Shanna Gardner Fernandez biography: 13 things about West Richland, Washington woman

Shanna Lee Gardner Fernandez, a resident of West Richland, Benton County, Washington, United States, and her first husband Jared Galen Bridegan were Mormons. After their divorce, he married Kirsten E. Vach Bridegan and Fernandez married Mario Enrique Fernandez Saldana.

In 1988, Shanna’s parents Sterling B. Gardner and Shelli Goodfellow Gardner founded Stampin’ Up!, a multi-level marketing crafts company, in Utah, USA. Shanna has four older sisters namely Megan Gardner, Sara Gardner, Shalae Gardner and Sage Gardner Hoopiiaina. 

While Shanna and Jared were married, they were financially supported by Sterling and Shelli, including a monthly stipend of $8,500 a month. In February 2015, Shanna filed for divorce from Jared.

Jared accused Shanna of locking him out of the master bedroom, installing surveillance devices in his car and their children’s bedroom and treating him in a disparaging manner in front of the children. She accused him of disturbing and abusive behavior, regularly interrogating and recording their children after actively coaching them on what to say and threatening to use their recorded statements against her.

Shanna has lived in different parts of Utah including Alpine, Sandy and Wilton. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. On March 23, 2001, her grandmother Hortense Brinkerhoff Gardner died in Fredonia, Coconino County, Arizona, USA at age 84.
2. On May 22, 2004, her aunt Alice Jayne Gardner Averett died in Yuma, Yuma County, Arizona at age 62.
3. On March 30, 2009, her grandfather Ulysses Sterling Gardner died in Alpine at age 95.
4. In April 2010, she and Jared got married at the Salt Lake Temple, a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. They initially lived in Utah and later moved to Wilton, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA.
5. In 2013, she gave birth to her twin daughter and son. Her son had a heart condition that mandated he live at sea level so she, Jared and the twins moved from Connecticut to Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Johns County, Florida and later to Jacksonville Beach, Duval County, Florida.
6. On February 24, 2015, she went to a tattoo shop in Florida to get a vaginal piercing. She later returned to the shop for an upper ear-piercing and again for a navel piercing. While she was in the process of divorcing Jared, she allegedly asked a male tattoo parlor staffer in Florida if he knew anyone who could “shut” Jared up. The staffer shared the details to Fox News in June 2022.
7. She and Jared shared custody of their children after their divorce. In 2017, he married Kirsten.
8. In 2018, she met Mario Enrique Fernandez Saldana at her CrossFit gym where he worked as a maintenance man. In the same year, they got married. She and Mario lived in Jacksonville, Duval County while Jared and Kirsten lived in St. Augustine, St. Johns County. Jared and Kirsten’s daughters were born in 2020 and 2021.
9. On February 16, 2022, Jared was fatally shot in Jacksonville Beach in front of Jared and Kirsten’s daughter, then 2, allegedly by Mario’s tenant and handyman Henry Arthur Tenon, then 61. After Jared’s death, Mario moved to Orlando, Orange County, Florida while she and her twin children moved to West Richland. 
10. In June 2022, she told The Florida-Times Union, “I feel for Jared’s family and what they are going through. I can’t even imagine. I have tried to be respectful. I have tried to give them space.”
11. Following Mario’s arrest on March 16, 2023 in Florida, her parents sent a letter to Stampin’ Up! vendors where they claimed that she and Mario “have been separated for an extended period of time”.
12. On August 17, 2023, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents arrested her at her residence in West Richland for her alleged role in Jared’s murder. She was booked into the Benton County Jail in Kennewick, Benton County.
13. She was 36 years old when she was arrested on August 17, 2023. She is awaiting extradition to face charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Duval County.