Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
On Christmas Eve 2008, just before midnight, 911 operators scramble as every phone rings off the hook in the city of Covina, California. All the callers frantically report a massive explosion on East Knollcrest drive—the Ortegas’ family home— but what the survivors themselves tell 911 is even more disturbing: the nightmare actually began before the house went up in flames, when a man dressed as Santa Claus opened fire during the family dinner.
December 24th, 2008, it’s chrstmas eve in Covina, a small and peaceful suburban community near Los Angeles, California.
Only a handful of 911 operators and police officers are on shift at the moment.
After all, it’s a holiday ,and the town has one of the lowest crime rates in the area, everything seemed fine until 10 minutes before midnight when every phone in the dispatch started ringing at once.
One operator quickly answered, at the other end of the line was a panicked women screaming into the receiver, before the women could answer,other operators also started picking up calls seemed to be calling at the same time .
Responders gathered that a massive explosion was heard, a house was on fire and terror -stricken people were running amok around the property.
But the woman who called first,somehow had an even more pressing matter.
As the operator heard the sirens approching in the distance , the women at the other end kept askign her to send more people,even though the police were filled in th on the fire,nobody up to that point understood the gravity of what was happening inside the burning residence, exepct the panick mother.
As the woman began to explain that an intruder inside the house had started the fire the operator cut her off to ask if he was still inside and what he was wearing so the police could apprehend him.
The woman told her that he ran from the scene, but it was the description of his appearance that threw the operator off guard.- a santa clause costume.
To describe at it as apocalyptic would be accurate.
It was not just an ordinary house fire,every window was engulfed in flames, and there was fre everywhere.
For hours, over 80 firefighters struggled to extinguish the inferno,meanwhile , police and paramedics focus on saving as many people as possible, once all the survivors were out of harm’s way.
Police lieutenant Tim Doonan began question them.
The people that had escaped from the house told that a suspect dressed as Santa, made his way into the house, and began shooting everybody that he could see.
But the worst was that a neighbor and family friend,who left the party moments before the massacre began,saw a suspicious vehicle leaving the scene, as the house slowely started fuming,it was a small bleu car, and it was going at a hight rate of speed and the lights were out.
Before the lieutenant could assess the situation, a report came in from the paramedics,nine dead and three injured, all members of the Ortega family, including an 8 year old in critical condition after being shot in the head.
As if this wasn’t enough of a nightmare, another urgent call came in, Brad Pardo , a distance relative of the Ortegas,who wasn’t present at the party,just reported another murder.
He had gone to a christmas party that night and gotten home really late, he opens the door and he sees something that he never expected to find on Christmas morning…
A pistol on the ground, multiple bullet holes inhis living room walls, and worst of all his brother bruce,dead in a pool of his own blood with another gun in hand.
Bruce’s death was caused by one shot,that was very close up with a nine millimeter handgun.
The next day,the lieutenant turned his attention to the neighbors, since the surviving family members were in the hospital,he wanted to know how a stranger dressed as Santa Claus could have entered the home without anybody noticing.
This was when he learned about a man Patrick,who usually wore the red suit every other year,this seemed like a promising clue,but Doonan swiftly conclued it was only a read hearring,and hey found out that neighor had moved away,but believed there was still a suspect on the loose.
but the neighbor’s testimony still proved one thing ,this wasn’t a random act of violence, the person behind the massacre not only knew the Ortegas,but knew of their christmas traditions as well.
Police had a shoter that knew that there would be people there,they typically went until about midnight,until the kids were getting tired, and he knew that the neighbor had always dressed as Santa and come over to deliver presents to the kids.
After questioning the neighbors,the lieutenant inspected the remains of the Ortega’s house,the first thing he noticed was dozens of bullet casings lying around the ashes, these were the same type of rounds at Brad Pardo’s house the night before.
So Doonan left Knollcrest Drive to inspect the second crime scene himself and question Brad, from the looks of it,it seemed like a gunfight happened between Bruce and an unknown assailant.
When asked if Bruce had any enemies , Brad denied it and began praising his brother instead.
Brad continued to further describe his brother as upbeat charismatic, easygoing,Right out of college,he gets a job at the prestigious Jet Propulaion Laboratory , earning $ 122,000 a year.
But Brad flinched when asked about Bruce’s family life.
Only a week ago, his brother finalized his divorce from his wife of three years, Sylvia Ortiz, althoug Brad mentioned that he didn’t know much about it.
He still informed the investigators of the connection between his brother’s ex-wife and the massacre in Covina.
They discover her maiden name is Ortega,Sylvia Ortega was present at the christmas eve party, and hasn’t been located since then.
As the lieutenant was about to ask about her status on his radio,another shocking call came in,police just found the blue dodge caliber spotted by the Ortega’s neighbors the night before.
And inside that car was a santa suit and hundreds if not thousands of rounds of ammunition, and a flare hanging down.
When they pulled the santa suit out of the car, it had pulled thed string tied on that flare and it ignited the flare.
It was a trap, as the black powder under the flare started to sparkle,every officer ran for cover, a few seconds later, the ammunition bag and the santa suit caught on fire before the entire car exploded, along with all the evidence it contained.
So, not only is the car burned, but there’s bulets cooking off and firing and there’s black powder blowing up.
No one is hurt in the blast, but the car is completely destroyed,so much of the evidence was lost in the fire.
A lot of questions that just go completely unanswered.
The lieutenant was puzzled,who could hate a family so much as to attack their home on christmans eve, then traveled 30 miles north to kill the ex-husband of one of his vicitms,only to finally rig his getaway vehicle in an attempt to kill the officer who would find it ?
It was later in the afternoon that very same christmas day that Doonan finally received some good news- katrina,the 8 years old in critical condition after being shot in the head,miraculously survived.
The round entered to the side of her mouth,Quite frequently,when somebody’s shot in the head or the face,they do die, and she was lucky to survive.
At this point,investigators plan to talk with Leticia Yuzefpolsky.
Leticia is katrina’s mother, and she hasn’t left her child’s bedside since they arrived at the hospital, at first, Doonan asked her how Bruce’s murder and the massacre on Knollcrest Drive could be linked,but the frustrated mother cut him off immeditely.
According to her,the police got it all wrong,Not only was Bruce present at the party but he was also the one wearing the santa claus suit.
This startling revelation opens the door to many new questions for investigators.
Bruce Pardo had a clean record, he had no criminal history in his past.
This is a collede educated , erudite guy who didn’t necessarily fit the profile of somebody who would snap and commit a mass murder.
Everybody they interviewed described Bruce as an outstanding citizen.
The exact opposite of leticia’s portayal of an evil ,calculating monster,while otheres saw a friendly neighbor and devoted family man, Leticia insisted Bruce wasn’t the vicitm here,but a psychopathic killer hiding in plain sight.
With most of the Ortegas gone,lieutenant Doonan never had the chance to uncover their family history.
But now that 8 year old katrina was out of intensive care,he finally had the opportunity to talk to her mother Leticia.
She began by describing her relationship with her five brothers and sisters all of whom were much older than her,from there ,Leticia told officers the story of her sister , Sylvia, and the tragedy that ended her first marriage.
Sylvia’s first husband, died in a car accident.
years later Sylvia moved back to Covina to be close to her family and was introduce to Bruce by a mutual friend, the pair immediately clicked.
Bruce seemed like a very good match for Sylvia, not only was he a brilliant rocket scientist,but he also traqted Sylvia’s childre as his own, and was eager to become a father himself.
In 2006, the pair married and moved in together.
Everything seemed fine from the outside,but only a few years after they settled in, Bruce had an accident that changed everything.
He got a pretty serious knew injury,had to have surgery, and it kind of curtailed all the activities that he liked to do.
He started putting on weight,sylvia said they just didn’t get along and it was like Bruce had changed and just kind of more like a hermit.
He wasn’t the fun guy that she had met and dated, and she moved out in March.
The divorce ended up being finalixed on December 17th ,2008, just a week before the massacre,while Leticia , answered the lieutenant’s questions,more family members and neighbors arrived to support her wounded daughter .
Among them were Amanda and Sal, the six and 19 year old children of Leticia’s sister, Sylvia , both had miraculously esaped the inferno and were now at the same hospital,they had just learned their mother’s body was found in the rubble and came to reunite with Leticia , Katrina, and what was left of their family.
But with a killer on the loose,Doonan needed their testimonies,after everyone had a moment to compose themselves,he pulled Leticia , Sal, and the neighbor who spotted the getaway car aside for questioning.
Their accounts felt almost surreal to the lieutenant, less than an hour before santa,claus’s arrival, everything seemed cheerful at the household of 79 year old Joseph Ortega.
As customary for his favorite holiday,he andhis wife were receiving their 24 children , and grandchildren to celebrate christmas together as one big family.
But who Joseph considered part of his family wasn’t limited to his relatives as one of the oldest residents of the neighborhood, papa Joe , as he was affectionately nicknamed, and his wife Alice, also invited everyone in their community to join the festivities.
Amongs them was Theresa Ginez, a friendly neighbor unrelated to the Ortegas.
One of the family traditions was to play poker before midnight, as the game was coming to an end and the clock was about to strike 12, a familiar sound suddenly interrupted them.-Santha with a couple of presents.
It was not a suprise that santa came to the door for anyone,it was nothing that would’ve made them get up from playing cards.
Santa carried ared bag of presents on his back, and a huge wrapped gift on a trolley behind him.
Sal watched from afar as the man in red walked in to greet his 8 year old cousin, Katrina,who excitedly ran toward him,but instead of giving her a hug or a kiss on the cheek, santa did the unthinable.
In one swift move,he pulled out two pistols from his pocket and shot the little girl point blank before turning around guns blazing.
Everybody by this time is screaming and shouting.
So those that were in the house that did not escape were ether killed by the gins that he had ,or by the explosion.
That night ,Leticia lost nine of her family members,she lost both her parents,her two brothers, her two sisters,two sister- in laws and her nephew who was 17.
Amidst the chaos outside, leticia called 911 and did everything she could to get her injured daughter the medical help she desperately needed.
After the house exploded,Therea and other neigbors let the panicked guests who managed to escape inside their home.
There , everybody was fearfully looking for their loved ones ,unaware they were the only survivors.
As the sun came down at the hospital,this grim chirstmas day was coming to an end for Doonan and his officers, but he had one more place to check.
Earlier, he requested a warrant to search Bruce’s house following the discovery of his body and finally got approval.
though he was afraid the person who killed him might be out there, he still headed to the house to check Leticia’s claim.
But noticed a shed in the backyard on his way out, after forcing open the door,the lieutenant couldn’t believe what he found inside.
It was a treasure trove of information.
The boxes from the guns, ammunition,black powder,bomb making material.
There was no doubt about it, Bruce was the killer , Doonan was still waiting for coroner’s final results on not only the nine family members killed,but also Bruce’s body, however ,by piecing together Sal and Leticia’s stories and looking at the remains of the house , the lieutenant noe had enough information to draw out a rough timline of the events.
He dressed in his santa suit, and he probably left his house about 10:45 or so, and drove to the Covina area.
He knew that Sylvia’s whole family would be there and they would be there late and he knew that the neighbor had always dressed as santa and come over to deliver presents to the kids,he parked in the neighbor’s driveway.
Doonan presented his findings to his chief,who then organized a press conference, they explained how after entering , Bruce shot little Katrina first before turning his weapons against everyone sitting at the poker table until he seemingly ran out of ammo, but many questions still troubled the public.
What was inside the big gift box he brought over , and what caused the house to burn down?
Questions to which Doonan finally had answers to.
The package he had appears to be a homemade pressurized device, it was a homemade flamethrower filledwith jet fuel to burn the house down in a really vicious and horrible way.
Bruce Pardo was a very intelligent guy, and he put a lot of thought into this plan, the one thing that he did not take into account was that there was gonna be an open flame inside the house.
The entire living room exploded, while Bruce was inside with the bodies of Ortegas but he survived and was in good enough shape to don new clothes and escape with his car,concerning his injuries,the initial results of the autopsy were also shared with the public.
The coroner’s conclusions seemed to come straight out of a horror film.
He suffered third degree burns on both arms,it also appears that the santa claus suit that he was wearing did melt onto his body.
Only one thing didn’t sit right with the lieutenant, the evidence at Brad’s house still pointed toward murder.
The coroner even found over $ 17,000 strapped onto Bruce’s body.
Hoping he could get more clues,he tasked his department with identifying every vehicle owned by Bruce and within the hour was met with another alarming discovery.
Police have spotted a rental vehicle under Bruce’s name.
It was parked in a residential area , and stocked with gas tanks and a laptop, expecting another booby trap,the lieutenant ordfered a grid search of the area.
After a quick canvas of the neighborhood,detectives learned that the RAV4 was parked about 500 feet from Scott Nord’s house.
Scott Nord is Sylvia Ortega’s divorce attorney.
After the bomb squad established the car wasn’t rigged, detectives searched it and found maps, clothes, food ,and water,this must have been the killer getaway car.
Its procimity to Scott Nord’s house led Doonan to believe that Bruce’s initial plan must have been to follow up the massacre at the Ortegas with another attack.
This time ,on his ex-wife’s divorce attorney,following the breadcrumbs, the lieutenant paid a visit to the lawyer.
According to Scott Nord, a secret from Bruce’s past proved to be the linchpin in the dissolution of his marriage to Sylvia.
Nord, told police that following Bruce’s knee injury, Sylvia discovered he had a secret son while filling out his tax return.
Nord spoke to his ex-girlfriend who said that Bruce and she had the child together three years before he met Sylvia.
One day when that child , named Matthew was 13 months old, she left him with Bruce to get groceries,when she came back,Bruce was still where she left him ,having a beer in front of the TV,but Matthew was nowhere to be found.
And they went out looking for him and found him in the pool,he survived ,but almost in a vegetative state.
Unfortunately , it was a lifelong injury to his brain because he didn’t get the oxygen, so he ended up being stuck to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Right after the incident,Bruce left the mother of his child and never looked back, abandoning both of them, the only thing linking him to the now wheelchair- bound Matthew was the child support he had been forced to pay by social services.
There was no attachment there, that kid got hurt and he left.
You can imagine that Sylvia was really scared at this point, she’s got three children, and here’s this man that she’s married who’s essentially let a child nearly drown, and then takes no responsibility for what happened afterwards.
You know, there’s this old adage,that you can’t live a lie forever,living a lie really caught up with Bruce.
Doonan finally knew the whole truth, and when the coroner’s final report came in, he also learned who killed Bruce after the massacre.
Following his escape from the burning house,Bruce,now fused with his santa suit and immense pain gave up his plan to kill Scott Nord.
Instead, he headed to Brad’s house,police concluded that he must have dripped his first pistol while entering the living room and shot into the walls either in frustration,or because he was unable to reach his own head with his heavily burned arms, but eventually Bruce was successful, and died in his brother’s home.
Detectives don’t believe that it was ever his plan to kill himself until he was badly burned.
with all the survivors in recovery,the circumstances of Bruce’s death exposed, and every secret revealed, Doonan close the case within days. but every once in a while, the lieutenant revisits the scene of the massacre,reflecting on what was narrowly avoided, allthough nine people died and three almost followed,the outcome could have been much worse if Bruce’s plan had unfolded exactly as he intended.
Not only did he want his ex-wife’s family dead, but he was also ready to kill his own mother in the process.
Pardo knew his mother had been invited to the christmas eve party, and he intended to kill her because he felt that she had sided with his ex- wife in their divorce.
Fortunate for her, she wasn’t feeling well that night and stayed home.
If everything worked out for the suspect, we’re looking somewhere in the area of 30 people, there’s no question that this is the most compelling story ever .
It was pure damn evil.