Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Flamethrower toting Santa goes on killing rampage on Christmas Eve

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

When Santa knocks on the door just minutes before midnight, an 8-year-old girl is thrilled, but Santa isn't bringing joy. He shoots the little girl in the face and goes on a killing rampage, murdering 9 members of one family. He's armed with guns and a homemade flamethrower. WHY?Joining Nancy Grace today: James Shelnutt - 27 years Atlanta Metro Major Case detective, SWAT Officer (RET) Attorney www.shelnuttlawfirm.com   Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, www.carynstark.com  Robbert Crispin - Private Investigator “Crispin Special Investigations”  www.crispinsinvestigations.com  Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida, www.pathcaremed.com  Ray Caputo - Lead News Anchor for Orlando's Morning News, 96.5 WDBO Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Maybe it's right, maybe it's wrong, but we tend to expect so much when we all gather together at Christmas and Hanukkah, the holidays where all families are united. How can one Christmas holiday go so wrong? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I know, I know. It's okay. The officers are there. They're trying to get to you guys, okay? He came in through the entrance of the door, and there's a Santa Claus suit on. I didn't see from when he shot. I heard the shot, but we were like,

and I wasn't sure what it was. So we all, everyone started panicking and running. So we all dove under the dining room. Some of us dove, some of us didn't. I don't know. My mom's house is on the... Ma'am, ma'am, the fire department's there, okay? What's he wearing? What is he wearing? Please.

What is he wearing? Please tell me. My nephew... What is he wearing now? He changed his clothes from Santa Claus clothes. Okay, let me know what he's wearing.

Black clothes. So, the guy that intruded was wearing a Santa suit? What does this mean? We have to turn on the burglar alarm and make sure all the doors and windows are locked when we gather around the Christmas tree? Take a listen to this. Hello, hello.

Hi. Who's coming in? Who? I'm in your house. Ma'am, is the guy in your house right now? We're having two houses down on the Cooper State. Okay, okay. Ma'am, ma'am, Hold on. Hold on. Is he at

your house? No, he's not. What do you think his name is? Okay. And who is he to you guys? Who is he to you? He's my ex-brother-in-law in a Santa suit wreaking havoc? And why, when the woman is clearly beside herself, is the 911 dispatch saying, well, what is he to you? They need to let the victim know there is help on the way. I didn't hear that. Let me introduce to you an all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again with me. 27 years, Metro major case and SWAT now lawyer, James Shelnut at ShelnutLawFirm.com. Renowned New York psychologist joining us from Manhattan, Karen Stark at karenstark.com.

Robert Crispin, former Fort Lauderdale police, now private investigator at crispininvestigations.com. Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, now the start of a brand new program, Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime Network, Joseph Scott Morgan, death investigator. But first, to Ray Caputo, lead news anchor at Orlando News WDBO, to all of you, thank you for being with us. First of all, when we're hearing that 911 call, what day of the year was it, Ray Caputo? Nancy, it was minutes before Christmas Day, just minutes. The call came in around 1150 on Christmas Eve. And you can just imagine

what people are doing around that time, you know, getting ready to bring in the holiday. And, you know, it's the farthest thing from anybody's mind, a horror like this that could take place, you know, on Christmas Eve, just minutes before Christmas Day. You know, Jackie, I want to hear that sound that you just played one more time. The 911 call. We learn a lot in this. Listen. Hello, hello. Hi.

Who's calling me? Who? I'm in your house. Ma'am, is the guy in your house right now? We're having two houses down on the Cookee. Okay, okay. Ma'am, ma'am, hold on. Hold on. Is he at your house? No, he's just shooting. What do you think his name is?

His name is Bruce Pardone. Okay, and who is he to you guys? Who is he to you? Who is he? He was in my ex-brother-in-law's house. They're going through a display now. Okay. Hold on one second, okay? A Christmas Eve party turned crime scene. Take a listen to Terry Okita at CBS.

A Christmas Eve party became a crime scene. The bodies inside so badly burned that police were unsure if the victims died in the shooting rampage or the subsequent fire. Extremely unusual and very shocking. It's just not something we see here at any time of the year, especially during Christmas. Police say 45-year-old Bruce Pardo was having marital problems. He walked into the party dressed as Santa just before midnight, then immediately took aim with a handgun at his estranged wife, her mother, father, sisters, brother, and sister-in-law. One family member reportedly escaped by jumping out a bathroom window. The home is in Covina,

a suburb about 25 miles east of Los Angeles. Police say Pardo then allegedly used some sort of explosive device to set the house on fire. So based on what we're hearing right there, there is no doubt that this was premeditated because he, according to what we just heard, if that is to be believed, goes to the home of a Christmas Eve gathering of his ex-family members, the ex-in-laws, and open fire. So he goes in with explosives and a gun. To Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, WDBO Orlando, whose home was it? Nancy, this was the home of Bruce Pardo's ex-wife's parents,

but his ex-wife was also staying in the home, and then all of her family was there. There was 25 people in the home, and they of her family was there. There was 25 people in the home and they were pretty much all related to his ex-wife, the parents, the brothers, the sisters, nieces, nephews. There was 25 people in that house. You know, I'm picking up on something I just heard. It said a 45-year-old white male with marital problems, But everyone is referring to the victims as family of his ex. So it sounds to me like the divorce is a done deal.

Was the divorce over, Ray Caputo? It was over, Nancy, literally a week before all this happened. So he's not still having marital problems. He's angry. He's angry. I mean, you know, to you, James Shelnut, 27 years, Metro Major case, SWAT, now lawyer. How many times do we see violence break out over a domestic issue? But their divorce was done. They weren't in the middle of a heated custody dispute or fighting over money.

It was over. Yeah, you know, it's never ending. You know, looking back at investigating homicides over the years, you know, divorce, marital, domestic issues, you know, that is one of the top motives for murder. Never justified, but it often can be linked back to those things, especially when you have a husband or wife that comes up missing or dead. But this is seismic. I mean, he's not just stalking her and watching her when she goes to the grocery

store. He comes in, if these reports are to believe, and unleashes pure H-E-double-L on her whole family for minutes till Christmas. This is Christmas Eve in a suburban area in Covina, California. Take a listen to Bill Whitaker at CBS.

When police and fire crews arrived just before midnight, the house on the quiet cul-de-sac was engulfed in flames. Police responding to frantic 911 calls found people running for their lives and heard descriptions of the nightmare inside. They were told that a person had come to the house dressed in a Santa Claus outfit and upon entering the house had opened fire on the persons attending a Christmas Eve celebration. On first look inspectors reported finding three charred corpses. In daylight three more bodies were found. Three people are still unaccounted for. Our officers were on the scene within three minutes and as you can imagine they were met with just a scene that was indescribable. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

We are talking about a Christmas Eve celebration that turns deadly. Multiple dead bodies. And how is it that a guy dressed as Santa gets in the home, but when the police, he's got a gun, but when police get there, the bodies are charred. How did that happen? It's my understanding that he actually had a flamethrower. Now, I don't know if any of you are familiar with flamethrowers. You know, growing up as a little girl, I never thought I would be in a business where I'd be intimately familiar with flamethrowers, but here I am, and yes, I am familiar with them. If you haven't seen Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, flamethrowers take a very big role in Tarantino's movie.

Let me go back to you, Shelnut, because you have experience with flamethrowers. Explain what they are. Well, whenever you have a flammable liquid or substance and you put it up against a fire, it's going to explode or catch fire. We all know that. But with a flamethrower, there's another element with a flamethrower. You mix compressed gas with the combustible liquid or the combustible powder, and the compressed gas shoots the flammable liquid or powder through a tube, and it can shoot it 15, 30, 45, sometimes 60, 75 feet. And that makes it extremely deadly. And then when the flame, when the combustible substance hits, whatever's at the end of that path, it continues to burn.

To you, Justice Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, and death investigator, you know, a flamethrower, while it looked really cool and once upon a time in Hollywood, is almost unparalleled in the destruction it causes. Why? Yeah, it is. And like James was mentioning just a moment ago, once once that flame hits the targeted area, it's almost like it's not quite, but it's similar to the effect that like napalm had in Vietnam, where you have this gelatinous flaming mass that adheres. This is pumping out this compressed flame at such a rate that the body literally ignites, and certainly the clothing will, on the individual and begin to burn. The body,

essentially, Nancy, now hold on to your hat, becomes a fuel source for this flame. And the person begins to burn. That's why we use them extensively, extensively. In World War II, we would hook them up to our tanks. Guys carried them on their backs. And that was to eradicate pillboxes where enemy soldiers were hunkered down in there. And you could blast them out of there. People are terrified of fire, Nancy.

Yeah, I guess so. And how far did you say the flames would go, Shelnut? You know, it depends on the gas that's being used and the pressure in it. You know, if it's something like a basic fire extinguisher that you're using to propel this propeller now, that can be 25 to 30 feet. If you have a large gas cylinder with compressed gas, it can go as far as 100 feet. And unlike using a weapon, say a handgun or even a long gun, you don't have to have perfect aim because when you pull the trigger on a flamethrower, the flame is continuous.

It doesn't shoot one bullet. It's a continuous spray if you want it to be. A homemade flamethrower? Is that what we're talking about, Ray Caputo? Was it a homemade flamethrower? Yeah, Nancy. It was really crude. I've seen pictures of it, and it's kind of like a propane tank,

something that you would put on a grill on your patio. But then it had something that looked like a fire extinguisher rigged to the top of it and pointing outward. So it looked really crude, but unfortunately, apparently it did the trick and it spit fuel all over this house. And here's the thing, too, is that it just wasn't any ordinary fuel. He was using race fuel, which has a higher octane, meaning, you know, like race car engines need more energy. So the fuel is just more more combustionable just you know down to every diabolical detail you know this guy wanted to inflict the most amount of race car fuel where

would you even get that i don't know he was an electrical engineer so he probably knew how to get his hands on things that you know someone like me doesn't know how to but but race car fuel isn't you know it's not illegal to have but he of his background, knew how to get his hands on things. Guys, we are talking about, really, an unsurpassed Christmas tragedy, all because of one person. And we believe his name to be Bruce Pardo, a 45-year-old white male. His divorce had been final one week. On Christmas Eve, he shows up where his wife is living at her parents' home and unleashes pure H-E-double-L with a homemade flamethrower. Take a listen to our friend Bill Whitaker at CBS. Witnesses told police the shooter was this man, 45-year-old Bruce Jeffrey Pardo.

At first, police had little to go on. Currently, we know that Mr. Pardo is going through some type of marital problems, and we believe that this residence is a relative's residence. Police say Pardo started this fire with incendiary devices. They say the 25 partygoers thought Pardo, disguised as Santa, was their traditional entertainment for the children. Once inside, he shot and wounded the eight-year-old girl who answered the door, then started the killings and the fire, sending survivors fleeing. And they were just hysterical about their family inside the house.

Jason Shulma came out when he saw his neighbor's house ablaze. The gal just kept saying he just came in and started shooting. He just came in and started shooting. To Robert Crispin, a former police officer in Fort Lauderdale, now at Crispin's investigationsations dot com. Crispin and Special Investigations. Robert, what kind of an uptick do you see in cases around the holidays? Drastic, drastic uptick because the holidays are a trigger. They're a trigger to make you realize you don't have your family anymore. You don't have your kids anymore. You got to spend. I mean, we don't know or I don't know what exactly happened as far as his settlement in this case, but clearly

he was angry at the entire family. Hence why he went to the mother's house and took out everybody in the entire family. And then to end it for his final act to burn everybody, the ultimate burning of everybody for the final goodbye for him so not just shooting them dead then setting them on fire many of them probably still alive to you joseph scott morgan how can you tell you're the death investigator how can you tell when you have to you know i remember joe scott, getting a text. It was a text. As I was getting on a plane from New York to California for a victim's rights march, I got a text that there had been a mass shooting at the Fulton County Courthouse where I prosecuted.

I got off the plane, took a cab to another airport to catch a flight immediately home to Atlanta. My best friend in the DA's office spent the next four days, I think it was, processing the scene. When you get a scene like this, how do you process it? But my first question would be, how could you tell if someone died from gunshot wound versus a flamethrower? Okay, let's take that first. With a flamethrower or with any type of flame, one of the things we're going to look for, obviously, at autopsy, the simplest way to do this is to see what debris is contained in the airway and in the lungs. And that means, did the individual actually inhalate any of the noxious environment? There's all kinds of nastiness that's created in this environment.

When you're breathing in the air within this world, it's just blowing apart. Now, as far as the fatality level, you have to measure this. You don't know, first off, are you even going to be able to tell if the individual was shot or not? Because this is so complex and so stratified relative to the debris that's there. You've got a house that's collapsing on itself and the body essentially begins to kind of meld into the environment. So the bodies have to be carefully x-rayed. You have to look for these projectiles. You have to examine the lungs very, very carefully, Nancy. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We were talking about pure hell being unleashed on one family on Christmas Eve.

I don't know what it is about the holidays. They make me happy. But for many people, it's a sad time, a very sad time. How did we go from a happy marriage to a divorce that's final, and one week later, everybody is shot to death or death by flamethrower? This is not some Quentin Tarantino movie with Brad Pitt starring in it. This is real, real people and real suffering. There on Christmas Eve, the whole family's together. It's four minutes till Christmas morning, 1156. And everyone dies in a hail of bullets and fire. But how did it all start? Take a listen to Crime Online's John Limley. The year Bruce Pardoe and Sylvia Ortega married began with signs of a

bright future. He was an electrical engineer. She worked as an administrative assistant at a flower breeding company. Friends say that Ortega was attracted to Bruce Pardo's good looks and his education. He was talkative and had a good sense of humor. The wedding was in January, and the couple moved into a home owned by the groom in Montrose, about 15 miles north of Los Angeles. The couple's combined yearly income of about $150,000 made it comfortable for them to live in Pardo's half-million-dollar home in a quiet cul-de-sac. From a previous marriage, Ortega had three children, including a five-year-old daughter. A big brown Akita named Saki rounded out the family. To you, Rick Caputo, lead news anchor WDBO, were those children in the home when the bullets rang out? I'd assume so, Nancy.

There were a lot of kids around. All the families were there. We know that there were several children. We know that there was an 8-year-old who was shot in the face. So I don't know for sure, but I assume that there was a lot of family members there. Did you say an eight-year-old was shot? Nancy, when an eight-year-old opens a door and sees Santa Claus, you can just imagine their face lighting up.

But shortly after Bruce Pardo walked into that house, he pulled those guns down. You can only imagine how that elation could turn to complete horror for this little eight-year-old girl, Katrina. And the only thing lucky about the situation was he didn't kill her. He shot her in the face and miraculously that little girl survived. How did it go from this happy marriage to things looking so wonderful, all settling in like the Brady Bunch together in a new blended family to this? Take a listen to John Limley, Crime Online. Sylvia Pardoe's friends say things in the marriage changed quickly. Pardoe confided that Bruce Pardoe

had become indifferent to his new wife and money was a problem. Not the lack of it, rather the idea of sharing it. He insisted the couple keep their finances separate, refusing to open a joint bank account. He also seemed to expect her to provide for her three children without any assistance from him. For Sylvia Pardot, the final straw was finding tax papers that showed Bruce had a son that he hadn't told her about. Pardot denied it, but a call to his mother confirmed it. Bruce Pardot had a severely disabled son. The boy had almost drowned after falling into a pool while Pardot was supposed to have been watching him. Sylvia Pardot's best friend says she was devastated and asked for a divorce. Bruce Pardot calmly moved her belongings to the curb and told her to move out.

And yet he's angry over the divorce. I don't get it. But what do we learn from divorce documents? Take a listen. Divorce documents paint an ugly picture. Sylvia Pardoe filed court papers asking for attorney's fees and over $3,000 in monthly spousal support. She claimed Bruce Pardoe was transferring funds from their savings to a private account.

Bruce Pardot lost his engineering job at a military defense supplier. Soon, he was asking a judge to have his ex-wife pay him support and cover his attorney's fees. He had complained that his wife was living rent-free with her parents, while he struggled. His court filing stated that he had monthly expenses of $8,900, had credit card debt, and had a $2,700 monthly mortgage payment. When the divorce was finalized, the judge ordered him to pay Sylvia $10,000. So it boils down to money. He forgot to take in, to add in none of his money would go towards supporting her or her children, I guess they were living there with them. It sounds like it, Nancy.

I don't have the answer for whether the children were living there, but I have to tell you that he really fits the profile of that kind of a mass murderer, where it's the holiday season. And he purposely chose Christmas Eve, I'm sure of it, and that Santa suit. He wanted everyone together, and he wanted to mock the holiday. He wanted to take them by surprise. And if you look at the factors, fired from his job, the divorce, the fact that she found out about his son, that he was there when the son was injured,

never could recover from that. So there's humiliation, shame, guilt, depression, and it was very planned. This wasn't a snap attack. He thought this out very carefully with the guns, with the flamethrower. You know, the other thing about it, when Karen starts talking about how he planned it out, this wasn't a spur of the moment. I'm angry because our divorce is final and I'm alone. It wasn't like that at all. Because what does it take to actually build a flamethrower? This is a homemade flamethrower.

He had to build it, dress up like Santa, and show up at his ex-in-law's home. Does anybody on the panel know how to build a flamethrower? I'm guessing Shellnut, Crispin, or Morgan would know that. Guys, any idea how to build one? I do. There's a lot. There's books on the internet.

You can buy a book on the internet that can tell. I'm embarrassed to say I know how to make a Molotov cocktail, much less a flamethrower. Go ahead, Shellnut. And you know what? Don't cocktail, much less a flamethrower. Go ahead, Shell Nut. And you know what? Don't be proud that you know the answer to this. Go ahead. There's books on the Internet that tell you how to do this. You can buy these books for like $20, $25.

It'll actually tell you what item numbers to order off Amazon or order offline, and it will show you step-by-step how to make it. I think I've looked at the cost of building one, ordering all new parts, like $400 and something when I was researching this. And so anyone can build a flamethrower. But what do you need for a flamethrower? I know how to go to Amazon online. Here's all you need.

Here's all you need. You need a tank that has compressed gas, whether it's carbon dioxide or nitrogen. You need an ignition source, which, you know, he used race fuel, but some people use kerosene or gasoline. And you need that propellant gas to force that flammable liquid through a tube across an ignition source. And that's it. You know, it's amazing to me that when Karen said, Karen Stark said this took time, you know, it really did. Robert Crispin, you know, when cops get to Pardo's home, they're going to find everything they need to show he had a homemade flamethrower. Everything's going to be there, Crispin.

The whole roadmap's going to be there. Everything's going to be there, Crispin. The whole roadmap's going to be there. Everything's going to be inside that house. This was very well calculated, very well orchestrated, and very well carried out to his satisfaction. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we were talking about a holiday and how he planned this mass murder that goes down at his ex-wife's parents' home where she's living. How did he plan it? How did he pull it off?

Take a listen to the Covina Police. This happened about 11.30 p.m. on Christmas Eve. There was a family party being held at the residence on Nolcrest attended by about 25 people. It appears that Mr. Pardo drove to the location and parked his car in the driveway one house east of the party. He was dressed in a Santa suit and brought with him a homemade device which will release pictures of that later for the press. The device basically consisted of two tanks, one which contained either oxygen or CO2, and the other smaller tank appeared to contain racing fuel. Take a listen to more of what the chief has to say. He walked up to the door. Once he knocked on the door, rang the doorbell and gained entrance. He immediately was confronted with an eight-year-old child who thought Santa

Claus had come to the house. He shot her once in the face and then proceeded inside the residence. Mr. Pardo was armed with four handguns when he went into the residence. All four handguns have been recovered and to the best of our belief as of right now all guns were empty. As he went into the house he began shooting at the party goers again indiscriminately. It appears that he did have some intended targets those being the family members and immediate family of his ex-wife. Once the shooting stopped, it appeared that he then retrieved the homemade device, activated that, and went through the house basically delivering that and releasing a gas vapor inside the house. To Karen Stark, New York psychologist, joining us from Manhattan at karenstark.com. Karen, why is it, what is it about the holidays

that make so many people angry or sad? But let's just start with angry. Everything is exacerbated around the holidays, Nancy. There's even a term, you know, holiday depression. And in this case, this guy took his sadness and projected it outward. And the reason it's so intense and exacerbated around the holidays is that people have this image, this picture postcard, you know, perfect image of families getting together, everybody enjoying themselves. And so if you're alone, if you're not with a family, if you're already feeling terrible, it's all going to be increased around the holidays. I'm just thinking about how his anger over the divorce, I mean, what did he think was going to happen when his wife finds out he's got a son he never told her about,

that he refuses to help her support her family or support her. She has nowhere to go when he moves her stuff out onto the street. What did he think was going to happen when he treated her that way? And I'm not saying she was a saint, but I know this. She certainly did not deserve the death penalty, nor did the others. Her name, Sylvia Ortega Pardo. Her mother, Alicia Sotomayor Ortega, her brother Charles, her sister Sherry Lynn, James, Teresa, Alicia, Michael Andre, all dead, and an eight-year-old little girl shot in the face. Take a listen to John Moan with a...

Pardo barged in on the party Christmas Eve, clad in a Santa suit, which he bought from a designer. You know, when I first heard it, I knew he was wearing a Santa suit, and I knew who he was, because I had seen him more than one time. But I didn't think anything of it until they were saying that he used the Santa suit, and he put stuff in the Santa suit, like guns and whatever he used the Santa suit and he put stuff in the Santa suit like guns and whatever he used. And then it kind of freaked me out thinking that maybe he had already planned this for a long time. Jerry Diot says Pardo appeared to be a decent man. He had bought and rented from her costume store before.

He had even shared a family picture with her from Halloween. And like I say, he stopped here. He ushered in at the church across the street. He stopped here a couple of times and knocked on the door and said, Hi, how are you? How's your dog? And mine's fine, you know, and da-da-da. And, you know, just a nice guy. Did you hear that? An usher at the church, a great neighbor that would stop in to check on neighbors. How did everything go so wrong at that Christmas event on Christmas

Eve? Back to you, Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, WDBO. What more can you tell us? Well, Nancy, Bruce Pardo is a scary guy. He was never in trouble with the law, you know, no history of violence. And I might state an unpopular opinion here. If none of the killing ever happened, some people might even feel a little bad for him because he was married a short period of time. He's forced to cough up all this money and his life starts unraveling. And we were talking about planning. Nancy, this guy was planning this six months in advance. He bought his first gun in June before this happened. That was around the time that he was ordered to pay money. And every other month he bought another handgun.

And then he had that Santa suit made. This was something six months in the making that he had many chances to pull out of, many chances to say, you know what, this isn't a good idea. But he still went along with it. And I'm just speechless. This is one of the most hateful crimes I've ever had to talk about. Well, I'm glad you ended with that, Caputo, because it sounded to me like you were feeling badly for him because he had to cough up 10 grand.

You know what? It would have been a lot cheaper if you're talking about money to just be nice to your wife and don't be a big fat liar and then end up getting divorced over it. That's my advice. You know, I can never do your job, Karen Stark, not in a million years. I have people come, women all the time go should i stay with them like no break up move on cut your losses find somebody better don't torture yourself quit calling him stop stop now i mean i would have told this guy pronto if he had asked which you didn't you know what you don't want to pay 10 grand then clean up your act be a loving husband share for Pete's sake I would give my husband anything

anything I could possibly give him I love him and same for my children even more so so I don't get how he could be angry he had to as Ray Caputo said cough up 10 grand he should have thought about that when he was lying to his wife and refusing to help her. It's not his nature, Nancy. This is somebody who's very resentful. And remember, he walked away from a child who was in a swimming accident,

a pool accident while on his watch. And he didn't keep staying involved with his son, making sure he was okay. He was forced to pay money. Then he walked away and wanted to act as though it never existed. You're not talking about somebody who just could act nice, share. It's not the kind of person that you're married to, that's for sure. You know, with my husband, I always feel like I'm the one that got the big prize, you know.

It just hurts me to see the family breaking apart, what she went through, and then both she and her whole family is wiped out, including an 8-year-old little girl that gets shot in the face. Listen to what we learned about this flamethrower he made. This is Covina Police Chief Kim Rainey. The device basically consisted of two tanks, one which contained either oxygen or CO2, and the other smaller tank appeared to contain racing fuel. It was a homemade device that was basically built where once he mixed those two items, it would turn into a vapor or atomized, and he was able to deliver that inside the residence. And speaking of having to, quote, cough up 10 grand, according to Ray Caputo, I disagree.

Take a listen to John Moen with AP. Bruce and Sylvia Pardo had just finished a bitter divorce. The 43-year-old woman was hoping for better times, says her friend Roxanne Haragy. What did she have that he could have wanted? She had nothing. She came home, put her clothes in her car and her kids, literally. He had the house, he had the cars. I mean, what could he have wanted?

Sylvia had even invited Roxanne to her family's Christmas party this year. It changed for us at the last minute because my parents came to visit so we couldn't go our thoughts and prayers now with the family of those that died that Christmas Eve Nancy Grace

Crime Stories signing off goodbye friend Goodbye, friend.