Man accused of leaving girlfriend’s dead body in a dumpster

The argument Arturo Taylor had with his longtime girlfriend started with words. But the fight in a northwest suburban hotel room quickly turned violent, Cook County prosecutors argued in court this week.

They accused Taylor of strangling his girlfriend, Colleen Bagley, 50, and fatally stabbing her twice in the chest on Feb. 21 with a butcher knife. He then dumped her body near a dumpster, prosecutors said.

At a detention hearing Monday, Judge James Murphy ordered Taylor held pending trial, according to court records. The 54-year-old Fox Lake man faces a charge of first degree murder.

In ordering his detention, Murphy said he posed a threat to the community and was a convicted felon with a “violent history,” including aggravated battery, according to court records.

Bagley’s brother, Jason Ehardt, told the Tribune in a phone call Wednesday that when he learned his sister had been brutally killed, his first thought was “I hope they got her.” He described her as an “outgoing” and “kind” person, and fondly remembers them frequently hanging out as children in parks. She had several adult children, he said.

“I wish we spent more time together,” Ehardt said. “I’m going to miss her.” Ehardt said that for years he only heard about Bagley through sporadic phone calls. She struggled with drug addiction, as did her boyfriend, he said. But he never imagined that something so horrible could happen.

Captured on surveillance footage

Surveillance footage was captured hours before Bagley’s death on Feb. 21 at an Elk Grove Village hotel in the 2400 block of Landmeier Road. The couple, who had lived together for nine years, had lived at the hotel for about two years, prosecutors said.

The footage showed Bagley throughout the day walking in the parking lot and shopping at a nearby Walgreens store, where she purchased bleach. Just before 7 p.m., Taylor is shown on video entering their bedroom, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors alleged the couple got into a verbal altercation over another resident of the hotel Taylor had spent time with that evening. Taylor then strangled Bagley and stabbed her with a folding knife and a “large” butcher knife, prosecutors alleged.

On February 25, Taylor was again filmed around 2 a.m. walking toward the dumpsters in the hotel parking lot. He was carrying a pink trash bag, prosecutors said.

Hours later, a witness walking in the parking lot found Bagley’s body wrapped in a white blanket with a pattern of blue checkmarks next to the dumpster, prosecutors said.

Elk Grove Village police were called to the hotel and Bagley was pronounced dead. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a homicide caused by multiple sharp force injuries.

Inside the dumpster, officers found a suitcase covered in Bagley’s blood. In the couple’s bedroom, police recovered two knives, Taylor’s shoes and jeans, all stained with blood, prosecutors said. Blood stains and dried bleach also covered the floor.

Police also found a pillow with the same checkered pattern that Bagley’s body was wrapped in, prosecutors said.

As police investigated at the hotel, Taylor agreed to be interviewed. At the police station, he tried to hang himself and was briefly hospitalized, prosecutors said.

However, he later admitted to strangling and stabbing Bagley twice because she “pulled a penknife on him,” prosecutors said. He said he put Bagley’s body in a suitcase and threw it down the stairs, but couldn’t put it in the dumpster. He also said he tried to clean up the blood but became “very tired” and was unable to clean it all up, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also said Schaumburg police responded to another hotel in 2023 to escort Bagley and Taylor from a room for nonpayment. At the time, Bagley told an officer she feared Taylor would become physically aggressive toward her.