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Family of murder victim Rhoni Reuter concerned about Marni Yang's push for new trial

Family of murder victim Rhoni Reuter concerned about Marni Yang’s push for new trial

The family of murder victim Rhoni Reuter is speaking out for the first time about efforts by her convicted killer to win a new trial.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. - The family of murder victim Rhoni Reuter is speaking out for the first time about efforts by her convicted killer to win a new trial.

Marni Yang is serving two life sentences for killing Reuter and her unborn child, in a case that drew national attention.

But Reuter’s family is worried the new Lake County State’s Attorney may not defend that conviction.

"We believe she is guilty. She admitted to it. She was convicted of it. And we’re going to make sure that Rhoni’s voice is heard," said brother Thad Reuter.

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Rhoni Reuter was seven months pregnant when she was gunned down in her Deerfield home in 2007. She was carrying the baby of former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle, whom she’d been

New info in murder of Shaun Gayle’s girlfriend makes uncomfortable topic even worse

Back in March, just before the coronavirus lockdown, I visited the office of MSI Detective Services on West Fullerton Avenue.

I went to meet with investigator Steve LaPino and MSI president Perry Myers. LaPino is what is known, in common parlance, as a private eye. Myers runs the private detective company his father, Stan, started in 1959.

Downstairs was the spy shop Myers owns, and before I went up to the office, I studied the multitudinous ways a person can snoop on someone else.

We were meeting because LaPino had contacted me about the double homicide in Deerfield 13 years ago, a murder case that was as tragic as it was repugnant.

Rhoni Reuter, seven months pregnant, was gunned down in her condominium by an intruder who was eventually judged to be slight, 5-foot jealous lover Marni Yang. Whom did Yang feel jilted by? According to the prosecutors, former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle.

The old case was sordid, but it seemed complete. Gayle had a host of girlfriends at the time — 16 or 17 of them

After nearly two decades of dating one-time Chicago Bears star Shaun Gayle, Rhoni Reuter was ecstatic to be expecting a baby with the former football pro. 

How to Watch

Watch Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Peacock and catch up on the Oxygen App.

 

 

But Rhoni’s dreams of becoming a mother would never materialize after the 42-year-old was chillingly gunned down in her Deerfield, Illinois condo in what appeared to be a targeted attack, according to Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. 

The cold-blooded murder left police wondering: Who could have wanted the kind and compassionate Rhoni dead? 

Rhoni Reuter and Shaun Gayle's Relationship

Investigators took a hard look at Gayle himself and the many women in his orbit at the time of Rhoni’s death — including one jilted lover who was seemingly sending bizarre letters to the women Gayle dated to warn them of his womanizing ways.

RELATED: Did A Woman Really Confuse Her Husband For a Bear On A Canada Hunting Trip Or Was It Murder?

Although Rhoni and Gayle had been dating for 17 years after meeting at

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