A Christmas Massacre

Regardless of what you celebrate this season, if anything at all, we all have our holiday traditions. I get giddy the first time I listen to Bing Crosby’s Mele Kalikimaka each December. My husband and I spend every Christmas Eve cuddled with the cats and watch Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas and Die Hard. It’s our little thing that we look forward to every year, and it just makes us smile and enjoy the season (even better if there’s gentle snow falling outside the window). What are your holiday traditions?

A stark contrast to my chilly northeast setting, Covina, California is a sunny suburb of Los Angeles. 22 miles from the big city, this area celebrates each year with a parade and tree lighting ceremony. But if you’re looking for tall spruce trees filled with baubles and twinkles, you might be surprised when you go to see all the palm trees wrapped in festive lights in the dark.

In a quiet neighborhood at the end of a cul-de-sac, Joseph and Alice Ortega got excited for Christmas every year. Joseph was the first member of his family born in the United States, his parent immigrating from Mexico. And he lived the American Dream.

Starting a successful industrial paint business, he was able to give his wife and five children a comfortable life filled with happiness, love and support.

And each year, Joseph and Alice opened their home to the whole family on Christmas Eve, as well as inviting friends and neighbors to their large holiday gathering. Food, wine, presents and cheer would fill the large home that night each year. They would even have their neighbor Pat dress as Santa and bring little gifts for the young kids each year.

2008 was no different. Laughter and conversation danced on the air. The smells of food, family and Christmas clung to every corner as everyone celebrated. As the night grew later, some guests would leave, but the core family stayed for one of their big traditions: the poker game. The five Ortega siblings – Sylvia, Charles, James, Latisha, and Alicia – were highly competitive with each other at the poker table each year. Hoots and hollers of fun now filled the room as they played cards with their parents.

Santa’s appearance was always towards the end of the night as the kids were starting to get tired, so when the doorbell rang around 11:30pm, Latisha’s 8 year-old daughter Katrina answered. Flinging open the door to find Santa, excitement once again filled the air.

What Katrina did not expect was that this Santa was not here bearing gifts of love or goodwill. The first gunshot rang out, the bullet hitting the young girl in the face. Luckily for her, it caused only cosmetic damage and the girl survived.

But Santa did not stop there. Equipped with multiple semi-automatic handguns, plenty of ammunition and a mysterious wrapped package, the man continued into the party. He next targeted the Ortega’s sons, James and Charles. He next moved onto Sylvia, shooting her execution style in front of her parents before killing Joseph and Alice the same way. He then shot Alicia, James’ wife Teresa, and Charles’ wife Cheri. Once the gunman ran out of ammunition, he returned to the doorway to unwrap the “present” he had wheeled in with him.

Inside was a compressor that had been attached to sprayers, and the gunman started to fill the house from two canisters: one of compressed oxygen and the other high-octane fuel.

The initial explosion is what got neighbors’ attention and triggered the initial 911 calls. Members of the Ortega family that were still alive were escaping the house however they could.

Latisha was the only Ortega sibling able to get out, and she was able to grab her daughter and husband. The three escaped into the backyard and over a fence to a neighbor, Katrina still suffering the gunshot wound.

Being a small, low-crime area, emergency services was on the scene quickly. But even in that short period of time, the flames were reaching 40 and 50 feet in the air. It took 80 firefighters over an hour and a half to tame the blaze as neighbors were terrified it would spread to other homes in the area from the size.

As firefighters worked tirelessly, police gathered and surveyed the survivors. They determined that 25 people had been in the house at the time of the attack, and there were only 16 accounted for. This meant that 9 people were either still inside or had fled. Additionally, it was unknown if the gunman escaped or died in the initial explosion.

Before any investigation could begin, the fire had to be completely extinguished and then cooled. Police requested assistance from the Coroner’s office with the investigation. Due to the magnitude of the fire, they knew that any bodies inside would be difficult to identify. The Coroner brought in their S.O.R.T. team which stands for Special Operations Response Team and consisted of investigators, criminologists, pathologists and specialized photographers.

The teams were able to find the bodies of the 9 victims but they were completely charred. Dental records and medical x-rays were used to identify each victim with autopsies also conducted. They found that Sylvia, Joseph and Alicia died from gunshot wounds alone. Charles, James, Theresa, Cheri and Alicia died from a combination of gunshot wounds and the fire. Additionally, Alicia’s 17 year-old son Michael was trapped in the home and died from the fire.

The attacker was not found, presumed to have escaped. One of the Ortega’s neighbors gave a statement that around 11:45pm, a blue Dodge Caliber drove at high speed down the street with no headlights on. The Ortega’s residence was at the end of a cul-de-sac meaning there wouldn’t be through-traffic, so police believed this could have been the suspect leaving the crime scene.

Covina’s Police Department was finally able to start unraveling the mysteries of what happened when they received an odd call from LAPD. Approximately 30 miles away in Sylmar, CA, Brad Pardo came home from a Christmas party to find his brother Bruce on the couch, dead from a gunshot wound. With one gun found by the body and a second on the floor.

When the LAPD looked into Bruce’s background, they discovered that he had been married to Sylvia Ortega, one of the victims of the attack in Covina. Now police were terrified there may be a killer on the loose with a list of victims to be targeted.

Having linked the two horrific crimes, Covina PD and LAPD joined forced and decided to work the two cases together.

For the Ortega mass murder and arson, they spoke to survivors and neighbors. The Ortega family was rooted in Covina as Joseph and Alicia had raised their kids in the town. The family was not just known in town, but well-liked. James and Charles worked in the family business for years. James then branched out and opened his own paint shop while Charles and Joseph continued with the main business. Joseph retired comfortably with Alice, spending time with the family whenever possible.

The gunshot victim, Bruce Pardo, was also described as well-liked and good natured. Just days before, a neighbor saw him when he visited his brother, Brad, and said he acted normal and was in good spirits. Bruce was highly intelligent and well-educated. He was a software engineer who had government security clearance for the contracts he worked on for a division of NASA.

A third call to police linked one more interesting item to the case. In Pasadena, CA, Scott Nord called about a suspicious vehicle outside his home. The silver RAV4 was rented by Bruce Pardo.

With Katrina now expected to make a full recovery, police were able to interview Latisha, the only surviving child of Joseph and Alice. After giving her accounts of the event, Latisha said she thought she knew who the attacker was: her sister’s ex-husband Bruce Pardo. Police were shocked and confused, but dug deeper in the investigation.

They discovered that Scott Nord was Sylvia’s divorce attorney. When interviewing him, he detailed their relationship and divorce to shed light on what happened in the relationship.

Bruce and Sylvia were introduced by a mutual friend in 2004. Sylvia had recently started dating again after going through a rough divorce. The two had an instant connection and married the next year. Sylvia and her three kids moved in with him in a single-family home in Montrose, CA. The neighbors said that the whole family was just lovely. The kids were happy and well-behaved. Sylvia was a loving mother. And Bruce stepped in as a loving father-figure and husband.

Then, in early 2008, Bruce sustained a serious knee injury. The active and athletic lifestyle he loved was not possible for him, so he secluded himself at home. Sylvia said that he was a completely different person, no longer fun-loving or filled with joy.

The final straw of the relationship was when Sylvia opened the mail to find information about Bruce’s tax return. And the child that was listed as a dependent on his official tax records. Bruce had never mentioned a child, let alone one he paid child support to.

Bruce confessed to her that three years before they met he had been living with his girlfriend and they had a little boy named Matthew. In January of 2001, his girlfriend had left the boy with Bruce while she ran out for groceries. When she returned, Bruce was watching TV but had no idea where Matthew was. The little boy had gotten out of the house and was found face down in the pool. While emergency services were able to save his life, the brain damage was severe and the boy would be restricted to a wheelchair with special needs for the rest of his life.

Immediately after this happened, Bruce just left. He abandoned her and their child without thinking twice.

After hearing this, not only was Sylvia appalled, but she feared for her children. She took the kids and went to her family’s house to stay while she filed for divorce.

In June 2008, Bruce was ordered to pay $1,785 a month in spousal support. Additionally, the divorce settlement required him to pay her $10,000. In court, he complained that she was living with her parents rent-free and spent her money on luxury items. This complaint did not change the court’s ruling on the payments, and the divorce was then finalized on December 17, 2008, just one week before Christmas.

Police now turned their attention to Bruce. With the motive of the divorce and financial arrangement now clear, they analyzed the autopsy report. The autopsy determined that he took his own life. Gunshot residue and powder burns indicated that he held the gun that took his life. Additionally, it was observed that he suffered third degree burns on a large portion of one of his arms from the unexpected explosion when he was spreading accelerant at the Ortega’s home. Red material from the Santa suit was melted into the skin from the heat of the fire as well as melting it to his shoes and parts of his other clothing.

The blue Dodge Caliber was found on the street nearby and police found the Santa costume in addition to thousands of rounds of ammunition. When removing the costume, police did not realize it was booby trapped until it was too late.

Bruce had tied the costume to a flare that when the string was pulled ignited and the car exploded. Fortunately, no one was harmed in the blast, but it created not just a large explosion, but also discharged ammunition into the surrounding area. Any evidence that may have been in the car was destroyed.

The police then secured a search warrant for Bruce’s home. Here they found the boxes for the guns, more ammunition, black powder, bomb-making materials and written lists for his plans.

The plan was not to take his life. If the fire hadn’t caught prematurely, Bruce Pardo had more intended victims. He planned to kill Scott Nord, Sylvia’s attorney, and his family before taking the RAV4 and escaping to Mexico. His plans even included killing his own mother because she sided with Sylvia in the divorce. Police determined that if he had succeeded in his plans, approximately 30 people would have been killed by Pardo that night.

After attacking the Ortega family and sustaining the burns, Bruce went to his brother’s house expecting Brad to be home. When he wasn’t, the pain of the injuries was too great, and they believe that is why Bruce took his life.