The fiancé of the murdered Texas mom found stuffed into a car trunk and their baby stolen from her refused to believe what he was seeing on TV as the police found her body, his best friend has revealed.
Shane Carey watched live television shots of the FBI-led hunt for Heidi Broussard, 33, and their daughter Margot, who was just two weeks old when she went missing.
He was with his best friend Mike Quintanilla as a local news helicopter showed cops surrounding a house and a silver Nissan belonging to Broussard’s long-time friend Magen Fieramusca. The woman has now been charged with kidnapping and tampering with a corpse but nobody has been charged with Broussard’s death yet.
Carey, 33, was reunited with his newborn daughter on Monday night after child protective services decided not to try to keep the now four-week-old in foster care.
The decision was made despite DailyMail.com revealing that Broussard had told a friend Carey had physically attacked her and shared photographs showing scratches and bruises.
Shane Carey refused to believe what he was seeing as he watched the FBI-led hunt for his fiancé Heidi Broussard, 33, and newborn daughter Margot come to a close last Thursday. Broussard was found strangled to death in the trunk of a car belonging to her best friend Magen Fieramusca
Carey, 33, was reunited with his newborn daughter on Monday night after child protective services decided not to try to keep the now four-week-old in foster care
Broussard’s friend and alleged killer, Megan Rose Fieramusca, aka Maygen Humphrey, is being held in county jail on kidnapping and corpse tampering charges. She is seen, left, in 2018 and right, in her recent mugshot
Carey watched live television shots of the FBI-led hunt for Broussard with his best friend Mike Quintanilla. He watched as a local news helicopter showed cops surrounding a house (pictured) and a silver Nissan belonging to Broussard’s long-time friend Magen Fieramusca. Quintanilla said: ‘He didn’t want to believe me. He was star struck kind of. He said ”don’t tell me this s**t man”, and his knees buckled a little bit”
Quintanilla also said the FBI asked Carey repeatedly about Fieramusca before they and other law enforcement officers swooped on her suburban Houston home.
Initially, Quintanilla told true crime podcast The Critical Kay, which has been following the case closely, that Carey thought the raid unfolding before his eyes was fake news and some sort of ‘media’ stunt.
‘We were just kind of hanging out with my brother and my kids, Quintanilla said.
Quintanilla (pictured) said the FBI asked Carey repeatedly about Fieramusca before they and other law enforcement officers swooped on her suburban Houston home
‘Me and my brother were playing video games. Shane was being our cheerleader. We were having fun, trying to get our minds off everything.’
By this time, Broussard and the couple’s newborn daughter had been missing for a week. Carey had made two tearful appeals and spoke repeatedly to police, Texas Rangers and FBI agents.
He was upstairs at his Austin home when the news broke.
‘I have a nephew that was up later that night, Quintanilla said.
‘He was frightened, he didn’t want to go to sleep. Shane went up and put him to sleep. During that moment… about the same time people started posting the news about this vehicle, that they had a warrant issued out for that address.
‘I got a gut feeling and started feeling sour about it. Shane came out the room. I started asking questions like, ”Shane, just sit down because this information is a little much”.
‘He sat down next to me, and first off, I asked him if he knew a silver Nissan. I showed him a picture and he said no.
‘I told him apparently the FBI, Texas Rangers, Austin Police Department and Houston Police department were all there,’ Quintanilla told The Critical Kay podcast.
‘They said the medical examiners came out. There was a body in the trunk, there’s a baby there. I asked him, ”who’s Magen?”. He said ”wait, what are you talking about?”
‘I said ”look man, they’ve found Heidi in the trunk of this vehicle that’s been parked in the back yard of this house.”
‘He was like ”shut the f**k up man, don’t talk to me, don’t tell me this. Turn your phone off right now. This is the media.”
Heidi Broussard’s body was found inside the trunk of a car at a home in Houston and inside police found her newborn daughter Margot alive
Fieramusca, Broussard’s friend of more than 20 years, is charged with stealing the child and tampering with Heidi’s corpse. Police arrested her after finding her with Margot alive and well, sat in a baby swing at her Houston home on Thursday
Quintanilla continued: ‘I said ”Shane, I love you man, I love you to death. This is breaking news. Why else would the police, Rangers, FBI, be at this house? It would be one thing if it was just Houston. But this might be really true.”
‘He didn’t want to believe me. He was star struck kind of. He said ”don’t tell me this s**t man, and his knees buckled a little bit.’
Quintanilla told the podcast that Carey’s father, Ty, rushed over, having also heard the news about his intended daughter-in-law, and tried to console Carey.
‘He said ”look man, Shane really needs his family right now. They’re talking about things that might be very disturbing to him. I understand that you love Shane but right now he needs to be with his family”,’ Quintanilla said, explaining that he left Carey to be with his family.
Broussard’s disappearance on December 12 came just three weeks after the birth of their daughter, Margot.
Quintanilla said Broussard’s mother, Tammy, had been staying with them at their apartment helping to look after her daughter and new granddaughter, and they were all excited with the new member of their family.
‘He’s having a baby girl, he’s been so stoked,’ Quintanilla told The Critical Kay, run by Michigan-based YouTuber Kay Marie, 47, who has been in close contact with Carey’s family since Broussard’s disappearance.
‘They even named the baby after Shane’s grandma Margot,’ he said.
‘Shane wears a pendant around his neck with the diamond ring that was his grandma’s. He wears a silver necklace that has a stone in the middle.’
DailyMail.com exclusively revealed the first pictures of baby Margot after she was returned to her father on Monday evening.
Carey, pictured, gave tearful TV interviews saying that he didn’t believe Heidi would leave on her own accord. He denied any involvement in the disappearance of his daughter and fiancée
Child Protective Services took the baby, conducted a DNA test to prove she was Heidi’s child, and were planning to apply for short term custody, but dropped the application and returned Margot to Carey on Monday night (pictured)
Fieramusca, Broussard’s friend of more than 20 years, is charged with stealing the child and tampering with Heidi’s corpse. Police arrested her after finding her with Margot alive and well, sat in a baby swing at her Houston home on Thursday.
Child Protective Services took the baby, conducted a DNA test to prove she was Heidi’s child, and were planning to apply for short term custody, but dropped the application and returned Margot to Carey on Monday night.
The child was given back to the 33-year-old father despite allegations, revealed last week by DailyMail.com, that he was violent to Broussard.
Broussard repeatedly tried to leave Carey and accused him of physically assaulting her, her friend disclosed.
Her friend, Cliff Nolte, showed photos she sent him evidencing injuries she suffered after her fiancé allegedly attacked her in a row over her planning to split with him.
Bruises to her arms and legs can clearly be seen in the pictures which Broussard sent to her friend of 20 years Nolte, 37.
In the social media messages that accompanied the photos, Broussard said the bruises were due to Carey ‘grabbing’ her.
‘Shane grabbed me really hard because I tried to stop him because he stole Zeus [their dog] last last [sic] cause I told him I couldn’t stay,’ she wrote.
A horrified Nolte then replies: ‘You need to call the cops on him Heidi. You can’t keep letting this happen.’
No record of police call outs to Broussard’s home could be found and Carey has no publicly recorded convictions. Police have declined to comment on the abuse allegations.
He was also cleared of any involvement in his fiancée’s murder by law enforcement early in the investigation.
Broussard repeatedly tried to leave Carey and accused him of physically assaulting her, her friend disclosed. Her friend, Cliff Nolte, showed photos she sent him evidencing injuries she suffered after her fiancé allegedly attacked her in a row over her planning to split with him
Photos taken by Broussard in March show bruises and red marks on her arms which she told friends were caused by her fiancé Shane Carey
In his Saturday interview, Quintanilla told The Critical Kay that by Carey’s second interview with law enforcement, the FBI officers grilling him were zeroing in on Fieramusca.
‘There was a second round of interviews with detectives once the FBI agents were involved,’ the 29-year-old told the podcast.
‘They’ve been drilling him about this woman named Magen, over and over.
‘They knew something before. Monday [December 16] was the day he did that interview. He said they were drilling him with questions about anything to do with Magen. They brought her up multiple times.’
Quintanilla said Broussard’s parents, who have traveled to Austin from their home in Lake Charles, Louisiana, were trying to keep it together, focusing on caring for Carey and Broussard’s other son, six-year-old Silas.
‘Their daughter was just murdered,’ Quintanilla told the podcast. ‘She sits in the back of a trunk, and her mom has to identify her off of remains from a week ago. How f***ing sick is that?
‘Shane told me that they just broke the news to Silas. This little kid was just torn. Silas ties the family together.’
The tragedy prompted an outpouring of support from fellow Texans, who donated $10,000 to help fund the search for Broussard when she was still missing.
Before interviewing Quintanilla, Kay even pitched in, setting up an Amazon gift list for the family which includes diapers, baby bottles, a kid’s backpack, sports gear and toys for Margot and Silas.