Ex-husband admits to killing missing League City woman, documents say

LEAGUE CITY, Texas – The ex-husband of a League City woman who was last seen Dec. 8 admitted to investigators that he killed her, according to court documents.

Shaun Philip Hardy was charged with murder in connection with the death of 30-year-old Anne-Christine Johnson after remains were found at his home during a search, police said. Those remains were positively identified as Johnson on Tuesday, according to the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office.

Officials released a search warrant, which stated that detectives had searched Hardys's home Dec. 12 after Johnson's family reported her missing.

Hardy originally told detectives that Johnson wasn't at his home because she left with another male the day before she went missing. 

Detectives then returned to his home the next day to search with Hardy's permission and his lawyer present, but detectives found nothing. 

RELATED: Ex-husband of missing League City woman charged with murder, police say

Officials said Johnson's last text message was sent Dec. 8, four days before she was reported missing and the search warrant reveals the last text she sent was to Hardy. 

Johnson's cellphone pinged in a field near Hardy's house, the court papers said. 

On Dec. 30, federal marshals had Hardy under surveillance when League City detectives got the final search warrant they needed to enter his home. 

When officers arrived at the home, Hardy began to sob and cry, officers said.

A body was found in the garage wrapped in a plastic bag and duct tape with scented candles around it, investigators said. Officers could smell a strong odor of decaying flesh, according to court documents. 

According to the affidavit, Hardy said during a police interview that Johnson had a knife and that he "threw her to the ground. She then rolled over onto her left side, she pressed the knife tip to her chest area, and (Hardy) then then kicked the knife hilt, driving the knife blade into (Johnson's) body... he rolled her up in a rug and bagged the body in plastic sealed with duct tape." 

Hardy told investigators he cleaned the floor with ammonia and a mop and hid the knife in a box, court papers said. He admitted to the officers he tried to "cover this up," they said. 

Hardy was arrested around 10 p.m. Friday and taken to the Galveston County jail after he was charged with tampering with evidence, failing to report human remains and murder.

"They had found the body in Sean's house and it was a female wrapped in plastic. That is all they could tell me," said Stephanie Johnson, Anne-Christine Johnson's mother.

Stephanie Johnson said she got the call from investigators that she had been dreading. 

"I am in prison now for the rest of my life," she said.

"I’m upset right now because I knew it all along,"  said Jamell Bogard, a longtime friend of Anne-Christine Johnson.

Her friends said they have feared the worst ever since she went missing.

"He admitted he was the last person to see her. The totality of the circumstances made him our primary focus on the investigation up to this point," Officer Kelly Williamson said.

Police said the two had a volatile relationship and there was an ongoing custody dispute over their son. 

Hardy is being held on $1 million bail.