Southeast
Florida Microsoft exec sent warning email to suspect ex-wife accused in his murder
Slain Microsoft employee Jared Bridegan and his murder suspect ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, exchanged contentious emails in 2017 regarding finances, child therapy and their divorce, according to redacted documents published earlier this month.
Bridegan was fatally shot in front of his car after coming across a tire in the middle of a secluded road on Feb. 16, 2022, which prosecutors believe was a setup orchestrated by Gardner and her now-husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. His then-2-and-a-half-year-old daughter was in the back seat at the time.
The documents obtained by Fox News Digital through a records request detail some of the items police collected from Gardner’s West Richland, Washington, home while serving a warrant in February 2023, including phones, an Apple Watch, multiple laptops and other electronic items. Gardner would not be arrested until six months later, in August 2023.
A child who was home at the time of the search told police that their mother kept her “important” electronics in her “bedroom closet,” and then whispered “up above” to the office while pointing toward the ceiling, documents show.
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Jared Bridegan, left, was fatally shot in front of his car after coming across a tire in the middle of a secluded road on Feb. 16, 2022, which prosecutors believe was a setup orchestrated by Shanna Gardner, right, and her now-husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. (Handout/Duval County Jail)
The documents also contain redacted photographs of heated emails exchanged between Bridegan and Gardner from April and May 2017.
In April 2017, Gardner told Bridegan she was sending their children to therapy and they “are caught in the crossfire of living between two houses.” In another email, Gardner criticized Bridegan for not prioritizing the therapy sessions or giving “financial help for it,” despite agreeing that their two children needed therapy.
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Attorney Jose Baez appears in court alongside his client, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. Gardner-Fernandez was arraigned on charges relating to her alleged involvement in the orchestration of the murder of her ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. (Larry Paci for Fox News Digital)
Bridegan, in turn, said he “will not pay for things you and I do not agree to prior.”
The two exchanged other heated phrases in their emails back-and-forth. Gardner told Bridegan to move “that self righteous pedestal of yours in front of a mirror.” Bridegan asked Gardner, “[W]hy are you ashamed of who you really 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 calls her a “retard.”
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Shanna Gardner-Fernandez and her husband, Mario Fernandez, on a family vacation in Hawaii. The photo of the couple, who are now separated, was posted the day Jared Bridegan was murdered, allegedly by Fernandez and his co-conspirators. (So Shelli blog)
“Wowwwww Satan be careful, you really should wait to show your hand this early on. I know I am [smiley face],” Bridegan wrote in one email response to Gardner, adding later, “I am shocked you keep underestimating me…or did you think all those months during our divorce, when you fooled around in the darkness on so many nights, and in so many places, no one was…..again, best to not show your hand this early on.”
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A screenshot of emails exchanged between Jared Bridegan and Shanna Gardner with the subject line “Kids’ Therapy.” (Dual County)
In May 2017, Bridegan promised his ex-wife that she would not “find happiness by tearing” his family down.
“You cannot bring us down as a family.”
“[Redacted] will be raised in a Christ centered home. You will not thwart this,” he wrote. “You cannot bring us down as a family. I realize you live a life without the Spirit, without the Priesthood, and without the blessings of the Temple. You won’t find happiness by tearing us down. I won’t allow you to.”
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Shanna Gardner, right, and her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, inset, allegedly offered a hitman $150,000 to kill Gardner’s ex-husband, Microsoft manager Jared Bridegan. (Handout/ © Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Fox News Digital has reached out to Gardner’s attorney, Jose Baez, and the State Attorney’s Office for the 4th Judicial Circuit for comment.
Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana are accused of paying $150,000 to accused hitman Henry Tenon, Fernandez-Saldana’s former tenant, to kill Bridegan. Tenon is accused of ambushing and fatally shooting Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach on Feb. 16, 2022.
Both Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana have pleaded not guilty in connection with Bridegan’s murder. Tenon pleaded guilty to pulling the trigger and agreed to testify against the other suspects.
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