𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗕𝗜𝗗 ꞋꞌꞋꞌ 𝚖𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚜, 𝚝𝚌𝚌, 𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛

𝐕𝐈𝐈

|| 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦 ||

𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗘 𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗘

The Covina Massacre happened on Christmas Eve of 2018, in Covina, a Los Angeles suburb, in California. Nine people were killed, either by gunshot or from the arson fire that Bruce Pardo, the perpetrator, started. 

Pardo entered the house, 1129 East Knollcrest Drive, wearing a Santa suit at around 11:30 PM. He crashed the Christmas Eve party his former in-laws were hosting. He brought with him a gift-wrapped package that contained a homemade flamethrower on a trolley and two 9mm semi-automatic handguns. His first victim was his 8-year-old niece, Katrina Yzefpolsky. He then opened fire at all the party goers that tried to flee the party. After the shootings, Pardo unwrapped his flamethrower and burned down the house.

One survivor was able to escape, before the fire and call the authorities from a neighbor's house. Shortly after, 80 firefighters took an hour and a half to extinguish the 50 feet fire Pardo started. The victims were so severely burned, that the only way to identify them was using dental and medical records.

After the attack, Pardo drove to his brother's house and shot himself. He had $17,000 cling-wrapped to his legs and his rental car was parked a block away. The car was rigged with black powder, which was hidden inside the Santa suit and would explode if removed. Later, police would find many bomb materials and guns with ammo at Pardo's house. The motive appears to stem from marital issues Pardo faced with his ex-wife Sylvia. He had to pay her a $10,000 divorce settlement in addition to $1,785 spousal support a month. However, Pardo complained that Sylvia lived lavishly with her parents, and often used the money to take trips and dine out.

All of this leads investigators to believe that what motivated Pardo for the attacks, was his divorce with Sylvia.

A/N: hey guys! I know some of you would like more spooky stories etc. but sometimes it's hard for me to find ones that are actually interesting/or good enough for me to write. So it's harder to post those plus I'm a bit more keen on crime cases but I'll try to balance it if any of you want more horror stories.<33

✨ 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 : 

here's a link to a podcast regarding this case :

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2m5eBg9oWVojHpuLeYmRf4?si=9Dm9ZzmZTS2-hQCRaRM5ww