Joseph and Alicia Ortega are happy. At 80 and 70 years old, they have been married for half a century. And on this December 24, 2008, here they are surrounded by their five children, Sylvia, Charles, James, Alicia and Leticia. There are also their grandchildren, and extended family. In total, between 25 and 30 people joyfully celebrated New Year’s Eve in the family home in Covina, California, as reported at the time by Los Angeles Times. Most children play near the swimming pool, in the garden, or video games at the back of the house. A 17-year-old teenager prefers to sit in front of the computer on the first floor. The cool evening is coming to an end, and a few guests are starting to head out.
But shortly before 11:30 p.m., there was a knock at the door. In this warm atmosphere, no one is suspicious. It’s Leticia’s daughter, 8 years old, who rushes towards the entrance. ” Santa Claus ! Santa Claus ! “, she rejoices. The little girl then comes face to face with the one she was waiting for. Well almost. Because it is a dark and armed version of the character with the white beard and the red suit who appears on the doorstep. In his basket, no gifts, but several 9mm handguns. And a wrapped package concealing an air compressor capable of spraying fuel.
The killing of Santa Claus
Below the Santa costume is actually hiding Sylvia Ortega’s ex-husband, 43 years old, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, two years his senior. Their divorce agreement was announced a week before: he will keep the house, she will receive a payment of 10,000 dollars and will be able to keep the diamond engagement ring and the family dog. A divorce which will quickly be identified by investigators as the motive for the crime.
As soon as the door was opened, a shot from a semi-automatic weapon went directly towards the face of the little girl who, according to a source close to the investigation cited by the LA Times, turned his head at the last moment. She is miraculously only injured in the cheek. But this is only the first detonation of a night of horror. As the shots rained down, the girl’s two uncles, Charles and James, fell to the ground. The first recognizes the assailant and takes the time to shout “It’s Bruce!” “. Despite their injuries, they got up: “Even bloodied, they got up, stood up. They tried to catch him, to arrest him. But they couldn’t,” Irma Chapa Ortega, niece of Joseph and Alicia, who lives in Mexico, told the local newspaper.
Sixteen people become orphans
Executions followed. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo seems determined to kill everyone, indiscriminately. Several guests who were preparing to leave the premises are close to the door, and therefore particularly exposed. The grandparents, Joseph and Alicia Ortega, their three daughters as well as the two daughters-in-law, Teresa and Cheri, take cover to avoid bullets.
“Everyone started panicking, and we all dove under the dining room table,” Leticia painfully told police during her 911 call. The mother of the little girl who opened the door will be the only survivor among the children of Joseph and Alicia Ortega. Fortunately, the younger guests are far from the shooting. In addition to the little girl injured by the first shot, a 16-year-old girl was shot in the back, but survived. The results of this New Year’s Eve are unreal. Nine people died: the two grandparents, four of their children, two daughters-in-law and a grandson. Sixteen people become orphans. In a matter of seconds, the family celebration turned into a bloodbath.
But Bruce Jeffrey Pardo is not done. Using his air compressor, the criminal sprays fuel into the house. His idea: to ignite it using a flare. But the flames from the chimney fires triggered an explosion which finished off the injured and killed the 17-year-old teenager who was upstairs. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the family home had turned into a fire. A pair of fake glasses and a red and white hat lie in front of the entrance to the house.
A ticket to Illinois, maps of Mexico
Before ringing the Ortega house, the killer had everything planned for his escape. He has $17,000 wrapped in plastic and taped to his body and a plane ticket to Illinois to visit an old high school friend. Investigators will suspect that it was a decoy, since he also left a Toyota in front of the home of his ex-wife’s lawyer. Inside, food, maps of the southwest United States and Mexico, a barrel of gasoline and two computers.
But now this scumbag Santa Claus has second and third degree burns on his arms, legs, back and neck. He is therefore forced to change plans. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo drives away from Covina in a blue car with all lights off, according to a neighbor.
He eventually went to his brother’s house in Sylmar, 40 miles from the crime scene. He is alone. His Santa suit stuck to his burned skin. His inert body was found by his brother at 3:10 a.m. on the morning of December 25, on the living room sofa. He shot himself in the mouth.
The survivors of the massacre will forever be marked by this nightmarish New Year’s Eve. Leticia is the only survivor of the siblings. Five years later, she tries to preserve a semblance of tradition by learning to reproduce her mother Alicia’s flagship recipe: pozole, reported CBS in 2013. “Everywhere you turn, there are memories of what we used to have, and then memories of that night. We can’t escape it,” she told the news channel. Christmas “will always be here, and we continue to celebrate it.”