Jared Bridegan's family files suit against ex-Shanna Gardner's for child visitation rights
The family of a slain St. Augustine father is suing for visitation rights while his children remain in the custody of his ex-wife who is accused of playing a "key role" in a hitman scheme to kill him, according to Times-Union news partner First Coast News.
Shanna Gardner retains sole custody of the 11-year-old twins she shares with Bridegan. She and current husband Mario Fernandez Saldana are each in the Duval County jail without bond on multiple charges. The children are staying with her family. Her parents are Sterling and Shelli Gardner, co-founders of the highly successful Stampin’ Up! arts and crafts company and fixtures in the Mormon community in Utah.
Bridegan, 33, was gunned down in the street in Jacksonville Beach after dropping off the twins at Gardner and Fernandez Saldana's home on Feb. 16, 2022. He was on his way home to St. Augustine with his 2-year-old daughter when he was ambushed. Gardner later moved to Washington state and took the children with her while Fernandez Saldana went to Orlando.
Bridegan's sister, Ashley Bridegan, said the family has only had one supervised visit with the twins since he died, and the loss of contact with them is devastating.
"There was this deep sorrow within our family to not only lose him, but to lose that connection to his kids, and so it was extremely important to us, because we know that that's what Jared would want, you know, is to have us in their lives," she said.
Bridegan's parents, Gaylord and JoAnne Bridegan, have filed a lawsuit in Washington asking for unsupervised visitation rights, court records show. They are asking for help in a GoFundMe paying for their legal fees. His father recently battled cancer and his mother is retiring.
"To watch my parents using their little retirement fund that they have as your average middle-class family is what's so hard, that they're using that to be able to see their grandchildren," Ashley Bridegan said.
Ashley said she knows her brother would want the family to be involved with his children, especially with their father gone and a lengthy trial to come.
"We want them to feel their father's love that he had for them, and we hope that we will be able to have that one day and that our doors always open, and more than anything, we want that relationship with them," she said.
Meanwhile, Gardner has hired a high-profile attorney in her criminal case, known for defending Casey Anthony, Hernandez, and, briefly, Harvey Weinstein.
Bridegan's youngest children are in the custody of their mother, his second wife Kirsten. Ashley said before his murder, the four siblings shared a close bond.
Murder plot in Jacksonville Beach: Bodycam video shows Shanna Gardner's arrest in ex-Jared Bridegan's murder plot
"More than anything, we want to see that reunited," she said. "We want them to have that other piece of them because those other two children are part of Jared."
At the news conference following Gardner's arrest, Bridegan's widow said the twins Abby and Liam had been "kept away and isolated from us" while living with their mother Gardner, stepfather and maternal grandparents.
"Despite my constant requests to see or speak to them, I have been denied and continuously ignored," she said tearfully. "... I plead with the Gardners to put the emotional and mental well-being of Liam and Abby above all else and allow them to reconnect with us. We are their family, we love them... Let our children be siblings again and put them first and do what's right."
Times-Union Metro Editor Scott Butler contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jared Bridegan's family sues Shanna Gardner's for child visitation
