MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Investigators with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office said the body of Stephanie Shenefield, 38, was found in a drainage ditch in Palmetto Thursday evening by people out walking their dog.

Shenefield was last seen on June 3, and friends spent the past week hanging missing person fliers and trying to bring attention to the case.

What You Need To Know

  • The body of Stephanie Shenefield, 38, was found in a drainage ditch in Palmetto Thursday

  • Shenefield was last seen on June 3

  • The Manatee Sheriff's Office says Shenefield took an Uber to the home of William Redden, 51, in the early morning hours

  • Officials say Redden's own surveillance system allegedly recorded him carrying a body wrapped in a sheet out of his house later that day

"I just went totally numb," Shenefield's friend Jennifer Massrock said of hearing the news. Massrock said the two had been friends for ten years.

William Redden, 51, faces charges of abuse of a corpse, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of an altered firearm.

According to the Sheriff's Office, Shenefield took an Uber to Redden's home on 30th Street East in the early morning hours of June 3.

When investigators questioned Redden, he reportedly told them Shenefield stayed the night, left in the morning and that he didn't know where she went. Officials said Redden consented to a search of his home, and detectives found a video surveillance system.

Investigators said Redden told them it was a "live monitoring" system and agreed to let them take a DVR as part of the investigation. What Redden didn't appear to know, officials said, was that the events of that night had been recorded.

Sheriff's Office officials said footage shows Shenefield arriving and hanging out with Redden, and that Redden appears to carry Shenefield out of camera view around 1:20 a.m. At 12:20 p.m., officials said cameras captured what appeared to be Redden removing a body wrapped in a sheet from his home and placing it in his car. 

"He deserves whatever he gets, and we're going to get justice for Stephanie," Massrock said.

Massrock told Spectrum Bay News 9 that Shenefield was mother to two teenage boys and a very social person. While the discovery of her body was not the outcome loved ones hoped for, Massrock said finding Shenefield offered some closure, as does Redden's arrest.

"They have the person," she said of Redden. "We don't have to keep searching for this person."

Sheriff's Office investigators said Shenefield's cause of death was not currently known and the investigation is ongoing.