The former wife of murdered Florida Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan said she was “devastated” by his death, in an interview with Action News Jax.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, 33-year-old Jared Bridegan was shot and killed on February 16, shortly after dropping his twin children off at his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez’s, Jacksonville Beach home.
Court documents indicate that Jared’s daughter, Bexley, who he shares with a second wife, was in the car with him at the time, strapped into her car seat.
Police say Jared saw a rimmed tire in the road while driving back home to St. Augustine; he stopped to check on it when an unknown assailant shot him in front of his toddler daughter before fleeing. Bexley was reportedly in the car for several minutes while her father passed away.
So far, the Jacksonville Beach Police Department hasn’t named a suspect in connection with the case and Gardner-Fernandez maintains her innocence.
“I fell to the floor because I was devastated,” Gardner-Fernandez told Action News Jax, referring to her ex-husband’s death.
According to Fox News, Gardner-Fernandez is from a wealthy Mormon family and had been “engaged in near-constant litigation over custody of their twins” since 2015.
Previous Video Coverage
DailyMail reports that the issues between the pair became so vicious that Jared accused Gardner-Fernandez of spying on him.
“This is enough!!! I should have every damn right on my own property to not constantly be under recording or monitoring by Shanna,” Jared wrote to his divorce attorney in 2015. “I want the flipping gates of Hell released on her for this.”
The pair continued to argue throughout the tumultuous divorce proceedings, with Gardner-Fernandez reportedly accusing Jared of coaching their children to make false statements about her.
When she was denied an investigation into the matter, Gardner-Fernandez allegedly filed a motion against her ex in 2021, accusing him of withholding their son’s breathing machine.
“The father apparently considers his vindictiveness toward the mother more important than protecting his son’s health and life,” her lawyer wrote in the motion filing.
After his death, Gardner-Fernandez and the twins didn’t attend his memorial services, but Gardner-Fernandez told Action News Jax she wasn’t invited.
“It’s messy, I wasn’t invited to the funeral,” she said. “There is so much more to that story.”
Meanwhile, Gardner-Fernandez secured high-powered criminal defense attorney Henry Coxe III, “for the purpose of seeing if steps could be taken to protect her young twins from any publicity surrounding this tragic event.”
The full interview with Gardner-Fernandez will be released Thursday, according to Action Jax News.
Check back for updates.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Feature Photo: Jared Bridegan; Shanna Gardner-Fernandez/Facebook]
