brought up the fact that it was my money, but got the company started. There's my money that got the second car on the road right now. It's my money that got the insurance paid on the cars, all right? And he was treating me like a piece of garbage, and that's what I said to him. I said, "That's all my money." But he kept telling me what a (beep) that was, and it was like, "You know what, I'm gonna throw something at you." - You know, and you don't want to accept the fact that it's my money that has got you here. - So you're really, I mean, he was saying it's really, really. - He was being awful to me. He was being awful to me. - It's clear, some kind of altercation took place between the couple, but that still leaves detectives with a question about one strange piece of information they got at the very start of their investigation. Why was Chesky naked? - Help me understand, because when the officers get there, you don't have any clothes on, right? - No, 'cause I was, I was getting ready to go to bed. - So you're getting ready to go to bed? - I can't really go to bed. - Yeah, yeah, okay. - And then, that's when you've been with her. I was getting ready to go to bed with her. That's when you got in bed. My clothes were in the living room, and the gun went off, and I went in the bedroom, and I took the gun, and went back in the living room, 'cause I wasn't gonna let him play with my head. - I didn't know he actually did anything. I swear to God, I didn't know. - So you keep all your clothes in the living room? - Yeah, okay. - Oh my clothes, yeah, I mean, even behind the college, there's a whole big pile of my clothes back there. - Chesky, having been naked as a skunk when police arrived on scene, means the clothing she was wearing earlier in the night is still at the house. If she did, shoot Guyette. There could be blood or gunshot residue left on the fabric. - I don't know if there's some kind of joke. I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. I didn't see no blood when I took the gun. So if I didn't see no blood when I took the gun, how was he that? You didn't see me. - Well, you're not showing me any proof. You're not showing me, you're not, you're not shh. If I took the gun off the bat, and there was no blood, how was he that? He can't be. He was just can't be. I was gonna marry him. He can't be. So I'm not joking about him. - No, you are, you have to be. 'Cause unless I see him, you're gonna have to show him. Unless I see him, I don't believe you. I don't believe you. Nope, I don't believe you. I don't believe you. Not at all. - Chesky's story is full of holes, but there is one part that seems to be true. There's a lack of blood at the scene. The 911 caller told Dispatch the same thing. - There's a bleeding coming from his chest and I know that he was hit with chest. There's not, you know, okay. - By the blood spatter on his pillowcase, it appears Guyette was shot in his bed. But there doesn't appear to be many blood stains on his t-shirt, which has a bullet hole in the chest, right about where his heart would have been. The perfect target for a scorned lover with ample shooting practice. - Would you went to the range a couple? - Yeah, a little more. - Yeah, a little more to the range. Like, four minutes ago. - Right. - Err. - F*** was with us. He had to tell you what range we were at. And she was about a shot. - Then she didn't tell him four shots. - That was shot in times? - Yeah, I had it shot in four shots and then he only hit it once. - Even being where she can't see herself. - Then I can't see f***. - That doesn't mean that I did anything. - Was it an indoor ranger or an outdoor ranger? How do I rinse? How do I rinse? And then he put the target up, he loaded it, he gave me the line and he's like, "Go ahead, try it." There's also the blood officer's saw on Chesky. "Do you remember the one I don't know?" "No, I don't know. We're in what blood?" "So there's blood on your hand?" "No, right at the left hand, sorry. I'm the left hand." "I'm right there." "I'm right there." "Yeah." "Because I hit a sore there and I pulled it." "Okay." "I mean, you can see it. I mean. " "Yeah, that's why I just wanted to find out." "I hit a sore there." "And I'm not. " "I mean, I'm sure if I shot somebody, I have a whole lot more blood on me." "You know, I mean. " "You're gonna arrest me." "No, no, no." "So, I'm still trying to just get your foot out of this story." "Right?" "Well, I'm trying to. " "I mean, I don't know how much more I can say." "So what do you say?" "I'm being as honest as I can." "I mean, I'm showing you pictures. I'm showing you everything." "So when you say, you're getting ready to arrest me, what would I arrest you for?" "I don't know. I kind of know some of this goes. You just talk too much. You're going to be talking yourself into a cell." Despite over an hour of denying her involvement and refusing to accept that Gayet has died, Katharine Chesky insists that investigators have plans to arrest her. "You have no reason to trust me, right?" "But what I'm telling you is I'm not here to twist your words. I'm not here to play any games." "No, but do you want to arrest somebody?" "No. If Thomas did this to himself, why would I want to arrest somebody?" "If Thomas truly did this to himself, why would I want to arrest someone?" "Right?" "We have suicides all the time. I don't try to arrest people in suicides. If that's truly what happened. But if something got out of control. " "Nothing got out of control." "I took the gun away from him. I heard him groaning and I took the fuck gun away from him." "And I'm not saying you're lying. I know I'm going to kind of give you my little disclaimer here. I'm not saying you're lying about anything." "But you're not saying I'm tongue. I'm not doing it." "You're under arrest for her." "No, so don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way. This is a standard disclaimer that I'll do in any case." "Right?" "Avidence doesn't lie. Things that are out of that scene, things that are going to be seen as far as how the bullet entered the body, how far away it was, all of those things are going to be done. It is in the best possible thing if something got out of control or something accidentally happened." "Oh, okay. See, this is where you get me. This is where you're saying, "Oh, something got out of control." Or something accidentally happened. "Cat, what happened?" "Cat, I'm not saying that happened tonight." "What, that's what you're doing." "No, no, this is my disclaimer. We're going to look into all of those things. And the last thing I want to see happen is the evidence not match up with the story." Chesky requests a lawyer before answering any more questions from investigators, but not before they execute a warrant to perform a gunshot residue test. Investigators also perform a DNA swab for the blood found on her fingers. But as investigators prepare for the swab, Chesky quickly begins picking at an old wound on her hand in an attempt to reopen it. Officers are able to pull her hands apart and stop her, but the behavior strikes them as suspicious. The gunshot residue test comes back positive, and police have enough evidence to charge Chesky with first degree intentional homicide. She's taken to the Winnebago County Jail, and her bond is set at $1 million. Ten months later, in December 2024, Chesky faces trial for shooting and killing her second shot at love, Thomas Guyette. The jury deliberates for four hours before finding Catherine Chesky guilty of homicide. She's sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. If granted, Catherine Chesky will be 85 years old by the time she leaves prison. [MUSIC]