Fox News Digital has discovered that the ex-wife of murdered Microsoft executive Jared Bridegan has relocated 2,800 miles from Florida to the Pacific Northwest as investigators prepare to announce an arrest in the unsolved murder.
Nearly one year after the father of four was executed in front of his toddler daughter Bexley in north Florida, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez fled to West Richland, Washington, with her 10-year-old twins and Jared.
She said “No, I’m sorry” when asked to comment on the critical development in the case on Monday. Minutes later, she was caught conversing on her smartphone while driving her white Tesla in a grocery store parking lot.
Kirsten Bridegan, Jared’s second wife, with whom he shares Bexley, 3, and London, 1, expressed shock that Gardner-Fernandez had moved so far away.
“I was truly shocked,” she told Fox News Digital in an interview published on Monday. “First, the twins lost their father, then they were severed from their own sisters, and now they are being removed from their school, friends, and sports teams. The fact that they are so isolated causes me anxiety.”
Kirsten reports that shortly after Jared’s murder, Gardner-Fernandez severed all communication with his family. Jared had care of the twins every other week.
“It’s an additional loss,” she remarked. “In addition to losing Jared, my children have also lost siblings. I’ve lost my step-kids. I have attempted to make contact for months and months without success.”
Gardner-Fernandez, 35, and Bridegan, 33, separated in 2016, but fought in family court for finances and custody of the twins until his death on February 16, 2022.
A law enforcement source told Fox News Digital that an arrest may occur as soon as Wednesday, but declined to provide further details.
According to a second source, Gardner-Fernandez and her second husband, Mario Fernandez, remain suspects in the unexplained murder.
After the murder, the couple recruited the services of a prominent criminal defense attorney, Henry Coxe III, who declined to comment on Monday.
Less than a year after the children’s terrible loss of their father, Gardner-Fernandez moved them to a six-bedroom, four-bathroom home in the Tri-Cities region of southeastern Washington.
The modern ranch home was purchased in September for $1 million by Whitesand LLC, which shows the Alpine, Utah address of Shelli and Sterling Gardner as its registered agent.
Shanna Gardner-Fernandez and her twin children with Jared relocated to West Richland, Washington.
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According to IncFact, Shelli Gardner started the papercraft firm Stampin’ Up, which has an estimated annual revenue of more than $100 million.
Her parents are prominent members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon community (LDS).
This past week they visited their daughter and grandchildren in West Richland, and on Sunday they attended a service by themselves at a nearby LDS church.
Jared was a passionate follower of the religion. Fox News Digital previously reported that Gardener-Fernandez deviated from the religion following their 2010 marriage and then allegedly had an affair, causing their bitter divorce.
Her second union is likewise in trouble. Shortly after the murder, neighbors reported that they no longer saw Fernandez at the couple’s $1 million co-owned Jacksonville Beach property, and he did not accompany her on the cross-country trip.
The property was placed for sale on October 27 and removed from the market on January 3.
Gardner-primary Fernandez’s link to West Richland appears to be the next-door neighbor, Marla Rogers, whom she met at a baking conference in 2020.
Rogers operates Marla’s Cookie Co. from her home, similar to how Gardner-Fernandez ran her now-defunct baking business, Beach Baked 904, from her home in Florida.
Gardner-Fernandez made a brief cameo on Sunday in an Instagram video released by Rogers.
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Gardner-Fernandez enters Rogers’s kitchen while wearing a blouse that reads, “PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME DO STUFF!” as Rogers is seen cleaning up after giving a cookie decorating class.
Jared was murdered at Jacksonville Beach on February 16, 2022, after taking his twins and 2-year-old daughter Bexley out to dinner.
The software developer had just delivered the twins to their mother’s home when he came across a tire blocking the one-way road.
As Bexley watched from her car seat, he was repeatedly shot by an unknown assailant after leaving his Volkswagen Atlas to reposition it.
Kirsten stated, “She has good days where she is happy.” However, she will spend a lifetime processing these emotions and the trauma she experienced.
Melissa Nelson is leading the investigation, which is a collaboration between the Jacksonville Beach Police Department and the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit.
Early in the investigation, police requested the public’s assistance in identifying a dark-blue Ford F-150 seen on surveillance tape near the crime site; a $55,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest.
Kirsten stated that she and her girls are attempting to recover, but New Year’s was especially difficult.
“We ended the last year as a complete family and began an entirely new year without those memories or Jared,” she explained. “That was very challenging.”
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