Inside the downfall of newlywed who murdered his wife in dispute over football as tragic note reveals his dark secret

From the outside, the Kenneys appeared to be a perfect blended family, filled with love and overjoyed with a new baby.

Jason Kenney, 47, seemed madly in love with his wife of less than two years, Crystal, and a doting stepdad to her 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son.

The couple welcomed their own baby girl, Harly Ann, at the end of last year, and Kenney posted a sweet photo of her on Santa’s knee for her first birthday on December 11.

But just days later, the apparently loving father fatally gunned down his wife and shot his stepdaughter in the face following a petty argument over football.

The girl miraculously survived. Kenney then fled to his father’s home, where the bloodbath reached its violent conclusion as he turned the gun on himself.

What has emerged since has shattered the Kenneys’ picture-perfect image, with a heartbreaking note from Crystal hinting at what really went on behind closed doors.

‘You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. This is not the way the family should be. You need God,’ the message read, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. 

Judd later confirmed that Kenney had been drinking heavily on the day of the shootings, something which those closest to the family alluded to.

 ‘Jason and Crystal are gone. Booze, drugs and guns. A deadly combination,’ Crystal’s aunt Lynda Kenney wrote online under Kenney’s birthday tribute to Harlyn. ‘My heart breaks for my little grand niece and her sister and brother.’ 

The revelation is a far cry from the image the family presented on social media. 

Kenney frequently praised Crystal and, before their marriage, shared his excitement about becoming her husband.

‘Happy Birthday to my love, my best friend, and soon-to-be wife. Thank God I have you… and that our anniversary is so close to your birthday, so I don’t ever forget! Love you baby,’ he wrote in October 2023.

Other photos included ‘date night with my boo’ and one of them kissing passionately in front of their garage.

Last September, he wrote, ‘My sexy wife getting ready to bless my life’ next to a photo of Crystal at her bachelorette party.

She replied: ‘Best decision ever!! I love you.’

In March, he gushed over several photos of Harlyn: ‘Ohhh my baby girl. Mom said to stop growing but I can’t wait to have little conversations with you.’

Crystal posted numerous photos of the happy family, including from last Christmas, where they all posed in matching outfits.

But their picture-perfect setup was shattered on December 22 following a drunken argument over a Monday Night Football game at their home in Lakeland, Florida.

Kenney was preparing to watch the San Francisco 49ers–Indianapolis Colts game in a shed behind the house.

At 4.22pm, he posted a jovial meme showing old people dancing with the caption: ‘Mood knowing the 49ers play tonight’.

But a few hours before that, at 1.54pm, he tagged his wife with a love heart emoji in response to a video with the chilling caption: ‘Satan wants your wife. I always tell men if they don’t lead their family, Satan will.’ 

Judd said Jason was drinking while watching the game

He returned inside for the final few minutes but when Crystal suggested they watch something else as the game was well in hand, the argument suddenly escalated.

As the confrontation between Kenney and his wife intensified, Crystal told her 12-year-old son to run to a neighbor’s house and call 911.

The boy fled, but as he was leaving, he heard gunfire.

‘So the 12-year-old flees to the neighbor’s house in order to dial 911, and as he’s leaving the house, he hears a gunshot,’ Judd said.

Deputies arrived within minutes, and once inside the home, they found Crystal dead, having been fatally shot in the head. 

In a bedroom, they discovered her 13-year-old daughter had been shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the face, leaving her critically injured.

‘She said, “I begged him, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me, and he shot me anyway”,’ Judd said, recounting what the girl told him.

Judd said the bullet struck the girl on the bridge of her nose, traveled upward, and exited through the top of her head.

‘That’s a Christmas miracle,’ he said.

The girl remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, alert and able to speak, authorities said. 

The one-year-old daughter shared by Jason and Crystal was also inside the home at the time of the shooting, but was unharmed. Deputies later found her asleep in her crib.

After the attack, Kenney fled before deputies arrived. During the drive, Judd said, he called his sister in upstate New York.

‘He told her he had done something very, very bad,’ Judd said, adding that Jason told her “the next time you see me will be on the news”.’

Jason then drove to his father’s home, where he barricaded himself inside a shed.

Deputies tracked him to the property and attempted to coax him out. Moments later, a single gunshot rang out.

Kenney was found dead inside the shed, having taken his own life, Judd said.

During a search of the family’s home, deputies uncovered the handwritten note Crystal had written to her husband, urging him to seek help. 

The sheriff said the case devastated everyone involved, including seasoned investigators.

‘He just absolutely destroyed a family. Literally, not to mention the mental health of two children without their mother and a father three days before Christmas,’ Judd said. ‘Our homicide detectives are distraught.

‘Three days before Christmas, he shot and killed his wife, he shot his 13-year-old stepdaughter twice, and intended to kill her,’ Judd explained. 

‘When you go in there, there is a beautiful Christmas tree with lots of Christmas presents under it, just like the nuclear family should be. 

‘The only thing he did right that night was shoot himself,’ Judd added.

All three children are now in the custody of their maternal grandparents.