A husband was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing his estranged wife to death after police used records from his Uber ride home to tie him to the slaying.
Kenneth Shea, 37, was imprisoned after he pleaded guilty to brutally murdering 57-year-old Elizabeth Shea in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania.
Shea was found dead in April 2024 at her Cromwell Lane home on the master bedroom floor with slash wounds to her head and neck.
Police had gone to the home to perform a welfare check on Shea after coworkers at a doggie daycare reported that she had failed to show up for work that morning. Upon arriving at the house, police found three phones “discarded in the toilet” and discovered the door to the main bedroom locked.
Shea’s body was found inside the room when officers forced their way in.
Following the discovery of the body, investigators determined that an air conditioning unit “had been pushed inside the residence, allowing access through the window,” the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office said.
Four hard drives from the home’s security cameras were found discarded in the toilet.
Kenneth Shea was initially charged with simple assault based on a previous domestic violence incident at the home. Police say that he had been served with a protection from abuse order and was evicted from the Cromwell Lane home.
In the following days, police focussed the investigation on Kenneth Shea and his travel history on the day of the murder.
Records obtained by investigators showed that he had taken an Uber in the early morning hours of April 10, according to the DA’s office.
“He was picked up at 12.36am at Comfort Inn in Feasterville-Trevose and dropped off at 12.55am on Wainwright Road, which is behind the victim’s residence. At 3.37am the defendant was picked up on Wainwright Road and returned to the hotel at 3.58am, where video surveillance from the lobby showed him arriving and going to Room 314,” the DA’s office added.
Location records on Shea’s phone also showed him in the area of the Bucks County hotel in the days leading up to the murder and later on April 10.
Following the discovery, police arrested Shea as he left his hotel room at around 6 pm on April 10.
Investigators later found camouflaged pants consistent with the pants Shea was seen wearing when he returned to the hotel following the murder, and what appeared to be blood stains on the bed, according to a criminal complaint.
Shea had injuries to his right hand, including three small cuts to his right index finger, investigators said.
As he was sentenced on Monday, Shea was in tears as he apologized to his slain wife and her sons, who were in court.
He also said he wanted to skip the trial to avoid putting the family through any more pain.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele called the murder a “tragic case” and added, “our hearts go out to the family of Elizabeth Shea.”
