Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Holiday Crime Classic: Ex-hubby dressed as Santa seeks revenge on Christmas Eve

Episode Date: December 24, 2018

As our families gather to celebrate Christmas, Nancy Grace once again reminds you that crime does not take a holiday. Nancy shares this horrid story of the massacre of a family by an ex-husband dressed as Santa Claus. Nancy's expert panel includes Los Angeles psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Crime Stories contributing reporter John Lemley. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. No, it's not Santa. It's Nancy Grace. Are you trying to find the perfect gift for a parent or an expecting parent? Please do not give them another onesie. Don't do it. And not another plastic toy that's going to end up in the trash bin or the garage or sent

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Find out how to protect your child. Out and about, at the mall, at the store, at the grocery store, in parking lots, in parking decks, at your home, in your neighborhood. Find out about protection regarding babysitters, nannies, daycare, even protection online. It's the very best gift you can give any parent. Go to crimestopshere.com and join the Justice Nation. Crimestopshere.com. God willing. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. There was a family party being held at the residence on Nocrest,

attended by about 25 people. He came in through the entrance of the door, and there was a Santa costume on. He was dressed in a Santa suit and brought with him a homemade device. The device basically consisted of two tanks, one which contained either oxygen or CO2, and the other smaller tank appeared to contain racing fuel. He walked up to the door. Once he knocked on the door, rang the doorbell and gained entrance.

He immediately was confronted with an 8-year-old child who thought Santa Claus had come to the house. What is it about the holidays, specifically Christmas, that can engender so much love and goodwill? And then on the other hand, at the other end of the spectrum, generates so much hate and animosity and tension. I'm talking specifically about holidays gone bad. Let's just start with a man, a husband, a father, who ends up making a homemade flame thrower, goes to the home, and goes berserk. And let me remind everybody, this guy, Bruce Pardo, as I recall, was an aeronautical engineer. Take a listen to this 911 call.

Hello, Cole. Hi. He's coming immediately. What is in your house? Ma'am, is the guy in your house right now? We're having two houses down on the Google Head. Okay, okay. Ma'am, ma'am, hold on right now? We're having two houses down on the gookoo. Okay, okay. Ma'am, hold on. Hold on. Is he at your house? No, he's got the shooting.

What do you think his name is? Bruce? His name is Bruce Pardell. Okay, and who is he to you guys? Who is he to you? He's my ex-brother-in-law. They're going through a distress right now. Okay. Hold on one second, okay? I don't know who else is alive. I know, I know, ma'am. Just stay on the phone with me, okay?

My whole family, there's 30 people, 25 people. 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 door and there's a Santa Claus suit on. I didn't see from when he shot. I heard the shots and we were like poppers and I wasn't sure what it was. So we all everyone started panicking and running. So we all go under the dining room. Some of us go over some of us. I don't know. My mom calls from the fire department there. Okay, what's he'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. A black?

He's walking on neighbor's floor. The man who dresses as Santa slaughters nine people at a Christmas party using, what else? I mean, of course, a homemade flamethrower as a, quote, Christmas present to set his house on fire. I want to go out to John Limley, Crime Stories investigative reporter. This guy was no idiot. I mean, he is an engineer that creates a homemade flamethrower and then the coup de grace wraps it in Christmas wrap and puts a bow on it to get it into the home. He shows up unannounced. John, what exactly happened?

Well, I'd love to begin with a love story, and that's of Joseph and Alicia Ortega. They had been married for 52 years, had created a huge family that just became bigger and bigger with each passing year. Joe and Alicia loved nothing more than each Christmas Eve to gather their entire family with them in Covina, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. The children and their families would begin arriving early in the day. The celebration would go well into the night with the house packed to the gills with relatives. Later in the evening, the adults would play a lively game of poker while the children played. Now keep this scene in your head. For many years, a neighbor would dress as Santa, ring the doorbell, and surprise the children with a bunch of presents. So on December 24th, it all seemed quite normal when the doorbell and surprised the children with a bunch of presents. So on December 24th, all seemed

quite normal when the doorbell rang around 11 30 p.m. and one of the younger grandchildren, an eight-year-old girl, answered the door to see Santa standing there. As the family was about to discover, though, this was anything but a storybook visit from St. Nick. Just moments after the door opened, the man dressed as Santa pulls out two handguns and immediately shoots the little girl. He then steps over her. Wait, shoots the eight-year-old girl in the face? Yes, right as he enters the house. He then steps over her, enters the house. He moves back and forth between shooting indiscriminately and then shooting some family members point blank, execution style. There are approximately 25 or so family members, extended Ortega family, in the house that night.

So there was mass chaos as sisters and brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews run in all directions trying to get away from the shooter. In the midst of all this, the shooter stops. He stops firing and walks over to this large wrapped present that he has rolled in with him. Under that festive paper and the box is, as you've mentioned, a homemade flamethrower. He begins spraying what is discovered to be racing fuel, high-octane fuel, around the house. There's a huge explosion, and the house is quickly engulfed in flames. The last of the living family members are seen jumping out of the windows to escape the blaze. Guys, amazingly, this flamethrower is actually full of high-octane car racing fuel, and it's spewed around the home to catch the home on fire.

Okay, with me are our special guests, Joe Scott Morgan, death investigator, Cheryl McCollum, cold case investigator, and the director of the Cold Case Institute, crime stories reporter, John Limley. And joining us today, Dr. Carol Lieberman, psychiatrist, radio and TV talk show personality, best-selling author. She's a keynote speaker and expert witness on many subjects. Dr. Carol Lieberman, it is just such a thrill to have you with us. Before I go any further with the flamethrower, can I ask you something, Dr. Lieberman? No offense, John Allen and Joe Scott. What is wrong with men?

Really? I mean, the thought of going and creating a homemade flamethrower and wrapping it in Christmas wrap and a bow. I just that would never have dawned on me. I mean, I guess moms are too busy raising children and running around town as a chauffeur and working, right? Who has time to make a flamethrower for Pete's sake? That's right. Well, you know, it's actually a metaphor for just how much rage Bruce Pardo had towards his wife. They had just divorced a week before, which is so typical in all of these holiday killings.

There is so much rage, so much family resentment that this was his way of really showing her just how burned up he was. I mean, but to go to so much effort to create a homemade flamethrower, I don't even know what that would look like. I'm imagining some sort of scepter-looking thing. I don't even know what that would be. Well, I'm not really sure either exactly what it would look like, but, you know, he was he was so angry, you know, you mentioned that she had children. During their divorce, the judge decided that he was

going to pay for her children and also pay her some money as well. And this was when he finally decided that he was resentful towards her during the marriage for having to pay for her children. And then when they got divorced and the judge during the marriage for having to pay for her children. And then when they got divorced and the judge said that he still had to pay for them, that was too much. Bruce Pardo actually suffered third-degree burns on both arms. And it appears the Santa Claus suit he was wearing melted onto his body. The dichotomy of coming as Father Christmas, Santa, who is nothing but loving and full of good cheer and merriment. The dichotomy, Dr. Carol Lieberman, of him dressing as Santa with murder on his mind. What does that mean?

Where does from where does that spring? That is a particular betrayal. You know, it's like clowns who kill. We as a society love Santa, love clowns. Most people love clowns. And so for someone dressed in a suit, like in a Santa suit, it is an especially, I mean, yes, he was doing it so that he could get into the house and so on. But also, I think there was a metaphor. He was trying to say that he didn't want to be Santa perpetually for her and her children. He didn't want to keep playing Santa

in the sense of keep supporting them. You know, what's interesting about this is, John Lemley, isn't it true that he had no criminal record whatsoever before this? That is indeed the case, which just made it all the more impossible for them to figure out exactly what was going on. Police speculate that the motive of the attack, as we've hinted, was related to not only the divorce, but a spate of problems that Bruce Pardoe had encountered over the months prior. As we've said, his wife of one year, Sylvia, had settled for divorce just one week before this incident. Bruce had been fired from his job as an electrical engineer just in July as well. The couple had wed, but soon grew apart after their marriage.

Mr. Pardo refused to open a joint account with his wife. He also expected his wife to take care of their three children with her own finances. Weren't they his biological children or no? Yes. However, there was another child that they discover exists through a woman that he was with before. And this is an interesting scenario here. Apparently, this child that he had with this woman earlier in his life, he had been at home alone with the child. The child had gotten out of its crib, entered the swimming pool, and almost died. Did not, but was really left in a vegetative state. Oh my goodness. So I want you to hear what the police chief there in Covina has to say.

Again, 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 we'll 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. It was a homemade device that was basically built where once he mixed those two items, it would turn into a vapor or atomize and he was able to deliver that inside the residence.

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 partygoers, 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. There's no indication that he ignited the vapor, but the vapor was able to be ignited either by a pilot light or if there was a candle inside the house because obviously there was an explosion that occurred inside the house. Mr. Pardo was severely injured during that explosion. He suffered third-degree burns on both arms. It also appears that the Santa Claus suit that he was wearing did melt onto his body. Imagine this scene, partygoers running to neighbors' homes to call police.

One woman broke her ankle leaping to safety from one of the home's bedroom windows. A boy flees the home, screaming into the street. They're shooting my family. They're shooting my family as the home goes up the street. They're shooting my family. They're shooting my family as the home goes up in flames. It just, I don't understand why something about the holidays set off so much hatred. Joe Scott Morgan, how can you process a scene like that? It's a nightmare, Nancy, because this is what we refer to as a stratified scene, which means you've got layer, if you'll imagine a big layer cake, you've got layer upon layer upon evidence. Not only do you have things like, you know, this guy when he

walked in was firing a nine millimeter pistol. There were a couple of weapons involved. So the the nature of these rounds is going to be very unique to each weapon. You've got people that are trampling over one another, and then when you put it on top of everything, the explosion that took place as a result of this high-octane fuel that ignited, it's mass chaos in this environment. And for an investigator, when you walk onto a scene like this, it gives you pause. Your mind begins to swirl. So when you're handling something like this, you have to be very methodical,

take very careful steps one by one, and work your way through it very, very slowly. I mean, police find the bodies badly burned of eight victims who were just gathered at a family gathering for Christmas. As they entered the ruins after this fire was finally put out, officers met with a scene that was indescribable, said police chief Kim Rainey. The ninth body wasn't even discovered until the next day. Nancy, if I could interject one more thing about the nature of this fire. You know, when

most people, people in the vernacular, they'll say things like, well, they burn to death. Most people don't burn to death in fires. Most people die of smoke inhalation, as we all well know. However, in this particular case, when you've got high octane fuel in a very closed environment, what will happen is the people that are alive that have not succumbed to gunshot wounds will inhalate what's referred to as superheated gas. And so this is very horrible. The interlining of the throat and the lungs will just automatically just kind of singe. And it's a very, very painful way to die. So not only are you inhalating the debris that's being consumed, you're also inhalating the superheated gas, which in and of itself is a whole different layer of terror on top of all the rest of it.

You know what? So just another disturbing layer to Dr. Carol Lieberman. For those of you just joining us, a rampage goes down just before Christmas where a whole family is wiped out, more than the family. People were quoted as saying, Dr. Carol Lieberman, that this guy, Pardo, was quote, the nicest guy you could imagine, always a pleasure to talk to, always a big smile, always worked as usher every Sunday evening for the past six years, working the 530 Mass, the Children's Mass. How can someone so loving and so generous and kind

suddenly turn into a mass murderer? Yes, you know, we often hear that when there's some big crime and the neighbors all say, oh, he was such a nice guy. I know. Well, you know, there's no relationship, though, that is as intimate as he would have had with his wife. And this spurning, you know, her moving out with the kids and the disappointment of the relationship ending the way it did and so on, that brings up a lot of rage and connected with the holidays.

I mean, you know, when our reaction to the holidays, I mean, of course, you've heard of holiday blues and so on. You know, how we relate to the holidays has to do so much with how we were as children.

What happened during the holidays when we were children? And we bring that, the sense of whether we were, whether we felt deprived during the holidays, excluded, like he was excluded

from this party. There are different things, the hot buttons, that get triggered, particularly during the holidays. Hi, Nancy Grace here. Have you ever Googled yourself, your neighbors, somebody at work, a crush? 57% of Americans admit to keeping an eye on their own online reputation. 46% admit to using the internet to look up somebody from their past. But Google and Facebook, the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding personal information. There's an innovative new website called Truthfinder.

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Find the truth. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. At a time when we celebrate everything good in the world, how that could somehow be twisted and contorted into something so evil, we now travel to Fort Lauderdale where a guy, a dad, Paul Mary has dinner, a wonderful holiday dinner, sing songs around the piano, Christmas songs, and then suddenly, oh, oh, oh, and hymns out of the church hymnal, and then suddenly unloads. It all ends in a massacre where he executes an entire family.

John Lemley, another holiday, a festive, peaceful, loving get-together of family and friends, goes completely awry. What happened? There were no arguments, warnings, or even red flags before he started the rampage. Marriage shot his 79-year-old aunt to death, killed his twin sisters, one of whom was pregnant. Eight months pregnant. Exactly. Just, you know, a month or so away from delivering. It's not clear exactly who was shot when, but the bloodbath could have been much worse, with 16 family members present. Mirage, 35 at the time, also pointed the gun at his uncle, but it twice would not fire. At one point, he turned and

started to walk away and said, I have been waiting for 20 years to do this. Oh, my stars, waiting for 20 years to do this. You know, to Dr. Carol Lieberman, psychiatrist, radio and TV talk show host personality, a best-selling author, speaker. You know, Dr. Carol Lieberman, you have seen so much as an expert. I still don't understand how holidays, when we're celebrating everything good in the world as the prince of peace comes to our world how it could all be so twisted and horrible and i guess my specific question right now is no warning flags no mental illness history no episodes of uncontrolled anger nothing well actually um he he did he was going to his attorneys were going to try to do an insanity defense um and that's how he got to strike a plea i mean before the attorneys got a hold of well and then there's a story about how he went

to see a doctor although it's not clear what doctor he, you know, whether it was a psychiatrist. But the idea that he said he's been waiting 20 years to do this, so he's 35 years old. That means when he was, since the time he was 15, he has had all this resentment, jealousy of his twin sisters who were younger. So they replaced him in the family, you know, the typical sibling rivalry. Well, it's not so typical when he shoots them all, but he was jealous of them. And one of the people that he killed was this six-year-old little girl who was performing. She was singing. She was supposed to be in the Nutcracker. And so she performed in front of all the relatives. So what it had to do with is how he was not getting enough attention. He was feeling like the family

wasn't paying enough attention to him. And since he was 15, he felt that way. And he had this resentment stored up for 20 years. And finally, you know, he let loose and he went to this. There were some warning signs in the sense that his sister and he had, his sister took out a restraining order but then dropped that. So, you know, this is such a good example of a family not paying enough attention, well, like he was complaining about, not paying enough attention to the psychological issues that were plaguing him. Well, up until this moment in time, there was no indication he had any mental illness there. He has not been treated,

nothing. He had had disagreements with one relative and they took out a TRO and then dropped it almost immediately. What's so shocking to me, the fact Joseph Scott Morgan, forensic expert, professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University, is that these victims were totally taken by surprise. I mean, they were literally standing around the piano. One of the daughters, they just had this huge dinner, a holiday dinner, and they were all around. They were looking at note cards. His daughter, Michaela, had written about how thankful she was for her family and strung them on a clothesline. And she suddenly started singing. It was kind of an impromptu dress rehearsal. She was performing the Nutcracker the very next day. She was, daughter Michaela. And in the middle of all this, Marish shows up.

And of course, they let him in. And he has the dinner. He's standing around the piano. Everything seems to be fine. And then out of the blue, he pulls out a gun and methodically targets victims, shooting his twin sisters, Carla, a real estate agent, and Lisa, who was eight months pregnant. Like the daughter, Michaela, both of them love to sing. They did this every year at Christmas and Thanksgiving. He shoots his aunt, Ramonde, his brother-in-law, Patrick, another man who happened to be there, Clifford. That wasn't all. That wasn't all. He goes into a baby's room.

He sees her there and murders her. Beside the baby's bed was a little novel that she had been writing about a squirrel, where of course the squirrel can talk and sing. And she was actually writing a a book she would have turned seven a few days later joe scott how do you process a scene like that it's hard to get past it nancy because as as a as an investigator you want to look at the physical evidence and assess what you see before you relative to the scientific value. But one of the problems that you encounter is that when you do this, and I'm going to wax philosophical for a moment, is that you drag your own humanity in there with you, and sometimes it's very, very difficult to view these things and not be. Put off emotionally by what you're seeing, and it's a surreal event many times because I liken this when I'm teaching my classes. I tell I tell my students many times. Listen,

you're there. To view. The abnormal in the context of the normal. And what's more normal? What's more peaceful, a better word, than to have family all gathered around during the holiday season? You're singing around the piano. People are celebrating life. It's joyful. It's festive. And then all of a sudden, carnage visits. It's pure hell on earth. And you're having to contextualize all this stuff as an investigator and process it and try to figure out they suffered in these events. And it's very, very hard. And a lot of people, you know, they sit back and they look at investigators and police officers and say, I don't understand why you're so jaded. I don't understand why you have this twisted view of the world. And it is because of the fact that we always see in 3D living color before us

the abnormal in the context of the normal. Well, I don't know so much that it's jaded is that you at some point it's to get through it you have to numb yourself or you you just can't keep going i mean when i read when i've studied this case for this moment i mean there's this six-year-old little girl who the dad says, she's, quote, just our life. I don't know how we're ever going to recover. And you look at them, there's an eight-months-pregnant mom. I mean, I remember when I was six months, you know, I gave birth so prematurely, I never made it to eight months, but I could hardly walk. I just, it was so difficult. And here's this mom, eight months pregnant, dead,

her twin sister, dead. And then to even suggest John Limley, Crime Stories investigative reporter, that he was insane. It doesn't work because he has the wherewithal to then hop in his car and go on the run he goes straight out after gunning down a whole family he jumps into his royal blue toyota camry and heads off in fact police immediately alert Michigan authorities because they think he was headed there. I mean, he knew exactly what he was doing because he goes on the run. There had to be a plan in place after the mass murder. Marriage was, as you say, on the lam for weeks until a tip was called in after an episode of America's Most Wanted highlighted this murder case. What is it about the holidays, specifically Christmas holidays,

the whole season starting at Thanksgiving, that brings out seemingly the very worst in human nature? I'm thinking about right now a guy, a 28-year-old guy, who has everything in the world to be thankful for. His name is Joel Michael Guy Jr. And his parents, Joel Michael Guy Sr. and mom, Lisa, have been supporting him his whole life. He's been in school, I think now, for 10 years.

I'm talking about college. College. He was not working, living off his parents. he's been in college now 10 years and he comes home and asks for more money the parents are trying to retire and they have to break it to him over holiday meal son you're gonna have to make it. You're going to have to get a job, son. Finally. You've been in school 10 years to get a four-year degree. It's over. We're selling the house.

We're retiring. We're not going to work anymore. And what does he do, John Limley? I just, I hate the ending of this story. What happens, John? The family is gathering for a holiday feast at this beautiful, tiny little two-story home that's on a corner lot in the Golden Lane neighborhood of Knoxville, Tennessee. Now, it was already to be the family's last holiday together in that particular house. Wait, wait, wait.

Back it up. Did you say tiny? Because I'm looking at it, and it's a mansion. I'm looking right at it. Did I hear you say? Oh, I said tidy. Tidy. Okay. I said it. Did I hear you say? Oh, I said tidy. Tidy. Okay.

I said tidy. Maybe I should restate that. No, just go ahead. I mean, this place is, it looks like maybe the Italian kind of like stucco. Oh, Jackie's saying she knows exactly where it is. I mean, it's gorgeous. Yeah. Okay.

Not that that means a crime can't happen, but what it does mean is it's probably a very low crime area. Okay, sorry. I just had to make sure you knew this was not a tiny home. Because I've been watching too much HGTV, and they do all the specials on the tiny homes that people put on the car and drive around the country with them. This is not one of those, okay? Not at all. All right, go ahead. ready to be the family's last holiday together in that house because in two weeks, Joel Guy Sr. and his wife Lisa were going to move into his late mother's mountain house about 90 miles away.

Family members were already talking about getting together there for a Christmas reunion. The guys said their goodbyes first to their three daughters, who all live in Tennessee, and plan to send off their son, Joel Michael Guy, Jr. As we mentioned, he'd been living in Baton Rouge for nearly a decade, and his parents were financially supporting him. Authorities say they plan to tell him that they were indeed cutting him off. It's still unclear exactly what happened next, whether the guys ever had a chance to even deliver their message. What authorities do know is that the 28-year-old stayed in Tennessee another three days longer than he'd planned. And by that Sunday afternoon, his parents' home had been turned into what police say was a horrific and very gruesome crime scene. During a welfare check that following Monday, after Lisa Guy's

employer told police that she did not show up for work, authorities entered the home and discovered a barking dog that was locked in an upstairs room, and the remains of Joel Sr. and Lisa scattered throughout the house, their dismembered body parts resting in a homemade acidic solution concocted. He was trying to erase all evidence that the crimes even took place there. Whoa, wait a minute. Joe Scott Morgan, Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert, professor of forensics

at Jacksonville State University. What about this acidic solution, drums of it? Words like torture, stab wounds, and dismemberment are also used in this tale. And he was with his parents for an extended period of time, which is why the police believe that prior to them dying, he very well may have tortured them. A lot of anger involved with this. And, you know, after this feat of killing these intimates, these people, and that's the way we commonly refer to them, if you're in an intimate relationship, not referring to a sexual relationship, but just, you know, a familial relationship, very close parent and child,

after you go through killing them up close and personal with an edged weapon, then before you even get to the acid, you have to dismember the bodies. And this is no easy feat, particularly if you've never done it before. I've worked in the morgue for many, many years, and I'll just leave it at that. I know what it takes. And for someone in this fancy home that has limited knowledge, and I would think limited specialty tools in order to facilitate this, it'd be very difficult. Also, if you don't use the right combination of, you know, what they're referring to is not necessarily a pure acid solution, but something that was kind of concocted. Always, that makes me raise an eyebrow. It's not going to work very effectively. And from what I understand, he essentially left the scene and returned back to Baton Rouge.

And, you know, where later, as John had pointed out, you know, the police entered this house of horrors. And I can't I can't imagine what it would be like to be a young uniformed officer, which more than likely it was that entered this home just to conduct a welfare check. And this is something that's done on a regular basis, and you walk in, this is the last thing you're expecting to see. To Dr. Carol Lieberman, psychiatrist, radio, TV talk show host, best-selling author, Dr. Carol, please give us some guidance. Well, this story has, again, some of these same elements of these holiday massacres, money, and then the idea that his parents were going to be selling that home, perhaps his childhood home or at least perhaps just something that represented status,

and moving away, abandonment. So money, deprivation, abandonment, you know, all the ingredients were there for him to finally express his rage. For everyone listening today, I want to thank you for being with us as always and through the years it's Christmas Eve and while so many of us are gathering with family and celebrating the birth of Christ so many others are suffering today as we head into this holy holy time Merry. Merry Christmas. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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