The Santa Claus Killer

A personal note – I write a lot of local true crime pieces. But I try to stay away from more recent tragedies as sometimes there are people still around who were impacted by the crimes. This murder was in 2008 but I’m going to take a chance and write it up. It was so crazy, so twisted and so related to the upcoming holidays that it just has to be told, no matter how horrible it was.

Montrose resident Bruce Pardo was a charming and handsome 45-year-old man. He had a well-paying job as an electrical engineer. He had recently purchased a house in Montrose, on Sunset Avenue, a couple of blocks above Honolulu Avenue. He had a new wife – Sylvia – along with her three kids from a previous marriage. Life was good.

But in 2008 things took a bad turn for Pardo. His marriage had collapsed in the first year because of Pardo’s issues with money and his increasingly cold demeanor. Pardo kicked out Sylvia from their house in March 2008 and she went to live with her parents in Covina. In June, a judge ordered Pardo to pay Sylvia significant spousal support. Next, Pardo was fired from his job for billing false hours. Pardo snapped. He quietly started to buy guns and ammo and began meticulously plotting his revenge on Sylvia. One week before Christmas, the divorce was finalized.

By this time, Pardo had acquired a veritable arsenal and he set his plan in motion. He rented two cars. One of them he loaded with food, water and maps of Mexico and parked it near the home of his wife’s divorce lawyer. In the other he put his guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a gift-wrapped box containing a home-made sprayer connected to a tank of high-octane racing fuel. As well, he booby trapped the car.

On Christmas Eve Pardo put on a Santa outfit he had rented from a local costume rental shop. Into one of his boots he tucked a plane ticket to a friend’s home in Iowa as a backup escape plan. He would blow off the Christmas Eve usher duties he had signed up for at Holy Redeemer Church. He got into the car loaded with weaponry and headed for the home of his ex-wife’s family in Covina.

At the Ortega house in Covina, Pardo’s ex-wife Sylvia, her parents, brothers and sisters, and several kids had gathered for Christmas Eve. The family was enjoying a card game at about 11:30 p.m. when the doorbell rang. Sylvia’s 8-year-old niece opened the door. There was Santa (Pardo) carrying a big wrapped present. Pardo pulled out his handgun and shot the little girl in the face. 

He stepped over her, set down the box and began systematically shooting all the family members, including Sylvia. When he had emptied his 18-round clip, he went back and unwrapped the jet fuel sprayer. He started spraying the fuel around the house, 18 gallons in total, intending to light it off with a tossed road flare. This is where things went wrong for Pardo. The fuel contacted an open pilot flame and exploded into a huge ball of fire badly burning Pardo on his arms and legs.

Pardo, now in agony, retreated from the inferno. The rest of Pardo’s elaborate plans had dissolved. He drove to his brother’s house in Sylmar where no one was home, sat down on the couch and put a bullet in his head.

In Covina, nine members of the Ortega family were dead and the house was burned to the ground. Three wounded members of the family had escaped before the explosion – the only survivors. In Sylmar, police searched Pardo’s car. The booby trap went off but didn’t injure the officers. In Montrose, a search of Pardo’s house revealed more weapons and a home-made bomb factory. Pardo’s other car, parked near Sylvia’s lawyer’s house in Glendale, was found later. One can assume the lawyer and his family were next on Pardo’s list.

Bruce Pardo was a living, breathing monster who just happened to live his prematurely shortened life right here in Montrose.