Florida-based Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan, who was shot dead execution-style, and his “killer” ex-wife exchanged combative emails before his gruesome murder.
“They can’t tear us down as a family,” she said in a 2017 email obtained by Fox News. “They won’t find happiness if they tear us down. I won’t let them.”
Bridegan was shot and killed in 2022 in front of his car after trying to move a tire that was in the middle of the road, all while his then 2 1/2-year-old daughter sat in the back seat.
Prosecutors believe the scene was a setup orchestrated by his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and her now-husband, Mario Fernandez Saldaña.
Phones, an Apple Watch, laptops and other electronic items were collected during a search warrant at Gardner’s home in West Richland, Washington, in 2023, leading to the discovery of chilling email exchanges between the couple between April and May 2017.
Jared Bridegan was shot to death outside his car as he tried to push a tire off the road in an ambush attack that prosecutors believe was orchestrated by his ex-wife.
Jared’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to her involvement in her ex-husband’s death.
Documents obtained by Fox News Digital provide a more disturbing look at the rocky relationship between the two.
In an April 2017 email with the subject line “Therapy for Kids,” Gardner told Bridegan that her children “are caught in the crossfire of living between two houses” and that she was sending them to therapy.
Despite agreeing that her two children needed therapy, Gardner criticized her ex-husband in another email for not prioritizing their children’s sessions and mental health or providing them with financial help.
Bridegan replied that he would not pay for things that had not been previously agreed upon.
As time went on, the emails seemed to intensify and become more personal.
In another email, Gardner told Bridegan to “move that moralistic pedestal of yours in front of a mirror,” to which he responded: “Why are you ashamed of who you really are? Why do you cover up all your tattoos in court? Why are you not proud of the person you have become?”
He also accused his ex-wife of embezzling money and called her “retarded.”
“Wow Satan, be careful! You should wait to show your cards so soon. I know I’m doing it,” Bridegan wrote in another email response, accompanied by a smiley face.
Emails obtained by Fox News provide further disturbing insight into the two’s troubled relationship in chilling emails exchanged in 2017.
Gardner married her second husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, in 2018, who prosecutors believe was also involved in the murder-for-hire conspiracy.
Fernandez was charged earlier this year and has pleaded not guilty, but faces the possibility of a death sentence along with Gardner.
She later added: “I’m surprised you still underestimate me… or did you think that all those months during our divorce, when you played in the dark so many nights and in so many places, no one was there… again, better not to show your cards so soon.”
Bridegan and Gardner married in 2010, but divorced just five years later.
Although they shared custody of their twins, their divorce was ugly and the two became embroiled in financial and custody disputes.
She married her second husband, Mario Fernández Saldaña, in 2018.
Bridegan was heading back to his home in St. Augustine after dropping off his twin sons with his ex-wife and her husband in 2022 when a tire stopped him in the middle of the road before entering the highway.
The ambush resulted in the 33-year-old father of four being shot multiple times at point-blank range while his young daughter was still strapped into the car seat, bearing witness to her father’s murder.
When police arrived at the scene, they found Bridegan dead next to the open door of his Volkswagen Atlas, which still had its emergency lights on.
Police also said the bullets fired at Bridegan entered the car, just inches from her daughter’s car seat, according to News for Jax.
His ex-wife immediately came under scrutiny due to their nasty divorce. Gardner did not initially speak out about the murder and did not attend her funeral.
While conducting a search of her home last year, one of her sons who was home at the time led police to further evidence, telling officers that his mother kept “important” electronics in her “bedroom closet,” Fox News added.
The boy then whispered to the officer “up” while pointing towards the ceiling.
Gardner was not arrested until six months after the search.
Additional evidence from the collected devices revealed that Gardner was searching for a hitman years before his murder.
Henry Tenon, hired by Gardner and Fernandez, admitted to pulling the trigger and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Text messages between Gardner and a close friend dating back to 2015 were presented to the court, where she used a series of “code words” and repeatedly wished Bridegan would just “go away,” News 4 Jax added.
“Stupid” was Bridegan’s nickname in the messages and “casserole” or “funeral potatoes” were words used to refer to his death.
The text messages also made reference to wanting to find someone “who could shut people up” and perform “permanent disappearing acts,” referring to them as “magicians.”
Gardner and Fernandez Saldana are charged with first-degree murder in Bridegan’s death and have pleaded not guilty. Both face the possibility of the death penalty, according to The Daily Mail.
They are accused of hiring Fernandez’s former tenant, Henry Tenon, and paying him $150,000 to carry out the scheme.
Released documents revealed that Gardner had been considering hiring a hitman years before her ex-husband was murdered.
Bridegan was shot multiple times at point-blank range in 2022, all while his then-two-year-old daughter was still strapped into her car seat, bearing witness to her father’s murder.
The 250-page document from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms revealed that Fernandez’s phone rang at the rented property where Tenon was staying.
Tenon has cooperated with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for pulling the trigger and faces up to 15 years in prison.
He also agreed to testify against the other suspects.
Released court documents and hundreds of pages of police records reviewed by DailyMail.com show investigators have identified five people as “likely” involved in the conspiracy to kill Bridegan.
Despite declining to comment on the status of the investigation, sources close to the case told DailyMail.com that it remains very “active and open”.
