How an Ex-Wife Became a Prime Suspect in Husband's Murder

these days ugly divorces are a dime a dozen thankfully even the most contentious separations rarely end in violence however a Florida couple's ugly divorce made front page news in mid-February of 2022 when a young husband and father named Jared Brian was gunned down after dropping off his children at his ex-wife Shana's home in Northeast Florida the circumstances surrounding the murder were suspicious to say the least shanana was a person of interest from the very beginning she always maintained that she had absolutely nothing to do with the crime however between January and August of 20123 she her new husband and an Exon were arrested and charged with a number of crimes including Jared's murder neither shanana nor her codefendants have been convicted of any crime at this time so we must say that they are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law before we begin we would like to extend our deep sympathies to the family and friends of Jared bigan and all of his loved ones who miss him Jared Brian and shanana Lee Gartner both came from Mormon families shanana grew up in Utah where her parents were successful and Wealthy entrepreneurs Jared was born in rural Missouri but he and his family moved to Florida when he was young more than two decades later he and shanana met while visiting a friend in Florida Jared was a confident and likable young man with a good head on his shoulders shanana was a beautiful young woman with a Magnetic Personality and at that point she and Jared were both devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needless to say it seemed like a match made in heaven after a whirlwind courtship that lasted less than a year the smitten couple officially tied the knot in Salt Lake City in 2010 they lived in Orum Utah early on because Jared was a full-time student at Utah Valley University for nearly 4 years Shana's wealthy parents were their primary means of support each month the gardeners gave Jared and shanana approximately $8,000 to cover things like tuition rent food and utilities since Jared wasn't working he focused nearly all of his energies on his studies Shana's parents hoped that the arrangement would pay off down the road when Jared earned his bachelor's degree in digital media and landed a good job however the support was a constant source of tension between shanana her parents and Jared According to some sources Shana's parents thought Jared took the money for granted and may have even felt entitled to it even so Jared graduated in 2014 and he and shenna moved to Connecticut shortly thereafter this was the first time they were truly on their own but the move didn't get off to a great start before long Jared began hearing rumors that his beautiful young wife was having an affair with her personal trainer shanana denied it but despite the growing friction between them she and Jared eventually became the proud parents of twins one boy and one girl later they moved more than 1,000 mil 1900 km South to sunny Florida because their son had a heart condition that required him to breathe relatively warm air at or near sea level by early 2015 shanana was spending less time at home and more time at the gym and at a local tattoo and piercing business where she made a number of new friends and even had certain body parts pierced as a traditional Mormon Jared did not approve of his wife's new friends or her lifestyle the truth was that they no longer shared the same values one by one friends family members and co-workers noticed they had Grown Apart and some even detected a palpable animosity between them shanana eventually got so fed up that she apparently asked one tattoo artist if they knew anyone who could shut Jared up it is unclear if she made this statement in just or whether she actually wanted him hurt or perhaps killed whatever the case shanon filed for divorce in February of 2015 Jared wasn't altogether surprised but he wasn't happy that shanana wanted primary custody of their two children Jared was not about to give in to this unreasonable demand without a fight but this meant that they had a long and contentious road ahead of them 2015 Jared and shanana divorced their court records which we obtained from the St John's County Court System revealed a long complicated process lasting over 5 years court documents show that shanana and Jared leveled a number of unsavory accusations against one another during the divorce proceedings but it is worth noting that this is common especially when estranged couples are fighting tooth and nail over the custody of their children we may never know whether these claims had any mer but in the end the Court ruled that Jared and shanana were both fit parents and that they should share custody as part of the agreement they exchanged the twins at regular intervals and it did work in the early going after the divorce shanana made the most of her Newfound Independence she still spent as much time with her kids as she could but she also founded a successful Baking Company and found a new love interest in Mario Fernandez salana when they met in 2018 he was a maintenance man at the gym near Jacksonville Beach where she regularly worked out they got married the following year shanna's new husband added another layer of stress to an already tense situation but by then Jared had remarried as well he described his new wife Kirsten as his best friend and eternal companion Jared and Kirsten eventually had two children of their own early in their marriage things were going so well that Jared took time out of his busy schedule to make Facebook posts which he laid out the three cornerstones of his existence the first was his faith the second was his wife Kiren and the third were his four children who meant the world to him by 2022 Jared was 33 years old and a senior Microsoft design manager with a loving family and a bright future his unpleasant divorce from shenana was little more than a speck in the rearview mirror as far as he knew she was happy with her new life as well as he was with his Jared Kirsten and their two children lived in St Augustine Florida and his twins from his first marriage with shanana regularly came to visit on the evening of Wednesday February 16th 2022 he loaded his 2-year-old daughter Bexley from his second marriage and his 9-year-old twins from the first marriage into his Volkswagen Atlas and drove to Shannon's house in Jacksonville Beach about 40 m or 64 km away this was a weekly routine since Jared and shanana had joint custody of the children the first leg of the trip was uneventful and about an hour later he dropped off the children at their mother's home and began heading back towards St Augustine with his daughter still strapped in the booster seat in the back Jared noticed a spare tire and rim in the road directly in front of him as they passed an exclusive gated community called The Sanctuary just a few miles from Shana's home he could have easily driven around it and let some else deal with it that's probably what many would have done but Jared had a solid work ethic and a clear sense of right and wrong the tire was obviously a safety hazard and he knew it could even cause an accident if he didn't get it out of the travel Lane unsurprisingly he brought the car to a stop flipped on the emergency flashers got out and walked over to roll the tire onto the shoulder what happened next isn't particularly clear but apparently as he bent down to grab the tire a gunman or gun men emerged from the darkness and shot him multiple times at close range the deafening cracks ripped through the otherwise quiet night and just a fraction of a second later Jared fell to the ground with a sickening thud sadly no one witnessed the crime and whoever committed the heinous crime disappeared into the darkness Kirsten became anxious when numerous calls to Jared's phone went unanswered later that evening shortly after the shooting a bystander drove by the horrific scene and called 911 when First Responders arrived the tire and Jared's lifeless body were still in the middle of the road Jared wasn't armed and there were no signs of a struggle or a fight thankfully they found 2-year-old Bexley crying but unharmed in the car rigan's 2-year-old daughter was still strapped in her car seat behind him and though unharmed she was dangerously close to the gunfire according to the initial Jacksonville Beach Police Department report the officers were told that she was worried about her dad but did not see what happened later Jacksonville Beach investigators arrived and went over every inch of the crime scene with a fine- tooth comb they knew that jumping to premature conclusions was unwise but they didn't think they were dealing with a random crime or even a crime of opportunity after all whoever gunned Jared down did not take his child his vehicle his wallet or wedding ring or anything of value from inside the car based on the odd nature of the crime scene They concluded that someone had intentionally placed the tire in the road that meant they were dealing with a staged Ambush if the tire had randomly fallen out of the back of a passing pickup truck for example there was almost no chance a Good Samaritan who stopped to move it would have been killed they didn't know whether Jared was the intended target or if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time but they were confident that the true nature of of the crime would come to light as the investigation progressed Jared's wife Kirsten was shocked devastated and utterly buered when she found out that her beloved husband had been gunned down in Cold Blood when Jared's ex-wife shanana heard the news she told the Florida Times Union that she couldn't imagine what his family was going through and that under the circumstances the best thing that she could do would be to give them their space but as the murder made headlines across Florida and the rest of the country shanana and Jared Brian's ugly divorce would be dragged into the light for all to see as the weeks P the unthinkable tragedy remained fresh in the hearts and minds of Jared's friends and loved ones kind words prayers and emotional support poured in from all over the world but closer to home shanana did not attend the private memorial service held in Jared's honor according to her mother shanana didn't go because she wasn't invited later in a blog post Shana's mother said she was not invited to the funeral I asked shanana about the situation his family did not invite me or want me there by then a few pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place but security footage from a number of homes and businesses near the crime scene threatened to blow the case wide open in fact a few grainy images showed a dark 2004 to 2008 Ford F-150 pickup truck with running boards and a toolbox in the back that had been in the area at the time of the murder unfortunately neither the license plate nor any other distinguishing marks were visible worse yet Florida is full of dark 2000 something F-150 pickup trucks matching the one in the photo investigators knew they had their work cut out for them but eventually they would find out who the truck was registered to it is unclear if the information came as a direct result of the $55,000 reward that had been offered but we do know that officers made an unannounced visit to the owner's residence shortly thereafter neither the pickup truck nor its owner were there but they found a tire leaning against the side of the house that bore a striking resemblance to the one that had been in the road that night when Jared was murdered officers took the tire as evidence back to the station they found it was the same size had the same tread pattern and was manufactured on the same date as the one taken from the crime scene in other words the two tires were nearly identical this meant they had probably been purchased together and used on the same vehicle at one time or another shanana and her family did their best to stay out of the public eye as the investigators continued to work the case that said she also hired a PR firm and a prominent Florida defense attorney Henry Hank Cox because she was tired of being hounded by journalist having images of her and her family used without her consent she also said that the tense and often unfair media coverage made her children feel unsafe and that some media Outlets had even implied that she had something to do with Jared's murder shano just wanted everyone to respect her privacy and leave her family alone but in early July of 2022 she granted an exclusive interview to wjax TV action news Jack anchorwoman Kristen RAR during the interview shanana said that she had remained silent for so long because because Jared's Widow Kirsten had asked her to but even so she felt it was finally time to speak out considering the intense scrutiny and rampant speculation around the case as her innocence has come into question shanana Gardner spoke to me in the only TV interview she says she'll be doing to tell her side of the story I do want people to understand you know where I'm coming from almost 5 months after Jared Brian was murdered in the street in front of his 2-year-old daughter we spoke with his ex-wife who has not commented publicly so far our first question why have you stayed silent I was asked to not talk to the media or give a public statement but with the level of speculation I felt that now it was necessary to to speak out shanana Gardner revealed she was asked by Jared Brian's Widow Kirsten not to speak publicly shortly into the interview viewers across the country watched intently as Kristen RAR finally asked the question that everyone had been waiting for did you have anything to do with Jared's murder no I did not have anything to do with his murder unsurprisingly shanana denied any knowledge or involvement in Jared's murder just like she had done from the very beginning then she and the twins moved to Washington State without Mario in mid-march of 2023 and this was shortly after she had dropped his last name for her maiden name Kaitlyn do you have any sense as to why she moved with without her husband we don't at this point but the timing of that as you say we do not believe in coincidences the timing of that is really really striking nobody knew for sure why Mario did not join them but it appeared as though Shana's second marriage was on the Rocks this could have serious repercussions at the trial if shanana and Mario turned on one another but only time would tell on January 25th of 2023 nearly a year after Jared's murder Florida State prosecutor Melissa Nelson and Jacksonville Beach police chief Jean Paul Smith made a remarkable announcement earlier on that day a 61-year-old man named Henry Arthur Tenon had been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder second deegree murder with a weapon and accessory to a capital felony after the fact and child abuse police chief Smith also said that Jared was the target of an ambush and that the tire was intentionally placed along the route that he traveled from his ex-wife's home prosecutor Nelson said the case was still active but at that point she declined to say if she thought shanana had anything to do with the murder Tenon originally pleaded not guilty but 2 months later he changed his plea to guilty as the case against him strengthened arrest records showed that Tenon was a convicted felon his WAP sheet included numerous weapons charges and that he had previously rented a home from Shana's second and husband Mario Fernandez Sana in addition the arrest warrant stated that he had received three checks from Mario in October of 2022 just months before Jared was murdered likewise phone records indicated the two men had communicated nearly three dozen times in February of 2023 after tenon's arraignment in the Duval County Courthouse Kiron Brian made a poignant public plea asking him to do the right thing by telling in investigators and prosecutors everything he knew about the murder Tenon was the first person to be arrested and charged in connection with jarid's murder but he was not the last nearly 2 months later on March the 16th 2023 35-year-old Mario Fernandez salana was also arrested in Orange County Florida he was charged with first-degree murder conspiracy to commit murder solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse he pleaded not guilty to all the charges ironically he was arrested on the same day that State Attorney Melissa Nelson announced that Henry Arthur tennon had pled guilty to second-degree murder and admitted to being the trigger man in return for his plea the state agreed to wave sentencing guidelines and drop the charges of conspiracy to commit murder accessory to a capital felony after the fact and child abuse all of which were punishable by up to 30 years in prison that meant that at the end of the trial his prison sentence would be decades shorter than it would have been otherwise however the deal was contingent upon Him testifying truthfully against his codefendants then on August the 17th of 2023 gun wielding ATF agents unexpectedly showed up at Shana's home in West Richland Washington at the time she was inside with her children thankfully she surrendered voluntarily and cooperated with the agents but the episode must have been unimaginably stressful for her and her children before agents whisked shanana away she told a neighbor who had come to witness the arrest that she now had custody of the children oh yeah [Music] probably since shenna was arrested in a different state than where the murder was committed she would be held on a fugitive warrant until extradition could be arranged a Washington judge informed her that she had the right to demand that the State of Florida secure a Governor's warrant before she was extradited to Duval County all right County Superior Court's not back to session good afternoon again everyone all right so I believe we are here on the matter of shaa Gardner is that correct that's correct your honor Andrew wagley on behalf of the defendant I just put in a notice of appearance your honor all right good afternoon Mr wagley good afternoon all right I do have an advisement that I need to go over with your client before we get started all right you are being held on a fugitive warrant because it is alleged by complaint that you have committed a felony in the demanding State a copy of the complaint outlining the charges should be provided to you you have the right to require that the demanding State secure a Governor's warrant for your return to the demanding state in the event the demanding state does secure a Governor's warrant the governor of Washington will then issue a formal order authorizing your extradition back to the demanding State you have the right to seek a RIT of habus Corpus challenging the constitutionality of your detention however this is just a legal formality and shenana was ultimately extradited to Florida in October of 2023 according to prosecutor Nelson the state plans to try shanana and Mario Fernandez salana together and they will seek the death penalty for each defendant that's right Anthony the state intends to try shanana Gardner and Mario Fernandez together for the murder of Jared Brian but already the two defendants appear drastically different in court neither the indictment nor the affidavit filed by Jacksonville Beach detective CL John's revealed the alleged motive behind the crime however shortly after the heavily redacted affidavit was made public prosecutor Nelson reiterated that Henry Arthur Tenon was the gunman and that shanana Gardner and Mario Fernandez salana helped to plan and coordinate the murder after the arrest Kirsten Brian and Jared's brother Adam gave an interview to local television station news for Jax Kiren said that she always suspected that the murder was planned and that Jared was the intended target and that tennon had not acted alone later in the interview Adams said that he and Jared had a number of heart-to-heart talks in the months leading up to the time when his brother was killed and on more than one occasion Jared told him that he feared for his life unfortunately Adam did not reveal who Jared said he was afraid of shortly after her husband was murdered Kirsten Brian appeared on the Dr Phil show when asked about shanana Gardner's claims that she had nothing to do with Jared's Murder She said that in her opinion shanana has never been a truthful person I have never found Shana to be a truthful person so I don't put a lot of weight into what she said as such she did not put a lot of stock in what she said she also added that she thought Shana's post murder emotions seemed disingenuous and manufactured was there anything in particular that stuck out to you about her demeanor you know her and I don't the fact that she seems to me to be trying to be emotional there's no tears there's no real emotion there um doesn't come across as genuine to me Krista never came out and said whether or not she believed shanana had anything to do with Jared's murder but her statements seemed to imply that she does either way she was always confident that Jared's Killers would be brought to Justice sooner or later but in the meantime she wasn't about to sit around and dwell on the horrific family tragedy instead she focused on staying busy taking care of her children and honoring Jared's Legacy by founding the bridan foundation the foundation's main goal is to provide comfort for children in stressful situations just like 2-year-old Bexley Brian was on the night her father was murdered to do this the foundation provides Bexley boxes filled with toys books blankets and other odds and ends to police departments across the country officers generally give these boxes to Children whose parents have been arrested or murdered or when they are removed from abusive or unfit homes by August of 2023 it appeared as though the investigators and prosecutors had cracked the nefarious murder for higher plot and that shanag Garder her estranged husband Mario Fernandez salana and Henry Arthur Tenon were the only ones involved however new documents released in mid-February of 2024 indicate that two more people may have played roles as well the names of the other two individuals have been redacted from the documents but they were referred to as Associates of Mario the documents also revealed that shanana Gardner had once asked an unidentified person about hiring a Hitman to take her husband out in yet another interesting twist Jared allegedly sent shanana an email a few weeks before he was killed stating that he wanted to have their daughter baptized in the Mormon church it's unclear if this added even more strain to their relationship but whatever the case more information will be revealed during Discovery and of course the action ual trial which is set to begin in mid April of 2024 as always we encourage viewers to get involved leave your comments and join the conversation we'd love to know what you think about this case and don't hesitate to tell us if we've missed anything in the meantime we will stay on top of the situation and we'll work on a follow-up podcast as soon as more information comes to light if you found this story compelling don't forget to like the video comment down below your take on it and please subscribe to the channel also hit the notification Bell in order to stay up to date each time we reveal a new shocking case until next time stay safe and keep your eyes peeled you never know what's lurking in the shadows

Channel: Beyond Evil Podcast

Views: 356,206

Keywords: Jared Bridegan Mario Fernandez Saldana Jacksonville, Florida Henry Arthur Tenon true crime documentary murder documentary crime scene

Id: bLig2Xgp0pA

Length: 25min 48sec (1548 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2024