As a Montco woman’s husband — and accused killer — faces a judge, her sons mourn her as a devoted, loving mom

As they struggle to grapple with their mother’s violent death, Elizabeth Shea’s sons recall her as a kind and giving woman who built a successful business while always making time for her family.

Even as she worked long hours at Lucky Dogz, her day-care business for dogs, they said, she never neglected the role she cherished most: mom. She woke up early every morning to make breakfast for her three children before school, and made sure to be in the stands at their sports events.

“She had all the qualities you’d want in a mom,” her middle son, Sean Bradley, said in an interview. “She was such a positive light in the world.”

Shea, 57, was found dead April 10 inside her home in the Wyndmoor section of Springfield Township. She had been stabbed multiple times, prosecutors said, including with shallow cuts they said were intended to torture her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her husband, Kenneth, was quickly identified as her killer, Assistant District Attorney Tanner Beck said in court Tuesday at Kenneth Shea’s preliminary hearing on murder and related charges. It was clear, the prosecutor said, that he had plotted to kill her for weeks.

On March 14, the eve of the couple’s one-year wedding anniversary, Shea told police her husband had previously attacked her in the home they shared and choked her for 30 minutes, to the point where she thought she was going to die, court records show. The next day, Shea got a restraining order and had him evicted.

Nearly a month later, Beck said, he returned to the home and killed her. Cell phone records showed that he ordered Uber rides to take him to and from the hotel where he’d been staying in Feasterville. In that hotel room, police found clothing stained with Shea’s blood, Beck said.

And investigators later learned that after being evicted from his home, Kenneth Shea had searched Google with queries including “who gets your house when your wife dies.”

A judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

Kenneth Shea’s attorney, Frank Genovese, said Tuesday that the case is a “tragic situation all around,” and that he will “mount an appropriate defense at the appropriate time.”

Shea’s violent death — and the arrest of the man she had dated since 2019 when she hired him to work at her business — horrified her closest friends. Friends such as Stephanie Donofry, a high school classmate who organized a GoFundMe campaign for Shea’s sons that has raised more than $8,000.

“I’m just in shock and disbelief,” Donofry said. “And angry that he did that to her and took the life of someone that was so beautiful.”

Shea’s sons declined to discuss their mother’s slaying and the allegations that she died at the hands of her husband. Instead, they said, they wanted to focus on memories of the times they shared with her before her life was cut short.

Sean Bradley remembered that when he was in third grade, a classmate’s family lost everything in a house fire. Without hesitation, he said, his mother took in the family’s children, adding two kids to her already crowded house and giving them a place to stay while their parents worked to put their lives back together.

“She was caring and always put other people first,” said Bradley, 28. “It’s overwhelming, now, in a positive way, to see how she impacted others.”

Shea’s oldest son, Bob Bradley, 31, recalled the summer days he spent working as a teenager at Lucky Dogz. Those times, he said, are some of his most cherished memories.

It showed him that his mother’s maternal instincts extended beyond him and his two brothers. She often mentored her young employees, encouraging their interest in animals and guiding their careers.

“She took nurturing and caring to a new level. It came so naturally to her,” Bradley said. “She always understood what was needed, and did a lot to bring people together and bridge gaps.”

As the criminal case involving his mother’s death makes its way through the courts, he and his brothers are adjusting to the realities of life without her.

“I have no idea how the future will look, living without her,” Bradley said. “There’s a part of me that still doesn’t believe it. I know deep down it’s true, but I think it’s just about taking it one day at a time, and trying to remember the good times.”