As police prepare to reveal that an arrest is likely to be made in the unsolved murder, the ex-wife of murdered Microsoft employee Jared Bridegan relocated 2,800 miles from Florida to the Pacific Northwest, Fox News Digital has learned.
Shanna Gardner-Fernandez secretly uprooted the 10-year-old twins she had with Bridegan and moved to West Richland, Washington, nearly a year after the father of four was slain in front of his toddler, Bexley, in north Florida.
She said “No, I’m sorry” when prompted to remark on the critical development in the case on Monday. A short while later, she was seen speaking on her telephone in the parking lot of a grocery store while driving a white Tesla.
Bexley, 3, and London, 1, are shared by Kirsten Bridegan, Bridegan’s second wife, and she expressed shock at Gardner-relocation. Fernandez’s
“Honestly, I was shocked,” she told Fox News Digital in an interview Monday. “First, the twins lost their dad, then they were completely cut off from their own sisters, and now they’re being taken away from their school, friends, their sports teams. They are so isolated, and that’s what concerns me.”
Every other week, Jared was in charge of the twins, but Kirsten claims that shortly after Gardner-Fernandez was killed, Gardner-Fernandez cut off all communication with his family.
It’s been a loss on top of that, she said. “My children have also lost their siblings on top of Jared. My stepchildren are gone. I’ve been trying to get in touch for months now, but I’ve had no luck.”
Gardner-Fernandez, 35, and Bridegan, 33, divorced in 2016 but fought in family court until his passing on February 16, 2022, for money and custody of the twins.
A police source told Fox News Digital that an arrest might happen as soon as Wednesday but would not provide further details.
A second source claims that Gardner-Fernandez and her second husband, Mario Fernandez, are still suspects in the unsolved homicide.
Following the murder, the couple hired renowned criminal defence attorney Henry Coxe III, who on Monday declined to comment for this article.
Less than a year after the kids suffered the tragic loss of their father, Gardner-Fernandez took them out of their exclusive Jacksonville Beach school and relocated them to a six-bedroom, four-bath home in southeast Washington’s Tri-Cities neighbourhood.
The modern ranch house was bought in September for $1 million by Whitesand LLC, which names her parents’ Alpine, Utah, address, Shelli and Sterling Gardner, according to property records.
According to IncFact, Shelli Gardner started the papercraft business Stampin’ Up, which generates over $100 million in revenue annually.
She comes from a Mormon family that is well-known in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
This past week, while visiting their daughter and grandchildren in West Richland, they went to a local LDS church’s solitary service on a Sunday.
She comes from a Mormon family that is well-known in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
This past week, while visiting their daughter and grandchildren in West Richland, they went to a local LDS church’s solitary service on a Sunday.
Also in trouble is her second marriage. Neighbors reported seeing Fernandez leave the couple’s $1 million Jacksonville Beach home shortly after the murder, and he did not accompany her on the cross-country transfer.
Public records reveal that it was put up for sale on October 27 and removed from the market on January 3.
Gardner-primary Fernandez’s link to West Richland seems to be Marla Rogers, whom she made at a baking convention in 2020 and who lives next door.
Similar to how Gardner-Fernandez ran her own, now-defunct baking firm, Beach Baked 904, from her Florida home, Rogers runs Marla’s Cookie Co. from her home.
Gardner-Fernandez made a fleeting appearance in a video Sunday that Rogers shared on the Instagram account of her business. Gardner-Fernandez walks into Rogers’ kitchen when she is cleaning up after conducting a cookie decorating class, wearing a shirt that reads, “PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME DO STUFF!”
Jared took his twins and Bexley, who was then 2, to dinner before being shot and killed on February 16, 2022, in Jacksonville Beach. The software developer came upon a tyre in the one-way road as he was leaving the twins at their mother’s house.
As Bexley watched from her car seat, the man got out of his Volkswagen Atlas to relocate it when he was shot repeatedly.
Kirsten remarked, “She has good days where she’s joyful. However, it will take her a lifetime to process those emotions and the trauma of what she experienced. Few facts have been made public regarding the investigation, which was conducted in conjunction with the Fourth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office and the Jacksonville Beach Police Department.
A $55,000 reward is offered for information that results in an arrest after police initially requested for the public’s assistance in identifying a dark-blue Ford F-150 seen on surveillance film close to the crime site.
