According to redacted records released earlier this month, slain Microsoft employee Jared Bridegan and his murder suspect ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, exchanged acrimonious emails in 2017 about finances, child treatment, and their divorce.
On February 16, 2022, Bridegan was fatally shot in front of his automobile after discovering a tire in the middle of a remote road, in what authorities suspect was a set-up coordinated by Gardner and her now-husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. His daughter, who was two and a half years old at the time, was in the backseat.
Fox News Digital obtained documents through a records request that describe some of the items police seized from Gardner’s West Richland, Washington, house while serving a warrant in February 2023, including phones, an Apple Watch, multiple laptops, and other electronic devices. Gardner would be arrested six months later, in August 2023.
A youngster who was home at the time of the search told police that their mother kept her “important” equipment in her “bedroom closet,” and then murmured “up above” to the office while pointing to the ceiling, according to records.
The docs also include censored photos of heated emails exchanged by Bridegan and Gardner in April and May 2017.
Gardner informed Bridegan in April 2017 that she was sending their children to therapy because they “are caught in the crossfire of living between two houses.” Gardner blasted Bridegan in another email for failing to prioritize therapy sessions or provide “financial assistance for it,” despite agreeing that their two children required therapy.
Bridegan, on his part, stated that he “will not pay for things you and I do not agree to prior.”
In their email correspondence, the two exchanged additional angry remarks. Gardner instructed Bridegan to move “that self-righteous pedestal of yours in front of a mirror.” Bridegan inquired about Gardner: “[W]hy are you ashamed of who you are, why cover up all your tattoos in court, why not be proud of the person you have become?” He also accused her of mismanaging money and labeled her a “retard.”
“Wowwwww Satan, be careful; you really should not show your hand so early. Bridegan responded to Gardner via email, stating, “I know I am [smiley face], and I am amazed you keep underestimating me…During our divorce, did you think it was important not to show your hand so early on?
In May 2017, Bridegan assured his ex-wife that she would not “find happiness by tearing” down his family.
“[Redacted] will be reared in a Christ-centered family. “You will not stop this,” he wrote. “You cannot bring down the entire family. I understand that you live your life without the Spirit, the Priesthood, and the Temple’s benefits. You will not get happiness by dragging us down. I will not allow you to.”
Fox News Digital has contacted Gardner’s attorney, Jose Baez, as well as the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit, for comment.
Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana are suspected of paying $150,000 to alleged hitman Henry Tenon, Fernandez-Saldana’s former renter, to kill Bridegan. Tenon is accused of ambushing and killing Bridegan on Jacksonville Beach on February 16, 2022.
Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana both pled not guilty to Bridegan’s murder. Tenon pleaded guilty to pulling the trigger and agreed to testify against the other defendants.
