Speaker 1: Okay, welcome to Wicked and Grim Wage. That's not how
Speaker 1: it goes, is it. Fuck?
Speaker 2: You're Ben, I'm Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to
Speaker 2: Wicked and Grim Uh True Crime podcast Morning.
Speaker 1: The following podcast contains content and material intended for a
Speaker 1: mature audience listener discretion. Okay, I fucked that up. Really.
Speaker 1: I try to be clever and do something cool that
Speaker 1: I just went to ship.
Speaker 2: If we go astray at all, we usually end up
Speaker 2: fucking it up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, right now, just real, let's do it. Hey,
Speaker 1: what's up. My name's Ben and.
Speaker 2: I'm Nicole and you're listening to.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was it was on you never mind. Nope,
Speaker 1: even if we don't go straight, we still suck it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know why because we've said it how
Speaker 2: many times at this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is what episode fifty four. Wow, I think
Speaker 1: look at us, go right, so like Craig Crag and
Speaker 1: actually we oh this is really cool. Today we hit
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty thousand listener podcasts.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I haven't actually checked for the longest time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're really close to a quarter of a million.
Speaker 2: Because that was the next big one we said we
Speaker 2: will share, like we'll do something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we are super close. Guys, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for all that ridiculou Wow it blows our mind.
Speaker 2: That is so awesome, right, wow, very cool.
Speaker 1: Where was I going with that? What were we talking
Speaker 1: about before that? Fucking up? Oh? Yeah? And how how
Speaker 1: we should know by now? But we've done this how
Speaker 1: many times? And yeah there we are.
Speaker 2: Yeah we still don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we've we've been listened to two hundred and
Speaker 1: forty thousand times fucking up over and over a film.
Speaker 2: And so grab your hot chocolate's today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we had.
Speaker 2: We're drinking some Spike hot chocolate. It's real tasty. And
Speaker 2: we're recording on a new soundboard. Yeah. Does that can
Speaker 2: actually make it sound differently?
Speaker 1: It very well could. Yeah. But the really cool thing
Speaker 1: is I don't have anything loaded yet, so it's just
Speaker 1: like preset stuff on here. But I can do things
Speaker 1: like this if I'm like you guys, give us an applause,
Speaker 1: give us a round of applause, I can do this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I feel like maybe let's not do that
Speaker 2: too much because uh oh no, I definitely won't. Could
Speaker 2: you imagine if we did that every five minutes or something.
Speaker 2: People would just be like, oh like that, Oh that's funny. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it's pretty fancy, Actually it is.
Speaker 1: And it's gonna take a little bit of used to
Speaker 1: figuring out all the buttons and fan dangling this thing.
Speaker 1: But we are super stoked to have it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like we look like we made it
Speaker 2: to the big times.
Speaker 1: Well we're getting there thanks to everyone so far. I
Speaker 1: can't believe the support we've gotten. Well, we can afford
Speaker 1: getting this because of the support we've gotten from people
Speaker 1: over on Patreon.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, they're amazing, and we've freaking royally leffed
Speaker 2: up and forgot to thank them all last Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we got a little bit of catching up.
Speaker 2: Oh, we've got a list today. I've just freaking fantastic people.
Speaker 1: So should I get to work on thanking all those
Speaker 1: amazing individuals over on Patreon.
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
Speaker 1: Okay. So I am not promising anything on pronouncing names correctly.
Speaker 2: In fact, pretty good.
Speaker 1: I'm starting to suspect some of you are typing in
Speaker 1: really weird names on purpose just to fuck with us.
Speaker 2: Oh they wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't think they would.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Okay, I've talked to a few of
Speaker 1: those those people out there, and you guys seem pretty maniacal.
Speaker 1: Awesome but maniaca. Okay, so let's go down this. We
Speaker 1: got Desiree Lampet, Jessica armand Trout, I mean Armin Trout.
Speaker 1: That's that just sounds like a made up name.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that sounds like a sweet name.
Speaker 1: It is a sweet name, which is why it sounds
Speaker 1: made up. It's like, who has a name like that?
Speaker 2: Who has that sweet of a name?
Speaker 1: Right? Erica Newwash, Gosia Hannon, Tracy Keener, Ktessa Teresa, Emily Ricci,
Speaker 1: Rachel Shanks, Nicole Nadell, Randy Mathieson, Audrey Schuck. I'm out
Speaker 1: of breath just thinking all you guys. Jeez, okay, I
Speaker 1: got this, Ali Moore, Jason Bird, Hailey, Brandy Jensen, Hailey,
Speaker 1: Cassie Christy Mooney and Gina Vertillo.
Speaker 2: Wow, guys, thank.
Speaker 1: You for reporting us over on Patreon. Everything you do
Speaker 1: for us, it's incredible.
Speaker 2: So awesome. There's another Nicole there is? Is there a
Speaker 2: ben On there too? Like that? I don't think that's
Speaker 2: the first Nicole I think it might be. I'm into
Speaker 2: that that's a cool name.
Speaker 1: It might be, but Jessica, just I'm not. I'm not
Speaker 1: making fun of your name. I'm just suspicious because your
Speaker 1: name is too cool. It doesn't seem to Jelly. I
Speaker 1: am Jelly. I'm peanut butter and jelly sandwich over here.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: Ah, So I hope everyone's Christmas is so far going good.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not Christmas holiday season, not even well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the holiday season tis the season, the holiday spirit, the December.
Speaker 1: I hope it's all going great.
Speaker 2: We have our house decked right out, even though it's
Speaker 2: a tiny home, and I've been listening to Christmas music.
Speaker 2: But if other than that, it hasn't been changed. I
Speaker 2: still to get our Christmas shopping done. Holy moly, I'm
Speaker 2: pretty well done well and.
Speaker 1: I'm almost finished shopping for you. But have you started
Speaker 1: shopping for me?
Speaker 2: Do you have to do one person?
Speaker 1: No? We do a secret Sanda with my family. Right.
Speaker 2: I feel like you've had on each other people because
Speaker 2: I checked up everything else. But grant you, you work
Speaker 2: a full time job and I'm my schedule is more flexible,
Speaker 2: So I'm into it all and I love shopping.
Speaker 1: All those gifts are with your family though too, right
Speaker 1: with my family, we each get one gift of the
Speaker 1: Secret Santa, yeah, and then each other, and then it's
Speaker 1: all the gifts for your family. I guess so you
Speaker 1: know them better than me.
Speaker 2: Fine, okay, but I also have to make some cookies
Speaker 2: and do some baking.
Speaker 1: I'm down to make cookies with you.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm so into that. And we wanted to
Speaker 2: walk around our candy cane lane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so 'tis the season for epic shit to do?
Speaker 2: I know, it's so fun, it's so fun.
Speaker 1: But yeah, just don't leave your Christmas shopping to last minute,
Speaker 1: like clearly Nicole is doing.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this isn't last minute. Last minute is
Speaker 2: the twenty fourth Well, we're getting close lots of times.
Speaker 2: I like to have it done before December even hit,
Speaker 2: so I am behind.
Speaker 1: And uh, I know, like looking at the mall parking lot,
Speaker 1: it's like you wouldn't want to be shopping.
Speaker 2: There right now? Well, yeah, because people get crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of a little bit on the ridiculous side.
Speaker 1: But I mean you still got to go out and
Speaker 1: do the thing, the shopping. So good luck to those
Speaker 1: out there. Doing that, wish you nothing but the best.
Speaker 2: And I got really pumped because I forgot which case
Speaker 2: we were doing today, and then I remembered in boom, yes,
Speaker 2: we are doing Wild It's a.
Speaker 1: Very popular Christmas themed case. Is case? So many podcasts
Speaker 1: cover this one around Christmas. I learned of this one
Speaker 1: only because of the request that we had multiple people requesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was awesome actually, and then yeah, researching it and
Speaker 1: listening to other podcasts, it's like, oh, like, this is
Speaker 1: a true crime case that is covered very frequently this
Speaker 1: time of year, so let's let's do it.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think there's probably a ton of Christmas
Speaker 2: and cases, no, no, but anyone who has covered it's
Speaker 2: like boom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and anyone who has covered this one, it's like
Speaker 1: they cover it Christmas because of how it's tied in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I know very little, So I'm I'm excited
Speaker 2: to learn some morning Well.
Speaker 1: Fuck this one. It sucks. Yeah yeah, so so trigger
Speaker 1: warning on some on some some murderous stuff and killing
Speaker 1: of children.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, what we said we weren't going to be doing.
Speaker 2: It's just so many cases, so many, like what the frig?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so is what it is? You've been borned. Yeah,
Speaker 1: both in the intro and now, so here we go.
Speaker 1: Let's dive into the covena massacre. You ready for this?
Speaker 2: I think so?
Speaker 1: All right, Let's start out with a little a little
Speaker 1: nice interlude, A little introduction. Seems nice and happy, but
Speaker 1: here we go. So Bruce and Sylvia Pardo started the
Speaker 1: new year in two thousand and six with all signs
Speaker 1: pointing to a bright future. They were just getting married
Speaker 1: and together they had a healthy combined income of approximately
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty thousand. Nice. Right, that's a nice
Speaker 1: annual income, especially in two thousand and six too. Right.
Speaker 1: They had a gorgeous half million dollar home on a
Speaker 1: quiet cul de sac in Montrose, California. Nice, nice neighborhood,
Speaker 1: nice area, you know.
Speaker 2: Warm, yeah, inegor, I'm sitting here freezing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome to Canada. But they're gonna be cold. So
Speaker 1: everything was looking great in their life, but things quickly
Speaker 1: turned sour, and divorce documents paint a bitter picture of
Speaker 1: Bruce Pardo's increasing depression as he lost his first wife,
Speaker 1: or so he lost his wife first, then his job,
Speaker 1: and finally the dog Saky in the divorce. By fall
Speaker 1: of two thousand and eight, Bruce was asking the judge
Speaker 1: to have his ex wife pay him support and cover
Speaker 1: his attorney fees. But before all this happened, let's talk
Speaker 1: a bit about Bruce and what his life was like before.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Okay. So, Bruce attended high school in Sun Valley. Then
Speaker 1: he went to California State University in Northridge to study
Speaker 1: computer science. He loved being the center of attention and
Speaker 1: he was very outgoing person. At his university graduation, he
Speaker 1: carried a blow up doll with him and it made
Speaker 1: his way around the ceremony and I could only assume
Speaker 1: probably across the stage as well. I mean, if you're
Speaker 1: going to carry it around your ceremony, you're probably gonna
Speaker 1: want to highlight it across the stage, right.
Speaker 2: So he's kind of like a funny dude, too funny guy.
Speaker 1: I think he's more of like a like a frat
Speaker 1: kind of guy sort of thing I couldn't really find
Speaker 1: too much, and like his sense of humor and stuff.
Speaker 1: We'll cover a little bit more on his personality you're
Speaker 1: coming up. But yeah, I think it's just kind of
Speaker 1: he's just out there and loud, rambunctious a bit. Friends, family,
Speaker 1: and coworkers recalled him as exceptionally bright, and after university
Speaker 1: he landed a job as a software engineer at the
Speaker 1: Jet Hulshan Laboratory in California. That sounds fancy shit, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't the hardest working individual. So yes, fancy as fuck.
Speaker 1: He has a smart individual.
Speaker 2: But his work was great.
Speaker 1: Ethic was kind of shite. Okay, Yeah, so it's probably
Speaker 1: one of those people that's like the coworker where you're
Speaker 1: just like glaring out all the time because it's like,
Speaker 1: fucking do your job, your work at the base, you know,
Speaker 1: like the working hard or hardly working kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I think that sentiment kind of would sum up Bruce.
Speaker 2: For the real party.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's well, that's pretty much how he spent most
Speaker 1: of his working days, just kind of like lulling around
Speaker 1: not doing much. So it wasn't just at work though
Speaker 1: that he seemed to.
Speaker 2: Do this.
Speaker 1: He would always relish the chance to defeat the system
Speaker 1: per se. One colleague actually recalled that he hacked into
Speaker 1: the Jet Propulsion laboratori's computer system and just to learn
Speaker 1: his his coworkers salaries, like fucking dick move. Yeah, why
Speaker 1: because he's an asshole apparently and wanted to do it,
Speaker 1: so he did.
Speaker 2: But he's smart, so seriously smart as hat do you
Speaker 2: ever do that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's smart, and.
Speaker 2: Just like because he has curiosity, really.
Speaker 1: Probably didn't want to do the work, so he's like,
Speaker 1: what else can I do?
Speaker 2: Well? And making sure he's getting paid enough?
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, even.
Speaker 2: Though he's not doing jack all right.
Speaker 1: Nice, So he did that. Fucking skeev as shit, but
Speaker 1: he did it. He basically seemed to come and go
Speaker 1: at work and do whatever he wanted and whatever he
Speaker 1: pleased whenever wherever throughout his life, personal life, the whole
Speaker 1: nine yards. In nineteen I that doesn't sound like the
Speaker 1: right year. Hold on, I have nineteen eighty eight. That
Speaker 1: doesn't sound like the right year. I gotta go double
Speaker 1: check this. Okay, don't mind me. That totally is the
Speaker 1: right year in nineteen eighty eight. So we're good. We're good.
Speaker 1: That just seemed like way too long ago. I was
Speaker 1: like me, ninety eight, but no, it is eighty eight, okay,
Speaker 1: so ignore me.
Speaker 2: Way, what do you mean that was long ago.
Speaker 1: We were born?
Speaker 2: Then? Did? Yeah? Not that long ago?
Speaker 1: We old in nineteen eighty eight, when he was just
Speaker 1: twenty four, Bruce became engaged to a coworker named I
Speaker 1: want to say Delilah, but it's not Delilah. It's just
Speaker 1: really close. It's Deliah.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So it's if I slip up and say Delilah, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: it's Deliah.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: They invited approximately two hundred and fifty guests to their
Speaker 1: nuptials at the San Fernando Mission.
Speaker 2: Oh, that would be a pretty penny eight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be a big wedding.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Bruce, however, didn't have so much money even though they're
Speaker 1: planning this big wedding, So he didn't have any of
Speaker 1: his money at the time, and he was actually in
Speaker 1: fact living with his mother even though he's got this
Speaker 1: great paying job.
Speaker 2: So what's he spending all his money on.
Speaker 1: We'll kind of get to that, okay. So the bride
Speaker 1: to be dipped into her savings for the country club
Speaker 1: reception and honeymoon reservations in Tahiti. Wow, so she's paying
Speaker 1: for it all for the two hundred and fifty guests
Speaker 1: at the wedding at a country club and the honeymoon in.
Speaker 2: Tahiti, like that would be a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and it's going to be like a wedding
Speaker 1: to remember, And she was dishing out big bucks to
Speaker 1: have the wedding of her dream sort of thing all
Speaker 1: on her own.
Speaker 2: Maybe her parents were helping her too.
Speaker 1: Or something, though potentially I'm not too certain on that extent.
Speaker 1: All I know is that Bruce wasn't paying a dime nice,
Speaker 1: so she was all on her, and potentially.
Speaker 2: I feel like at that point I just be like
Speaker 2: Pierce right, not into this anymore.
Speaker 1: So. Anyways, after planning lots of money clearly being sunk
Speaker 1: into the wedding, finally the big day arrived. All the
Speaker 1: planning money spent, he'd come down to today. The day
Speaker 1: of the wedding was June seventeenth, nineteen eighty nine. However,
Speaker 1: didn't play out white as planned. Deliah waited for an
Speaker 1: hour for him to walk down the aisle and there
Speaker 1: stood an empty altar and no groom. He never showed up.
Speaker 1: What he fucking ghosted her on the wedding?
Speaker 2: Are you serious, dead fucking serious after she's pretty much
Speaker 2: spent her probably life fucking savings on.
Speaker 1: That, yep? Wow, fucking dick hole.
Speaker 2: Don't like him at all anymore. Pretty much done already.
Speaker 1: Yeah you should be. You're really going to be done
Speaker 1: when you hear more of what's to come.
Speaker 2: Wow, you're good. Bruh, I'm appalled already.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's fucking disgusting.
Speaker 2: That's just brutal.
Speaker 1: Spoiler alert, Bruce is a douche canoe.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, well I already gathered that.
Speaker 1: So the next week after the wedding, Deliah learned that
Speaker 1: Bruce had withdrawn the remaining amount from her savings, totaling
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars, leaving Deliah completely flat broke, and, as
Speaker 1: it turns out, rather than get married, he decided to
Speaker 1: go to Palm Springs on vacation, where he blew all
Speaker 1: her money.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, Like, I don't even know what to say,
Speaker 2: because this guy's a freaking asshole.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he just blew all the money, just partied it away,
Speaker 1: didn't care about the wedding, just took the rest of
Speaker 1: what she had and fucked off and didn't give a shit.
Speaker 2: Like, Okay, cancel the wedding whatever, Like that's not like
Speaker 2: the end of the world, but cancel it prior to
Speaker 2: like at least give the person that you're about to
Speaker 2: marry some freaking respect like that is brutal.
Speaker 1: He was probably on a fucking airplane laughing.
Speaker 2: While she was Wow, that makes my heart like actually
Speaker 2: sing because just what that would do to her and
Speaker 2: her life's man and stuff like just traumatizing. Really, Yeah,
Speaker 2: she would never trust another.
Speaker 1: Soul, oh and rightfully.
Speaker 2: So wow. So also I might just have to add
Speaker 2: like she might have dodged a bullet.
Speaker 1: Oh, she fucking dodged a bullet.
Speaker 2: Just from the teeny bits that I know about this story.
Speaker 1: No, she she definitely dodged a bullet metaphorically and literally,
Speaker 1: we'll say that. Yeah. So there is a quote that
Speaker 1: I have from Deliah. Whatever he felt like he did,
Speaker 1: there was no sense of responsibility. That's how she would
Speaker 1: go on to describe Bruce. And since that day the
Speaker 1: relationship was clearly over right, she had moved on and
Speaker 1: she actually went on to find a happy life with
Speaker 1: someone else and got married and moved to another state.
Speaker 1: So good for Jelia out there just realizing that and
Speaker 1: being like, fuck this guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good for her.
Speaker 1: So Jeliah described Bruce to a fucking tea, no responsibility
Speaker 1: and he did as he pleased a simple as that
Speaker 1: he liked to be center of attention. As we already said,
Speaker 1: partying was a normal thing for him. He would often
Speaker 1: invite friends onto his boat on Lake Havas Havasu. Sorry,
Speaker 1: And in one incident, he had a friend fall overboard.
Speaker 1: And I think there were some discrepancies in this, but
Speaker 1: I think it was like a rafting trip, okay, and
Speaker 1: that friend actually nearly drowned, and all he did was
Speaker 1: laugh about it. He thought he thought it was funny.
Speaker 2: Holy this guy just doesn't seem like he gets it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he don't. He don't because.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, But like, no matter what kind of state
Speaker 2: you're in, Like, if your friend's drowning, like right, get
Speaker 2: your shit together and help them.
Speaker 1: I can understand maybe laughing after the fact with your friend.
Speaker 1: If your friend is sound. Yeah, if your friend is like,
Speaker 1: oh man, look that was close, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: giggling about it, Yeah, it's okay for you giggle along
Speaker 1: with them. But like they're being pulled onto the when
Speaker 1: they're sitting laughing and that they're basically dying.
Speaker 2: Fuck off, Holy heck, I'm sprays you even had any
Speaker 2: fucking friends.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that friend, actually I have a quote here
Speaker 1: from them as well. He didn't get the severity of
Speaker 1: what happened. He was very very intelligent, but common sense lacking.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so I guess that kind of makes sense.
Speaker 1: Then, yeah, it kind of kind of does, but it's
Speaker 1: common sense only goes so far. When you ditch your
Speaker 1: bride to be at a fucking altar, steal their money,
Speaker 1: and go on a vacation, that's not common sense.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I wasn't thinking about the wedding. What I
Speaker 2: was thinking about maybe this, like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe this isnt incident, but still like that. Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe it paints this incident, but it doesn't paint him
Speaker 1: fully in my opinion, that excuse only goes so far.
Speaker 1: Oh totally so. By two thousand and one, at the
Speaker 1: age of thirty seven, Bruce seemed to have finally settled down.
Speaker 1: He was living in Woodland Hills with his girlfriend, Elenacano Lacano.
Speaker 1: Names are hard Elena Lacano and the thirteen month year
Speaker 1: old son. There's my old son, thirteen month son. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: so he has his kid now, Yeah, he had a kid,
Speaker 1: thirteen month old son, Matthew. However, a week after New
Speaker 1: Year's Bruce was home alone with his son while it
Speaker 1: was out of the house. You ready for this?
Speaker 2: I don't know because you I am scared now with
Speaker 2: the look on your face.
Speaker 1: Bruce was chilling on the couch watching TV. Oh oh hang,
Speaker 1: no attention to his son, h oh, while little Michael
Speaker 1: ended up falling into a backyard swimming pool.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, no, no, no lived though? Did he drowned?
Speaker 1: When Alena returned home, she found Bruce screaming and holding
Speaker 1: and cradling their thirteen month son in panic. According to
Speaker 1: her attorney, Bruce maintained a vigil by the boy's hospital
Speaker 1: bed for a week, but when the doctors determined that
Speaker 1: Matthew would never fully recover, Bruce and Elena split up.
Speaker 1: He just pieced the fuck out. So Michael did survive, Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: now because of the accident, he was actually left with
Speaker 1: severe brain damage and is paraplegic.
Speaker 2: Seriously. Yeah, and that and Bruce just has nothing to
Speaker 2: do with that now.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Neither Elena or Matthew have ever seen Bruce. Wow never again.
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: Yeah, this guy. Now, I do want to say one
Speaker 1: thing I can understand, Like, he clearly felt bad on
Speaker 1: what happened. He was like fucking grieving, And I can
Speaker 1: understand someone like that, like a father having caused something
Speaker 1: like that to their own child. The guilt he would
Speaker 1: have fucking felt if he actually did feel it. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming he did by his reaction, so I can imagine
Speaker 1: that guilt like would have drove him to do things
Speaker 1: that's like we may not understand. However, he never fucking returned.
Speaker 1: He sure, you fucking run away from it, but you realize, shit,
Speaker 1: you gotta do something. You can't do that, you got
Speaker 1: to right you're wrong. He never righted.
Speaker 2: Him running away and never coming back almost just as bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I understand him panicking and being like, fuck,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can do this. I don't
Speaker 1: give a ship. You have to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well, because honestly, I mean, shit happens, like
Speaker 2: of course you didn't mean for that to be to happen,
Speaker 2: but then to just leave, like to piece the fuck out.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, wow, you got you gotta fucking buck up.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's devastating.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So now apparently, and I'm not sure in the source,
Speaker 1: but listening uh to the incredibly talented ladies over on Morbid,
Speaker 1: who also presented this case. They found a source where
Speaker 1: Lena and Matthew or said to actually be doing really well,
Speaker 1: and let's be honest, probably better without Bruce. I'm not
Speaker 1: too sure sure the source they had for that, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna trust them because they awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're good. They're good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, shout out to you too, I know they're awesome. Now,
Speaker 1: this is where Bruce and his mother actually begin to
Speaker 1: have a little bit of troubles. You see Bruce being
Speaker 1: Bruce literally just abandoning his fucking child, and his mother
Speaker 1: didn't agree with these actions in the slightest because, let's
Speaker 1: be honest, she's a fucking person and Bruce is clearly not.
Speaker 2: The She's a mother.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's like it's your own fucking kid, so.
Speaker 2: Well, and that would have been her grandkid and stuff, right,
Speaker 2: So that's all of a sudden, probably out of her
Speaker 2: life too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So you do literally know something's wrong when your
Speaker 1: own caring mother sides with your ex.
Speaker 2: Just saying you have to do a lot of shit
Speaker 2: for your mom to side.
Speaker 1: With your ex.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think, well, not not always, but generally generally.
Speaker 1: Generally speaking. So now in two thousand and four, Bruce
Speaker 1: would meet a woman by the name of Sylvia Ortes Ortes.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I misspelled her name. No, No, I didn't, Sorry,
Speaker 1: Orza Orza. Yeah. I was like, there's a tea in there,
Speaker 1: Sylvia or up. Yeah. They were introduced by her brother
Speaker 1: in law, who was one of Bruce's coworkers. Sylvia was
Speaker 1: forty years old and had three children from two previous marriages.
Speaker 1: She was just what Bruce needed, a down to earth
Speaker 1: woman with a large family, someone who could bring him
Speaker 1: back to earth and help settle him down, because she's
Speaker 1: kind of the woman who's like, ain't gonna take no
Speaker 1: shit sort of thing. Right, Oh nice, she's a mom.
Speaker 1: She can't afford to, like, you know, run around and
Speaker 1: be childish at him. Yeah, it's like either you're gonna
Speaker 1: fucking be You're gonna man up, or you're not sort
Speaker 1: of thing. So it's exactly what he needed. So this
Speaker 1: brings us to now when they got married in January
Speaker 1: twenty ninth of two thousand and six, and.
Speaker 2: He didn't leave her at the fucking altar.
Speaker 1: He didn't leave her at the altar.
Speaker 2: He grew up a little bit.
Speaker 1: I guess he did a little bit, They bought their
Speaker 1: half million dollar home that we talked about, they started
Speaker 1: their life together, and of course, as we did say
Speaker 1: though already, divorce was imminent.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So they ended up separating on March seven, two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, after Sylvia found out about his son,
Speaker 1: who he had left behind and never contacted again. Michael,
Speaker 1: really he hit it all from her, and she managed
Speaker 1: to find out.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, that's quite the thing to hide. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: then obviously she did not approve either, no of this
Speaker 2: whole situation.
Speaker 1: No, clearly that was enough for Sylvia to realize what
Speaker 1: a huge piece of shit he is.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, holy shit.
Speaker 1: Good for her, I like her, right, and she wanted
Speaker 1: the fuck out. Yeah, understandable. Good job Sylvia of recognizing
Speaker 1: that shit, not taking no shit and piece in the
Speaker 1: fuck out. However, though she was in a bit of
Speaker 1: a situation, she asked if she could stay at the
Speaker 1: home with Bruce while while her sorry daughter finished up
Speaker 1: the last few months of kindergarten. You know, rather than
Speaker 1: yanking your kid out of school making it rough on.
Speaker 2: Her, She's being a good parent, right. Wow.
Speaker 1: All they had to do was tolerate each other for
Speaker 1: a couple of months like adults, and she would move
Speaker 1: on hard though, I'm not going to lie. It would
Speaker 1: be especially for Bruce because Bruce being well Bruce, Bruce.
Speaker 1: Sylvia was at a niece's birthday party and while she
Speaker 1: was there, he threw all her ship out in the driveway.
Speaker 2: For right, Why why doesn't he get the fuck out? Like,
Speaker 2: why does she have to get out?
Speaker 1: It's mostly his house?
Speaker 2: Well, he's a piece of ship.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's not that it's mostly his house. I
Speaker 1: shouldn't say that because it it takes two to tango.
Speaker 1: They're both in a relationship and we kind of touch
Speaker 1: on that. But he kicked her out, and I would
Speaker 1: say probably because he feels like it's him his home
Speaker 1: because he's the bread winner.
Speaker 2: Well, just the fact that he's a piece of shit
Speaker 2: means that he should not have the house and she
Speaker 2: should get it. Yeah, I'm done with him.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, she quickly filed for divorce after that, and
Speaker 1: she moved in with her sister.
Speaker 2: This guy, oh, this guy, Hugh. I'm disgusted. I need
Speaker 2: more to chop.
Speaker 1: Take a sip, I don't have any left.
Speaker 2: I drink it all and I.
Speaker 1: Still got something stressing me.
Speaker 2: Out.
Speaker 1: It's more like cold chocolate now, though still good. So
Speaker 1: during the divorce, Bruce was apparently hoping to reconcile, but
Speaker 1: Sylvia wasn't having it.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sorry, maybe you should have thought about that
Speaker 2: before you threw all her stuff on the driveway.
Speaker 1: Right, what the I mean?
Speaker 2: Honestly, that kind of stuff has consequences.
Speaker 1: If you were hoping to reconcile, maybe those couple months
Speaker 1: when she was staying there would have been a good time.
Speaker 2: Oh, it would probably would have been perfect time, actually, right,
Speaker 2: and they probably could have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't even really know what to
Speaker 1: say to that. I mean, it's just yeah, seriously, Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was a grown ass woman though she's badass. Bit
Speaker 1: she wasn't having a child as bullshit. Let's put it
Speaker 1: this this way. She wasn't going back, but too late.
Speaker 1: Now you could have stopped at Bruce, you could have
Speaker 1: maybe have had your reconciliation, but not now. So all
Speaker 1: in all, Bruce was now working at a raidar system
Speaker 1: company as a defense contractor, making one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars a year. Yeah, while Sylvia was making
Speaker 1: approximately thirty one thousand dollars a year. As an administrative assistant.
Speaker 2: Oh, sorry, Bruce is making the more money. Yes, oh,
Speaker 2: I thought that was Sylvia.
Speaker 1: Oh so that's probably more so why he felt like
Speaker 1: it was his home, because he's that breadwinner. He was
Speaker 1: bringing home a significant amount more than her.
Speaker 2: Like I say, it's fifty does matter when you're married.
Speaker 1: Right, it's fifty to fifty. But I'm sure he felt
Speaker 1: entitled like that, well.
Speaker 2: Just clearly, yeah, the way he was.
Speaker 1: So with that discrepancy between their earnings though, and they
Speaker 1: were fifty to fifty in a marriage. On June eighteenth
Speaker 1: of two thousand and eight, it was ordered that Bruce
Speaker 1: would pay Sylvia approximately seventeen hundred dollars a month for
Speaker 1: spousal support. His first check bounced and he just stopped
Speaker 1: paying after that.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Of course that doesn't even fucking surprise me. Right,
Speaker 2: I'm surprised he even fucking wrote a check to begin with,
Speaker 2: even though knowing was going.
Speaker 1: To bounce, right, But it did bounce. And I mean
Speaker 1: that's that We see that so much in cases like
Speaker 1: this where people actually have to support someone else, be
Speaker 1: a child support, spousal support. How often do people actually
Speaker 1: receive that support? And there are cases where it is
Speaker 1: unfair that the individual has to pay that much or
Speaker 1: pay that they shouldn't be paying to begin with. But
Speaker 1: then there are many cases where it's like, yeah, they
Speaker 1: do deserve to be paid that there. Yeah, But either way,
Speaker 1: it's like there's rarely any money being transactioned. It seems like, well, if.
Speaker 2: He's making that much money too, I mean.
Speaker 1: He should be able to.
Speaker 2: Yeah like that, that shouldn't be doable.
Speaker 1: It should be Yeah, if you're making one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty two K a year and you can't afford to
Speaker 1: do any support like that, you're fucking up somewhere. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he's probably just spending his money on stupid sheds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, most likely. So the next few months we had
Speaker 1: the two had very little contact. They were divorced. Life
Speaker 1: had moved on, or at least Sylvia's did. It was
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, December twenty fourth, two thousand and eight, the
Speaker 1: Ortega family invited all five of their children and their
Speaker 1: kids to their home in Caravina, California, a quiet community
Speaker 1: about twenty two miles east of Los Angeles. The Ortegas,
Speaker 1: Joseph and Alice loved Christmas and it was their favorite
Speaker 1: time of year to spend with their family. They had
Speaker 1: five children who all grew up and started families of
Speaker 1: their own, James and Charles, their eldest sons, and their daughters, Latissa, Alisa,
Speaker 1: and Sylvia. Okay, that Christmas Eve, the family gathered together
Speaker 1: in their house and they even played fun games and
Speaker 1: even playing poker the adults while their children ran around
Speaker 1: enjoying some magical atmosphere of Christmas and the anticipation Santa
Speaker 1: Claus re making his rounds to each of them.
Speaker 2: Right, sounds so lovely.
Speaker 1: But in the middle of the holiday celebration, the doorbell rang.
Speaker 2: Don't answer the fucking door.
Speaker 1: You know what's coming? I do you do?
Speaker 2: It's so sad.
Speaker 1: Buckle your seatbelts, ladies, gentlemen, because here is where shit goes.
Speaker 1: You ready for it?
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: It was eleven thirty pm Pacific standard time, and everyone
Speaker 1: in the house was looking towards the door in confusion,
Speaker 1: wondering who it could be. Well, yeah, that's late right then,
Speaker 1: little eight year old Katrina saw Santa Claus through the window,
Speaker 1: standing in the front door holding a big present, excited
Speaker 1: with the prospect that like Sanna is showing up on
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, present in hand, she jumped for joy and
Speaker 1: raced to the door to let him in. Oh no,
Speaker 1: She opened the door and looked up at the man
Speaker 1: with a white long beard cloaked in red velvet. It Now,
Speaker 1: some of the adults there at the house reported that
Speaker 1: Santa actually even picked up Katrina and embraced her in
Speaker 1: a big hug before he set her down. Whether that's
Speaker 1: true or not, because there's some discrepancies in that, but
Speaker 1: that is a report, okay, whether that's true or not.
Speaker 1: After that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out
Speaker 1: a nine millimeter handgun and shot her point blank in
Speaker 1: the face.
Speaker 2: What yep, the little eight year old girl, a little
Speaker 2: eight year old girl? Did that kill her?
Speaker 1: Well, we'll touch on that.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I'll let you hang on to it.
Speaker 2: That okay, Like, do you think this man is Santa?
Speaker 2: It's Christmasy?
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, imagine being eight years old, oh Santa, Oh.
Speaker 2: You would just be like the most happiest thing in
Speaker 2: the whole wide world. Right, And then they pull out
Speaker 2: a gun and we're gon shoot you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah, okay, I won't let you hang on
Speaker 1: it too long. Katrina does live, but we'll touch on
Speaker 1: on her in a bit. I could just see the
Speaker 1: pain in your eyes.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's there, It's really there.
Speaker 1: So after shooting Katrina in the fucking face, Santa stepped
Speaker 1: inside the house and began firing shots indiscriminately at anyone
Speaker 1: that he saw. Amongst all the chaos and bullets, a
Speaker 1: voice was heard, and the voice shouted and said it's Bruce.
Speaker 1: Everyone was ducking for cover and running from bullets whizzing
Speaker 1: past them. The adults actually ended up occupying before Bruce
Speaker 1: entered the closest part of the house to the front door,
Speaker 1: while most of the children were located in the back,
Speaker 1: with the exception of seventeen year old Michael Andre Ortiz,
Speaker 1: who was upstairs playing video games. Now, this made the
Speaker 1: adults a shield for many of the kids, who thankfully
Speaker 1: did manage to escape, but most of the adults, being
Speaker 1: that said shield, weren't so lucky. Bruce shot them point
Speaker 1: blank as a rush as they rushed to stop him. Sorry,
Speaker 1: many of them even coming forward trying to get him
Speaker 1: after being shot multiple times, and they kept coming forward
Speaker 1: as they bled out on the floor. Oly, right, Oh.
Speaker 2: That's it's incredible. Actually, hey, what people can do.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's in fucking sane.
Speaker 2: And well the end, they're literally doing that because they're
Speaker 2: like they're protecting their kids, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're protecting the their family around them, the adults,
Speaker 1: their brothers or sisters, their mom, the dad, and the kids,
Speaker 1: their nieces, their nephews, their daughters, their sons in the
Speaker 1: back room. Yeah, so they are doing whatever it takes
Speaker 1: to try and stop Bruce bullets in their chest and
Speaker 1: they are still coming forward.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. I always like find it's so interesting
Speaker 2: because you feel like there's a crowd or a group
Speaker 2: or whatever that you think that you'd be able to
Speaker 2: take down like one single gunman gunman, but like you're
Speaker 2: startled and you're not ready, and it's just like this
Speaker 2: environment that's I just I couldn't even imagine. I always
Speaker 2: feel like they should be able to take him down,
Speaker 2: but you just you can't.
Speaker 1: It's seems like they say, your best hope in a
Speaker 1: situation like that is to rush the gunman because they
Speaker 1: can't shoot you in close range, especially if there's multiple
Speaker 1: people on top and you can disarm them. But like
Speaker 1: you say, you're caught off guard. Yeah, they had bullets.
Speaker 2: They've probably had some drinks and just having a good
Speaker 2: old time.
Speaker 1: And probably sitting down stumbling over furniture while he's just
Speaker 1: sitting there unloading on you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, boom boom boom boom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you don't really stand much of a chance.
Speaker 1: So others did hide and duck for cover, but Bruce
Speaker 1: would walk up to them and put a bullet in
Speaker 1: their head execution style as they desperately tried to save
Speaker 1: their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I said, indiscriminately, he just killed them. It was
Speaker 1: literally a.
Speaker 2: Massacre and just no shit skipping.
Speaker 1: Not a single fuck given that day, not a single one,
Speaker 1: not by Bruce anyways.
Speaker 2: Wow. And why because he got a divorce pretty much,
Speaker 2: but we'll touch on that too.
Speaker 1: After unloading multiple rounds into the house, Bruce then turned
Speaker 1: to the large present that he carried with him into
Speaker 1: the home and began to unwrap it. Do you have
Speaker 1: any predictions?
Speaker 2: I don't know, Kiwi just came down the stairs and
Speaker 2: wants the fuck to know. Well, Kiwi, I have a
Speaker 2: small well I think I know, so I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: say well.
Speaker 1: Inside was an eighteen gallon compressor that he had modified
Speaker 1: into a homemade flamethrower. He would use this device and
Speaker 1: he would begin shooting gas and flames all over the
Speaker 1: inside of the house, setting everything on fire before he
Speaker 1: fled the scene.
Speaker 2: Wow, that is fucking next level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fucking disgusting, Like holy.
Speaker 2: See, actually think that he's gonna get away with this
Speaker 2: or he doesn't give a shit? Maybe I we touch
Speaker 2: on that too, Okay, sorry, I'm just it's all good.
Speaker 1: He he fully intended on trying to get away with it.
Speaker 2: Oh, good luck, Bud.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, in total, nine people died from either gunfire
Speaker 1: or flames, and three others were wounded. Katrina, the eight
Speaker 1: year old little girl, was shot in the face. She
Speaker 1: stumbled outside of the house as Bruce made his way
Speaker 1: in and continued to massacre. So she was shot with
Speaker 1: severe but non life's threatening injuries. Thankfully, she happened to
Speaker 1: turn her head and it's thought that she was turning
Speaker 1: back to be like Sata is here into the house.
Speaker 2: Right, that's so pure and innocent.
Speaker 1: Right, So she had slightly turned her head just at
Speaker 1: the right moment when she was shot, and she was
Speaker 1: shot through the jaw, which saved her life.
Speaker 2: Saved her life.
Speaker 1: Wow, There was also a sixteen year old girl who
Speaker 1: was shot and wounded in the back, but she managed
Speaker 1: to survive, and a twenty year old woman who suffered
Speaker 1: a broken ankle who jumped out of the second floor
Speaker 1: window home to escape.
Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, I'd rather a freaking broken angle than shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding. The seventeen year old boy who I mentioned,
Speaker 1: who was upstairs playing video games didn't get shot, but
Speaker 1: he did die in the fire because that fire raged
Speaker 1: out of control. Oh my gosh, that fire soared approximately
Speaker 1: forty to fifty feet in the air and took eighty
Speaker 1: firefighters an hour and a half to extinguish the flames.
Speaker 1: Due to the intensity of the fire, wow. And also
Speaker 1: due to that intensity of the fire, they had to
Speaker 1: identify victims with dental and medical records, which is fucking brutal.
Speaker 1: You know, when you have to use fucking dental and
Speaker 1: medical records, it's fucking bad.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, and let alone, like how brutal of a
Speaker 2: scene that is for all those people too now that
Speaker 2: are involved, right, that aren't like first responders, just traumatizing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then fucking Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2: So how many people survive? Like did the kids survive?
Speaker 1: Are you getting to that any other kids survived. I
Speaker 1: don't have a list of survivors, but I do have
Speaker 1: a list of victims. And there was approximately twenty two
Speaker 1: to twenty five people in the house.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, so there was eight people sorry that died,
Speaker 2: nine died, nine died.
Speaker 1: Nine died, and three were Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, So like I mean, not that there's any light
Speaker 2: at the end of the tunnel. I mean there's a
Speaker 2: little bit. But that's good that at least half of
Speaker 2: them seem like survived. But it's most a kid. So
Speaker 2: that's kind of scary.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So because what does that mean.
Speaker 1: Well, you basically have orphans. Now, that's what that means.
Speaker 1: Being orphaned by Santa on Christmas?
Speaker 2: Fucking wow, how do you go on to live your life?
Speaker 1: Imagine the rest of your Christmas is?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it's traumatized. Yeah, there's no way you'd
Speaker 2: want to even celebrate. Probably probably not.
Speaker 1: And even if you say you don't celebrate, say that
Speaker 1: that's okay. You decide not to celebrate, how many people
Speaker 1: around you are fucking celebrating Christmas parties at work? Yeah,
Speaker 1: just going to get groceries.
Speaker 2: The whole month of December really you're like triggered. Probably, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that is.
Speaker 1: A whole fucked up like I can only imagine the
Speaker 1: issues you'd have to deal with for the rest of
Speaker 1: your life.
Speaker 2: That's some of the parents survived, then, yes, I believe some,
Speaker 2: So hopefully they just took all the children, right is
Speaker 2: kind of the whole.
Speaker 1: I'm not too sure how that worked out in the end.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, wow, so are.
Speaker 1: You ready to move on?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: Well, all these horrendous acts aside, The silver lining is
Speaker 1: they did know who had done this. It was Bruce.
Speaker 1: They didn't know why he would act and attack his
Speaker 1: ex wife's family like this during a Christmas party, nonetheless
Speaker 1: murdering those who called him like brother, uncle, whatever.
Speaker 2: Fucking crazy that's why he did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much, that's that's it. They don't know why,
Speaker 1: but he did, fucking looney apparently. So police quickly set
Speaker 1: out to find Bruce, and from a tip from a neighbor,
Speaker 1: they knew what he was driving, which was good, good,
Speaker 1: So they sent out for that vehicle right away.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, imagine being the neighbor of this shit too.
Speaker 1: Right, which I should note and I didn't actually put
Speaker 1: this in here, but I should say it I believe
Speaker 1: it was the twenty year old girl who broke her
Speaker 1: ankle actually made it to a neighbor's house to call
Speaker 1: nine one one.
Speaker 2: Wow with a open an ankle.
Speaker 1: That's impressive, right, Uh now, where am I here? Okay? Yes?
Speaker 1: So they quickly was set out for the car right However,
Speaker 1: the investigation was like just beginning, but it didn't last
Speaker 1: very long because Bruce's brother, Brad Parda, was returning home
Speaker 1: from a Christmas party and called the police because he
Speaker 1: found his brother Bruce on the couch of his home
Speaker 1: in a pool of.
Speaker 2: Blood dead what okay, I didn't know that part yep,
Speaker 2: So he killed himself.
Speaker 1: Then, once police arrived on the scene, they found Bruce
Speaker 1: in civilian clothes and a single gun shop from a
Speaker 1: nine millimeter handgun in his head. There was a nine
Speaker 1: milimeter gun in his lap, and there was a second
Speaker 1: nine millimeter on the floor. Police also found another bullet
Speaker 1: hole in the ceiling.
Speaker 2: I don't know how I feel about that? No, why well,
Speaker 2: because what a fucking asshole, right like you did this
Speaker 2: just horrific act and then you just go and take
Speaker 2: your own life and right don't even have to pay
Speaker 2: the consequences.
Speaker 1: Really, I know, like, fuck him.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Wow, there's a little bit on that. We'll touch on
Speaker 1: it here in a minute. So comparisons from the bullets
Speaker 1: of Bruce's gun tested in forensic lab would confirm that
Speaker 1: he was the one who fired the shots at the
Speaker 1: Rtega home and on himself.
Speaker 2: No shit.
Speaker 1: They actually at first thought there might have been a
Speaker 1: second gunman, oh really in the scene where Bruce was
Speaker 1: or had committed suicide, but forensics confirmed that it was
Speaker 1: self inflicted. Okay, so they ruled out a second gunman.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Bruce was also found to have several third degree burns
Speaker 1: on his body, like severe third degree burns, along with
Speaker 1: melted poly esther fabric embedded in his skin.
Speaker 2: I almost wonder if he didn't realize how fucked up
Speaker 2: he would have gotten from that, then eh, welles he
Speaker 2: would have been in some serious pain then.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like while shooting flames all over the Ortego home,
Speaker 1: he managed to get severely burnt like himself and melting
Speaker 1: the cheap velvet suit into his own skin.
Speaker 2: So I wonder if he didn't even realize that.
Speaker 1: You know, no, something got out of hand, whether he
Speaker 1: got too close to fire, whether fire he sprayed himself
Speaker 1: with gas and it caught up or just the intense
Speaker 1: heat inside like combusted his clothes something. It got out
Speaker 1: of hand to the point where he fucking hurt himself
Speaker 1: where clearly he didn't mean to.
Speaker 2: Well, certain fabrics two don't do good under that, right,
Speaker 2: he needs to probably warm, like a firefighter suit or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this this was just a cheap Santa suit.
Speaker 1: So now he also had seventeen thousand dollars in cash
Speaker 1: cling wrapped around his legs.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, because he was flying to flee.
Speaker 1: Probably Now, investigators turned to search Bruce's car for more
Speaker 1: evidence and clues and what the fuck was going on? Yeah,
Speaker 1: his car was he was driving a rental at the time.
Speaker 1: He wasn't driving his own car, so it was a
Speaker 1: rental car that he rented, and it was parked one
Speaker 1: block from his brother's house. Inside, investigators found the remaining
Speaker 1: remnants of a Santa suit. And that Santa suit he
Speaker 1: actually got custom made, event they realized eventually, oh wow,
Speaker 1: to make sure he had room for all the fucking
Speaker 1: artillery he was packing in with him, the guns that
Speaker 1: he had.
Speaker 2: Oh so this was totally premeditated.
Speaker 1: Oh fuck, Yeah, and the car was actually rigged to
Speaker 1: explode with black powder if that Santa suit was removed
Speaker 1: from the vehicle.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, like because if someone came across it or
Speaker 2: whatever in evidence or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if if someone were to remove that Santa suit,
Speaker 1: it was rigged to blow. Wow.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, because of this, there is some questioning around whether
Speaker 1: or not Bruce always intended to kill himself or if
Speaker 1: it was a last minute decision when things didn't go
Speaker 1: as planned.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's last minute.
Speaker 1: Because if he's gonna rig up the car to blow,
Speaker 1: that seems like he's trying to hide evidence, right, Yeah, totally,
Speaker 1: So why would he just kill himself if he's like
Speaker 1: why why is he trying to hide evidence if he's
Speaker 1: just offing himself anyways, So yeah, there's there's a few
Speaker 1: discrepancies about it, and there's a few different like.
Speaker 2: Well, regardless, I'm surprised that he didn't just blow up
Speaker 2: the car. Really, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's true. Well regardless, it's it was clear
Speaker 1: that once he parked the car, h he clearly changed
Speaker 1: out of the suit, intending to blend in a little
Speaker 1: bit more be inconspicuous. Who's no longer in the suit.
Speaker 1: He was in civilian cloth. And they also recovered four
Speaker 1: thirteen round capacity nine millimeter handguns that were empty. So
Speaker 1: I just want to repeat that, four thirteen round capacity
Speaker 1: nine millimeter handguns that were empty empty. Okay, so that
Speaker 1: is a total of what is it thirteen rounds? What's
Speaker 1: thirteen times for? I didn't do the math. You're looking
Speaker 1: at over fifty bullets?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like fifty I don't know. I don't want to say,
Speaker 2: because what I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: I think it's fifty two.
Speaker 2: It's twenty six times too, Does that help? Fifty two?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I said. Fifty two.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, you are quicker than me.
Speaker 1: So he most likely emptied fifty two bullets into that
Speaker 1: family's home.
Speaker 2: That is so many. Yeah, holy frig and they were
Speaker 2: I can't even like just sorry, just like hearing that
Speaker 2: go off, right, yeah, like being a neighbor or whatever
Speaker 2: and just hearing that many gunshots like just terrifying.
Speaker 1: But this way, if you're firing one bullet a second,
Speaker 1: that's bullets going off for a minute.
Speaker 2: Straight like that would just be terrifying.
Speaker 1: Right. It's actually very surprising that like no one got
Speaker 1: hurt in nearby houses.
Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: There was at least two hundred rounds of ammunition found
Speaker 1: with all the evidence they needed and collected, and investigators
Speaker 1: actually treated the car as a bomb threat because the
Speaker 1: way it was rigged. So police fired an incendiary round
Speaker 1: or device into the vehicle and destroyed the vehicle.
Speaker 2: That's fair, yeah, yeah, And no one else needs to
Speaker 2: get injured.
Speaker 1: From this exactly now. Inside Bruce's home in Montrose, California,
Speaker 1: police had recovered five empty boxes of semiotic handgun semi
Speaker 1: semi automatic I can't talk tonight handguns, a tactical shotgun,
Speaker 1: and a container for high octane fuel tank gasoline. Wonder
Speaker 1: what to use that for. They also found what would
Speaker 1: be described as quote unquote a virtual bomb factory in
Speaker 1: his home.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Whatever that specifically means, I don't know, but that is
Speaker 1: a direct quote.
Speaker 2: So so he took this shit to the next level.
Speaker 1: Hey, yes, he fucking did. He was planning on this,
Speaker 1: He knew what he was fucking doing. There's major premeditation.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: Investigators also found that Bruce had purchased a plane ticket
Speaker 1: to fly to Mexico. It didn't seem like he planned
Speaker 1: on killing himself with all the evidence on hand. First off,
Speaker 1: Bruce's getaway car was parked about five hundred feet from
Speaker 1: also Scott Nord's house, who was Sylvia's divorce attorney. Police
Speaker 1: believed Bruce might have actually planned on also murdering Scott,
Speaker 1: who resided over the proceedings of their divorce, who he
Speaker 1: clearly did not like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's absolutely no reason.
Speaker 1: That's like, there was no reason to murder the r
Speaker 1: TA family. But yeah, good lord, well they they they
Speaker 1: think that was his plan afterwards. Okay, they think he
Speaker 1: was going to kill the attorney and flee the country
Speaker 1: with the seventeen thousand dollars cash he had strapped to
Speaker 1: his leg, go to Mexico, getting away, starting a new
Speaker 1: life before anyone ever catches on to who he was,
Speaker 1: or at least while they were scrambling to try. However,
Speaker 1: in the inferno of the home and his makeshift flamethrower,
Speaker 1: he fucking burned himself so bad that he needed medical attention.
Speaker 1: Stat Maybe he could survive the burns. Maybe, but the
Speaker 1: family even shouted his name. They knew who he was.
Speaker 1: Bruce knew that.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, it's pretty it's probably pretty obvious to them.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, so he's identified and he's severely injured.
Speaker 1: Could he get away fast enough? Being that injured? Is
Speaker 1: a hospital waiting for a man with third degree burns
Speaker 1: to come in right fucking now? To Bruce, the only
Speaker 1: way way out may have just been to end his life.
Speaker 1: He may have had a plan to escape, but in
Speaker 1: his condition.
Speaker 2: To himself and he got way too injured.
Speaker 1: Yep. Now as for why, well, they believe his divorce
Speaker 1: took a toll on him more than many knew. He
Speaker 1: couldn't take it. His life was ruined. He even ended
Speaker 1: up getting fired and losing his job prior to all this,
Speaker 1: So no money, no way of paying what he owed.
Speaker 1: Bruce was required to pay Sylvia as part of the settlement,
Speaker 1: and according to court documents, Sylvia actually kept the wedding
Speaker 1: ring like I mentioned earlier, the family dog. In court declarations,
Speaker 1: Bruce complained that Sylvia was actually living with her parents,
Speaker 1: not paying rent, and had spent money lavishly on luxury cars,
Speaker 1: gambling trips to Vegas, meals that find restaurants, massages, and
Speaker 1: even golf lessons. So he clearly had resentment over him
Speaker 1: how she was spending the money that he was having
Speaker 1: to pay her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but wasn't he not even paying her? Was or
Speaker 2: was this that was a different one that you'd said,
Speaker 2: where like the check bounced right?
Speaker 1: No, this this was her.
Speaker 2: So he wasn't even really giving her the money.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: But yet he's still bussed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but she's living like this and he has to
Speaker 1: pay her. So she's living good. Why does he have
Speaker 1: to pay her? That's what he's thinking in his eyes, right.
Speaker 2: Oh so yeah, that so justifies what he did.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so dump It didn't matter though he lost
Speaker 1: His wife left him, mostly for abandoning his son to
Speaker 1: start with. At least, whatever it all was, it was
Speaker 1: too much, and he hated everyone in that house for
Speaker 1: having part in what drove him to this place, even
Speaker 1: his own fucking mother, who was actually invited to the
Speaker 1: Ortega home that night. What she was invited to the
Speaker 1: Christmas party because she was actually fairly close with Sylvia. Still,
Speaker 1: Bruce wasn't invited.
Speaker 2: And so that pissed him off her. The mom didn't
Speaker 2: go th or and die right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she didn't go. Actually, she actually ended up not
Speaker 1: feeling good that night and she didn't go. So little
Speaker 1: did she know, but that literally saved her.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, how you stalled there? I was like,
Speaker 2: did she go and he killed her?
Speaker 1: No, she didn't die, but he went there knowing she
Speaker 1: was invited.
Speaker 2: Wow. Right, but it doesn't seem like they had the
Speaker 2: best of relationships, probably anymore.
Speaker 1: Right, No, it doesn't seem so. But that's as far
Speaker 1: as I'm concerned, all to Bruce's own fault.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So well, and then I just have to say, sorry,
Speaker 2: Holy Frank for the fact that he like, like okay,
Speaker 2: because he goes to his brother's house and does that
Speaker 2: on his couch. Like now he's also ruined, ruining his
Speaker 2: brother's Christmas Eve completely, Like could you imagine like celebrating
Speaker 2: coming home to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So my theory on that is he was going
Speaker 1: to the attorney's place, parked there, and he's like I can't,
Speaker 1: like I'm too fucking hurt sort of thing, And so
Speaker 1: he went somewhere else close by, which was his brother's place,
Speaker 1: lived in the same neighborhood, maybe to try and patch
Speaker 1: himself up or something and realize was how bad he was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then said fuck it, Wow, he should.
Speaker 2: Have just gone back to his car and blown it up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding, but we wouldn't have gotten evidence that way,
Speaker 1: so I'm glad he didn't.
Speaker 2: That's true. That's true.
Speaker 1: So the people who lost their lives that night in
Speaker 1: Bruce's fucking tyranny are Sylvia, who is Bruce's ex wife.
Speaker 1: She died from gunshot wounds, Alicia Ortega gunshot wound to
Speaker 1: the abdomen, Joseph Ortega multiple gunshot wounds, Earls Ortega, Sherry Ortega,
Speaker 1: James Ortega, Teresa Ortega, Alisa Ortiz, Michael Ortes, who was
Speaker 1: the seventeen year old who died upstairs in the fire.
Speaker 1: Oh jeez. And in total, there are fourteen children who
Speaker 1: lost one or both of their parents at Christmas Eve
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2: That is just devastating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's sick and.
Speaker 2: For what really, Like that just doesn't make any.
Speaker 1: Sense because he was petty. That's why you also have he.
Speaker 2: Had to had some sort of mental like issues going on, right,
Speaker 2: because like, uh, you don't go and do that.
Speaker 1: The only speculation of mental issues that he had with
Speaker 1: mental health sorry mental.
Speaker 2: Health, Yeah, yeah, I started.
Speaker 1: That depression was the only thing that they know of.
Speaker 1: There is no predocumentation of anything. He wasn't diagnosed with anything.
Speaker 1: They believe it was depression caused by the divorce.
Speaker 2: Wow. Because yeah, I'm just thinking, like the terrible cases
Speaker 2: of depression, like you don't go and kill nine people
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: That depression is not an excuse to fucking massacre a family.
Speaker 2: A family just destroyed as family, like a whole extended family. Wow.
Speaker 2: And numerous other people too along the way.
Speaker 1: Really, So that is the Caffina massacre.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, holy shit. Yeah, that's a wild, wild one.
Speaker 1: Eh, Mary fucking Christmas Yeah, that holy shit brutal.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the one that we have like for Christmas
Speaker 2: Week is not quite as heavy. It's a little more jolly,
Speaker 2: would you say or not.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you guys will find out when
Speaker 1: we do it, but I wouldn't describe it as.
Speaker 2: It's not quite this bad though, right well, oh shit, okay.
Speaker 1: No, it's I wouldn't say it's as bad, but it's definitely.
Speaker 2: Not fucking because yeah, this is horrific. Like even We've
Speaker 2: covered a lot of murders and true crime cases and stuff,
Speaker 2: and this it's like one of the most horrific ones.
Speaker 1: This is one of the worst ones. It's not the
Speaker 1: worst one as far as I'm concerned, I think Junko
Speaker 1: for the yeah is still the worst.
Speaker 2: But then just the amount of people that were affected
Speaker 2: and stuff too right, and like wow, wow, did he
Speaker 2: have to seriously wear a Santa suit? Like fuck them?
Speaker 1: Yeah, fuck this dude. Wow, so that is the douche
Speaker 1: canoe Bruce? Fuck him? But uh, rest in peace to
Speaker 1: all those that yeah massacred, and we are sincerely sorry
Speaker 1: to the Ortega family for you had to go through
Speaker 1: that night. We can't imagine.
Speaker 2: I cannot imagine. I hope that they have just the
Speaker 2: slightest bit of peace.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and something I fully endorse this thought. Talking back,
Speaker 1: uh sorry, throwing back to the ladies over on Morbid.
Speaker 1: They said that they hope Bruce is burning, and so
Speaker 1: do I, but I like what they said. They hope
Speaker 1: that he is burning with a Santa suit melting on
Speaker 1: his skin and then getting another one put on, melting
Speaker 1: in over and over. You know what.
Speaker 2: Fuck yeah, yeah, fuck you deserve some real shit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank you for listening.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to check out all our social links down below,
Speaker 1: including Patreon and of course our merch We have.
Speaker 2: Merch now yeah Instagram, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, also down below on the podcast, So.
Speaker 2: There you go. Yeah, easy to find.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you guys have great holiday and we got more
Speaker 1: coming up for this holiday.
Speaker 2: We sure do, and until then, of course, stay wicked.