MONTROSE, Calif. — 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, a 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 this fall, 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 donned a Santa suit and massacred nine people at his former in-laws’ house in Covina, where a family Christmas party was underway. 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 40 miles away.
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.
Pardo had a 9-year-old son, Matthew, by a former girlfriend, Elena Lucano. He had not seen the child for years, but apparently was claiming him as a dependent for tax purposes.
Court documents from the Pardos’ nearly year-long divorce proceeding reveal a marriage that faltered early and then descended into a bitter feud.
The couple married on Jan. 29, 2006, and moved into a home Pardo owned in Montrose, about 15 miles north of Los Angeles. Bruce Pardo was making $122,000 a year as an electrical engineer at ITT Electronic Systems Radar Systems in Van Nuys, and together the couple built a nest egg of $88,500 in two years.
But by December 2007, Sylvia Pardo was sleeping in another room and spending weekends with her parents, according to court papers.
Two months later she told him she wanted a divorce.
She filed court papers asking for attorney’s fees and $3,166 in monthly spousal support. She claimed her husband had drawn down their $88,500 savings to $17,000 in two months and was transferring funds to a private account.
“The situation has become untenable, and continuing the marriage was not an option,” she said in court documents.
In July, Pardo lost his job at ITT and soon was drowning in debt while looking for work.
When Pardo’s body was found, $17,000 was strapped to it, money he apparently planned to use to fund his escape to Canada.
