News and Articles

In the New Year 2006, life seemed to smile at Bruce and Sylvia Brown, newly married, with combined revenues of about $ 150,000 annually, a house half a million dollars on a quiet street closed and a dog named Saki.

But soon, things are complicated, and court documents reflect the increasing desperation of Bruce Brown after losing his wife, and then become unemployed without a dog. In late 2008, Brown was asking a judge to give his wife a pension and cover attorney's fees.

The debacle ended in Pardo Eve, when the electrical engineer for 45 years were dressed in Santa Claus and killed nine people in the house of his former in-laws in Covina, where he made a feast. Then the attacker used a home-made device, which was hidden as a Christmas gift for spraying fuel into the house and burned.

Brown had planned to flee to Canada after the killing, but suffered third degree burns in the fire - which melted part of his disguise, adhering to the skin - and decided to commit suicide, according to researchers.

His body, with a shot in the head, was found in his brother's house about 64 kilometers (40 miles) from the scene of the attack.

The killings occurred six days after the Brown and his former wife appeared in court to consummate their divorce. The police believed that among the dead are Sylvia, for 43 years and their parents, Joseph Ortega of 80 years and Alicia, 70.

The other victims were two brothers of Sylvia Brown and their wives, and the attacker's former sister-in-law and a nephew of 17 years.

But police have not identified the victims because, according to the coroner, nine corpses were so burned it was impossible.

Friends, dismayed, they said that there was one trait in Bruce Brown suggested that the impending attack. Brown had told a friend who planned to help usher during mass as a rooster on the occasion of Christmas in their church. He promised to visit you in Iowa, to congratulate him.

The attacker had no criminal record.

"I can not believe you're seeing my ex-boyfriend on television, and all the people who destroyed their lives," said Carol Sanchez, who had a relationship with Brown four years, when both were high school students to 18. "I'm shattered."

"He was a very kind and friendly person," he added. "I never would have thought he was capable of doing something well."

Brown had a child of 9 years, Matthew, with another former girlfriend, Elena Lucano. The child had not seen for years, but reportedly said the child was dependent on it economically, in its report for the payment of taxes. Lucano told the newspaper Los Angeles Times that she was unaware of the fact that Matthew Pardo said that depended on him.

The child suffered a severe brain injury in a fall at the pool, January 6, 2001, when Brown was alone with him in his former home in Woodland Hills, according to attorney Jeffrey Alvírez, who represented in the case Lucano resulting in the courts.

Medical expenses reached $ 340,000. Lucano Pardo sued him for money from your home insurance policy for $ 100,000, and $ 36,000 were deposited into a trust for the child, who requires constant attention.

Brown never made money for the care of the child.

"I never spent a penny on his son," said Alvírez, who noted that it had not surprised that Brown concealed his wife that aspect of his life.

The divorce papers before the court are a couple who had trouble from the start and sparked a bitter dispute.

The couple married on January 29, 2006, and moved to the house that Brown had in Montrose, about 24 kilometers (25 miles) north of Los Angeles. The house is located in the top of a hill near the Church of the Holy Redeemer, where Brown helped usher during mass as for children.

Two days after the attack, cintilaban Christmas lights still on the fence and the roof, as well as an orange, while two police officers searched the house.