EXCLUSIVENewly 未亡人d, my 肉親，親類d father fell for the town tramp. A year into their marriage, a secret 記録，記録的な／記録するing 明らかにする／漏らすd her shocking cruelty... it was just the start of our nightmare
Growing up, my father, Ed, was my best friend.?
My mother, Lisa, had 穏やかな cerebral palsy, which paralysed her 権利 手渡す, so Dad always did my braids and ponytails for school.?
A 海軍 退役軍人, he was strict and could be gruff, but he was never too manly to 直す／買収する，八百長をする his little girl's hair.
It really 社債d us, and when I got older, we loved to cook Italian food and watch football together.?
When I went off to university, a two-hour 運動 away, we still spoke on the phone every day, and Dad helped me buy my first car.?
While 熟考する／考慮するing, I met my now-husband, Kevin, and was relieved when he got Dad's 調印（する） of 是認. They even played ゴルフ together.
In April 2005, when I was 22, my father left a message on my voicemail.
'Shae Marie, don't go to work. Call me. I love you,' he said.
My father, Ed Bigley, a 海軍 退役軍人, was a strict and いつかs gruff parent - but he was also my best friend and had a gentle 味方する (the author, Shae Willis, is pictured as a toddler with her dad at one of his homecomings)
Ed is pictured in his US 海軍 uniform
I called 支援する すぐに, and I could tell he was crying.
'Your mother passed away,' he sobbed.?
I was 床に打ち倒すd. She was just 46 years old and had died of a heart attack in her sleep. My parents had been married for 28 years, and Dad was 絶対 broken. As their only child, I was beyond 荒廃させるd, too.
After the funeral, my father 退却／保養地d 完全に into himself.
A doctor who specialised in 扱う／治療するing 軍の 退役軍人s put him on sleeping tablets and anti-苦悩 医薬.
He wasn't the same, though. 'The house is empty, and I don't know what to do with myself,' he told me one night.
Almost 夜通し, his salt-and-pepper hair turned 完全に grey, and he lost 19kg (3st or 42lb).??
Then, in January, just seven months after my mother died, Dad dropped a bombshell: he was seeing someone new - a 地元の woman called Lesia.?
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/div> 'When I went off to university, a two-hour 運動 away, we still spoke on the phone every 選び出す／独身 day and Dad helped me buy my first car,' says?Shae (pictured here with her father, Ed)
My mother, Lisa (権利), was only 46 when she died of a heart attack. Afterwards, my dad (left) 完全に 退却／保養地d into himself?
'Dad, I don't want you to be alone, but this is too soon,' I said 堅固に.
He 主張するd it wasn't a 回復する.
One thing that never sat 権利 with me was that?Lesia was an old school friend of my mother's.?
Dad didn't know that. He didn't know her at all until the day?she walked up to him in the street to 申し込む／申し出 her sympathies.
But my grandmother knew her. She had a 評判.
'She was nothing but trouble - and trash,' she said.?
I heard from others that Lesia had been married three times and hadn't worked in years. She 明確に just saw my dad as a meal ticket.??
I tried to talk to him about it, but it was like he had tunnel 見通し when it （機の）カム to Lesia.
On Valentine's Day, Dad emailed me photos of him and Lesia getting married.
'You've got to be kidding me!' I said to Kevin.
When I called the house, Lesia 選ぶd up, and I couldn't keep my feelings to myself any longer.?
'You're not good for my dad,' I said. 'I don't know why you're doing this.'?
I was stunned when she replied, 'Little girl, I will （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 you.' What the hell?
When I spoke to my father, I was blunt.
'I 行方不明になる my father so much. He never got to walk me 負かす／撃墜する the aisle, never met my son,' says Shae (pictured here in a 最近の photo)
'Dad, this is not 権利. She's not good for you. You could have just hung out. You didn't have to marry her,' I said.?
But he wouldn't listen.
I was so upset, I 辞退するd to call after that. Still, I 行方不明になるd him.
Juggling work, my 熟考する／考慮するs, and my mother's death, it took a while to finish my degree, but?I did, and my 卒業 儀式 was scheduled for May 2006.
I really 手配中の，お尋ね者 my dad there, so called to 招待する him - and was relieved when he said he was coming without Lesia.
Mercifully, he'd spoken to a 離婚 lawyer. The marriage, as I had long 推定する／予想するd, wasn't working out.
'I don't know what I was thinking with her. She's crazy and didn't make me happy,' he said.?
All I felt was 救済.??
'You were grieving,' I told him. 'Don't be hard on yourself.'
At the beginning of August 2006, he left me a strange voicemail.
'Shae Marie, if anything happens to me, I've made recordings of Lesia that are in my 安全な. I'll leave them on this message, too.'
I was horrified as I listened to the messages. Lesia was 口頭で 乱用ing him.
'You're worthless! Not even a man,' she was shouting.
It was cruel, emasculating vitriol against the strongest man I'd ever known - who happened to be a widower and 退役軍人.
I called Dad straight away and asked him what in the world was going on.
'Lesia's a psycho,' he said.
Ominously, he then told me where his life 保険 paperwork was.
I spent the next fortnight worried for his safety. Two weeks later, I called him to see how he was 対処するing.
When he didn't answer, I left a message - but soon after, a 探偵，刑事 called me. I was 混乱させるd when he put dad's best friend, Joe, on the line.
'Shae, she killed him,' he said. 'He's gone.'
I burst into 涙／ほころびs. Of course, I knew 即時に he meant Lesia had killed Dad.
Later, I 設立する out she had 発射 him nine times, in his nose, mouth and penis.
She was like some 肉親，親類d of 黒人／ボイコット 未亡人. Married 多重の times, leeching off her husbands, and now 殺人，大当り one of them...
After 狙撃 Dad, Lesia 粉砕するd up でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd photos of me, and my parents together, then took canned food from his cupboards and drove off in his work トラックで運ぶ.
She was still wearing a T-shirt with Dad's 血 on it when police caught up with her.
Lesia was 合法的に my father's next of 肉親，親類, so I needed her 許可 to 解放（する） his 団体／死体 for a funeral, but she wouldn't give it.
Dad had to remain in the morgue until a friend of his went to the 刑務所，拘置所 and begged Lesia to 解放（する） him, which she finally did.
Lesia Bigley, the woman who killed Shae's father, is 予定 to be 解放（する）d next year
Lesia was 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with 殺人 but （人命などを）奪う，主張するd insanity. She told vicious lies about my dad, 説 he had violently and sexually 乱用d her. I knew it wasn't true.?
にもかかわらず the fact she'd bought the gun weeks before 殺人，大当り Dad, he'd 事実上 予報するd his own death, and she could have changed her mind about 殺人，大当り him during the 30-minute 運動 to his home, the 起訴 申し込む／申し出d her a 嘆願 取引，協定.
I was in 法廷，裁判所 when she 認める 過失致死.
'I would like for all of you to know how truly sorry and remorseful I am that this happened,' she said. 'I pray that Ed is at peace and is in heaven.'
It didn't fool me.
'You're a horrible person. I despise you. I hope you can never forget what you did to my father, and I hope it haunts you every day of your life. You are going to hell,' I told her.
Haughtily, she 発表するd, 'God has forgiven me.'
She was 宣告，判決d to 20 years in 刑務所，拘置所, but just seven years later 適用するd for 仮釈放（する）. She didn't get it and 多重の other 試みる／企てるs were 辞退するd.?
But by August 2026 she will have served her 十分な 宣告，判決 and be 解放する／自由なd. I genuinely 恐れる for my safety.
I 行方不明になる my father so much. He never got to walk me 負かす／撃墜する the aisle, never got to 会合，会う his grandchild.?
I work for the Department of 退役軍人s 事件／事情／状勢s now and it feels like I'm honouring Dad every day.
- As told to John Parrish?
