Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Dad of 4, Microsoft Executive, Dead After Neighborhood Ambush

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

Jared Bridegan, 33, drops his twins off at the home of his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez. Bridegan is with his 2-year-daughter as he drives home. On their way home, Bridegan stops to remove a tire from the middle of the road. There's no room to drive around it. That's when the Microsoft executive is shot and killed by an unknown assailant. The little girl, Bexley, is reportedly in the car for several minutes as her father dies. Bridegan has been in lengthy custody and alimony disputes with his former wife and reportedly she has now hired a high-powered criminal defense attorney. Jacksonville Beach Police Department has not named Gardner-Fernandez a suspect in connection with the case and Gardner-Fernandez maintains her innocence. In fact, no one has been named a person of interest, and Bridegan's murder remains unsolved. According to Gardner-Fernandez's attorney, his services are needed  “for the purpose of seeing if steps could be taken to protect her young twins from any publicity surrounding this tragic event.”   Joining Nancy Grace Today: Kathleen Murphy - Family Attorney (North Carolina), NCDomesticlaw.com,  Twitter: @RalDivorceLaw,   Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA, AngelaArnoldMD.com, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital  Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Featured on "The Piketon Massacre: Return to Pike County" on iHeartRadio  Ray Caputo - Reporter (Orlando, FL)  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. What does a shadowy figure seemingly caught on home surveillance video have to do with a young dad of four being shot dead on the road, one of his children in the car, when he innocently gets out of these connect? And how did that tire get in the middle of the road? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Let's kick it off with our friend at WJXT News 4. Bizarre and frightening twist in the murder of a local father of four two months ago. The widow of Jared Breidegen sent us this video

showing what she believes is a suspicious person on her property about a week after her husband's slaying. Breidegen was driving home from his ex-wife's house in Jacksonville Beach two months ago when police said he stopped in the road to remove a tire. And that's when somebody shot him multiple times with his two-year-old daughter in the backseat of his SUV. News for Jacksonville, Big Michelucci shows us more of that video and spoke with Breidigen's widow. Take a look for yourself.

This is video from the Breidigen's Nocatee driveway. It was recorded around 7 15 p.m on february 24th that's a week and a day after jared's murder here's the person we have the video on loop you can only catch a quick glimpse of them it's not enough to identify anyone but it is frightening for jared's widow kirsten you can clearly see that it is a figure walking across the victim's widow's yard. Now, very often there are distortions in, for instance, ring cameras or home surveillance. You can have a moth fly by at the location of the camera and it could look like a person. You can slow them down. You can reach back in time to see who walked across your front yard three weeks ago. But here you can

tell this is a person. Listen to more of what the victim's widow has to say. I was very concerned. It was so soon after Jared had been murdered and now someone was at our home um it was not okay she tells us she called 9-1-1 right away and messaged some of her neighbors and one of my amazing neighbors ex-military came and he and his dog and I went through the yard checking to make sure no one was still there the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office responded but there are no leads as to who or what it was. You'll notice in the video that a neighbor was pulling out around the same time. Another person was on the sidewalk. This could have spooked whoever was on the Bridegan property.

Deputies have since picked up patrols watching over the home. Do you have any idea who this may be? No, no idea. You know, it's so blurry, you can't catch much. So investigators don't know if this is related to Jared's murder or not? No, you know, besides the timing, that timing is just odd. And we've been here for over two years and nothing of this sort has ever happened before. So that's what put me on edge is the timing.

Meanwhile, Jacksonville Beach police are still looking for tips and waiting on forensics and digital evidence to be analyzed. As the widow said, the timing makes it seem like more than a coincidence that there's a strange person right in front of her house at night skulking around. And can you imagine having to deal with the murder of your husband, the father of your children, and then within a week, you've got a prowler in your front yard? Are they connected? And if so, why? With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. Kathleen Murphy joining us out of North Carolina. She's at ncdomesticlaw.com. And this is her hometown, Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Renowned

psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, Dr. Angela Arnold. You can find her at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and star of a new hit series, Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. With us, death investigator, Joe Scott Morgan. But first, I want to go to investigative reporter joining us out of Orlando, Florida, our longtime colleague, Ray Caputo. Ray, what happened to father of four, Jared Brittigan? Well, Jared was sharing custody with his ex. So it was a Wednesday night. It was a date night where he had custody of his kids and

he took them out. Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I thought he lived with his now widow, Kirsten, and their children. You're saying there is an ex with whom he had two other twins, right? Yes. Okay, and that would be Abby and Liam. Those are the twins he had with his ex. Yes, ma'am. So this was visit night, Wednesday night. Okay, gotcha.

Go ahead. It's visit night. You know, it's a blended family. It's a blended family, so it's not easy. But he picks them up, and he drops the kids off, and he's taking his routine route back to his home. So there's a lot of different routes you can take, Nancy. In fact, you put this in Google Maps, it'll take you through the main thoroughfares. But since Jared has done this many times,

he takes a shortcut through the neighborhood and it's just a lot of turns and a lot of straightaways past residential houses. And as Jared is just about to get out of this this neighborhood he's on this very narrow stretch of one-way road that's going to dump him out onto the main highway three miles away from where he dropped the kids off okay you are it's like drinking from a fire hydrant it's too much too fast wait a minute you're telling me first of all this is what jumps out at me and anybody on on the panel, remember, this ain't no tea party at Highgrove. Jump in. You don't have to wait for the Queen's butler to come in with crumpets.

Ray Caputo, you said it's a one-way street. Yes, no? Yes, ma'am. It's a one-way street. Got it. And you said this is his routine drive home, right? Yes. How far away was it from his house?

From where he dropped the children off, where he stopped was about three miles. So he's closer to where he dropped off the kids, but he's now on his way back. So he's three miles back to his current home with his wife and their two children, correct? No, she's probably about 17, 18 miles. He's not far from where he dropped off these children. So he's still pretty much in 18 miles. He's not far from where he dropped off these children. So he's still pretty much in the neighborhood. Close to his first wife. Yes.

Got it. Got it. Okay. Three minutes away from his ex-wife dropping off their children. Got it. Okay. Hold on. Wait.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. One way, his usual route home. What time of the day or night? This is 8 p.m., Nancy. People are still up. People are around. It's the middle of the week.

People are out going to the gym, taking their kids to practice. It's not the middle of the night. Ray Caputo, also, you said it was 8 p.m., and according to Farmer's Almanac and other sources, sunset was 5.56, from 5.56 p.m. to 6.14 p.m. on that day in 2022. So it was dark. It was dark, yes. He was driving in the dark. And one of his children

was with him? His two-year-old daughter Bexley was strapped into her car seat in the back seat. She had gone with them that night. Okay, this is important to me right now. Let me understand. This father, Jared Brittigan, is 33. His wife is Kirsten Brittigan. They have two children who are twins, Bexley and London. And how old are they? Bexley and London aren't twins. Bexley is two years old and London is only seven months old. That's why she wasn't with him. She's just a pretty much an infant, Nancy. So she was home with his new wife. So the children from the second wife, who's married to you right now, two-year-old Bexley

and infant London. Yes, seven months old. Then he's got the twins, Abby and Liam, with the ex-wife. And that's who he was visiting. Yes, and he dropped them just off before this happened. But he still has his two-year-old daughter, Bexley, in the car. Yep. Okay, then what happens? So he stops because he notices a tire is in the roadway. Now, this is, again, a narrow little stretch, a one-way street.

He has an SUV, but he needs to move this tire. So he gets out, and really nobody saw anything, Nancy. You just hear several gunshots. There's actually a surveillance video from a house, and you hear pop, pop, pop. It all happened really quick. Bexley was in her car seat. Miraculously, she wasn't hurt. And what happened to Jared and Nancy is really a crime that's been happening for thousands of years. It's old as roads themselves. You know, you place an obstruction in the roadway, you lie in wait, the victim stops, and then they're a sitting duck. It was an old-fashioned ambush. Jared got murdered. Guys, take a listen to our cut to this is Janess Harris, WJXT.

Before his death, Bridegan's twins from a previous marriage had just been dropped off and he was taking a routine route home. I actually talked to him on the phone right after he dropped his twins off. And he just told me that they had had a good day. A home security camera picked up gunshots that rang out around the same time that Bridegan was murdered. Bridegan's two-year-old daughter was in the car when her father was murdered. And she told her mother this. So she'll say, you know, boom, boom, boom. And then she'll say, daddy on the ground.

So far, no arrests have been made. A possible clue, a blue F-150 pickup truck is caught on a nearby surveillance camera. With each passing day, a reward of $5,000 and of $25,000 is being offered for information, leading to the arrest of the murderer or murderers. Breitigan's family waits for closure, wondering who killed this father, husband, son, and friend. That reward is climbing. It's currently at $55,000. Repeat, $55,000. The tip line, 904-270-1661.

Repeat, 904-270-1661. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm trying to piece everything together that we are learning. Did you hear Dr. Angela Arnold joining us out of Atlanta? What the little two-year-old daughter Bexley says? She says, boom, boom, boom, daddy's on the ground. And it reminds me of the case of Susan Powell, who I believe was murdered by her husband, Josh Powell.

Their two sons were later murdered during a visit. Way to go, DFAX, Department of Family and Children's Services. Yeah. He, I won't go into how he murdered the two little boys, but after their mom went missing, they drew pictures of mommy in the car trunk with the two of them in the front seat in the car with the dad. And then said, mommy's with the crystals, like the crystal mines in that area. Those very young children drew mommy in the trunk. And now this two-year-old little girl, Bexley, is saying, boom, boom, boom, daddy's on the ground. And Nancy, what everybody needs to be very aware of is this. Children do not lie. Children tell us exactly what they saw.

They can either tell us with their words or they can draw pictures about it. But when children say something, they are telling the truth of exactly what they saw. They're not making anything up. The lasting impact it's going to have on this child is her lifetime. The lifetime. And she's in the car when daddy's shot down in the road. What if one bullet had been misfired and a two-year-old little girl gets killed too? Right.

Sounds like somebody was taking a pot shot waiting either for him or for the next driver to come along to that tire. Take a listen to our friend Jim Murray at Inside Edition. One, two, three, go. side edition one two three go these are the last images of microsoft executive jared breitigan doting on his young children before he was viciously shot to death in an ambush now mystery surrounds who was behind the assassination on the father of four in this upscale neighborhood in jacksonville beach florida jared breitigan was driving home with his two-year-old daughter strapped in her car seat when police say he stopped his vehicle to remove a tire left in the road. That's when

he was gunned down at close range right in front of his daughter. Police believe the tire was left in the middle of the street to lure him out of his car. Whoever did this is just vile and cowardly. I spoke to Jared's heartbroken widow. Kirsten, investigators say it appears this was a hit or an ambush. Yeah, that is how it appears. Straight out to Kathleen Murphy, veteran trial lawyer joining us out of North Carolina. Kathleen, this is your hometown, not Jacksonville, but Jacksonville Beach, correct? Absolutely. And my four siblings still live right there. What can you tell me about Nocatee? Nocatee is a very, very rural area that changed dramatically and has become a large, upscale, very wealthy area. And it's pretty peaceful and pretty quiet. The location where the murder happened is actually on a road that's one way.

And on each side of where the tire was in the road, one side is a stop sign and the other side is a tree. So this guy actually could not go around the tire on this road at all. Wait, one side is a tree and one side is a what? A sign. And so it was well planned out to put the tire there so that the guy couldn't even drive around the tire. And so he was ambushed and it was clear that it was an ambush. The location of where he was murdered is also the same location where there's a large community park right on that road. And so the timing of it was good because it was dark outside, and the children had all gone home by that point.

I'm just thinking this through. So it was dark outside and the children had all gone home by that point. I'm just thinking this through. So it was one way. Just got Morgan, help me think this through. One way so the perp would not have to be concerned with oncoming traffic from the other way and could lay in wait until this car was spotted. This particular car, I believe it was an SUV. wait until this car was spotted. This particular car, I believe it was an SUV. What do you think about that?

At a playground, with all those playground toys and getting on top of the jungle gym you could see at a distance. You've got a tree the perp could hide behind. Do we know what side of the road the perp was standing on? Do we know that yet, Joe Scott? No, not to the best of my knowledge. But the one word that comes to mind for me, Nancy, I keep hearing the word ambush. In military terms, this is what's called a choke point where you have to go out and surveil this area. They're going to know what the weak points are.

This is, in fact, an ambush. But the person that did this was very familiar with this area and probably where the road narrows down where you would have to hop the curb in order to get around the obstruction. Why not just step out? You know, who thinks that in this area, as Kathleen had mentioned, that someone is going to come out and gun you down? And also also this is key. If you have time, if you have time, which you, you know,

the perpetrator would, if they're, they've got this obstruction, you can close in on the victim. One report I am reading uses this term, Nancy, they use the term close range, close range.

That means this is not done at a distance. And when you hear repeated what that little baby said that was an ear witness to this she said boom boom boom daddy's down so that means that more than likely the person was laying in wait in an immediate proximity to that tire not just off in the bushes to that tire maybe hiding behind a tree and they had the guts enough to step out there under the cover of darkness, tree stop. They may have known that baby was in the truck. And they blasted him right there.

And enough, if this is close range in our classic consideration, that's going to be within about 36 inches of your target point here. I want to explain what you just said. When you say we know it's close range, 36 inches or less. In other words, I'm holding the gun on Jackie. I pull the trigger. If I am three feet or less, the gunshot residue will be on her body most likely if they think to look for it. That's how you know either GSR gunshot residue or if it's contact, the gun touching the person, you'll have stippling or burning around the wound because the gun with the bullet coming so quickly through the barrel, it actually burns the skin. That's how they know it's close range.

And Ray Caputo joining me, investigative reporter out of Orlando, isn't it true he was shot multiple times, not just once, but several times? Yeah, you hear three gunshots ring out on that surveillance camera, and the forensic folks say only three to four feet away. So close range, multiple shots. So the daughter, the little two-year-old says, boom, boom, boom. And there were three shots. She got that right.

You know, another interesting fact. I've been looking at the topography and trying to learn what I can about that neighborhood. And I learned that this road was on one of the few streets where there were no homes, hence no ring doorbell cams. On this particular stretch, there were no homes. What about that, Kathleen Murphy? That's correct. But where you really want to see what happens is when the vehicle is leaving and right on the road that they believe the truck escaped on is a substation, a police substation. So two of the police substations in one home caught a truck leaving the area at the same time. Okay, you know what that reminds me of? Alex Murdoch. Why?

Remember Joe Scott when he got shot by a passerby on a rural stretch of road and day one you and I said no, uh-uh. Because the route he's taking would have taken him an hour and a half to get where he said he's going when there's a 15, 20 minute direct route from his location to where he was going. So that's total BS. Yeah, it is. And it was a rural dirt road in South Carolina. And I think we were together and we were talking about, wait a minute, there's no video surveillance, but what about at either end of that road?

Is there a stop sign? Is there a mini mart? Is there a gas station? Is there a mini mart? Is there a gas station? Is there anything? Turns out there was a church at the end of that dirt road that had surveillance video that would show who else came in and out of that road.

Just like here. And they catch Ray Caputo of 2004 to 2008 blue Ford F-150, correct? Correct, Nancy. Wow. Okay, guys, take a listen again to our friend Jim Moray at Inside Edition. Kirsten says her husband had just dropped off his twins from a previous marriage at their mother's house. He was driving the usual route home that he always drove. I actually talked to him on the phone right after he dropped his twins off and he just told me that they had had a good day

they got ice cream my daughter in the back told me i got an ice cream mommy and then it said okay see you soon minutes later he was slain the sound of gunfire was captured on a neighbor's camera now bexley your two-year-old daughter was in the car when your husband was killed what has she told you mostly it's the sound that she refers to the boom um is how she describes the gunshots so she'll say you know boom boom boom and then she'll say daddy on the ground it's excruciating and more from our friends at inside edition kirsten is now speaking out in frustration that the killer is still on the loose i want people to know that the murder is out there the murder is probably watching this

and they're living their life and that's's not okay. Police say this is one possible clue, surveillance footage of an older model blue F-150 four-door truck captured in the area. This vehicle could still be local, or it could be out of state by now, so that's the big thing is getting the word out so everybody can be looking for this vehicle. Kirsten now struggles with how she'll raise her children without their dad. My favorite thing to do with my dad is cuddling. He is an awesome dad. He loves the babies, snuggling with them. He would make up the best bedtime stories.

Boo! You're hearing the children in the background, and you also heard what I believe to be the ring surveillance video where you actually hear the three gunshots ringing out. So, Joe Scott Morgan, what should be move number one for police right now? Well, I think who is familiar with this poor man's routine? I think that that's key here. Who would know? Who would know intimately when he's going to be taking this route at this particular time of day. Because, you know, we're creatures of habit. You know, we tend to go on the same routes all the time.

This is a very specific route. We're talking about a one-way street. So, how does this individual know that he will be in that precise location at that precise time? So, as an investigator, that's where I'm headed first. All right. And then when we talk about physical evidence, that sounds, you know, when you're talking about boom, boom, boom, that sounds to me like there is a potential that this may have been a semi-automatic weapon, which means you have ejected shell casings. And why do you say that? Well, because of the, yeah, because of the quick succession of it if that is the case so i have to suspect and this is only my my thought here that they may have recovered rounds at the

scene i want to know what type of weapon what type of weapon those rounds came from and can they be paired up with a specific weapon caliber make model and has this weapon ever been used for any kind of nefarious purpose in the past they can plug this into the atf database to check that out to ray caputo joining me investigative reporter uh joining us from orlando ray he was coming from the ex-wife's home right dropping off Right? Dropping off his two older children, right? Yes. Okay, what do we know about that relationship? Jared's relationship with his ex, Shanna Gardner. Take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. Friends say the relationship seems to falter.

Breitigan convinces his wife to move to his Florida hometown. Meanwhile, he is studying online for a master's degree at Savannah College of Art and Design, but the relationship continues to decline. Gardner becomes frustrated with her husband. He is focused on trying to start a business and has gained weight. Gardner joins CrossFit after her husband buys a set of personal training sessions as a gift. That's when Bridegan finds out his wife begins an affair with the personal trainer through emails between the two. Despite Bridegan's efforts at reconciliation, after five years of marriage, Gardner files for divorce, telling the court

simply, we don't love each other anymore. Even so, neither husband nor wife move out of the family home. Okay, wait a minute. That sounds like the War of the Roses, the movie. Who was the star of that movie? Let's see. It was Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Yes. And they both end up dead in the end. Not a good ending. Wait, who gained weight in this scenario? I'm not sure for my friends at Crime Online. They started arguing. Gardner, the wife, got frustrated with husband he was focused on started trying to start a business and somebody gained weight who him or her it was Jared he sounded like he was a stressed dad he had a lot on his plate so he doesn't have the time to go to the gym I hope David doesn't divorce me because I've gained weight did he just say a stressed dad

yes he said a stressed dad what's laughable about that there's no such just say a stressed dad? Yes, he said a stressed dad. What's laughable about that? There's no such thing as a stressed dad because moms do everything. Oh, okay. Well, I can tell you right now my husband is way stressed. He works. He helps me take care of the twins. He helps me take care of my mother who lives with us. He takes care of the dog, the cat, the guineas right in there with me and works crazy hours. He's stressed out. True, he doesn't do as much around the house and with the twins that I do. Yeah. But still, you know, I hear what you're saying, but I'm kind of knocked out by the fact that she got frustrated with him because he was trying to start a business and gained weight. She was into the gym, man.

She was going over there. That's one way of putting it. She was really into it. And that's when she came out and she had an affair. She had an affair with a personal trainer, according to that reporter. If you see pictures of her now, she is extremely buff. Wait, are we? We're talking about the first wife, the ex-wife, correct? The

first wife. The first wife. Okay, so Ray Caputo, is that correct? That she joins a gym and starts an affair with a personal trainer? That's correct, Nancy. You've seen these two are going in two different directions. That's certainly putting perfume on the pig, going in different directions. That's Hollywood or TV talk. We're going in another direction. She was mad at him because he gained weight and got a lover at the gym. I bet he didn't gain weight. Unlike her husband, who's helping her raise the children and trying to start a business. You know, take a listen to more of our friends at CrimeOnline.com. During the divorce negotiations, Gardner demands exclusive occupancy of the home

and primary custody. She also accuses Breitigan of threatening to take cash from their children's trust funds for his own use. Breitigan claims that he deserves primary custody, alimony, child support, and exclusive use of their home as she has means to live elsewhere due to her family's wealth. Breitigan also accuses Gardner of spying on him by hiding baby monitors in the children's bedrooms. Breitigan says that even though there are monitors in plain sight, he finds monitors under his daughter's dresser and under his son's bed. He also accuses Gardner of attaching a tracking device to his car and allegedly placing a voice-activated recorder in the house.

And then there was the lock on the master bedroom door. Breitigan says he was not given a key. Breitigan's most disturbing claim was that Gardner unilaterally canceled their then-three-year-old son's heart surgery after they had waited months for the appointment. That was a lot. Okay, how can I analyze what I just heard? Okay, accused his wife, number one, of attaching tracking devices to his car, a voice-activated recorder in the home, a tracker, wait, several monitors,

not only in plain sight, but under a dresser and under the son's bed. But what also got my attention was that he says, and this is the now murder victim, that he should get alimony and custody. That sounds like he was the one taking care of the children. Is that what happened? He ended up taking care of the children, Ray Caputo? Well, I can't speculate on that, Nancy, but what I can say to add light to that is she came from a very wealthy family, and she wooed Jared, you know,

some witnesses would say with money and promise of a really good life. So she came from a lot more money than him. So that's what I can speculate on, the alimony part of it. Okay, well, let's go to our domestic lawyer, Kathleen Murphy. When you're asking for full custody and alimony and child support, sounds to me like she had the money and he's taking care of the children.

That would be true. And it's also true that any gifts from her family members could be considered income to her. And they were living a life that far exceeded their abilities. They were living the lifestyle based on all the gifts and the income from her family, which were substantial. Okay. Guys, take a listen to Hour Cut 22 from our friends at Crime Online. The divorce battle rages on for six years as the parents constantly spar over everything related to their children. Where would they go to school, modifications of their custody agreements, and child support. During that time, both Bridegan and Gardner meet and marry other people.

Bridegan marries Kirsten, whom he met on a dating app. Gardner marries Mario Fernandez and hyphenates her name. But disagreements continue. Let's stop right there. Dr. Angela Arnold, her trainer. You know, Nancy, oftentimes people don't go too far. He was there. He probably loved the kind of lifestyle that she could possibly.

She needed that attention. It sounds to me like her initial husband, who has now been murdered, the father of her twins, wasn't so impressed by the money that the family had. He was never impressed by that from the get-go, even when she was trying to lure him in. So she was seeking someone who was impressed by that and who she could impress by all of the millions that her family of origin brought to the table. He was right there. He was training her. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Isn't it true, Ray Caputo, joining us out of Florida, that right up until the time that he was murdered, they were still in court arguing? I mean, I think their most recent thing was about one of the children's breathing devices.

Yeah, I mean, Nancy, this relationship had a lot of highly flammable components. You had jaded exes, young kids, new partners, custody issues. I mean, these two were basically in like a six-year litigation battle after they were divorced. I mean, it was just one thing after another. Just four months before Breitigan's murder, she, the ex, Shannon Gardner, was fighting about a $571 discrepancy and fighting over a breathing machine that the son used. A new motions filed just last year that Breitigan would not allow Gardner-Fernandez to borrow a small breathing machine for their son for use at high altitudes. Gardner-Fernandez has a larger machine, but it's less convenient for traveling. She claims Breitigan is just being vindictive. A court ruled just four months before Breitigan's murder that he would pay Gardner Fernandez $571 but retain exclusive use of the smaller machine.

It sounds really petty to me that they're still arguing about this six years on Kathleen Murphy. They're trying to make it a point with their assigned judge. What a lot of people don't realize in domestic cases is you have just one judge. And when you have an opportunity of a parent being bad, it doesn't matter the worth of that being bad. You want it brought to your judge's attention. If you are in a litigation mode, you want that judge to know he can't even give me this machine and he should be fined for not giving me this machine or he should be charged if he's got 100% of it. Sounds really petty.

To Dr. Angela Arnold, I would be very concerned if I found out my spouse had spying devices in the home, spying on me. But, I mean, what does that mean to you you're the shrink not me wow it means to me that she oh my goodness she's very untrusting of her ex-spouse and she's trying to maybe she doesn't trust that he can take care of the kids properly. Maybe she's trying to find out something about him, but she doesn't trust him. To Ray Caputo joining us out of Florida, what is the very latest? Well, the very latest is that the ex, Shanna Gardner, her family or her, she's got a very high-powered criminal defense attorney and you can interpret that how you want the defense attorney says it's simply for the twins and to keep them safe but

some other folks are interpreting that another way that she may have something to hide so ray caputo you're right she has hired a gun she has has hired Henry Cox III, veteran criminal defense attorney and former president of the Florida Bar. Is that right, Ray Caputo? That is correct, Nancy. Why? Well, you got someone who has a lot of money and a lot to protect. I mean, right now, no matter what happens, there's a lot of speculation that this ex may have had something to do. I mean, certainly all the conditions are there. And even if she's

completely innocent, that's what a lot of folks are thinking. So she's got a lot on the line right now. Right now, no one has been named a suspect. Cox has stated he was hired by Fernandez and her new husband, Mario, to protect the privacy of her twins, Abby and Liam. As the murder case of her ex-husband, the children's bio dad, remains unsolved. You know, I think the first step in protecting the privacy of your children would be to take down pictures of them on Facebook. I mean, it's just a suggestion to protect their privacy. Why do you need, Kathleen Murphy, a high-profile defense lawyer to protect your children's privacy? Explain to me, you're the domestic lawyer, explain to me what that means. It means nothing. I don't think there's any protection of

these children. The children's grandmother, who is the source of funds for this family, has posted every single professional photograph of the children's service for their father on the beach. It was a separate service. It looked like a garden party. And it's all over the Internet. So I don't think it's for the benefit of these children. I don't think that there's any sense. Well, we can't go into their minds and figure out why, but I do know her ex-husband's been murdered,

and she hires a criminal defense attorney. Now, here's another thing. The root of all evil, according to some, is the love of money. Let me just throw in here that when their relationship started, Jared Breitigan and wife Shelly Gardner, her parents co-founded the Utah-based company Stampin' Up. It's a paper craft company. And her parents' business ballooned into a $100 million venture. That's a lot of wooing right there. A $100 million pot to dip into. No one has been named a suspect. No one has been named a person of interest at all. And we wait as justice unfolds.

Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast. signing off. Goodbye, friend.