Montco woman killed by her estranged husband weeks after she filed a protection-from-abuse order, police say

In March, Elizabeth Shea’s husband assaulted and strangled her during an argument in their Springfield Township home, according to police. He was arrested, and she obtained a protection-from abuse order against him.

Three weeks later, police say, he killed her.

Kenneth Shea broke into the home the couple shared and stabbed his 57-year-old wife to death on Wednesday, according to court documents filed Thursday in Montgomery County.

Shea, 37, has been charged with murder, burglary, and related crimes for killing the mother of three, prosecutors said. He remained in custody, without bail. There was no indication he had hired a lawyer.

The couple were married March 15 of last year. On the eve of their first anniversary, Shea attacked his wife during an argument at their home on Cromwell Road in the Wyndmoor section of the township, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

He was charged with strangulation and simple assault. He was served with a protection-from-abuse order the next day, on their anniversary, and was removed from the home by Springfield Township police.

In the weeks since that eviction, Shea was staying at a Comfort Inn in Feasterville, the affidavit said. About 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, he ordered an Uber from the hotel to the couple’s home. The trip, detectives wrote in the affidavit, was confirmed by data from Shea’s cell phone, and surveillance footage from the hotel that recorded his departure.

Uber and cell phone records showed him traveling back to the hotel just after 3 a.m.

When Elizabeth Shea’s coworkers at Lucky Dogz, a pet-grooming business she co-owned, didn’t hear from her that morning, they contacted police.

When police arrived at her home, they found a sliding glass door unlocked, and saw that a window-mounted air-conditioner had been removed, the affidavit said.

Inside the home, the officers found several electronic devices, including multiple cell phones, submerged in water. Hard drives storing footage from the home’s surveillance cameras had been placed in a utility sink and covered with water.

Behind a locked bedroom door, the officers found Elizabeth Shea on the floor with slash wounds to her neck, according to the affidavit. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Hours later, officers went to Kenneth Shea’s hotel room to serve an arrest warrant for the March assault, the affidavit said. After taking him into custody, officers found bloodstains on the mattress, as well as clothing matching what he was seen wearing on the hotel’s surveillance footage when he returned earlier that morning.

Domestic-violence murders, such as the one Shea is charged with, are becoming increasingly common in Montgomery County, according to District Attorney Kevin Steele.

“Tragically, too many domestic violence and intimate partner violence murders have occurred in Montgomery County and across the country,” Steele said Thursday. “And like this horrible murder of Elizabeth Shea, they often happen when the person tries to leave their abuser or after they have been previously strangled.”

Three murder-suicides have been investigated by the Steele’s office in the last six months alone. Last month, police say, Al Allaberg, 44, shot his ex-wife, Durdona Sultanova, 43, in a home in Lower Moreland Township before turning the gun on himself.

In February, Ruth DiRienzo-Whitehead, 51, was convicted of first-degree murder for strangling her 11-year-old son to death inside their home in Horsham. She was sentenced to life in prison.

And Verity Beck, 44, who is accused of killing and dismembering her elderly parents in the home they shared in Abington, is scheduled to go on trial later this year.

Steele said organizations in the county, including Laurel House, the Victim Services Center of Montgomery County, and the Women’s Center, are available 24/7 to assist victims of domestic violence.

“My fervent hope is that everyone who needs to hear this message reaches out for information and support to get out of a dangerous situation,” he said.