ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Eloilda and Anthony Shea were a couple in law enforcement. They were married, had two daughters, and worked for the same police department in Central Florida when he was accused of an on-duty affair that resulted in his resignation. Detectives reported he wanted to fool them into thinking her murder was a suicide.
Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested the former 49-year-old sergeant on Friday for the murder of his 39-year-old estranged wife, a lieutenant formerly known as Eloilda Padilla. He had called 911 on Monday and told detectives that he had received a text message from her before she killed herself in a bedroom.
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The text message: “Tony I can’t do this anymore please understand it’s too much what you did to me I can’t anymore. Take the girls for a drive give me space please.”
Detectives believe he wrote it after the shooting. They reported an accidental cell phone audio recording — about 54 minutes long — began three seconds after the text message was sent from her cellphone to his.
“My niece Ellie Padilla Shea fell victim to domestic violence this week. A decorated Lt. with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. A tragic and violent end to promising life and two beautiful children left without parents,” her aunt Isela Padilla wrote on Facebook.
According to Orange County Sheriff John Mina, Anthony “Tony” Shea joined the agency in October 2006, and Eloilda “Ellie” Shea in May 2011.
“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,” Mina wrote. “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.”
Deputies reported she died after suffering a gunshot wound to the head. Correctional deputies were holding Anthony Shea without bond on Saturday and he was facing a first-degree murder charge with a firearm.