Police in Jacksonville, Florida, believe a former swinging cop may have played a role in the plot to murder Microsoft Florida executive Jared Bridegan, DailyMail.com has learned.
John Biggerstaff, 56, a disgraced former reserve officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, is one of two other suspects in the 2022 murder of the father of four.
Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, 36, her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 35, and his former tenant, Henry Tenon, 62, have been charged in what investigators say was a coordinated murder plot against remuneration.
It was Feb. 16, 2022, when Bridegan, 33, was driving home after dropping off his twins from his first marriage at their mother’s home in Jacksonville Beach when he stopped to move a tire that, according to police, had been deliberately placed on the road to attract him. from his vehicle.
He was shot at point blank range while his little daughter Bexley – then just two years old and one of two children from his second marriage – was strapped into her child seat in the back of the car.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Gardner and Fernandez Saldana, who have pleaded not guilty. Tenon, meanwhile, is cooperating with prosecutors who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and faces a sentence of at least 15 years.
Biggerstaff, who was convicted and served time for sex trafficking and drug offenses and described by police as a “long-time associate” of Fernandez Saldana. has not yet been charged with the murder.
John Biggerstaff, 56, is named as one of two other suspects in the murder of Jared Bridegan, a father of four.
Bridegan was shot multiple times at close range in what police described as an “ambush” and “targeted” attack on February 16, 2022, in front of his then two-year-old daughter in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
Biggerstaff, seen in exclusive DailyMail.com photos, served time for sex trafficking and drug offenses. He has not yet been charged in the murder case
Biggerstaff and his wife Maria (pictured), who is not involved in the crime, are believed to be swingers. Images of Fernandez Saldana with Biggerstaff’s wife were recovered from his home computer, police report says
But newly released court documents and hundreds of pages of police files, reviewed by DailyMail.com, show investigators have identified five people as having been “probably” involved in the plot to kill the father of four, the ‘one of them being Biggerstaff.
And although prosecutors and police declined to comment on the status of the investigation, sources familiar with the matter told DailyMail.com that it remains very “active and open.”
Court documents filed by investigators in January and February 2023 show they requested continued access to wiretaps and interception of calls made by the five alleged co-conspirators.
In these documents, Biggerstaff’s name is redacted but many biographical details are given.
It is noted that the suspect referred to as “Target #5” has known Fernandez Saldana for many years, that Fernandez Saldana dated his daughter in high school, that he had military training, and that he is a former police officer reserve and a convicted felon.
Police questioned Biggerstaff regarding the murders on Monday, August 22, 2022.
Records from this interview indicate that Biggerstaff served in the Navy for 22 years. He told officers that Saldana dated his daughter in high school and that he and the younger man became sparring partners for years before Saldana left for the military.
Court records also note that the suspect identified as Target #5 “admitted he possessed a 10mm caliber pistol, but stated he did not know where it was.” A 10mm pistol was used to murder Bridegan.
Recordings of Biggerstaff’s 2022 interview show that he both admitted to possessing such a weapon and claimed not to know where it was. The report also shows that police believed he had “lied” to them.
Biggerstaff told his interviewers that he and Fernandez Saldana reconnected when the young man returned to Jacksonville Beach after his brief stint in the military.
At the time, Biggerstaff ran a handyman business and did some work at the rental property where Tenon was a tenant. He told police he hadn’t seen Tennon in “a year or two” and “didn’t really know him.”
Police questioned Biggerstaff about the murders on Monday, August 22, 2022. DailyMail.com obtained the report which states: “Biggerstaff said the conversation (with Fernandez Saldana) was personal in nature. Biggerstaff said he and his wife were swingers.
Jared’s ex-wife Shanna is seen in his photo after pleading not guilty to several charges related to the murder of her ex-husband Jared Bridegan.
Alleged shooter Henry Tenon, 62 (left), said he was willing to testify that Mario Fernandez Saldana, 35 (right) and his wife hired him to kill Jared.
Biggerstaff’s was one of several cell phones subpoenaed by investigators, and court documents reflect the investigator’s assertion that “cell phone records link the conspirators.”
When police downloaded the contents of the phone Biggerstaff gave them, they found that all text messages between him and Fernandez Saldana had been deleted through May 2022.
But according to court documents, “toll records show a significant increase in contact (between suspects) immediately before and after the murder, compared to the otherwise sporadic contact between them during the six weeks preceding the murder.”
They note that the suspect “had frequent telephone and in-person contact with Fernandez Saldana the day before, the day and the day after the homicide.”
When interviewed by police, Biggerstaff was specifically asked about his communications with Fernandez Saldana the days before, the day and the day after the murder.
When asked what he and Fernandez Saldana talked about the same night of the murder, Biggerstaff made a shocking statement.
According to the report, “Biggerstaff said the conversation was personal in nature. Biggerstaff indicated that he and his wife were “swingers.”
His claims appear to be supported by the fact that intimate images of Fernandez Saldana with Biggerstaff’s wife, Maria, 53, who was not involved in the murder, were recovered from Biggerstaff’s home computer.
Biggerstaff told police that Fernandez Saldana was a swinger, but Gardner was not.
Jared is seen with his widow Kristen, their two daughters and the twins he shared with Shanna
Bridegan was embroiled in a bitter and protracted legal battle with Gardner over custody of their twins, now 13, when he was murdered.
Under the agreement in place at the time of his death, the children stayed with their mother and father on alternating weeks and went on a “date night” with the parent who didn’t have them every Wednesday.
Bridegan was on his way home from dropping the twins off at their mother’s house after such a “date night” when he was forced to stop by a tire deliberately placed in the road to lure him out of his vehicle .
When he went out to move the obstacle, he was shot. Her baby daughter, Bexley, was strapped into her child seat in the back of the car.
Bridegan left behind a grieving family, including his parents, two brothers, widow Kirsten, 32, whom he married in 2017, and their two young daughters, Bexley, now 4, and London , now two years old.
Biggerstaff did not respond to DailyMail.com’s requests for comment.
Police records show he “continued to say he had no knowledge of the murder.”
