Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Young Widow Speaks Out After Microsoft Hubby, Dad of 4, Ambushed, Shot Dead

Episode Date: July 25, 2022

Still, no suspect has been named in the death of Jared Bridegan. The 33-year-old Microsoft executive 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. The investigation continues.   Joining Nancy Grace Today: Kirsten Bridegan - Victim's Wife; Instagram: @justiceforjaredb   Darryl Cohen - Former Assistant District Attorney, Fulton County, Georgia; Defense Attorney, Cohen, Cooper, Estep, & Allen, LLC, CCEAlaw.com 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;" Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan"  Rebecca Rosenberg - Fox News Digital Crime Reporter, Author: "At Any Cost," RebeccaFayeRosenberg.com; Twitter: @ReRosenberg See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A high-powered ex-Microsoft executive and more important in my mind, a father, a young man in the prime of his life, is gunned down in an obscure setting at night on a scheduled return from a pickup of his children that he visits from his first wife. How did this happen? And how was no trace of evidence left behind?

What happened to Jared? Joining us today, Jared's wife, the mother of his children. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Why did this young man, early 30s, prime of his life, good-looking, athletic, brilliant, educated, this huge, big life in front of him with his wife and children, children from another marriage that he saw religiously. Why would somebody want to gun him down literally in the

road as part of an ambush attack? Who would know just the right place to put an old tire in the middle of the road, a place where he couldn't go that way and he couldn't go that way. He had to get out of the car on this one-way street. He had to get out and move the tire in order to get home to his wife and children. And when he did, someone was lying in wait to kill him execution style. Why? Who? Why is it not solved yet? First of all, let's take a listen to our friends at WJAX. And this you'll hear is sound from his ex-wife, with whom he is in a bitter custody battle at the time of his murder.

Just minutes after leaving Shanna's house just over two miles from her home, in a quiet neighborhood with few security cameras, a tire was rolled out into the street. Jared got out of his car to move it and was shot dead. His two-year-old daughter sat in the car, strapped into her car seat alone for three minutes before someone came to help. I was shocked. I fell to the floor because I was devastated for what I was going to have to tell my kids. Jared died in that street,

leaving behind four children and a heartbroken family. They were, I think, in shock. Joining me right now, special guest, this is Jared's wife, Kirsten Breitigan. You have two-year-old Bexley and, at the time, six-month-old London. Bexley was actually strapped in the car while her dad was shot. And she keeps saying, I believe, boom, boom, or bang, bang. Yeah, she often says boom, boom, boom, daddy on the ground when she talks about that night. Let me ask you, we were just hearing your husband's ex-wife who was crying about the death of her ex.

Now that evening, let me understand, Jared had just left her house, right? Correct. He had just dropped Liam and Abby back off at her home. His twins? Yes. Nine years old at the time? Yes. Was that, may I ask you, Kirsten, was that a scheduled visit? Yes.

So Jared and Shanna had 50-50 custody of Liam and Abby. So every other week they were with the alternating parents. So when they were with their mom, Jared would pick them up every Wednesday that she had them, take them out on what was referred to as date night. And then when they were at our home for the week, Shanna would come to our house and pick them up Wednesday nights for a date night. It was every single week. So you would have them in your home for a week and then they go back to their mom? Correct. Can I backtrack just a little bit, Kirsten? Could you tell me how you and Jared met? Yeah. so I had moved out to Charlotte, North Carolina to start working for

Microsoft. And new to the area, a friend was like, hey, you should, you know, just get on this dating app. And it's a good way to meet people. So I did. And Jared's profile was one of the first ones that I saw. And what impressed me about him is that his first picture was him and Liam and Abby. He was proud to be a dad. He's proud of his kids. And he made it clear like these people are important to me and it's a package deal. Anyway, we started talking and we talked on the phone for hours. And then he actually drove six and a half hours from Florida up to Charlotte to take me on a date and And the rest is history. Okay, wait a minute.

He drove. You just gave me chill bumps down my right arm. He drove six and a half hours from Florida to Charlotte to take you on a date? He did, yeah. That must have been some date. What did you do on the date? Everything. We fit in as much as we could.

We often refer to it as a marathon date because we met at a museum, went around the museum for a few hours, and we went out and got some food, and then we went bowling, and then we tried to do an escape route. Like, we did everything. We just couldn't get enough time together, especially since, you know, it was a long-distance relationship, so we made the most of the time that we got to spend together. You know, something you just said really sticks out in my mind. We just couldn't get enough time together. Yeah.

When did you know that he was the one? I think it's when I met his kids. Just seeing him as a dad. The way he treated me, I knew how that was was and it was amazing. But then to see him as a father and how invested he was in them, how much he loved them, that just kind of sealed it for me. You know, like I wanted to have children. I wanted to have a family and I wanted someone who wanted it just as much as I did. And it was clear that he shared those values and those desires. You know, as much as you might love somebody,

if they don't want a family and you do, or vice versa, that's a pretty big obstacle to overcome. And so you knew at the very beginning he wanted a family and he loved his children. Yeah, it was very clear. How long from the first time you started dating until you guys got married? We started dating January, February of 2017, and we got married in October of that same year. So it was pretty quick. Ten months, about.

Yeah. Now, at the time you guys met, he was already divorced, right? Yeah. He's been divorced for a couple of years at that point. Okay. How was the relationship between him and his ex, Shanna Gardner Fernandez? Yeah, it was a very combative relationship. In her interview, she refers to, you know, we had happy moments. I don't recall any happy moments between the two households. That was not a thing. What was there to, I mean, I understand the drama of back and forth,

back and forth, week on, week off, and the scheduling. I mean, that's why he couldn't move. He couldn't move to be with you in charlotte because his children were in florida have you ever seen okay down the rabbit hole have you ever seen parent trap yes i have okay have you seen the remake uh i don't think so you know there's two there's the old one with hailey mills and then there's the new one with lindsey lohan oh see the lindsey lohan one to me is the original i guess okay gosh all right right you got to look at the old one just so you can compare and contrast but remember when he was about to he was going to get married to the new woman she's such a brat okay and she said to him about his children l Lindsay Lohan, it's either them or me.

And he paused for like two seconds and he went, them. I pick them. I mean, I love my husband so much, but there's really no question. It's them. It's them. Because there's just some thing about a mom and her children. It's them. So he could not leave his twins.

So you end up moving down there, right? Yeah. So I got permission to work remote. So I left the office and just worked from home so that we could start our family together here in Florida. And you did. Because now you have Bexley and you have London, correct? Yes, two little girls. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Rebecca Rosenberg, thank you for waiting because I know you are swamped. Rebecca Rosenberg is joining me from Fox News Digital.

She's a senior staff reporter with the New York Post. She's an author of At Any Cost. And you can find her at RebeccaFayeRosenberg.com. But Rebecca, I don't know if you're like me, but to me, every detail matters. What do you want to ask Kirsten? I know you want to move up to the murder, but I'm just fascinated. Can you imagine, Rebecca, how long I would spend with victims and witnesses and their families? I mean, it would be an all night ordeal because I'd have to go all the way to the back to get to the beginning of the story to get to where we are right now.

What do you want to ask Kirsten? What would I like to ask Kirsten? Well, I've been talking to Kirsten a lot. So, you know, I guess, like, how are you feeling about the pace of the investigation at this point? Do you feel hopeful that they are getting close to finding anything or finding any suspects in this? What is your feeling about that? I have a lot of faith in the detectives that are working the case.

I do know that they're working hard. I know that they're invested and they care about our family. I felt that very strongly from them. Unfortunately, just the process of gathering evidence, of waiting for DNA, of waiting for cell data, that takes a lot of time. And I know they're equally as frustrated with how long that takes as I am. But I do believe they're doing their best, they're working hard, and they haven't forgotten about Jared. And I know your husband also recently had a birthday. His birthday passed recently, which was near Father's Day.

Would you be able to tell us a little bit about what that was like for you, kind of reaching that milestone with Adam here? Yeah, honestly, the whole month of June was really hard because, as you said, there was Father's Day and then on the 29th was Jared's birthday. So I had been thinking about ways that we could make it special and honor him. And Jared was always the guy that was helping a neighbor. I can't even count the times he lent tools to people. And when he lent the tools, he often

would go to their house and show them how to use it and then just get involved in their project. So the girls and I set out in June to do acts of service in Jared's name. You know, he turned 34, or would have been 34. So we did 34 acts of service in honor of name. You know, he turned 34, or would have been 34. So we did 34 acts of service in honor of Jared, and we invited the community to do the same. So there was people all over the country doing acts of service in honor of Jared. You know, that week was made a little bit harder because the local news station decided to interview his ex-wife,

which in and of itself I have no problem with. What upset me is that they picked his birthday week, de-tease it for five days, and then air it the day after his birthday. It's like a week that's already extremely hard. They decided to do that. And I let them know, hey, don't do this to a victim's family in the future. This is not okay. This is an extremely emotional sensitive time. Do it any other week, but not, you know, an anniversary or a birthday.

That's just not appropriate. Now I'm hearing what you're saying. Kirsten Breidigan with me. This is Jared's wife. Also with me, Rebecca Rosenberg from Fox News Digital and New York Post, Joe Scott Morgan, Jacksonville State University forensics expert, Dr. Angie Arnold, psychiatrist out of Atlanta, and high-profile lawyer out of Atlanta, Daryl Cohen. Kristen, you were talking about the terse exchanges, the contentious relationship between your family, Jared, and his ex.

Didn't that seep into the children's life? Didn't they know about the hostility? And what was it over? They did. And that was something that Jared and I, we fought so hard to keep Liam and Abby out of things. There's so many text messages and emails where we plead with his ex-wife and her husband to not involve the children. Because often they would come home saying, Mom and Mario said X. And we would be like, you shouldn't even be involved in these conversations.

And would again reach out to his ex-wife and her husband and ask them, please don't involve the kids. Like, let's keep this between adults. They don't deserve to be pulled into this. So it was heart-wrenching. You know, having a split home, like split family, spending one week here and one week there, it's hard enough. They don't need the added stress of being involved in adult conversations. What was the ongoing battle? I mean, did the ex want full custody and why? I mean, the court records will speak for themselves. It was very combative over a slew of things. You know, one week it's this, the next month it's something else. She took us to court often, as the record will show. And one thing that just continually surprised us and our attorney was the language

that was used in the motions filed. It was not professional. It had outrageous claims, such as the father doesn't care if his child lives or dies, which is absolutely false. And things were just so skewed. It was just shocking that they would even put that type of language in something,

especially when it was based on life. Absolutely nothing. Guys, take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. Just 12 days after Jared Breidigan was gunned down in front of his two-year-old daughter, his widow received an email from his ex-wife asking for his death certificate. The terse email sent to Kirsten Breitigan on February 28th by Shanna Gardner-Fernandez said, quote, my attorney has requested a copy of Jared's death certificate for the family court. You can send it to me or to him and his paralegal directly, whichever you prefer, unquote. The 31-year-old widow said she was shocked by the email. I was in my car. My hands were shaking. My heart was beating so fast. I was like,

who does this? This is so evil. Here I am planning a funeral and she's asking for a death certificate. To Daryl Cohen joining me, high profile lawyer that practices all over the country. You can find him at DarylCohen.tv. Daryl, can't you go to public records and get a death certificate? Of course you can, Nancy, but that's not what this was designed to do. This was designed to take the dagger and drop it deeper and deeper and deeper and then twist it and then make sure you twist it some more. That's what this is about. Nothing else, nothing more at this point. You know, Daryl Cohen, I know you're a high-profile lawyer,

but I was going to you for a legal question about how you get a death certificate. It's really easy. You go to public records and you have to pay about $5 for the Xerox copy. But Dr. Angela Arnold, although he is a JD, not an MD psychiatrist like you, he may be right, Dr. Angie. Oh, I think he's right on, Nancy. All of us can look at human behavior. And as this story unfolds, it's everything that this ex-wife does,

from keeping them in court while he was alive now to this. It's just so abusive. It's abusive to the mother of the children and his wife. I mean, his widow. To me, it's horrific. And I think that as human beings, we can all see this, and I think that's why Daryl was speaking to that. I just am trying to imagine, Kristen. Kristen Breitigan is with us.

Guys, this is Jared's widow and the mother of two of his children. He was not even buried yet. And if she has a lawyer who's directing her to get a death certificate, she could just get one from county records. It's not hard. But she called you while you were planning the funeral for you to send her a death certificate? Yeah, and that's why I was upset. A lot of the time, she wouldn't even talk to us without her attorney.

She'd have her attorney say, talk to my attorney, email my attorney. Yet she reaches out to me personally, asks for a death certificate that I don't even have copies of yet. Like I didn't have any at that point in time. She already filed through her attorney two days prior on the, I think it was the 25th. I'll have to double check that date. Yeah, the 25th. She already filed a suggestion of death with family court. That was already done.

And in addition to that email, a few minutes prior, she emailed me asking me to return library books. Oh, yeah. So, as a matter of fact, take a listen to again, our friends at CrimeOnline.com. Eight minutes before sending an email message requesting the death certificate of Jared Bridegan, his

ex-wife, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, sent another email to Kirsten Bridegan. This email asked the grieving widow to return a set of school library books that were borrowed by the twins. Shanna wrote, quote, you can drop them off at any public library and they will return them to Miss Stacy or return them to the school directly, unquote. Kirsten Bridegan said that after losing her husband in such a brutal way and only 12 days earlier, returning a couple of library books wasn't on her list of priorities at the time.

Okay, let me understand because Kirsten, when my fiance was murdered, I dropped out of school. I couldn't eat, didn't eat, stopped everything. I couldn't even think straight. And I don't know how long, really haven't counted up, the months that I was like that. But I didn't have children that I had to be strong for at that time. You do. So let me understand this. While you're planning the funeral, you get an email from the ex about returning library books? Yeah, and to me that was just her pouring salt in the wound.

She didn't care how I was feeling. She didn't seem to care about anything except sending those emails to me. Have you had contact with her since the murder? Yes, I have. There's been text messages. I've even seen her in person the following day or two after and multiple

text messages since then. Regarding? The majority of them are me requesting a FaceTime with Liam and Abby most of which have gone either ignored or the response has been no since April. Kristen, what happened in your world the night that Jared was murdered?

You were at home with the children. What exactly happened? So our youngest daughter, London, had started going to bed. We were doing sleep training and she would go to bed before 7 p.m. So I wasn't on date night with Jared and kids, but Bexley always went with him. She was always there. And so he had called me right after he dropped him and Abby off at their mom's house and just said we had a good date night. That's when he said that they got ice cream and she was still eating it. And then she said, okay, I love you.

I'll see you soon. And then time kept going and I started to feel uneasy. I kept looking at the clock thinking he should be home by now. He's always home by now. Something's not right. My parents were at our home, and I remember telling them, like, I know something's wrong. Like, something is not okay. I kept calling and calling.

I texted. And it's not like him to not pick up, especially if he's in the car. Like, he's not doing something else. He's just driving. He would answer his phone. I started looking at traffic reports to see if there was an accident or anything and wasn't seeing anything. So I got in the car. I took my mom with me. My dad stayed at home with London and started driving out to the beach where I knew he had been last. He had just dropped

William and Abby off. That's the last point I knew he was. So I started driving that way. And while I was driving, I kept calling his phone. And after, you know, four or five tries, it picked up. But it wasn't Jared. It was a police officer who just kept telling me to come to the station as I kept asking, is my husband okay? Is my husband okay? And he said, please come to the Jacksonville Beach Police Department.

Your daughter's fine. But he would not answer me about my husband. And that just confirmed to me, Jared was not okay. My mom was trying to calm me down. She said, maybe it's an accident. No, we don't know what happened. But I knew, I knew in my gut that Jared wasn't okay. And when we got there, I saw Bexley and then it clicked. I'm like, if this was a car accident, Bexley would be taken to the hospital to get checked out. Like, this is not a car accident

because why is she here at the station? And then it was a long night. I had to wait a while until they confirmed that Jared had been killed. Talked to detectives. I had to call his family that night. So it was, you know, like my whole world just came crashing down. And I remember the same thing. Kirsten, who told you that Jared had been killed?

A detective informed me. You know, at first when I was sitting in the break room at the police station with my daughter my mom and female officer I kept asking like what happened okay see him you know I didn't know for sure if he had died I didn't know any details that they just told me it's a death investigation and I said is it him or someone else they wouldn't. They asked me to describe what my husband looked like. And so then after a while, I was taken into another room away from my daughter and my mom and informed that Jared had been shot.

Jessica Morgan is joining me, not just professor of forensics and author and host, but a death investigator. You know, Joe Scott, hearing Kirsten describe that night, it just makes my chest hurt, imagining her in the car and not being able to find Jared and wonder, where's Bexley? And then they say, Bexley's all right. And then why do I have to go to the police station?

And nobody will tell her. And the mad rush to get to the police station, and then getting there, and nobody will tell her. But yet she knows. She knows, but she doesn't want to know. I have dealt with so many crime victims, and they know. I don't know how they know. I don't know how I knew, but I knew.

How often have you encountered that, Joe Scott? Very often. And when people's hearts are knitted together in love like that, I think that you have a sense about what's happening with the other person. And it's overwhelming. I've seen it played out in, you know, in my world as a death investigator over and over and over again. And it does happen.

And it's quite striking, you know, because there's that sense of dread, you know, that this horrible thing, this news, even though it hasn't officially been delivered to you, you know, that it's there. Because, you know, you're running through all of these scenarios as a victim of what had happened, what had happened, and suddenly, you know, you're worsening fruition right before your eyes. Kirsten, did you go back to the scene? Did you go back and see where your husband was ambushed? No. In fact, when I left

the police station and I was there several days in a row, I had to go another way. I couldn't go there. I didn't know if there would still be blood on the street. I didn't want to go there. It wasn't until a few weeks after that I went back with a friend because I had printed a big sign of the truck asking for people to call in if they knew anything and I put it on that street and that was the first time I was back and I to this day avoid that road. Can I tell you something? I have never gone to the scene where my fiancé was murdered, and I don't want to. I don't want to see it.

It hurts enough as it is. I don't want to go back and see that and have that in my mind too. So I completely understand. And for me, it was just my own pain. You're having to feel the pain of your children. To Rebecca Rosenberg, joining us from Fox News Digital and New York Post, Rebecca, describe to me the scene and what we believe happened the night Jared was ambushed and murdered. murdered? Okay, so he had just dropped his children off at his ex-wife, and he was maybe five, ten minutes from her home, but probably closer to five minutes, and he had Bexley in the

car, and he just entered this wooded stretch of Sanctuary Way Boulevard, that even though there's homes on the other side of the woods, you really can't see the car or see the houses from where he was. He encountered a tire in the road. In order to continue down that road, he had to get out of the car to move the tire. When he stepped out of the car, he was shot repeatedly in front of his in front of bexley and um the assailant fled uh and three minutes later a good samaritan pulled up and got bexley out of the car and the police were called but there's no surveillance footage. There was, I believe, a ring doorbell that captured the sounds of the shot. So they know exactly when he was killed, but there's no surveillance footage of the actual crime. And there is an F-150 truck that was captured, I guess, near there, and the police are calling it a vehicle of interest in the crime. I'm very curious. Take a listen to our cut 24, our friends at WJAX. So I asked Shanna the question, did you have anything to do with Jared's murder?

No, I did not have anything to do with his murder. Shanna says she has no idea if the murder was targeted or what Jared was involved in, saying they ran in different circles. But Action News Jaxx reported in June Shanna had hired criminal defense attorney Hank Cox. He was referred to me by several friends, and ultimately my kids' images and videos were being used in the media without consent. Shanna said Cox was hired to protect her kids. I asked her if she thinks she will face criminal charges. She says no, that she's cooperated with detectives.

Let's talk about that Ford F-150. Take a listen to our cut to our friends at WJXT. Before his death, Ryan against 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. You know, I'm thinking specifically Joe Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, and author of the Molly Tibbetts case and then the Kendra Hatcher case. Both of them murders, both of them solved after a distinctive marking was seen on the perp's vehicle. Molly Tibbetts was raped and murdered as she was jogging.

Kendra was going into her high-rise parking deck when she was followed by a vehicle that had a marking on the side of it, much as in the Molly Tibbetts case. Joe Scott, how can we use the video of that Ford F-150? The images that you know, the images that I have seen, these screen captures that I've seen, have been grainy at best. And I think that they're going to have to truly be enhanced. However, however, this is the saving grace, I think, from an evidentiary standpoint.

What's fascinating is the fact that we've got this tire, and it's not just a tire exactly with the wheel and there are going to be identifiers on this thing nancy that are very specific to points of origin relative to that tire could you please uh break it down in regular talk where was the tire bought what kind of tire was it are there prints on it can we trace it back to a particular store and just looking at the image of the tire there is wear on the tread you know it's been worn down however each tire has a dot number that's assigned to it that gives it that gives it back to a specific location or origin of that tire who when it was manufactured how long it's been around and what what distributor what local distributor and then we start narrowing down neighborhoods and who may

have bought it and when then we start looking for surveillance video if it even still exists based on the tread it may not still exist but maybe it does and if you buy tires there once, I always get tires at the same place. Always. Has there been a repeat customer that gets that same tire, that same type? That's what I'm saying. Yeah. And not only that, but there's a rim associated with this, Nancy. A rim, the wheel in the center, that was also there as well. And that's quite fascinating because that's got specific markings on it. Not only markings, but tool markings, Nancy, because it didn't have the nuts with it. It's been dropped off. If you can tie that back and put that into the hands of a potential perpetrator, that's powerful, Evan. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

I want to go back to Jared's wife, the mother of two of his children, joining us, Kirsten Breitigan. And as you have heard, this is not easy for her to discuss, but she's doing it to find justice. In fact, you can find her on Insta at Justice for Jared B. At Justice for Jared B. B as in brother. Kirsten, I want to talk about if you can bring yourself to do it. Was there any robbery? Was anything taken from him? No.

His wallet, his phone, watch, wedding ring, all of that was still at the scene. So it does not appear anything was taken. It appears that the main point was, or the only point, was to kill Jared. And he was shot. Your husband, after that marathon day, after a whirlwind romance, you have children together, and your husband was shot at point-blank range. He was shot three to four feet away. Yeah. And nothing was stolen. three to four feet away. Yeah.

And nothing was stolen. The car wasn't stolen. Nothing. Nothing. And you know, it's really hard to process. Not only did they murder my husband, a good man, an amazing father. They did it in front of our daughters. And if this was a setup, if this was planned,

they knew Bexley would be there because she's always with her dad on date nights. Who knew? Who would know that he was dropping the children off, his twins, age nine at the time. Who would know that he was dropping Abby and Liam off that night? You, your family. Yeah, myself, his ex-wife, and her husband, and then anyone that was told by one of us three.

How far is the drive from your house to Abby and Liam's home? Depending on traffic, 35 to 45 minutes between the two homes. Where was the crime scene as it relates to Abby and Liam's home and your home? Was it closer to their home? Closer to their mom's home, yes. So she only lives a few miles down the road from where this happened. Jared dropped him off and then he took the route from her house to the on-ramp that we take every time. And it was, you know, to get from her house to where he was shot, you wind through neighborhoods. So there's cameras all along from home until this one road. The only stretch from her house to the highway that there are no cameras.

Was right there. Was right there where he was murdered. Where was the Ford F-150 coming from when it was caught on video? Not sure where it was coming from, but I know that one of the cameras that picked it up was on the police station, which is just around the corner from his ex-wife's home. Guys, take a listen to our cut three, our friends at WJXT. This is the first time that detectives are telling us that they believe this murder was a targeted one. They believe that someone intentionally set out to kill this father of four. Detectives obviously very passionate about solving this case.

I've been speaking with them every day and they say that they are going to leave no stone unturned. This as the family and the community are really upset and concerned about this. We just found this. It is a cross that says justice for Jared showing how many people are concerned about this and just moments ago we learned that a reward has been increased to $8,000 for information leading to an arrest. An $8,000 reward. Dial 904-270-1661 if you have or think you have information. Or 866-845-8477. $8,000 reward. I also want you to hear our cut for our friends at WJXT.

This is pretty much where the scene was. Detective Sergeant David Young tells us this is where drivers found 33-year-old Jared Bridegan, shot to death next to his SUV, which was also struck. Inside, the man's two-year-old daughter. He says it's a miracle that she wasn't hurt. Anytime there's a child involved where, you know, the child could have been hit, yeah, it gets to you. It does. It gets to you. Bright again had his SUV's emergency flashers on, and this spare tire was in the road, which is why police believe his killer set him up. There was a reason there was a tire in the middle of the road.

So we think that in that aspect, we think he was targeted. We believe that the shooter was less than four feet, three feet from him. That's cold-blooded. Yes. Yes, especially with a two-year-old in a car. So this person wanted him dead? Yes. Was anything stolen? We don't-old in a car. So this person wanted him dead? Yes. Was anything stolen?

We don't think this is a robbery. To Rebecca Rosenberg joining us from Fox News Digital, is it true that on one occasion, at least one, the deceased dad of four, Jared Breidigan, claims that his ex, Shannon Gardner, had used a tracking device on his car and put a voice-activated recorder in his home? Yes, that is true. During their divorce, when they were both living in the same home, but sort of on opposite parts of the house, he alleged that she put baby

monitors under, I believe one was under one of the children's beds that didn't need to be there. There was already a monitor in the room. There was no reason for it to be hidden in this strange location in addition to what was already there. And she'd also put some sort of tracking device on his car. And I just want to go back a little bit and mention one thing that I find kind of troubling is, you know, Kirsten and her family, they've raised like $55,000 in reward money to help,

you know, find any information that will lead to this, the killer. And even though Shanna and her family she comes from a very wealthy family her parents have a company that has um that earns over a hundred million dollars a year in revenue uh they haven't contributed a penny to this um this this reward fund to kirsten bright again do you believe believe Jared was targeted? I do. Let me point out to everyone that the ex-wife has not been named a suspect, a person of interest, a target in any way. Kirsten, what can you tell me about the reward for information regarding your husband's death? Currently, it's a total of $55,000 through Crime Stoppers, where you can remain anonymous. It's $50,000 for a tip leading

to an arrest. And then there's an additional $5,000 for a tip leading to an arrest and conviction through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. So it had started out as $3,000, and then myself and my brother-in-law raised money to get it up to $55,000. So the reward is now $55,000. Kirsten, do you believe this was a professional hit, and if so, why? I do. The fact that they knew where to stop Jared, where there would not be cameras, where he could not just go around the tire. And anyone that knows Jared knows that he's a good guy.

He would stop and move a tire so that someone else didn't have to. You know, someone else wouldn't have to get out of their car. It was raining and move a tire so that someone else didn't have to. Someone else wouldn't have to get out of their car. It was raining and move the tire. They knew him. They knew his route. They knew his character. And they planned this and they murdered him in front of our daughter. And if you have information, please dial 904-270-1661 or 866-845-TIPS. 866-845-8477. Kirsten, how do you explain to your children that Daddy isn't there? You do have the harsh part. One who's too little to even know her dad.

So we'll have that conversation when she's older. But Bexley did. Bexley was Jared's shadow. She loved him so much. Just why she was always with him. And some days she seems to understand, you know, we talk about dad's in heaven, dad's body got hurt. For a while, she would pull out her little play doctor kit and

say, I'm going to go fix my dad. We had to talk about daddy's body didn't get better. Dad's already gone, but we'll see him when we're in heaven. And some days she seems to grasp that, but then other days, like this past week, I made dinner and it was, you know, a smaller portion and she said, you know, why didn't we make more? She says, just those three. And she asked, well, when Daddy comes back, can we make some more? So her understanding and her grasp of what's happened kind of goes in and out and it's a conversation we have over and over again and it's heartbreaking kirsten i'm so sorry just i'm so

sorry for what you're going through what your family's going through and the only thing we can do for you now is try to help you and your children get justice if there even is such a thing. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.