12 Crimes of Christmas: A Petrifying Package
On Christmas Eve, 2008, Bruce Jeffery Pardo knocked on the door of his former in-laws’ home while dressed in a Santa suit and holding a gift-wrapped package. When an eight-year-old girl answered the door, Pardo blasted her with a semiautomatic handgun. Then, the unhinged Santa entered the Covina, Los Angeles home and began indiscriminately firing through the crowd of festive partygoers.
In a 911 call, the young girl’s mother can be heard screaming “I need someone to come over and help my daughter!” before identifying the shooter as Bruce Pardo. When Pardo finally unwrapped the “Christmas gift” that he had been holding, he revealed a homemade flamethrower. With that, Santa burned the house to the ground and fled the scene with severe burns that melted his red suit into his flesh. Pardo drove 40 miles to Sylmar, parked his rental car a block from his brother’s house and used his shredded suit to booby trap the inside of the vehicle. If police attempted to move the suit, trip wires would ignite a fire and subsequently explode 200 rounds of ammunition.
As a means of getting away, Pardo had also strapped $17,000 in cash to his body and appeared to have a flight booked for Canada. However, before he could board any plane to freedom, the murderous Santa killed himself with a single gunshot to the head. Investigators believe that Pardo’s killing spree was spurred by a particularly contentious divorce that had come to a head just one week prior. According to divorce records, Pardo’s split from his ex-wife, Sylvia, had intensified on December 18 after Sylvia was granted a cash settlement and Pardo’s dog, Saki. Pardo knew that Sylvia would be attending her parents’ annual holiday party on December 24, but it remains unknown just how long he had been planning his attack.
According to Pardo’s friend, Steve Erwin, the vicious Santa had called him in the week leading up to the massacre and made plans to visit him for two weeks, starting on Christmas Day. Erwin said that Pardo had a flight to Moline, Illinois and would drive from there to Erwin’s home in Iowa. Of course, Pardo never showed up.
Given his alleged plane ticket to Canada, police have questioned whether Pardo had ever planned to meet up with Erwin in the first place. In total, Pardo killed nine people. In addition to shooting Sylvia, Pardo also murdered her parents, two of her brothers and their wives, a sister, and a nephew. Join us tomorrow as we talk about more Christmas cases.
