Here is where I am today: please donate anything you can, if you can via PayPal to the Ortega Family (Santa Murders)...we are at a benefit today raising money for 15 children orphaned by this man's violent act.
Paypal address: ortegafamilyfund@yahoo.com
Whatever (even a few dollars) will help these families. Thank you for your support!
“Santa” Lost Job, Wife Before Attack
Bruce Pardo, the man who, dressed as Santa, killed 9 in a vicious attack earlier this week, lost both his job and wife prior to the murders.
From the Associated Press:
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, 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 began by shooting an 8 year old girl who answered the door (excited to see Santa) in the face. He then used a homemade device disguised as a present to spray racing fuel that quickly sent the home up in flames.
Pardo had planned to flee to Canada following the killing spree but suffered third-degree burns in the fire — which melted part of the Santa suit to him — and decided to kill himself instead, investigators said. His body, with a bullet wound to the head, was found at his brother’s home about 40 miles away.
The rented compact car he had driven to his former in-laws house was rigged to set off 500 rounds of ammunition and later exploded outside his brother’s home. No one was injured.
Police found a second car rented by Pardo late Saturday, but Covina police spokesman Lt. Pat Buchanan said the bomb squad did not find any explosives in that vehicle.
The 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.
15 children have been left without parents.
