Bruce Pardo, Dressed as Santa kills 9 at holiday party

[MuffyBee]

Man in Santa suit kills at least 6 at holiday party
By Anahad O'connor
Published: December 26, 2008

In a bizarre Christmas Eve rampage in a Los Angeles suburb, a 45-year-old man in a Santa Claus outfit opened fire on a gathering of his in-laws and then methodically set their house ablaze, killing at least six people and injuring several others, the authorities said on Thursday.

In adition, three people who were at the party in the suburb of Covina — including the couple who owned the home and the former wife of the suspect — were missing, the police said.

The suspect, identified by witnesses as Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, later killed himself in front of his brother's house in Sylmar, about 40 miles from the scene of the shootings, the police said.

Witnesses said Pardo, armed with cans of accelerant, went to the house looking for his former wife, Sylvia, with whom he had been entangled in a bitter divorce..

The frenzied shooting occurred just before midnight Wednesday at a two-story home on a cul de sac in Covina, a middle-class town about 22 miles east of Los Angeles. People who escaped the home, including one woman who broke an ankle as she leapt out of a second-floor window, said they had gathered for a family celebration.
At least three bodies were initially discovered inside the home, and coroners found "several" more bodies as they went through the rubble on Thursday morning, according to The Associated Press.

Investigators said that about 30 people, among them many children, were inside the home celebrating on Christmas Eve when Pardo knocked on the door. The gathering was a tradition for the family, an annual holiday party, and Pardo had apparently disguised himself as hired entertainment to gain access. When a guest opened the door, Pardo stepped inside the house, pulled out a handgun, and immediately started shooting, Lieut. Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department said in a telephone interview.

Officers said they responded to a burst of 911 calls, and arrived at the home at 1129 E. Knollcrest Drive moments later to find it engulfed in flames and shots still being fired inside. Pardo had doused the house in accelerant and then set it on fire, the police said. They said they initially kept about 80 firefighters from getting too close until it appeared that the shooting had stopped. Pardo was believed to have started the fire, possibly with Molotov Cocktails, the authorities said.

Three victims — an 8-year-old and a 16-year-old with gunshot wounds, and the woman who broke her ankle, who is in her 20s— staggered outside and were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries, Buchanan said.

Jeanie Golpz, 51, who lives down the street from the house, said the woman leapt out of the window after running upstairs to flee Pardo. Golpz said she comforted the woman and two others who escaped the house, including a man who was screaming "He shot my family, he shot my family!" The three survivors, she said, were worried that as many as 10 people were still in the home when they escaped.

At some point during the chaos, the police said, Pardo stripped out of his Santa outfit and fled the house in street clothes. When the fire was brought under control, around 1:30 a.m., investigators peered inside the charred structure, where they could see at least three bodies. By early Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, it was still unclear who the victims were and how many more were inside because officers had not yet entered the home, Buchanan said.

But Ed Winter, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office, told The AP that more bodies had been found inside, some of them too badly burned to immediately determine whether they died in the fire or from gunshots.

"We have multiple bodies inside," Winter said. "They're extremely charred and burned."

Buchanan said Pardo had been having problems with his wife, a relative of the owner of the home. Records indicate that the two filed for divorce in March, and that Sylivia Pardo had been living in the home. It was unclear if she was among the dead, and what connection Bruce Pardo had to the wounded 8-year-old and the other victims, he said.

"We don't know if they were residents of the house or not," the officer said.

The authorities began a manhunt for Pardo and were scouring the area when his body was discovered in a car near his brother's home in Sylmar, about 40 miles northwest of Covina.

A suburb that boasts in its slogan "One mile square and all there," Covina sits at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley. In the last few decades it became a scenic backdrop for films and shows, including several episodes of the television series "Roswell" and the hit show "Knight Rider."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/26/america/26santa.php

[MuffyBee]

    
Ninth body found at site of Santa-suit killings    
Dec 26 05:34 PM US/Eastern
By CHRISTINA HOAG
Associated Press Writer

    COVINA, Calif. (AP) - A ninth body was found Friday morning at the charred site of a Christmas Eve massacre where a recently divorced man dressed as Santa shot indiscriminately at partygoers and destroyed his former in-laws' house with a homemade device that sprayed flammable liquid.

The attacker, Bruce Pardo, reached a Dec. 18 settlement with his ex-wife, who along with her parents was believed to be among the dead. His lawyer and a fellow church usher were among those who said they had never seen anything to indicate he was capable of such a brutal crime.

Pardo's attorney, Stanley Silver, said his client seemed cheerful when he left a message two days before the shooting and was trying to pay $10,000 to finalize the divorce proceedings.

"All of my dealings with him were always pleasant and cheerful," Silver said. "I'd never encountered him when he was ... angry or unpleasant at all."

Pardo left the scene of the killings and was found dead Thursday, of a single bullet to the head, at his brother's house.

The body of his ninth victim was found Friday morning when investigators resumed searching what was left of the two-story home on a cul-de-sac in Covina, 25 miles east of Los Angeles.

Eight bodies were recovered Thursday from the destroyed house; it was not yet known where the gunfire or the flames killed them. None of the dead or missing has been identified.

The bloodbath began about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday when an 8-year-old girl attending a Christmas Eve party answered a knock at the door. A man dressed as Santa and carrying what appeared to a present pulled out a handgun and shot her in the face, then began shooting indiscriminately as partygoers tried to flee.

The gift-wrapped box Pardo was carrying actually contained a pressurized homemade device he used to spray a liquid that quickly sent the house up in flames. Police said Pardo had recently worked in the aerospace industry.

Pardo, 45, had no criminal record and no history of violence, according to police, but he was angry following last week's settlement of his divorce after a short marriage.

A court summary of the divorce case shows that Sylvia Pardo filed for a dissolution of marriage on March 24, 2008. The summary indicates she and Bruce Pardo reached a settlement on Dec. 18 and were separated after about two years of marriage.

Court documents show Sylvia Pardo got the couple's dog, the wedding ring and $10,000 in the settlement agreement, while he got the house. In June, the court ordered Bruce Pardo to pay $1,785 a month in spousal support and put him on a payment plan of $450 a month for $3,570 that was unpaid.

Pardo's attorney said the man had trouble making the payments after he lost his job in July, but spousal support was waived in the settlement signed earlier this month.

Investigators seeking further information about Pardo's motives have begun searching his home in the suburban Los Angeles community of Montrose.

Christmas lights decorated the roof of Pardo's home and plastic nutcracker soldiers and striped candy canes poked out of the neatly trimmed lawn. A black Cadillac Escalade and a white Hummer were parked in the driveway.

Neighbors frequently saw Pardo working on his lawn and walking his dog, a big, brown Akita. Pardo served regularly as an usher at evening Mass at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Jan Detanna, the head usher at the church, was stunned when told about the violence.

"I'm just—this is shocking," Detanna told the Times. "He was the nicest guy you could imagine. Always a pleasure to talk to, always a big smile."

Two people wounded in the attack are expected to recover: the 8-year-old who was shot and a 16-year-old girl shot in the back. A 20-year-old woman broke her ankle when jumping from a second-story window and was recovering.

David Salgado, a neighbor, said he saw the 8-year-old victim being escorted to an ambulance by four SWAT team members as flames up to 40 feet high consumed the house.

"It was really ugly," Salgado said.

Another neighbor, Jan Gregory, said she saw a teenage boy flee the home, screaming, "`They shot my family.'"

When the fire was extinguished early Thursday, officers found three charred bodies in the living room area.

"They were met with a scene that was just indescribable," police Chief Kim Raney said. Investigators found five more bodies amid the ashes later in the day. Coroner's Lt. Larry Dietz said the ninth body was found Friday morning.

Following the shootings, Pardo quickly got out of the Santa suit and drove off, witnesses told police. He went to his brother's home about 25 miles away in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles. No one was home, so Pardo let himself in, police said.

Police were called to the home early Thursday, and officers found Pardo dead. Two handguns were found at the scene, and two more were discovered in the wreckage of his former in-laws' house.

A car that Pardo apparently parked near his brother's home exploded Thursday evening and more ammunition was found in it, Los Angeles police Sgt. Francisco Wheeling said. She had no immediate details on what set off the explosion. No one was hurt.

_http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95AKTNG0&show_article=1

[MuffyBee]

Police: Santa gunman planned to flee to Canada

Dec 26, 5:38 PM (ET)

By CHRISTINA HOAG

(AP) Bruce Jeffrey Pardo is seen in an undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2008, by the Covina,...
Full Image

COVINA, Calif. (AP) - Law enforcement officials in Southern California say the gunman who killed nine people in a Christmas Eve bloodbath at his ex-in-laws' Covina home intended to flee to Canada but was severely burned before he killed himself.

Police said Friday that after the shooting, 45-year-old Bruce Jeffrey Pardo used a homemade device to spray racing fuel around the home and that the vapor was ignited by a pilot light or candle. He suffered third-degree burns on both arms when it exploded.

Authorities say Pardo's Santa suit actually melted onto his body before he fled.

After Pardo shot himself to death at his brother's home, authorities found $17,000 on him and a plane ticket for a flight from Los Angeles to Canada.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081226/D95ALRM00.html

[MuffyBee]

This article has photo of the ruins of the house:

Police: Santa shooter planned to fly to Canada after killings but badly burned himself

CNN NEWS WIRE SERVICE

Updated Friday, December 26th 2008, 5:54 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/12/26/2008-12-26_police_santa_shooter_planned_to_fly_to_c.htm

[MuffyBee]

From the Los Angeles Times
Covina gunman planned to flee the country, police say
 By Tami Abdollah and Ari B. Bloomekatz
    6:59 PM EST, December 26, 2008
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-santa-shooting27-2008dec27,0,5676425.story

<snip>
Doonan said Pardo had booby-trapped his rental car, which he parked about a block from his brother's house in Sylmar. A Santa suit inside was attached to a trigger that lit a flare. There were was 200 rounds of ammunition inside the vehicle.

Pardo, 45, had been divorced earlier this year, and authorities believe the divorce was one of the main factors that drove him to go to the home of his former in-laws on Christmas Eve with the guns and explosives.

But one incident that led to that divorce was a long-held detail of his past that Pardo hid from his wife.

About nine years ago, he and a girlfriend had a child. As a 1-year-old, the boy fell into a pool, nearly drowning. As a result, the child was left physically handicapped. Although Pardo did not support his son financially, he claimed the boy as a dependent for seven years on his tax returns.

When Pardo's wife found out about it from a family member, she demanded he stop claiming his son as a dependent. The situation helped lead to the divorce, sources close to the family said.

Pardo and his ex-wife, Sylvia, met in 2004 through a colleague of Pardo's, who is believed to be one of Sylvia's brothers. Sources today said the 17-year-old son of that colleague died in the Christmas Eve shooting.
<snip>
The rampage began shortly before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday when Pardo, dressed as Santa Claus, approached the front door of his ex-wife's parents' home with a large, wrapped package. Inside the two-story home at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, his ex-wife, her parents and about two dozen others were enjoying their annual holiday party.

An 8-year-old girl ran to answer his knock. When the door swung open, Pardo shot her in the face with a semiautomatic handgun, stepped into the house and opened fire on the revelers. Amid the chaos, he doused the house with a flammable liquid contained in the package -- a pressurized fuel tank, about 2 1/2 feet tall.

Partygoers fled in panic as the house went up in flames. They ran to neighbors' homes and frantically called 911. A young woman leaped from a second-floor window, breaking her ankle.

The 8-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl who was shot in the back survived and were taken to hospitals. The 16-year-old, the daughter of Pardo's ex-wife, was discharged from Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. The 8-year-old was in stable condition today in the hospital's intensive care unit, said County-USC Spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda.

"She's alert, she's doing fine. They're doing whatever they can so she's not more traumatized than she is already," De La Cerda said. A social worker has been called to help the girl, who has been visited by her mother.

As flames engulfed the Covina house on Christmas Eve and into Christmas morning, Pardo quickly fled the scene, driving to his brother's house. Shortly before 3:30 a.m., Brad Pardo found his brother dead with a gunshot wound to the head.

On Christmas Day, Covina detectives found at Pardo's house in Montrose four shotguns, a handgun, wrapping paper and a fuel tank like the one Pardo used in the attack in Covina.

Recently, Pardo had been living in the Montrose home alone, said Det. Antonio Zavala.

Pardo's former wife and her parents, Joseph Ortega, 80, and Alicia Ortega, 70, were among the dead, sources said today. Authorities said the bodies found in the house were so badly burned that dental records would be needed to identify them.

A relative said two of Sylvia's brothers and their wives, the son of one of her brothers and one sister were killed. Her only sibling to survive was a sister, the female relative said.

The relative said Sylvia had been married three times and that her three children, Selina, Sal and Amanda, were at the party and survived.

Today, standing outside his Sylmar home, Brad Pardo remained distraught over what happened. He said he knew his brother was depressed and thought he was going to sell his home.

"We never saw this coming, we never thought this would ever happen," Brad Pardo said. "We want to tell the [families] how sorry we are."

He said he and his wife would be sending e-mails later today to the victims' families, expressing their sympathy.

This is a 2 page article, and I've snipped some of the information for reading here.  A link is provided at the top for the entire article. 

[MuffyBee]

Bruce Pardo's mother copes with aftermath of Covina shooting
'I have to be honest with you, I'm having trouble holding myself together,' Nancy Windsor, 72, says after her son killed his ex-wife and eight members of her family.
By Tami Abdollah
1:06 PM PST, December 27, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pardo-mother28-2008dec28,0,5965000.story

[MuffyBee]

Dec 27, 3:31 AM EST

911 call: Woman describes Santa assailant at home
 COVINA, Calif. (AP) -- A survivor of a horrific shooting at a Christmas Eve party frantically begged an emergency dispatcher for help as she hid in a neighbor's house, her daughter wailing in the background with a gunshot wound to the face, according to a 911 tape released by police Friday.

"He's still shooting out there," the woman sobbed, describing how her ex-brother-in-law was armed and dressed in a Santa suit. "He's shooting my whole family! My mom's house is on fire!"

The tape was released two days after Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, armed with four guns and a fuel-spraying device, killed nine people at his ex-wife's parents' home during a holiday party in Covina. He later killed himself at his brother's home, police said.

The caller was at the party but escaped to a nearby home after Pardo barged in and opened fire. She told the dispatcher her name was Leticia, but her last name could not be heard through her sobs on the noisy 11-minute tape.

"I have a feeling I know who it is," she said, and identified the shooter as her former brother-in-law. "They're going through a divorce right now."

She told the dispatcher that Pardo came to the door dressed in a Santa Claus suit, started shooting and "everyone started panicking and running," diving under the dining room table to hide.

Asked who was at the party, the woman said there were at least 25 people in the house. She listed her husband and two daughters, nephews, nieces and a girlfriend - "that's half my family!" she cried.

The woman and the neighbors saw the shooter "knocking out the lights on the street" and told the dispatcher that he had changed out of the Santa suit.

"We can't allow him to come into this house. We've got to lock all the doors!" she said.

Her daughter had been shot in the side of the face and was bleeding. When the girl started to whimper and wail in pain, the woman comforted her: "It's OK, mami."

The devastation and panic she was feeling was evident in her voice.

"I can't believe that he did this to my family. I just have this feeling in my stomach," she moaned, breaking down. "I'm trying to keep it together here."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SANTA_SHOOTING_911_TAPE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[MuffyBee]

Relatives mourn family slain in Santa shootings

By JACOB ADELMAN – 32 minutes ago
COVINA, Calif. (AP) — Joseph and Alicia Ortega came from Mexico and raised a large, loving family supported by the metal painting business they started in Southern California.

The remaining members of that family now are in mourning, after a Christmas Eve attack on the Ortegas' home by the vengeful ex-husband of one of their daughters, Sylvia Pardo.

Bruce Pardo donned a Santa Claus suit and killed nine members of the Ortega family during the Christmas party where the close-knit family gathered each year, before spraying the home with racing fuel that set it on fire. Pardo later killed himself.

"They really were a great family," said Jose Castillo, Sylvia Pardo's brother-in-law from an earlier marriage, who came to pay his respects Sunday at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac where the Ortegas' two-story home once stood. "They used to be together all the time."

Joseph Ortega, 80, and Alicia, 70, had retired about 10 years ago from their business painting metal furniture and other items in nearby El Monte.

The couple immigrated to the United States shortly after their marriage 53 years ago in the Mexican city of Torreon, that city's newspaper, El Siglo de Torreon, reported Saturday.

The family is well-known in the city, where Alicia's sisters are prominent businesswomen, the newspaper's editorial director Javier Garza told the Los Angeles Times.

Sylvia Pardo, 43, had been living at her parents' home since her divorce from Bruce Pardo, a 45-year-old electrical engineer, about a year ago, Castillo said.

Her earlier marriage to Jose Castillo's brother, Sabino Castillo, ended with Sabino's death in a traffic accident about 20 years ago, when she was pregnant with their youngest of two children.

Both children, a 21-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son, had escaped unharmed from the party where Bruce Pardo opened fire.

The slaughter came six days after Bruce and Sylvia Pardo appeared in court to finalize their divorce.

Police believe the dead included Sylvia Pardo's two brothers and their wives, her sister and a 17-year-old nephew, as well as her parents.

Police listed the victims as unaccounted for because coroner's officials said the nine bodies were too badly charred for immediate identification.

Bruce 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 also found a second car rented by Pardo late Saturday, but a bomb squad did not find any explosives in that vehicle. Investigators did find a canister of gasoline, water bottles, wrapped Christmas presents, two computers, and a map of Mexico, police said.

On Sunday, a stream of visitors drove by to look at the blackened heap of twisted metal and shards of timber that remain of the family home. Tony and Ira Salas, who were close friends with both of Sylvia Pardo's brothers, placed another bouquet on the makeshift shrine of flowers, burning votive candles and stuffed animals on the adjacent curbside.

"They were a very close and loving family," said Tony Salas, as Ira wept.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gm6-_k-0T2iGWVOGoVqXVg8I4HogD95C11AO0

[MuffyBee]

Gunman-Arsonist Had Plans Even Deadlier
By SOLOMON MOORE
Published: December 30, 2008
LOS ANGELES — The man who killed nine people in a shooting and arson spree at a Christmas Eve party in nearby Covina had also hoped to take the life of his own mother there, then drive to the home of his former wife’s divorce lawyer and kill him and his family, police officials said Tuesday.

Lt. Pat Buchanan of the Covina police said the gunman, Bruce J. Pardo, had learned that his mother, with whom he had had a falling out when she sided with his former wife in their recent bitter divorce, had been invited to the party, given by his former in-laws. She had planned to be among the two dozen guests, Lieutenant Buchanan said, but came down with the flu and was unable to attend.

“Had she been there,” the lieutenant said, “she probably would have been killed, too.”

When a makeshift device that Mr. Pardo had fashioned to spray gasoline over the guests malfunctioned and exploded, badly burning his arms, he abandoned plans to drive to the Glendale home of his former wife’s divorce lawyer, Scott Nord, and then flee to Iowa, where he had a friend. Instead, he went to his brother’s house in the Sylmar section of Los Angeles and killed himself.

Lieutenant Buchanan said that in a rental car that Mr. Pardo had used to drive to the home of his former in-laws, investigators had found another device for spraying fuel. And, he said, they found more gasoline, contained in a fuel tank, in a second car Mr. Pardo had rented that was parked near Mr. Nord’s home.

“We believe that he wanted to go to Glendale and kill the attorney’s family there,” Lieutenant Buchanan said.

“We believe that he had some specific targets, including his wife and her attorney,” he said. “But he wanted to kill everybody. He was going to shoot anybody he came in contact with.”

Although none of the nine bodies pulled from the charred rubble have been formally identified, Mr. Pardo’s former wife, Sylvia Pardo, and her parents, Joseph and Alicia Ortega, the party’s hosts, are believed to have been among the victims. At least 13 children were orphaned by the attack, the lieutenant said.

Mr. Pardo had bought at least five guns within five months from a single gun dealer, investigators said. All four of the guns used in the rampage were bought legally, they said, although Lieutenant Buchanan said Mr. Pardo had received a letter from the authorities warning him that he might have violated gun control laws by buying more than one gun in a single month.

The police are continuing to collect evidence from three computers seized at Mr. Pardo’s house in Montrose, near Glendale, but they say it appears he had no accomplices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/us/31santa.html?ref=us

[Nut44x4]

COVINA, Calif. (AP) - The man who killed nine people at his former in-law's Christmas party while dressed as Santa Claus had plotted the attack several months ago, and his hit list was longer than first thought.

Police said Monday that Bruce Pardo planned to also kill his mother and his ex-wife's divorce attorney, but committed suicide before he could complete the task.

Authorities said his plan was thorough and detailed. Pardo had a getaway car, an airplane ticket to the Midwest, several guns and high-powered ammunition sold only outside the state.

He launched the attack on Christmas Eve, putting on his Santa Claus suit, arming himself with four guns and barging into a party at his ex-relatives' home.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:905135603&start=3

[MuffyBee]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-santa11-2009jul11,0,3575623.story
Inside the mind of a killer 'Santa'
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-01/44560412.jpg
Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

Mourners arrive at Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church in San Dimas to celebrate a Mass for the nine members of a Covina family killed during a Christmas Eve shooting rampage.
Bruce Pardo spent months amassing weapons and planning the Christmas Eve slayings of his ex-wife and eight others.
By Tami Abdollah
July 11, 2009
It was nearing midnight when a large man emerged from his rented blue Dodge and approached a brick home at the end of a cul-de-sac in Covina. He wore a handmade Santa Claus suit with boot-covers, belt, beard, glasses and gloves. Hardly suspicious. It was Christmas Eve.

But underneath were black street clothes, five 9-millimeter handguns and $17,000 in cash plastic-wrapped to his body. He was pulling a compressor wrapped in Christmas paper and primed with high-octane fuel. In one shoe was a printout for a ticket on a Northwest Airlines flight to Moline, Ill.
The man knocked. Inside, a family Christmas party was ending, and Sylvia Pardo's relatives had gathered near the door to say good night.

The door swung open and an 8-year-old girl ran to Santa. He shot her in the face. Then he stepped into the house and opened fire. Sylvia's sister frantically dialed 911.

"His name," she told the dispatcher, "is Bruce Pardo."


Nine people died in that rampage on Knollcrest Drive, including Pardo's former wife, Sylvia, and her parents. Pardo, 45, took his own life a few hours later.
Six months later, a fuller portrait of the killer and the crime has emerged from interviews with family, friends and investigators. The FBI and Covina police are creating a criminal profile of Pardo, seeking insight into what triggered one of Los Angeles County's worst mass murders.

Although privately troubled by the deterioration of his marriage, Pardo glowed with charm and generosity in public. Even those closest to him had no inkling that last June, long before his divorce was final, he had begun secretly assembling an arsenal and plotting an elaborate getaway.

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s, Pardo, the son of an engineer, showed a knack for mathematics. After graduating from John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, he went to Cal State Northridge to study computer science.

He loved being the center of attention. At his Cal State graduation, he carried a life-size inflatable doll.

Friends and co-workers recalled him as exceptionally bright, and he landed a job as a software engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. But he wasn't the most industrious worker, they remembered. He seemed to relish chances to defeat the system. Once, a colleague recalled, he hacked into the JPL computer system to learn his co-workers' salaries. He seemed to come and go as he pleased, disappearing after a fresh snowfall only to return with a goggles tan line.

In 1988, when he was 24, Pardo became engaged to a JPL co-worker. They invited 250 guests to the nuptials at the San Fernando Mission. Pardo didn't have much money, and he was living with his mother at the time. So the bride-to-be dipped into her savings for a country club reception and honeymoon reservations in Tahiti.

On the day of the wedding, June 17, 1989, his fiancee as well as his brother Brad and his mother, Nancy Windsor, waited for nearly an hour for Pardo to show up. He never did. The next week, his fiancee learned he had withdrawn the $3,000 left in their credit union account.

"Whatever he felt like, he did," recalled Delia, the former fiancee. She asked that her last name not be published because she has since married and moved to another state. "There was no sense of responsibility."

A few weeks later, she saw Pardo again. "He was tanned, and he was looking good, like wow!" Delia said. "Turns out, he went to Palm Springs, and blew all the money."

On weekends, Pardo would often invite friends onto his boat on Lake Havasu.

"He was like a big kid, goofy and lovable," said Tina Westman, 39, who dated him in the early 1990s. Sometimes too goofy. Pardo coaxed Westman to join him on a rafting trip with friends, and when she fell overboard and nearly drowned, Pardo laughed. "He didn't get the severity of what happened," she said. "He was very, very intelligent, but common-sense-lacking."

By 2001, at age 37, Pardo seemed to have finally settled down. He was living in Woodland Hills with his girlfriend, Elena Lucano, and their 13-month-old son, Bruce Matthew.

A week after New Year's, Matthew fell into the backyard swimming pool while Pardo was watching television in the house. When Lucano returned home, she found Pardo screaming and holding Matthew in his arms, according to her attorney. Pardo maintained a vigil by the boy's hospital bed for a week. But when the doctors determined that Matthew would never fully recover, Lucano and Pardo split up.

<snipped> (2 more pages)