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On Christmas Eve 2008, nine members of the Covina-based Ortega family were brutally murdered by 45-year-old Bruce Jeffery Pardo. Pardo disguised himself as Santa Claus, crashed the gathering, and mercilessly killed the family before setting the place on fire. It was revealed that the victims were either killed by gunshot wounds or arson fire.
Authorities speculated that Pardo's divorce had just been finalized one week before the tragedy and suggested that this may have fueled the attack. Several bodies were horribly burnt and were identified via dental and medical X-rays.
Oxygen's Homicide for the Holidays revisited the terrible Covina massacre in an episode titled A Christmas Massacre, which aired on December 2, 2022. The synopsis reads:
"The Ortega family's annual Christmas Eve party is destroyed when a man dressed as Santa, wielding handguns and a homemade flame-thrower opens fire; detectives are led down a terrifying path that leads them to a sociopath."
Dressed up as Santa Claus, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo crashed the Ortega family Christmas Eve gathering
Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, wearing a Santa Claus outfit, arrived at the door of his former in-laws' house, fully armed, He also carried along a gift-wrapped parcel containing a rolling air compressor modified as a pump gasoline.
As soon as the door opened, Pardo pulled out the pistols and shot his 8-year-old niece Katrina Yuzefpolsky. He also began firing randomly at party guests. Authorities suspect Pardo may have deliberately shot some of the victims using his other weapons.
After attacking the Ortega family and their guests, Pardo unlocked the compressor's container and sprayed gasoline into the house to set it on fire. Three people suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries. A 16-year-old girl was shot and wounded in the back, and a 20-year-old woman broke her ankle after jumping out of the second-floor window.
In the end, nine people died of either gunshot wounds or fire. One survivor fled the scene and raced to a neighbor's home, where they called the police. It took 80 firemen an hour and a half to completely put out the roaring fire. The victims' identities were verified through dental and medical records due to the severity of the fire.
Sources state that at least three victims died from gunshot wounds, while four died from fire and gunshot wounds. The fire itself caused two more casualties.
After starting the fire in the Ortega family home, Pardo changed into casual clothes and drove his rental Dodge Caliber to his brother's home in Sylmar, about 30 miles from the crime scene. He was subsequently discovered dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Authorities believed that a nasty divorce between Bruce Jeffrey Pardo and a member of the Ortega family fueled the attack
Authorities, who were still investigating the Covina massacre, did not know that their dead victim, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, was the perpetrator behind the tragedy. However, after looking into his background, they connected his recently divorced ex-wife Sylvia Ortiz to the killings after realizing that her maiden name was Ortega. She was identified as one of the Ortega siblings who had died on Christmas Eve.
Earlier that year, in June, Bruce Pardo was ordered to provide $1,785 in spousal support each month. The spousal payment was ultimately dropped when his divorce was completed just before the holiday because he was no longer employed at the time. His company sacked him in July after realizing he was falsely charging clients for hours he did not work.
It was alleged that Bruce Pardo was devastated by the divorce and eventually started to plan revenge on Sylvia.
Authorities believed that when Bruce ran out of ammunition during his Christmas Eve killing rampage, he pulled out a makeshift flamethrower and sprayed 18 liters of gasoline into the house. However, he himself got horrible third-degree burns from the explosion. He was so severely injured that he decided to kill himself.
Tune in to Homicide for the Holidays on Oxygen to learn more about the Ortega family massacre.
