To the outside world, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo was the picture of success and stability. Born in 1963 and raised in Los Angeles, he embodied the values of education instilled by his parents.

He graduated from California State University and secured a prestigious position as an electrical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. By his 40s, he had transitioned to a higher-paying job, owned a beautiful home worth half a million dollars, drove expensive cars, and enjoyed recreational boating.

He was even a devoted Roman Catholic, volunteering regularly as an usher at the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose. Friends and parishioners described him as kind, generous, and blessed.

But beneath the polished surface, a darker history simmered, marked by irresponsibility and a pattern of abandoning those closest to him when obligations became inconvenient.

And in the crucible of a bitter divorce, this hidden darkness would erupt in a horrifying act of violence that would forever scar a community and decimate a family.

In 2004, a co-worker introduced the 41-year-old Pardo to Sylvia Ortega, 40, a single mother of three who worked at a flower breeding company.

They quickly connected and married on January 29, 2006. Pardo moved into Sylvia’s life, becoming a stepfather to her children in their spacious Covina home.

For a time, it seemed like a happy, blended family living the American dream. They accumulated significant savings, reportedly around $88,000, and Pardo appeared to be a good provider and a doting stepfather.

But the idyllic image began to crack. Pardo had a history that Sylvia initially didn’t know.

In 1989, he had abandoned his fiancée, Dalia, just before their wedding, refusing to pay for arrangements and simply failing to show up, leaving her heartbroken and financially burdened. More disturbingly, in the early 2000s, he had a son, Matthew, with another woman, Elena Lucano.

When Matthew was just 13 months old, Pardo was watching him while Elena went grocery shopping. She returned to find the baby blue and unresponsive, soaking wet beside the backyard pool.

Pardo claimed the child had fallen in while he was watching TV, but admitted he hadn’t performed CPR. Though doctors revived Matthew, severe oxygen deprivation left him permanently paralyzed and requiring lifelong care.

Pardo subsequently abandoned Elena and Matthew, moving to another state to evade his responsibilities until a court order forced him to pay $100,000 upfront and set up a monthly trust fund. Even then, the payments were reportedly insufficient for Matthew’s extensive medical needs.

This pattern of financial control and emotional detachment re-emerged in his marriage to Sylvia.

According to Sylvia’s sister, Leticia, problems surfaced within months. Pardo refused to open a joint bank account, keeping their substantial savings solely under his name.

He became controlling with money, often arriving home late and scrutinizing every dollar Sylvia spent, particularly resentful of expenses related to her three children from a previous relationship.

He reportedly complained that he hadn’t signed up to support another man’s kids. The tension escalated, leading to separate bedrooms and Sylvia frequently taking refuge with her children at her parents’ house.

The breaking point came when Sylvia learned about Pardo’s disabled son, Matthew, not from Bruce himself, but from Bruce’s own mother. The discovery that he had a child he barely supported, and worse, was allegedly using Matthew’s disability for tax deductions while neglecting his care, shattered Sylvia’s trust. She left him, and in April 2008, filed for divorce.

The divorce proceedings were acrimonious. Sylvia sought spousal support of nearly $3,000 per month and coverage for her legal fees. The court discovered Pardo had secretly moved a large portion of their joint savings into a private account.

The judge ultimately awarded Pardo the house but ordered him to pay Sylvia’s legal fees and $1,785 per month in spousal support, payments that would only cease if she remarried, cohabited, or passed away.

Sylvia was relieved, but Pardo was enraged. That same month, he purchased his first handgun. His life then spiraled further. Just one month after the divorce ruling, he was fired from his engineering job for billing fraudulent hours.

His application for unemployment benefits was denied. Drowning in debt and unable to find comparable work quickly, Pardo saw the spousal support as an unbearable injustice.

He petitioned the court to reduce the payments, which the judge did, lowering them to $186 per month based on his unemployment. However, even that small amount proved too much; his first check to Sylvia bounced.

Pardo became consumed with bitterness, telling friends his ex-wife was bleeding him dry.

He fixated on Sylvia’s perceived extravagances – living rent-free with her parents, buying a luxury car (though details suggest it may have been a standard vehicle), taking trips to Las Vegas, dining out, getting massages, and taking golf lessons.

In his distorted view, she was living lavishly on his dime while he faced financial ruin. This simmering resentment fueled a meticulous and terrifying plan.

In August 2008, Pardo bought a second handgun. A month later, a third. In October, he contacted a neighbor with a costume shop and ordered a custom-made, high-quality Santa Claus suit, large enough to conceal items beneath it, tipping $100 for the rush job. He then purchased a fourth handgun.

That same month, visiting a friend in Illinois, he lamented his “devastated” life, complaining about the humiliation of the divorce court and noting bitterly that his own mother sat with Sylvia’s family during the proceedings.

Back in California in November, Pardo picked up his Santa suit. He bought an air compressor hose and a high-octane fuel tank. Over the next month, instead of job hunting, he secretly constructed a homemade flamethrower. On December 18, 2008, the divorce was finalized. Pardo appeared emotionless in court, but inside, his plan was solidifying.

Christmas Eve, 2008. The Ortega family gathered at the Covina home of patriarchs Jose and Alicia Ortega for their annual holiday party. It was a joyous occasion, filled with laughter, food, and family tradition.

Around 25 people were present – the Ortegas, their five children (James, Charles, Leticia, Sylvia, and Alicia), spouses, and grandchildren. After dinner, the adults played poker while the children and teenagers played games throughout the house and yard.

Around 11:30 PM, the doorbell rang. Eight-year-old Katrina Yuzefpolsky, Leticia’s daughter, ran to answer it, excited by the possibility of carolers. Instead, she found Santa Claus standing on the porch. “Santa!” she cried out joyfully.

But this was Bruce Pardo. Underneath the bulky, custom suit, he concealed his homemade flamethrower in one hand and, in the other, what looked like a large, brightly wrapped gift. Inside the “gift” was a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. Without hesitation, Pardo fired upon the little girl, striking her in the face.

He burst into the house, indiscriminately firing the handgun at the stunned partygoers. Chaos erupted. People screamed, dove for cover, and scrambled towards the back of the house.

Some managed to escape by climbing over the backyard fence. Amidst the gunfire and panic, Pardo calmly targeted his primary victims: Sylvia, her parents Jose and Alicia, and several other family members.

Once he believed his main targets were down, Pardo unleashed the flamethrower. He sprayed the high-octane fuel throughout the living room, instantly engulfing the house in a massive inferno, with flames reportedly leaping 40 to 50 feet high. The fire spread rapidly, trapping those still inside.

Having completed his horrific mission, Pardo shed the Santa suit, changed into regular clothes he had staged nearby, and calmly walked away from the burning house. He got into his rented Dodge Caliber and drove off into the night.

His original plan, authorities believe, was to drive to his brother Brad’s house in Sylmar, retrieve his car (which contained $17,000 in cash and a plane ticket), and flee to Canada.

However, his plan went awry. During the flamethrower attack, the Santa suit had ignited, causing severe, third-degree burns on his arms.

The synthetic material melted onto his skin. Realizing he couldn’t travel or seek medical help without attracting attention, Pardo changed his plan.

After leaving the scene, he drove to his own abandoned rental car, doused it with fuel, and set it ablaze, possibly to destroy evidence or create a diversion. He then drove to his brother Brad’s house in Sylmar.

Brad returned home from a Christmas party around 3:00 AM on Christmas morning to find a horrific scene: Bruce Pardo was de@d on his living room sofa, having ended his own life with a self-inflicted shot from one of his handguns. Two other firearms lay nearby.

Back in Covina, firefighters battled the inferno for an hour and a half. In the charred ruins, they made a grim discovery: nine bodies. The intense heat had made identification difficult, requiring dental records.

The final count was devastating: Sylvia Pardo, her parents Jose and Alicia Ortega, her brothers Charles and James Ortega, her sister Alicia Ortiz, and three other relatives – Sherry Ortega (James’s wife), Teresa Ortega (Charles’s wife), and Michael Ortiz (Alicia’s 17-year-old son) – had all perished from a combination of the gunfire and the fire.

Miraculously, several people survived, including 8-year-old Katrina, who recovered from the shot to her face, and Sylvia’s sister Leticia, who escaped by jumping from a second-story window and running to a neighbor’s house to call 911.

The investigation quickly pieced together Pardo’s meticulous planning and motive.

His history of abandonment, financial irresponsibility, controlling behavior, and intense bitterness over the divorce culminated in an act of unthinkable vengeance disguised in the trappings of holiday cheer.

The man who volunteered at church and charmed neighbors had methodically plotted and executed the destruction of an entire family, unable to cope with the loss of control over his finances and his ex-wife’s life.

Leticia Ortega, one of the survivors, later created a blog, sharing her experience and offering support to others affected by trauma, a testament to resilience in the face of unimaginable darkness.