On a cold January night in Jay County, Indiana, 31-year-old Shea Briar was found unconscious on a remote bridge and later died at the hospital from a gunshot wound to the heart. The killing shocked the small, rural community. Briar, a Navy veteran and devoted father eager to be present in his infant daughter’s life, was described by relatives as kind and without enemies. Detectives, including Ben Schwartz, began investigating what led to a seemingly senseless shooting.
Investigators quickly focused on Briar’s troubled relationship with his ex-fiancée, Ester Jane “EJ” Stephen, a local high school softball coach who also ran a daycare. Briar had filed a paternity petition in November 2019 seeking custody and visitation with the couple’s baby. His family said EJ had threatened him and eventually blocked his access to the child. When he failed to show up for church the weekend of his disappearance, relatives feared the worst and soon learned he had been shot.
Phone records placed EJ in contact with Briar around midnight the night he died. She initially denied making the call, but detectives held that information as they continued to build the case. A key break came when Kristi Sibray, a former police officer and friend of EJ, came forward with a detailed account that changed the course of the investigation.
Sibray told police that EJ had asked her to babysit on January 11, 2020. That night, she said, EJ returned home alone and acted strangely, hinting that something had happened but refusing to explain. Sibray also recalled prior conversations in which EJ and Shelby Hiestand, an 18-year-old former player and assistant coach close to EJ, discussed getting rid of Briar. According to Sibray, the women had once tried to poison Briar by crushing pills into his drink; the attempt apparently failed. Sibray later testified she had thought EJ was venting at the time, but after Briar’s death she felt compelled to tell police what she had heard.
Under renewed questioning, EJ provided an account of the night that conflicted with other evidence. She said she drove with Shelby and another young woman, Hannah Knapke, to pick up Briar. EJ told detectives they drove to a bridge where Shelby produced a rifle and fired, striking Briar. EJ claimed she did not know Shelby planned to shoot him and insisted earlier talk about killing had been joking. Detectives found those explanations unconvincing.
Shelby later admitted to pulling the trigger; Hannah acknowledged involvement as well. EJ told police she had picked up a rifle at Shelby’s house earlier in the day, that Shelby fired the weapon once in a parking lot to test the noise, and that the three of them discussed ways to get rid of Briar. EJ admitted she took Briar’s phone and discarded it in a creek because she feared he would call 911. Detectives said she returned to the scene and watched Briar lying on the bridge as the group drove away; motorists discovered him about an hour later and called for help.
Prosecutors charged EJ Stephen, Shelby Hiestand and Hannah Knapke in Briar’s death. All three initially pleaded not guilty. Sibray’s testimony about the prior discussions and the alleged earlier attempt to drug Briar became a centerpiece of the prosecution’s case. Prosecutors argued EJ orchestrated the killing, recruiting the much younger Shelby—who had been close to EJ as a former player—to carry out the shooting so Briar would no longer be part of EJ’s life or the child’s life.
EJ’s defense painted a different picture: that she was shocked when Shelby shot Briar, that talk of killing was crude, immature banter rather than a plan, and that she never intended for Briar to be killed. EJ told jurors she thought the rifle testing and conversation were jokes and that she only disposed of Briar’s phone because she could not access it to call for help and her own phone was dead. Prosecutors countered that taking the phone was evidence of planning and a cold disregard for Briar’s welfare.
In March 2021 a jury found EJ Stephen guilty of murder. She was sentenced to 55 years in prison, the term recommended under Indiana law for murder. Prosecutors highlighted evidence they said showed deliberation: testimony about prior plotting, the alleged attempted poisoning, acquiring the rifle, the test fire, and EJ’s role in preventing calls for help.
Three months later, Shelby Hiestand faced trial. Her defense said the shooting was unintentional and that she blacked out when the gun fired. Prosecutors presented text messages and other evidence they argued showed premeditation, including a message a month earlier expressing intent to “kill that bastard” and phone entries suggesting a close bond with EJ. The jury convicted Shelby of murder; she apologized to Briar’s family at sentencing and received a 55-year term.
Hannah Knapke accepted a plea deal in September 2021, pleading to voluntary manslaughter and avoiding a third trial. Her sentence made her eligible for release as early as mid-2026, a outcome Briar’s family called painful and insufficient but one that spared the family further courtroom proceedings.
Briar’s relatives mourned a man who wanted to be a father and had been looking forward to building a family. At his graveside, near the small white church he loved, family members recalled his kindness and his desire to be present in his daughter’s life.
The case drew attention for both its brutality and the tangled relationships that preceded the killing: a contentious custody dispute, a close bond between the mother and a much younger former player, and multiple chances for someone to intervene. Investigators relied on phone records, recorded interrogations, witness testimony, and surveillance and dash-cam footage to reconstruct events. Prosecutors framed EJ as the instigator who recruited others to remove Briar, while defense lawyers described immature talk and a tragic escalation that spun out of control.
For Briar’s family, the convictions brought some measure of closure but not restoration. Investigators and prosecutors emphasized the missed opportunities to stop the violence, including the alleged earlier poisoning attempt. The case remains a stark example of how intimate conflicts and a chain of decisions by several people can escalate into lethal violence and irreversible loss.