ORLANDO, Fla. – A former Orange County Sheriff’s Office sergeant who retired amid a department investigation is now facing first-degree murder charges for the death of his estranged wife, who was a lieutenant.
Anthony Shea, 49, was arrested Friday in the shooting death of OCSO Lt. Eloilda “Ellie” Shea. The sheriff’s office said she died after being found with a gunshot wound on Monday afternoon.
Anthony Shea retired from the sheriff’s office in August amid an internal investigation into an affair. According to the arrest affidavit, Shea was under investigation for having an intimate relationship while on duty.
Anthony Shea told detectives that he found Ellie Shea on their bed in a pool of blood and with a gun on her chest. The couple had been fighting constantly since the discovery of the affair, he said, and she had been depressed and overwhelmed by the investigation.
However, after reviewing cell phone records and body-worn camera footage, homicide detectives believe Anthony Shea killed Ellie Shea and tried to make it look like a suicide by using the victim’s phone to send messages to his own phone, delaying contacting 911 for help, and misleading deputies who arrived to investigate.
The sheriff’s office says Anthony Shea joined the agency in October 2006, and the investigation would have resulted in him being fired from the agency if he had not retired.
“Ellie cared deeply about this agency and the work we do, and I considered her a rising star. We have all struggled this week with feelings of shock, grief and guilt while we tried to make sense of Ellie’s death, which was meant to appear as a suicide. I want to thank our homicide detectives, who had the extraordinarily difficult job of investigating a colleague’s murder, for their diligence in ensuring justice for Ellie,” said Sheriff John Mina in a statement.
Anthony Shea is being held without bond in the Orange County Jail.
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