Sordid Braden saga ‘Love and Death in Vail’ to feature on WHO THE (BLEEP) DID I MARRY?

The tragic tale of former Vail IT Director Ron Braden and his doomed marriage to Shawnie Mulligan will be featured Saturday on the seventh season of Investigation Discovery’s WHO THE (BLEEP) DID I MARRY? show.

The late Braden, who died by suicide in Arizona in November of 2020 after being arrested in Minturn on July 4, removing his GPS monitoring device and fleeing the state, was charged with a slew of crimes from soliciting child prostitution to assaulting police officers to embezzling more than $850,000 from the Town of Vail.

Braden’s first arrest in Glenwood Springs came the same year (2018) he told RealVail.com and the Vail Daily how his efforts during the 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships had positioned the town well for the 5G era. Then things started to unravel for Braden later that year.

In promoting the revival of its popular series, WHO THE (BLEEP) DID I MARRY?, which had a six-season run before a seven-year hiatus in 2015, Investigation Discovery (ID) wrote the following promo blurb:

“This week’s ‘Love and Death In Vail’ (slated to air this Saturday, 11/12) features a local Vail, Colorado case: In October 2012, 33-year-old Shawnie Mulligan, a super-fit competitive cyclist, joins a dating site and receives a message from Ron Braden, who admires her biking photos. Love blooms in the mountains of Vail as Shawnie finally finds a guy who can keep up with her on the trails. But Ron wants even more excitement and begins coercing Shawnie to have sex with strangers from a ‘Swingers’ site. After they marry, Ron’s behavior starts to escalate. When Shawnie finally moves out, Ron’s carefully guarded secrets spill out spectacularly, leading to scandal, arrests, and a tragic end.”

Investigation Discovery is owned by Warner Brothers, which also owns the Discovery Channel, discovery+ and many other channels. WHO THE (BLEEP) DID I MARRY? appears Saturdays at 8 p.m. Mountain Time.