Police in Jacksonville, Florida believe a swinging ex-cop may have played a role in the plot to kill Florida. Microsoft CEO Jared Bridegan, DailyMail.com has learned.
John Biggerstaff, 56, a disgraced former reserve officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, is one of two additional suspects in the 2022 slaying of the father of four.
Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, 36, her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 35, and his former tenant, Henry Tenon, 62, – have been charged in what investigators say was a coordinated murder plot.
It was February 16, 2022, as 33-year-old Bridegan was driving home from dropping off his twins from his first marriage at their mother’s house in Jacksonville Beach when he stopped to move a tire that, according to police, had been deliberately placed on the road to lure him. from his vehicle.
He was shot at close range while his daughter Bexley – then just two years old and one of two children from his second marriage – was strapped into her child seat in the back of the car.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both Gardner and Fernandez Saldana, who have pleaded not guilty. Tenon, meanwhile, is cooperating with prosecutors who have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and face a sentence of at least 15 years.
Biggerstaff, who was convicted and served a prison sentence for sex trafficking and drug-related crimes and was described by police as a “longtime associate” of Fernandez Saldana. has not yet been charged with the murder.
John Biggerstaff, 56, named as one of two additional suspects in the murder of father-of-four Jared Bridegan
Bridegan was shot multiple times at close range in what police described as an “ambush” and “targeted” attack on February 16, 2022, in front of his then two-year-old daughter in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
Biggerstaff, featured in exclusive photos from DailyMail.com, was jailed for sex trafficking and drug-related offences. He has not yet been charged in the murder case
Biggerstaff and his wife Maria (pictured), who is not involved in the crime, are said to be swingers. According to a police report, images of Fernandez Saldana with Biggerstaff’s wife were taken from his home computer
But newly released court documents and hundreds of pages of police records reviewed by DailyMail.com show that investigators have determined that five people were “likely” involved in the conspiracy to kill the father of four – one of them Biggerstaff.
And while prosecutors and police have declined to comment on the status of the investigation, sources close to the case have told DailyMail.com that the company remains very “active and open.”
Court documents filed by investigators in January and February 2023 show that they asked for continued access to wiretaps and to intercept calls from the five alleged co-conspirators.
In those documents, Biggerstaff’s name is redacted, but a great deal of biographical detail is given.
It is noted that the suspect referred to as “Target Number 5” has known Fernandez Saldana for many years, that Fernandez Saldana dated his daughter in high school, that he had a military background and is a former reserve police officer and convicted felon.
Police interviewed Biggerstaff in connection with the murders on Monday, August 22, 2022.
Records from that interview show Biggerstaff served in the Navy for 22 years. He told officers that Saldana dated his daughter in high school and that he and the younger man were training partners for years before Saldana left for the military.
Court records also note that the suspect, identified as Target No. 5, “admitted (that) he owned a 10mm caliber handgun but said he did not know where it was.” A 10mm gun was used to kill Bridegan.”
Records from Biggerstaff’s 2022 interview show that he both admitted to owning such a weapon and claimed not to know where it was located. The report also shows that police believed he had “lied” to them.
Biggerstaff told his interviewers that he and Fernandez Saldana reconnected when the younger man returned to Jacksonville Beach after his brief stint in the military.
Biggerstaff ran a handyman business at the time and did some work in the rental property where Tenon was a tenant. He told officers he hadn’t seen Tennon in “a year or two” and that he “didn’t really know him.”
Police interviewed Biggerstaff in connection with the murders on Monday, August 22, 2022. DailyMail.com obtained the report which states: ‘Biggerstaff stated that the conversation (with Fernandez Saldana) was of a personal nature. Biggerstaff said he and his wife are swingers
Jared’s ex-wife Shanna is seen in her mugshot after she pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to the murder of her ex-husband Jared Bridegan
Suspected shooter Henry Tenon, 62, (left) has said he is willing to testify that Mario Fernandez Saldana, 35, (right) and his wife hired him to kill Jared
Biggerstaff’s was one of several cellphones subpoenaed by investigators, and court documents reflect the investigator’s claim that “cellphone data links the conspirators.”
When police downloaded the contents of the phone Biggerstaff had surrendered to them, they discovered that all text messages between him and Fernandez Saldana until May 2022 had been deleted.
But according to court documents, “the toll record shows a significant increase in contact (between suspects) immediately before and after the murder, compared to the otherwise sporadic contact between them in the six weeks before the murder.”
They note that the suspect “had frequent telephone and personal contact with Fernandez Saldana the day before, the day of, and the day after the murder.”
During an interview by police officers, Biggerstaff was specifically asked about his communications with Fernandez Saldana on the days before, the day of and the day after the murder.
When asked what he and Fernandez Saldana talked about on the night of the murder itself, Biggerstaff made a shock claim.
According to the report, “Biggerstaff stated that the conversation was personal in nature. Biggerstaff said he and his wife are “swingers.”
His claims appear to be supported by the fact that intimate images of Fernandez Saldana with Biggerstaff’s wife, Maria, 53, who is not involved in the murder, were recovered from Biggerstaff’s home computer.
Biggerstaff told police that Fernandez Saldana was a swinger, but that Gardner was not.
Jared is seen with his widow Kristen, their two daughters and the twins he shared with Shanna
Bridegan was engaged in a bitter and protracted legal battle with Gardner over custody of their now 13-year-old twins when he was killed.
Under the agreement in place at the time of his death, the children stayed with their mother and father for alternating weeks and went on a “date night” every Wednesday with the parent who did not have them.
Bridegan was on his way home from dropping the twins off at their mother’s house after one of those “date nights” when he was forced to stop at a tire that had been deliberately placed in the road to lure him out of his car.
When he got out to move the obstacle, he was shot. His daughter, Bexley, was strapped into her child seat in the back of the car.
Bridegan left behind a grieving family, including his parents, two brothers, widow Kirsten, 32, whom he married in 2017, and their two young daughters, Bexley, now 4, and London, now two.
Biggerstaff did not respond to DailyMail.com’s approach for comment.
Police records show that he “continued to say he had no knowledge of the murder.”
