Santa-suit killer lost job, wife before attack

A bitter divorce
Court documents from the Pardos' nearly yearlong divorce proceeding reveal a marriage that faltered early and then descended into a bitter feud.

The couple married on Jan. 29, 2006, and moved into a home Pardo already owned in Montrose, about 15 miles north of Los Angeles. The house sits up the hill from the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, where he volunteered as an usher at the children's Mass.

Two days after the shootings, Christmas lights still twinkled from the fence and the roof line and blue-green lights sparkled in an orange tree as two police officers searched the house.

Sylvia Pardo didn't bring much money to the marriage — just $31,000 a year from a job at a flower-breeding company in El Monte — but she brought a 5-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and almost all the furniture. By all accounts, Pardo was close to his wife's daughter.

Bruce Pardo was making $122,000 a year as an electrical engineer at ITT Electronic Systems Radar Systems in Van Nuys, and together the couple built a nest egg of $88,500 in two years. He often puttered around the house or walked Saki, the couple's big, brown Akita, in a local park.

But by December 2007, Sylvia Pardo was sleeping in another room and spending weekends with her parents, according to court papers. Two months later she told him she wanted a divorce.

Pardo ordered to pay ex-wife $10,000
She filed court papers asking for attorney's fees and $3,166 in monthly spousal support. She claimed her husband had drawn down their $88,500 savings to $17,000 in two months and was transferring funds to a private account.

AP Police show a device that suspect Bruce Pardo brought with him on Christmas Eve. A smaller tank was believed to hold high-octane racing fuel, while the larger of the two tanks had compressed air.

"The situation has become untenable, and continuing the marriage was not an option," she said in court documents.

In July, Pardo lost his job at ITT and soon was drowning in debt while scrambling to find work. He begged the court to grant him spousal support until he could find employment. He complained in a filing that he had monthly expenses of $8,900 and ran a monthly deficit of $2,678. He also had $31,000 in credit card debt and a $2,700 mortgage.

"I was not given a severance package from my last employer at termination and I am not receiving any other income," wrote Pardo, who also was denied unemployment benefits. "I am desperately seeking work."

Instead, the court ordered Pardo to pay his ex-wife $1,785 a month in spousal support, plus $3,570 for past payments. When the divorce was settled, the court waived those payments and Bruce Pardo got the house — but he also had to pay his ex-wife $10,000 and return her valuable diamond wedding ring.

Two days before the killings, he told his attorney he still was trying to come up with the money.

When Pardo's body was found, $17,000 was strapped to it, money he apparently planned to use to fund his escape to Canada.

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