Police: Ex-husband reveals grisly details in murder of Texas mom
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Shaun Hardy confessed to beating, stabbing and suffocating Anne-Christine Johnson

After somehow evading police detection for two weeks, a League City, Texas, man has painted a horrific picture for investigators about the final hours of his ex-wife Anne-Christine Johnson.

Shaun Hardy was charged with murder on December 31 after police discovered a body in his garage the day before, after entering his home, where Johnson was last seen, on a search warrant seeking cell phones. Initially, police had not been treating her ex-husband as a suspect and told the media he was cooperating with the investigation.  Friday’s search was not the first time police had been in his home since Johnson’s disappearance.

But by that time the body in his garage had begun to decompose, and an officer noticed the stench coming from the garage door, as Hardy was sobbing. The odor became more intense after the door was opened. Police found the body wrapped in dark plastic and surrounded by scented candles. It does not appear that police expected to find Johnson’s body in the home, as a second search warrant was ordered after the discovery of the remains. Hardy and Johnson had a five-year-old son together, who had autism, and who was at Hardy’s home when the police executed the search warrant.

Hardy later gave League City Police Department a recorded interview, in which he shared grisly details of Johnson’s brutal torture and murder. According to police documents, he confessed to throwing her on the ground “as hard as I could” until she bled from her head and face. He then turned her on her side and drove a knife into her chest with his foot, kicking it so hard that he dented his shoe. At that point, Hardy said he suffocated her with a plastic bag in order to “put her out of her misery.”He reportedly admitted to police that he “wanted to see” Johnson die.

Johnson had feared that Hardy would hurt or even kill her, according to her mother and a request for an order of protection from Hardy in 2015. Hardy is now being held on $500,000 bond at the Galveston County Jail.

 

Photo: League City Police