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Downward slide of gunman Bruce Pardo ends in Christmas Eve slaughter
2008-12-30
MONTROSE - Bruce and Sylvia Pardo started the new year in 2006 with all signs pointing to a bright future - an upcoming marriage, a combined income of about $150,000, a half-million-dollar home on a quiet cul-de-sac and a beloved dog, Saki. But things quickly turned sour, and divorce documents paint a bitter picture of Bruce Pardo's increasing desperation as he lost first his wife, then his job and finally the dog. By fall 2008, Pardo was asking a judge to have his ex-wife pay him support and cover his attorney's fees. Pardo's downward slide ended Christmas Eve, when the 45-year-old electrical engineer donned a Santa suit and massacred nine people at his former in-laws' house in Covina, where a family Christmas party was under way. He then used a homemade device disguised as a gift to spray racing fuel that quickly sent the home up in flames. Pardo had planned to flee to Canada after the killing spree but instead decided to kill himself after he suffered third-degree burns in the fire, which melted part of the Santa suit to his skin. His body, with a bullet wound to the head, was found at his brother's home about 40 miles away in Sylmar. His getaway car was found boobytrapped with 500 rounds of ammunition. On Saturday, police said they were seeking a second car, a gray 1999 Toyota RAV 4 rental, that Pardo also may have boobytrapped. The car's California license plate is 5RY0562. The Christmas Eve slaughter came six days after Pardo and his ex-wife appeared in court to finalize their divorce. Police believe the dead included Sylvia Pardo, 43, and her parents, Joseph Ortega, 80, and his 70-year-old wife, Alicia. Other suspected victims were Sylvia Pardo's two brothers and their wives, her sister and a 17-year-old nephew. Police listed the victims as unaccounted for because coroner's officials said the nine bodies were too badly charred for immediate identification. Shocked friends said nothing indicated he was on the verge of a murderous rampage. Pardo had told one friend he planned to usher at the Christmas Eve midnight Mass in his church and told another to expect him for a visit in Iowa around the holidays. He had no previous criminal record. "I can't believe I'm seeing my old boyfriend on TV - and all the people he destroyed," said Carol Sanchez, who dated Pardo for four years, starting when both were in high school. Pardo had a son, Matthew, now 9, by another former girlfriend, Elena Lucano. He had not seen the child for years. The boy was severely brain-damaged as a toddler when he fell into a backyard swimming pool on Jan. 6, 2001, while Pardo was alone with him at his former home in Woodland Hills. Lucano sued Pardo for money from his $100,000 homeowner's insurance policy. Her attorney, Jeffrey Alvirez, said about $36,000 was put into a trust fund for the boy, who needs constant care.Except for that fund, "he never spent a dime on his son," Alvirez said. Court documents reveal the marriage to Sylvia faltered early and then descended into a bitter divorce feud that lasted nearly a year. Sylvia Pardo didn't bring much money to the marriage: just $31,000 a year from a job at a flower-breeding company in El Monte. She brought a 5-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and most of the furniture. By all accounts, Pardo was close to the little girl. Sylvia also had two other children from a previous marriage. Bruce Pardo was making $122,000 a year as an electrical engineer at ITT Electronic Systems Radar Systems in Van Nuys. He often puttered around the house or walked Saki, a big, brown Akita, in a local park. But by December 2007, Sylvia Pardo was sleeping in another room. Two months later she told her husband she wanted a divorce. She filed court papers asking for attorney's fees and $3,166 in monthly spousal support. She claimed her husband had drawn down the couple's $88,500 savings to $17,000 in two months and was transferring funds to a private account. In July, Pardo lost his job at ITT and soon was drowning in debt while scrambling to find work. He begged the court to grant him spousal support until he could find employment. When the divorce was settled, the court waived those payments, and Bruce Pardo got the house - but he also had to pay his ex-wife $10,000 and return her valuable diamond wedding ring. Two days before the killings, he told his attorney he still was trying to come up with the $10,000. When Pardo's body was found, $17,000 was strapped to it.
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