Microsoft manager from Florida sent warning email to ex-wife accused of murder

Murdered Microsoft employee Jared Bridegan and his ex-wife Shanna Gardner, a suspect in the murder, exchanged controversial emails about finances, child therapy and their divorce in 2017, according to redacted documents released earlier this month.

Bridegan was shot dead outside his car on February 16, 2022, after hitting a tire in the middle of a remote road. Prosecutors believe it was a plot orchestrated by Gardner and her now-husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana. Jacksonville, Florida. His then two-and-a-half-year-old daughter was sitting in the back seat at the time.

The documents, obtained by Fox News Digital through a records request, detail some of the items police seized from Gardner's West Richland, Washington, home in February 2023 while executing a warrant, including phones, an Apple Watch, several laptops and other electronic items. Gardner was not arrested until six months later, in August 2023.

A child who was home at the time of the search told police that the mother kept her “important” electronic devices in the “bedroom closet” and then “whispered upstairs” to the office while pointing to the ceiling, documents show.

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The documents also include redacted photos of heated emails exchanged between Bridegan and Gardner in April and May 2017.

In April 2017, Gardner told Bridegan that she was sending her children to therapy and that they were “living between two houses.” In another email, Gardner criticized Bridegan for not prioritizing therapy sessions or providing “financial help for them,” even though she agreed that her two children needed therapy.

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Attorney Jose Baez appears in court with his client Shanna Gardner-Fernandez at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday, November 3, 2023. Gardner-Fernandez was charged for her alleged involvement in orchestrating the murder of her ex-husband Jared Bridegan. (Larry Paci for Fox News Digital)

Bridegan, in turn, said he would not “pay for things that you and I do not agree to first.”

The two exchanged more heated sentences in their emails. Gardner told Bridegan to “put his self-righteous pedestal in front of a mirror.” Bridegan asked Gardner: “[W]Why are you ashamed of who you really are? Why do you cover up all your tattoos in court? Why aren't you proud of the person you've become?” He also accused her of embezzling money and called her an “idiot.”

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Shanna Gardner-Fernandez and her husband Mario Fernandez on a family vacation in Hawaii. The photo of the now-estranged couple was posted on the day Jared Bridegan was allegedly murdered by Fernandez and his co-conspirators. (So ​​Shelli Blog)

“Wowwwww, Satan, be careful, you really should wait to put your cards on the table so early. I know I am [smiley face]”Bridegan wrote in an email response to Gardner, later adding, “I'm shocked that you keep underestimating me…or did you think during all those months during our divorce when you were fooling around in the dark so many nights and in so many places that no one was there…again, it's better not to jump the gun so early.”

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A screenshot of emails exchanged between Jared Bridegan and Shanna Gardner with the subject “Child Therapy.” (Double County)

In May 2017, Bridegan promised his ex-wife that she would not find happiness by destroying his family.

“They can’t bring us down as a family.”

— Jared Bridegan to Shanna Gardner, May 2017

“[Redacted] will grow up in a Christ-centered home. You will not thwart that,” he wrote. “You cannot bring us down as a family. I realize that you live a life without the Holy Ghost, without the priesthood, and without the blessings of the temple. You will not find happiness if you bring us down. I will not allow you to do that.”

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Shanna Gardner (right) and her husband Mario Fernandez Saldana (pictured) allegedly offered a hitman $150,000 to kill Gardner's ex-husband, Microsoft executive 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 4th District Attorney's Office for comment.

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Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana are accused of paying accused hitman Henry Tenon, Fernandez-Saldana's former tenant, $150,000 to kill Bridegan. Tenon is accused of ambushing and shooting Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach on February 16, 2022.

Both Gardner and Fernandez-Saldana have pleaded not guilty to Bridegan's murder. Tenon pleaded guilty to pulling the trigger and agreed to testify against the other suspects.