Bruce Pardo and The Covina Christmas Massacre

On Christmas Eve 2008, a family gathered in Covina, California expecting a night of celebration. Instead, they became victims of one of the most horrifying holiday tragedies in modern history.

In this episode of SoCal Slaughters, the girls dive into the chilling case of Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, a man whose rage and obsession led to a carefully planned attack that left an entire family shattered. Disguised as Santa Claus and armed with multiple weapons, Pardo carried out a brutal act of violence that would forever change the lives of those connected to the Ortega family.

The girls break down the events leading up to the massacre, the devastating aftermath, and the lasting impact this case continues to have today.

Content Warning: Gun violence, arson, suicide, and graphic discussion of violent crime.

🍎 Cocktail of the Episode: Cranberry Apple Mule✨ 

Mocktail Option: Bri-Lixir version available

🎙️ Subscribe to SoCal Slaughters for new episodes covering Southern California’s most infamous crimes, mysteries, and killers. New episodes every Sunday.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hello and welcome to the podcast kit. I'm Rachel.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

I'm Brie. I'm Joey.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

And this is SoCal Slaughters. This is SoCal Slaughters.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

SoCal Slaughters. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Before we start anything, you guys have both asked about this. Okay. So I have an Instagram friend. Her name is Nikki. Okay. We've had her, I've had her on Instagram a long time. She follows us on TikTok. She has shared watching our podcast. Oh, hi Nikki. She sent a little something.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Oh, she sent something. She sent something.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

It was our first thing.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Oh my gosh. So I'm gonna read the card. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

It says, hey girl. The magazines came from one of my grandfather's friends and he let us pick from them. I've been holding on to it since probably middle school, so it's been a minute. The condition was never good, but maybe it can somehow be restored. Anyways, that's the little backstory. I hope it brings you some joy. Also, congrats with the podcast. I'm really enjoying it and excited to see what the future has in store. I'll tag her if she if she approves for me to tag her. So cute. So this is from 1969.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Oh my god, that's so bad. Daddy's the coolest.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

And obviously, it's old. Oh, yeah. Careful, careful, careful.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah. So cool in our music. Awesome. That is crazy. So we're framing it. We're framing it out right there. Right there. 100%. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I feel like that. Oh my. Isn't that the cutest?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Thank you. Thank you so much, Nikki. So cool, Nikki. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. He can hang out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

He'll stare with his eyes.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

I know. I feel like no matter where you're at, he's looking right at us.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

He's looking at all of us. That's so sweet. Yes. I love it. So that's great. I mean, Nikki, amazing. Thank you so much. Um, also, shout out to Ryan, uh, our hundred follower. Yeah, subscriber on YouTube. So that was really exciting. Lots of things. Lots of things to do.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

So many things to also talk about.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Congratulations to Bree. Oh. She graduated. Our little graduate. Oh, thank you. She just graduated, so with her uh RDI. Yes. So it's really exciting. Big big weeks. Big week. Yeah. So this is so cool. Oh my gosh. Well, but we can cheers to it if we know what we have going on here.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Well, so our case takes place on Christmas Eve, unfortunately. So we did a little cranberry apple mule.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

It's cranberry juice, crayon apple.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Crayon apple. I don't. Was that a movie quote that I don't get in there? Sorry. Strawbana. We just had a conversation about how I never watch anything.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So it's it's fine. It's just Patrick Bateman.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Oh my god, I didn't get that. American Cycle, I've seen it. I don't know why. It's fine. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

It's fine. Moving right along.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Sorry, embarrassing. Embarrassing.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Um, yeah, so cranberry mule.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Cran apple mule.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Crayon apple mule. Yeah, I love this. I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

We'll post a recipe of course in the show notes and you can see the video. Give it a try.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Cheers. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Cheers. Cheers to you.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Congrats. Thanks, I'm going to go.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Oh, thank you so much, Nikki. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

So cheers to Ryan.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

And cheers to Ryan. Yeah, minus.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Oh, it's yummy.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Okay. You know, a mule is always refreshing. And then you get the other flavors going in there.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

I love the ginger. Yeah. The ginger is always cinnamon. Or the cinnamony that happens from cranberry and ginger when they come together. I love cinnamon. Yeah, just it hits right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yes. And look, we have a little Christmas tree.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Little trees.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

So cute. Fresh squeezed lime. Okay, Tony, you're getting really aggressive with me right now.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

I know. This one popped up. I'm kind of wondering if I should switch my coaster.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

No, this one's popping up every time I do a job. But it's fine. They just want to hang out. Yeah. No doubt. Okay. So no doubt. No doubt. No doubt. So, okay, quickly. Yes. Have you guys watched the new documentary on Netflix, the crash, about the Mackenzie Sherilla case?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I have not watched that yet. I have not watched that. But I've seen other um episodes on the case. The mean girl murders.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Mean girl murders and killer cases.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

I still like the mean girl murders the best. I think that they covered it tonally wise. The tonality, if you will, of it was probably, I feel like the most on point. I did not like the narration of the um killer cases. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

It felt very yeah, it's like stuffy kind of in a little way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

I do yeah, I I don't know. But no, I have not to answer your question.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Well, it's new out uh on Netflix. It's about, you know, the cra the car crash. This Mackenzie Sherilla. She crashed the car and it uh took the life of her boyfriend and a good friend of theirs that was in the backseat um as well. And it's an interesting case. She's obviously like she's uh been convicted. This was uh several years ago that it happened. So she's been convic convicted and she's serving um sentences, but it's definitely like one side of the story, very much so, like versus I feel like mean girl murders and killer cases is like the other side of the story. And then the Netflix doc is like her-ish. Yeah, it's very like it has a lot of her friends in it that were now nowhere to be found in the other ones. Um, her parents, which have been around for her the whole everything that they, you know, whatever, are in it as well a lot. And then she actually for the first time is speaking out from prison. So she's actually like giving current like you know, updates and stuff on her life and what her, you know, position still is to this day. I was like, is she miserable in there? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

She has pots. Oh, that's remember, and so she I mean, it happened at least one other time, and who cares if it never happened any other.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

There's no like actual diagnosis.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yeah, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

It's just interesting, but and I mean, it can we please just in any way talk about how the fucking pig Latin that she was speaking with her mom and they were trying to create the seizure story? Can we just say that I had a seizure?

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Get out of here, yeah. Get out of here. Yeah, and like how could you like just speak like gibberish like that? I mean, they've been doing it forever, obviously. Like, it's very clear that they have their own little like whatever. But like we're it's not, it's not your own language, yeah, no, but like it's not a secret. We definitely like have been like speaking it for a long time because like she's very good at it, you know, she's going so quick and whatever, and then her mom's replying immediately back to her in in English. But yeah, I mean, we know we know that you're trying to say something that you don't want other people to hear.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Yeah, it's ridiculous, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

And it's like it's so it's just crazy to me. But anyways, it's if you haven't seen it, I re I recommend um watching it even though I hate it. Um yeah, I mean, it's again, I a hundred percent watch the other two that we talked about too, because like that's the they're those are great, but watching the footage of that car is it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

I can't believe I didn't have more eras even.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

So apparently, like she was under the dash. Yeah. So, like, again, okay, like while I went through down a rabbit hole of this whole situation, uh-huh. Um, we can still say very clearly that Joey speculates wildly, but it's not just me because this is all my speculation coming from other people speculating wildly. But yeah, yes, but the way that the bodies were found in the car, the the guy in the backseat, Davion, um, was like upwards, like across from like legs in the back to like head, like in the almost near the passenger seat. Okay, and like Dom is like underneath him, and then she's like sideways with her like head underneath the uh yeah, because the car's split in half. Yeah, so she hit it to split the car in half, basically, and it hit on the passenger side. Okay, and then there was also there's been m def different stories, people saying like she like practiced the road three times. She did, she went and did dry runs. Somebody said seven times at one point.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Did they?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, I've heard in my rabbit hole. Oh, there's a lot of people talking about different time, different things.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Angie just sent right, I didn't even know I was running here, so I didn't get to open it, but Angie sent me her Facebook, I think it's her Facebook page that's still up. Oh yeah. So I'm gonna look at that. Oh, you've seen it already.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

It's like sure her mom is operating 100% operating her socials. Yeah. I mean, she used to even when she wasn't in uh she was posting for her while she was in the hospital from her phone. And she would like reply to like comments and stuff, like still I'm not a regular mom.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

I'm a cool mom.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yeah. But but like it's actually crazy because there's obvious speculation that Davion was possibly like forward because they're trying to while there was no brake hit, which they found from the black box in the car, um, there it was full on pedal to the metal the whole entire way. There was um movement of the wheel and into moved into neutral several a couple of times.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Like maybe he was trying to throw it.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Also, I thought was like these are two larger dudes, I mean much bigger than her. I'd have knocked that chick out. Yeah, like it would have happened right away. Like, I don't care. This is my life. Yeah, but I maybe I'm more feral than these young.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

I don't know. I just feel like that, you know, that was like something to to look at. Yeah. You know, with that being, you know, keep them possible possibly trying to save their own lives in this situation. Yeah, absolutely. And then also And that's why they didn't have seatbelts on because they were trying to get out too. Yeah. But apparently she also like never wore her seatbelt, and suddenly that morning she's wearing her seatbelt. So I don't know, just a couple of things. And then, like, of course, the whole idea of her, you know, being suicidal in that situation and thinking she was gonna take herself out as well, um, is another big thought process on this, which is like scary because you would think she's obviously like putting her life at risk by going that quickly and going into this building, but also and also like, yeah, maybe she was gonna split it, but how does she know it was gonna hit directly in that spot? So it's it's un, it's uh it's no, there's no way to know. And then, of course, we've got her friend on the Netflix documentary who says that she knows 100% that she wasn't suicidal because she wouldn't even eat a McChicken when they went to McDonald's. So definitely not you guys.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Did she testify? Yeah, I mean because I feel like that would have been it. That's that's all that's all, guys. Wouldn't even eat a McChicken, can't be suicidal. I mean, a McChicken.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

I don't think it's about being suicidal, it's control. Yeah, yeah. She wanted control over Don, and nothing else mattered because she wanted what she wanted when she wanted it. Yeah, and I mean, it all goes back to parenting.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

The fact that you are allowing your 17-year-old daughter to move in with her boyfriend, and she already does whatever she wants, anyways, and you're okay with it. You're her biggest fan. I'm my daughter's biggest fan too, but she has limits. There is no way. I'm also I I can't watch my kids sell their soul.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

You're obviously having like there's some kind of lack of something going on with you as a human being, as well as a parent, if you're wearing a t-shirt that says boom on it during a documentary about your daughter killing two people in a car crash. I mean, that's just kind of like a little bit uncouth, you know? It's called tact, you fuck crack.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah, it's called tact, you fuck rack.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Anyways, that's that. Yeah, but recommend, I guess. I mean, no stars for the Netflix doc, but stars for the story, and you know, watch it's still worth watching, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

She better have the full 15 years and I hope for more.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Oh, she has uh she got sentenced 15, but concurrently. Yeah, no, so that's just 15. But to life. Yeah. So and like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

I that's why it's important those parole hearings. Yeah, so important.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Her record in jail so in prison so far is like she's been written up on I think it's over 12 uh like instances, and it's only been like what two or three years that she's been in there. So her behavior are as it is already is not great.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

It's giving inventing Anna for me. And when she if she if and when she gets out, I feel like the people that are still going to be interested and still give this girl a platform, it makes me feel sick.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Yeah, and there's so many now. I mean, now there's way more fans because the Netflix one came out, and that's why her socials are blowing up. There's still a you know, free McKenzie like Facebook or in like social media group or whatever. Um, it's just like a whole, you know, I mean, it's it's a it's a whole thing, but yeah, and if you have pots, like why are you bragging about doing drugs?

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Like you already have a disease where you're she's just one of those girls that can do drugs and not die.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

And not die. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Well, I guess that sucks. Yeah, yeah. Considering, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Well, R A P Dom and Davy. Absolutely, yeah. And his sister, uh Dom's sister is um fighting for uh Dom's rule. So it's basically the son of Sam rule to be reinstated in this situation. Oh, that's awesome. Good for you, girl. Yeah, she's got a she has a petition online that is free to sign if you've come across it.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Oh my god, let's link it.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Well, let's so FYI.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Anyways, okay, oh yeah, it's Christmas. Also, what what do you think? Yeah, we would like to know. Your thoughts. Do you think that McKinsey purposefully did it? Or do you think that that she is just she's got a bad rap? Yeah, oh, it's a horrible I mean either way, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

I'm not a doctor, but I feel like if your blood pressure is dropping drastically. I know. Um, would you like wouldn't it be harder for you to pedal to the metal? Like, would you like strength?

SPEAKER_02 15:24

It's not like she was seizing. Yeah, you do, because I know my blood pressure drops like really quickly with the whole stupid migraine thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

I have no idea, but I would imagine you're just like you just feel like high.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

You feel weak and high, yeah, essentially. You're like, oh, okay. It happens every time, but you're definitely not like, oh my foot, it can't spasming. Oh my gosh. Okay. I'll let it go.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

For those of you watching, I'm a little stiff right now because I threw out my back last week and I'm just a little like trying not to move too much. So that's why I look like a little robot right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Yeah, she's gonna, she's gonna be uh sitting stiffly in the seat. Yeah, we're not letting her move around, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Yeah, don't drop anything. Yeah. So I'm like, Oh girl, no, I'll just drop it onto the ground. It's fine. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Goodbye. Um, okay. All right, are we ready to get into this horrible, awful case of this horrible, awful man? Aren't we all horrible, awful things that he did?

unknown 16:27

All right.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

The subject of our case tonight is Bruce Argo. He was born March 23rd, 1963, and he was not the best um person at relationships, just not a good guy in general. Uh, he was married to, I'm sorry, he was engaged to a woman named Delilah in June of June of 1989. He left her at the altar. Oh. But not before draining their joint bank account and taking himself on a two-week vacation to Palm Springs.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Oh, God. Yeah. To glorious Palm Springs.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah. Later he met a woman named Elena, and they had a son together, whose name was Bruce Matthew, but we'll call him Matthew. In January 2001, when Matthew was 13 months old, Elena went to the grocery store and left Matthew home with Bruce so she can go learn some errands. And Bruce decided it was more important to watch TV than watch his 13-year-old. And you know who you've had a 13 year old. 13-month-old. I'm sorry, yes, 13 months old. You can't take your eyes off of a no. You can't watch TV. I don't know who he thinks he is, but poor little Matthew got out the back door and fell into the pool. He does survive.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Um shh. Um, Elena came home to find Bruce holding Matthew crying hysterically.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Paramedics were called. He was rushed to the hospital. He was resuscitated. However, due to lack of oxygen, he was left permanently brain damaged and confined to a wheelchair. Bruce didn't want to put up with a disabled son or the $300,000 in medical bills, so he booked it.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh his mother, Nancy, however, did keep in contact with Elena because this was still her grandson in the world. For sure. That she was important. He was important to her. He was smart though, however. Not the best guy, but he he was smart. He graduated from C Sun, Cal State Northridge, uh, with a degree in computer science. And he got a job at NASA's jet propulsion laboratory. You're making $122,000 a year.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

In 2001? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Even before he was making good money. I think that's good money now, but 20 years ago. Like, yeah. Yeah. So we're gonna fast forward to 2004. Bruce would meet Sylvia Ortega through one of Sylvia's brother-in-laws. Sylvia was a 40-year-old mother of three. She was widowed in 1988 after two children. So she had two adult children, uh, remarried, had one more child, which uh that marriage entered a divorce. By all accounts, it was an amicable, amicable split, and her ex-husband moved to Oklahoma. Her daughter stayed with her in California. Uh, she came from an amazing family. Her parents, Joseph, Papa Joe, and Alicia met in 1955 when Joseph was uh in Mexico visiting family. He saw Alicia and immediately said, I'm gonna marry her. I love this. Bless you. Sorry. And they got married three weeks later. And on her honeymoon, she told him, When we die, you have to go first because I love you too much to live without you. They built a business together, an industrial paint company. Joe ran the business, she did the books, and they bought a home in Covina in 1982, which is a small town uh to the east of LA. Uh, very it's a nice neighborhood, low crime. They had five children: James, Charles, Alicia, Sylvia, and Leticia.

unknown 20:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Their favorite time of year was Christmas. This family had lots of parties. They loved Christmas. They had an annual Christmas Eve party every year for decades. Yes, I would exciting up all year round. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Oh, that's respect. Respect. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Bruce and Sylvia got married June, I'm sorry, January 29th, 2006.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

The day before my birthday?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

And so soon after his son's birthday.

unknown 20:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yes. Yeah. Uh well, immediately after getting married, Bruce started to change. He got more distant, more irritable. He was nitpicking at every little purchase ever made. Sylvia herself, she was an administrative assistant making $30,000. He was obviously making much more, but he didn't want to, he didn't want to disclose his banking information to her. Everything was kept separate. So this started to come at a boiling point with their marriage. And Nancy, who was very close to Sylvia and her family, they opened her welcomed her with open arms, let Sylvia know about Matthew. She had no idea that. She didn't know he had a son or anything. Yeah. Great. And Bruce was claiming his kid on his taxes still. He had not seen his son since he left. Yeah. No. So this was the last straw.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

I mean, sounds like that was the plan when he liked bailed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Right. So Sylvia's done March 2008. She tells him she's leaving and she's filing for divorce. She just needs time to find a place for her and her daughter to move.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

He still threw all of her and her daughter's stuff out on the lawn while she was at work. Perfect. Because he's a gym.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Yeah. Cause he's such a great guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

The next month in June. 2008, Bruce was ordered to pay Sylvia $1,785 a month in spousal support. July 31st, I'm gonna go through a little bit of like timelines because this is gonna happen quick. July 31st, Bruce was fired for fraudulently billing customers for hours and also hacking into the system to view other coworkers' salaries.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Oh, interesting. Yeah, sounds a see that is wrong. That is wrong. Yeah, you don't can't do that. Oh, I definitely shouldn't do that.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Um, Bruce did request um a cancellation. Sorry, hold on.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Sure. Um over the place. I yes they are. It's okay. We're powering through. Um Bruce requested a cancellation through the courts due to financial hardship. It was put on a temporary suspension. The first month of the spousal support, he paid less than half. The next bounced. So I think this is the point when Bruce kind of started to unravel a little bit more after the firing and then the courts not canceling everything. So in California, you can purchase, you can only purchase a handgun every 30 days.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Okay. Bruce purchased a handgun June 13th, July 31st, the same day he was fired, September 8th, October 11th, and November 13th.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Wow. Okay, so that's like literally every like yeah, 20 days.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

All of these were paid with cash.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

That wasn't claimed. Probably. Yeah.

unknown 23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

I mean, he must have just drained his account because if stuff's bouncing, stuff is bouncing and there's nothing there, and then such a thing.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

I mean, he obviously still could have paid. Yeah. But he didn't want to. Yeah, exactly. It's his money. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

In October 2008, Bruce took a trip to Iowa for his friend's 45th birthday. While out in Iowa, he did confide in his friend about how stressed he was, how embarrassed he was about all his personal business laid out in court, how upset he was that his mother is taking Sylvie aside. Now in Iowa, rules are a little different regarding guns. He was able to purchase 16 magazines, each holding 18 rounds.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

But that's different, though. That's just ammo. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

But in California, you can't buy that much ammo at one time at one time either. Oh, okay. Okay. Got it. September 9th. So this was actually one day after one of the gun purchases. Bruce puts in an order for a customized Santa suit. He is a bigger man. He's 6'3 and about 250 pounds. Okay. So he had it custom made. Yeah. And he asked for extra room for comfort. And he needed it for a kid's Christmas party. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

He picks up the suit in November. December 18th, 2008, Bruce and Sylvia's divorce is finalized. He got to keep the house. She got to keep the dog. Which is a win in my book. She kept her ring and he was ordered to pay a $10,000 settlement.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

And Nancy sat with Sylvia in court.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Good.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

December 19th. So the next day, Bruce visits a travel agent. December 22nd, he returns and pays $650 cash for a round trip to the Midwest, which is I don't remember the exact town, but it's within driving distance of I think he was in Illinois, but it was within close distance to Steve. So he tells Steve, I'm gonna see you on Christmas. The friend from Iowa? The friend from Iowa. Okay. The flight left shortly after midnight, Christmas morning.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Tells Steve he'll see him on Christmas. He also made plans to usher the Christmas Eve Mass at his church. He was a practicing Catholic, very active in his church. This wasn't out of the ordinary for him to make plans to usher the mass. And I think he was just making the, I don't think he had any intention of doing any of this. I think he was just trying to make he's creating an alibi. Yeah. Bruce then goes to two separate car rental companies. From one, he rents a blue Dodge Caliber. Another, he rents a silver RAV 4. The night of Christmas Eve, dressed as Santa and carrying a large wrapped box, he heads to the Dodge Caliber. A neighbor even said hi. He, you know, like hi, I'm headed to a Christmas party. They did notice that he was driving a car that wasn't his. Yeah. But that's not really like you're not gonna alert the authorities. I don't know. Where'd you get that car? He had a new car. He had like a Hummer and like some other like expensive like car. Something like why driving his Dodge Calibur. Right. Yeah.

unknown 27:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

So he leaves his home in Montrose and heads to Covina, where he knew this Christmas party was going to be taking place. They had it every year. Every year, yeah. Shortly after 11:30, Bruce approaches the house, knocks on the door.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Is this am or p.m.?

SPEAKER_01 27:30

PM. Okay. 11:30. It's 11:30. The club is jumping, jumping.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Oh god. Um, eight-year-old Katrina Yusapolsky and sees him through the door and yells, it's Santa, opens the door. Bruce pulls out two handguns and shoots Katrina in the face. Immediately near the door are James and Charles. James is hit immediately. Charles yells, it's Bruce. Both men, even though James has been hit, try to tackle Bruce. They are both killed. So at this point, everyone is running. They're hiding, they're running out the back door. Now, mostly in the front of the house is like are the adults. They're playing poker, they played Texas Hold'em every year. I would have loved to go to this party snow. And luckily, most of the kids were in the back of the house playing video games. So they're hearing commotion. Everyone's starting to run and hide. Leticia, the youngest daughter, is the mother of Katrina. Okay. She is under a table. She sees that her daughter has been hit and is trying to stand up.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

She bypasses Bruce. She is able to scoop up her daughter and make it to a neighbor's house, which is where she called 911. This is when the phones start blowing up. Everyone in the house is now calling. Now, there were only a handful of dispatchers even on call that night because this is this there's no crime in this area. So phones are blowing up. So when he's done shooting, he opens the box and takes out a homemade flamethrower. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Homemade.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Homemade flamethrower. He did not take into account. Now I don't know fire science, but shocking. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a I don't, I don't even know.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

I don't even know you. I like you're finding so many things about me.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

I was like, I for sure believe that you know fire science, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Um, Bruce did not take into account that there would be two active fireplaces. So when he starts his flamethrower, it's just an explosion. Like the whole down, like the whole upstairs just melted.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Then he books it out of the house, gets in his dodge caliber, takes off headlights off. A neighbor did note that they saw a man trust us and a drive away in the car with no headlights. In the span of two minutes, Bruce killed, murdered Papa Joe, 80, his wife Alicia, 70, James, 52, and his wife Teresa, 51. Charles, 50, his wife Sherry, 45, Alicia, 46, and her 17-year-old son Michael, and his ex-wife, Sylvia, 43. What about her daughter? She made it up. Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

And Katrina lived.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Katrina does live.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

She got shot in the face. So luckily, the doctors say that she happened to turn her head and he shot her like on the side of the drum. Oh, got it, got it. So she does live. Sorry, this is like really hard. I know. Um, nine members of the Ortega family. 13 children lost to one or two parents that night.

SPEAKER_03 30:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

A 16-year-old was shot in the back. He survived. And a 20-year-old family member broke her ankle jumping out of the second story window. It took 80 firefighters an hour and a half to extinguish the flames. And the bodies were so badly burned, they needed dental records to confirm their identities.

unknown 31:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Good drink.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yeah. I think we all need drinking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

He's just, oh like Raven's gonna be eight next Christmas. Yeah, stop it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Brad Pardo, who is Bruce's brother, returned to his home in Silmar just after 3 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Silmar is in California, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Yes. It's like on the other side of LA.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

He found Bruce dead on his couch. Off the bat, this looked like a home invasion. There was one gun on the floor. There was a gun in Bruce's lap. There was a bullet hole in the ceiling, and Bruce had been shot in the head. Police are called. They're initially thinking this is some kind of Christmas Eve shooting spree. You know, this thing happened in Covina, not too maybe about 35 miles west is somewhere, and then this guy, you know, is shot.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

But is he still wearing the Santa suit? He's wearing part of it. The next thing I was gonna bring up is that no there's more. Because of the fire and the material of the Santa suit, it melted to his skin and he was covered in third-degree burns.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

Good.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

So then now facts are starting to come out. They connect Bruce to Sylvia. He also has $17,000 in cash wrapped around his leg. He needs that extra cushion. That was looking okay. They find the keys to the caliber, and inside the car are hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The crumbled up Santa suit, which they can see is hooked up to a device. Bomb squad is bomb squad is called. The surrounding blocks are cleared. The bomb it went off, but they detonated it. It didn't explode. It set off, but it completely destroyed all the evidence in the car, but nobody was hurt. While this is going on, the Glendale police get a call of a suspicious RAF 4 that parks near their house. They are able to link that to a rental contract linking it to Bruce. Inside this car, it's clothes, maps of the southwest states and Mexico, food, water, cash, a computer, and a full can of gas. That's his car. That was his getaway car. He had no intention of getting on that flight. Now this car was parked 500 feet from the house of Scott Nord. Scott Nord is Sylvia's divorce attorney.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Oh. So he was likely gonna go there and kill him, yeah, attack him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Also, Nancy had been invited to that Christmas Eve party, but she was sick. She was another intended target.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

FBI investigators say that if he had pulled off his intended plan, no less than 30 people would have died. Oh my god. And luckily, you know, unfortunately, nine lost their lives, but it could have been so much worse. Yeah. Um they get to his house, they find because there were surviving, obviously, like started accounts started to come out. Um, wrapping paper that matched the box he was carrying was found at his house. They found the boxes for the guns and the ammo, um, all of the little things to make the flamethrower at his house.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

So that's an easy yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

But he's dead, so it's like another coward, like last week. Right. Yeah. So it is shot himself. Father Joseph Shea officiated the funeral mass. He met Sylvia in 1988 when she buried her first husband. Through the years, Shay met the rest of the Ortega family. He oversaw weddings, baptisms. Oh god. Joseph and Alicia's 50th wedding anniversary.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

So he's just completely intimately connected to their family.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

1,500 people attended this funeral month. Yeah, absolutely. Including um Michael's classmates at Ontario High School who played football with him and were friends from school. Now for some unnecessary drama. In Upland, Broadcrest Foothill Apartment Homes sent a bill to the family of Alicia Ortiz. Alicia Ortiz was the woman who her and her 17-year-old son died. She left behind two daughters who were now living with their father. An itemized bill was sent dated January 29th, 2009. The landlords were asking for $2,821, claiming she owed $1,655 to the complex for insufficient notice to vacate. This is what happened with Casey when Michelle passed away.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Yes. So as she's finishing out this wonderful woman's life and closing everything down, she got the same bill. And like if you don't get out now, then you will have to pay even more. They also sent.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Oh, sorry, go ahead. No, I just yeah, that's awful.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

Again.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

So it's still happening. It's called tact.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

Yes. You fucked in. Um the invoice also included the uh um invoice also included 12 days of rent and cured in January. Yeah. Um, Scott Nord was now the overseeing the victims of this um massacre, saying this is just low. Cadness Wardlow was the business manager of the complex, refused to give actual comments. She was quoted saying, Unfortunately, I can't discuss anything. I can't go into what happened. I can't make any comment. Yeah, because it's a corporation at the end of the day, and it's it's and Carlos Carlos Ortiz was her ex-husband, who was dealing with the loss of his son and his ex-wife and two grieving daughters. He even said, like, he doesn't he obviously like he knew like they would have to get these things out, and you know, but just the way that they're going about like no notice to vacate, like, like sorry I didn't tell you, like, you know, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

I'm sure I didn't know this was gonna happen to my life.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Yeah. He stated, so we had to get out by January 13th, despite the fact of everything going on, dealing with the corner and all these horrible things. Nord stated he received a call letting him know that Alicia had not paid her rent. He asked them, Have you seen the news? The kids just lost their mom. Management followed up with a conver followed up the conversation with a three-day notice to leave or pay. Yep.

unknown 38:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Media got wind of this fiasco. And not only the community, but people as far as Switzerland were chipping in to have this family. Good. Yeah. The remaining members of the Ortega family have been very vocal about their support of victims and survivors of gun violence. They've been known to reach out to people to let them know that they're not alone and that they're there if they need a shoulder to cry on. And like, coincidentally enough, like your episode last week in this episode, like we weren't even supposed to be doing those at this time. It just happened back to back these mass shootings, and like not to get like all political. I'm not trying to do that, but like it's an issue. Yeah. Gun violence is an issue regardless of what side you are on. Yeah. So March 14, 2018, which was one month after the Parkland, Florida high school shooting. Schools all over the country staged at for 10 a.m. for a 17-minute walkout. One minute for each victim who passed. Um, classes, you know, as kindergarten to part. Obviously, like the little kids are not gonna like tell, you know, like they would just like the kids would come out and like they'd all form like a little heart or something, or like they'd all wear orange for Florida. Uh, some schools planned speeches, some held up signs, some just stood in silence. MTV and Nickelodeon both went off the air for 17 minutes. Oh, that's I did not know that. Um, MTV posted, had a message that said the next 17 minutes are dedicated to young people leading the fight against gun violence with showing um victims of the parking shooting. So now I have a little fun fact. Right about racist fun fact about that walkout. Katrina was a junior in high school in in Pasadena, took part in that walkout. Her and her close friend, Isabella Mars, who was also Pasadena's 100th rows queen.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 40:07

Um, they made a little video together um to share with their classmates to encourage them to take part. So they did that. They both gave speeches at this walkout uh with Katrina reading off the names of the victims. And in an interview with ABC7, Katrina stated, You're left here on this earth for a reason. You're left here for a purpose, and your job is to keep fighting and to shine that light on everybody else that has been affected.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

That's it. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

That was hard. Way to ruin Christmas. Yeah, fucking Bruce, dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

Or we go crazy for Christmas now in their honor.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Yeah. Cause like going through something so catastrophic and losing so many of your family, like all the all the matriarchs and patriarchs of your family to just hate everybody in the world, you know, and they're just like using it for good. Yeah. Reaching out, they're like letting people know they're not alone. Like that this family is just fucking amazing. Yeah, there's so much.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

Yeah, they don't let the hate turn into more hate. Right. It's the only way that you can cancel out hate is just with love and support. Oh, that's so so terrible.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

And again, like fucking coward, killing yourself. Like now he doesn't get to like suffer the consequences, you know? It's a coward's way out.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Yeah, I mean, I can't, I just like to to go as far as you he went, you know? Like literally get the custom-made suit, just do planning this. At least so, yeah. I mean, it's so much planning to do just the I mean, there wasn't a moment that he was like, uh what am I doing? Oh you know.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

I mean, that's how did he get all that ammo from the drove? Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

I'm assuming I didn't see anything about I mean, I assume you can't take because that's a drive.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Like this this man knew what he was doing. Yeah. Completely methodically planned out.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

I just think it's interesting that like he made all these plans only to not go through with it. Because I mean, I get like maybe the mass, and I get like, you know, the car. But like, why would you buy a ticket to fly? Diversion.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Diversion. I think he I think my guess is that he was not trying to tip anybody off. Like, oh, he's coming here. Like, he's gonna go there and search for him.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

But it's not like uh yeah, I bet they he didn't think that he was going to be as badly burned as he was. I can't go to a hospital at that point. I think he would have gotten to Mexico. I believe so too. Got to Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Yeah, I mean, third degree burns all over your body. I can tell you third degree burns are not fun. Yeah. Um, at all. So the pain that he was in is another factor, but only positive. Yeah. I mean, yeah, at least there's that. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I guess that's true. Maybe he would have gone if that wasn't happening. Um, but then to choose to go, I mean, he why would he go to his brother's? His brother's house, you know?

SPEAKER_00 43:26

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Yeah, that's just kind of seems to be randomly thrown in there. But I mean, I'm sure he's not like thinking straight either, I guess, at that point. But maybe it was closer.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Yeah. And then he wouldn't have to kill himself in the car.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Should have just done it anyways. Yeah. Ruining your brother's house.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Should have just done that first.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

First. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Wow.

unknown 43:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Rough day.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

Yeah. Yeah. This makes my heart sad. Yeah. Like I'm just sad across the board now.

SPEAKER_01 43:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Thanks a lot, Rachel.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

I know.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Sorry. Well, they all can't be fun like Dolly. I'm sorry. I know, right? That was such a good one. That was a good one. We need more I know that. Later.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

That's been two heavy, heavy hitters man in a row.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

And it wasn't on and that was on accident too. Yeah. Yeah. Because I wasn't supposed to Yeah, we had to change the school. Jumble up some things. So this was not supposed to be tonight.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

Yeah. And like we're doing more jumbling of the schedule now.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

But I think it's for a good reason. No, for sure. Yeah. Which is, and we're actually adding an extra situation. Yeah. Thing too. Yeah. Because we're coming up on the end of our season. And we're just gonna try to figure out how to uh end it, basically. Yeah. Um because it's only season one. We don't know. We never ended a season before. Yeah, we never ended a season. So we were we are nearing this. Yeah. Trying to figure out like what should we do?

SPEAKER_00 44:56

And now that we've kind of gotten where as far as we have, we're like maybe we should do a big story and yeah, maybe we could do that each season big story at the end.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

Yeah, you know, so we jumbled things around a little bit for that. Yeah, for that purpose.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

Well, by next season, we will be after this weekend a lot more comfortable going on the road.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Yeah, yeah. Uh especially after this yeah this weekend going to Cramcon.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

Four days. It's this past two weeks has been a whirl of wind.

SPEAKER_01 45:29

It's so true. Yeah. Another uh another road trip uh to Vegas for me. Yeah. Just feel like I got out of the car from the last one. And another trip for me because I was gone in Chicago. Yeah, you just got back from Chicago, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

I'm just gonna say that I'll just pay for double hypnosis and then we could just fly uh places. Anyone know of any ways that you can absolutely get flight, but yes, it is. Yeah, that's like two cocktails if you can get the waitress to come back or the right there next to the freaking airport.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:02

I mean, I'm I I've flown to Vegas. I don't mind flying to Vegas.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

I mean, it's 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

Yeah. I don't know. 45 minutes. And she's like, I'll catch you guys there. Yeah. Oh, believe me, I thought about it. But I was like, Zoe and I are going on a road trip. Yeah. So I have to save for that. Yeah. Fair. Yeah, kids are expensive, especially 15-year-old girls.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

Very true. We've all been a 15-year-old girl. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Um, I don't know. You know, why all my clothes were from thrift stores when I was 15, okay? Dickies and thrift store attire was what I had.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

We're all wet seal. And Charlotte Ruse.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

At that time, you can buy Chucks at Nordstrom's for $22. Wow. So I was I was an inexpensive kid.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

I was a hot topic girl. The best.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

It used to be. Now it's just anime. I mean, great anime. I Zoe watches anime, I love it, but it's just not what it was. Hot topic's still open. Hot topic's still open. I don't know. I haven't been to a mall.

SPEAKER_01 47:03

So is Torrid. 20 years, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

Torrid's still a thing, too.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Again, mall. I I don't even know where there is a mall.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

Uh Brea Mall. Zoe and I just went and it is just as good as it was when you kidding. It is, and it's it's coming back. Like there's so many good stores there. Are there?

SPEAKER_00 47:24

Because didn't they just close Westminster Mall?

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Yeah, but that is not that isn't that is not even close to the caliber of Brea Mall.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Westminster Mall is like, yeah, totally closed. And then isn't Cerrito's mall closing? No, it doesn't look like it. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

No, I don't think they're closing. I think they're redoing the Lakewood Mall.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Maybe that's something like that.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Or they're they're like revamping it or something.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

I was like, there's a Lakewood Mall?

SPEAKER_00 47:44

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Wow. I had no idea. Delamo. Yeah, that maybe that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 47:47

Delamo's Torrance.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

No, I mean like it's on Delamo. Oh, on Delamo. Yeah.

unknown 47:51

Sorry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

Delamo was the mall I used to go to because I lived over there.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Anyways, I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:57

Um, I I just know that they need to build more malls so I don't I can shop in person because I don't like shopping.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Can the escalators work though? Do they work at the Bray Mall? You're gonna have them all. Like your escalators have to work. Like this is really.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

We're just gonna go to Brea.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

That's kind of far, isn't it? Are we?

SPEAKER_02 48:15

Listen, we'll go grab a little box of Panda Express and walk around. You have to go there and eat something from the food court. They no longer have the great steak and fry, so I can't get the friends to walk around.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

But I mean I'm good on the panda. Like, do they have Spargo?

SPEAKER_02 48:34

Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_01 48:35

I mean, I'm just saying everybody's going to Spargo.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

I literally don't ever eat Panda Express, but if I'm at the Bramble, I want just a little thing and we'll walk around and chicken apes. Yes. Yes. But I would do both. Both? Oh, I would do both. You go for the smorgasbord. I don't even know what it is. You take a trip around the world, okay? You take a trip around the world. Like Morway.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Yes. Yes. A little bit of anything. That's I never was a fan of the way they ate.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

Oh, I it's basically how Zoe and I eat. And where we eat.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

Alright. Well, are you ready to close the tab on tonight's case?

SPEAKER_01 49:16

I definitely am, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Merry Christmas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:20

Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

Merry Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 49:23

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 49:24

Cheers, ladies. To the Ortega's. To the Ortega's. Till next time.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

Don't get it before.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Don't let me be done. Don't get it.