Florida man charged in death of missing mom after unknowingly giving police video showing him ‘moving a body’

A Florida ex-convict faces charges related to the death of a young woman after he unknowingly gave police surveillance footage that showed him “moving a body” out of his home, authorities said. 

William Redden, 51, was arrested in connection with the death of Stephanie Shenefield, a 38-year-old mom who was last seen on June 3 in Bradenton, Florida, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said. 

Authorities said at the time that Shenefield had a “medical condition” and had recently been behaving in a way that made loved ones concerned.

Investigators later determined that Shenefield booked an Uber to Redden’s home early on the morning of June 3. 

Redden told detectives that the woman came to his house around 1 a.m. that day to “hang out” and she spent the night before leaving hours later, police said. He told them he did not know where she had gone. 

Sheriff’s office officials said Redden gave detectives consent to search the home, at which point they spotted a video surveillance system inside. He allowed police to take the video system for further examination – and told them it was “only a ‘live monitoring’ system,’” officials said. 

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Little did he know, however, that pieces of the night’s events were captured on the surveillance system.

“While reviewing the video, detectives observe Shenefield arriving at the residence at 1:20 am on 6/3, hanging out with Redden, and later being carried by Redden out of camera view – presumably to the bedroom,” officials said. “At 12:20 pm, Redden is seen moving a body, wrapped up in a sheet, from the house and placing the body in the back seat of his car.”

Sheriff Rick Wells further described how Redden was seen “dragging her lifeless body throughout the house,” according to FOX 13.

Redden allegedly would not answer questions after learning of the detectives’ discovery, and would not speak about the whereabouts of her body. 

“William Redden is a piece of crap, that’s what he is,” Wells said late last week, according to FOX 13.

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“He had the opportunity to call law enforcement. He’s an eight-time convicted felon. He’s still refusing to talk to us,” Wells went on. “He could have done a lot of things, but that’s not his character. The only thing he thought of was getting rid of the evidence that was in his car – that was a human being.”

Local residents were walking their dogs on Thursday evening when they discovered Shenefield’s “badly decomposed” remains in a drainage ditch, where investigators believe she had been left days earlier.

The medical examiner is working to determine the cause and manner of Shenefield’s death.

So far, Redden has been charged with abuse of a corpse, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of an altered firearm, police said. Wells said he expects Redden to face additional charges. 

As of Friday, he was being held in the Manatee County Jail on a $108,000 bond.