The Garden of Eden. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leib. And this is Ghost Town.

At 140 a.m. and Monday, September 2, 2002,

Los Angeles PD and firefighters received a call for a vehicle on fire.

At 11600 Woodbridge Street.

It was normally affluent, even sleepy area of studio city in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

As they approached, officials were shocked to encounter a Mercedes SUV engulfed in flames and quickly began extinguishing the fire.

Through the smoke, firefighters began to see inside of the car, making out two bodies, bodies riddled with bullet wounds.

The men inside were Michael Tardio and Christopher Monsun. Best friends whose perplexing murders would include playboy centerfolds, famous jewels, a man named Mr. Big and a Hollywood Ponzi scheme.

Today, we're talking about the mysterious homicides of Michael Tardio and Christopher Monsun.

35 year old Michael Tardio was living the life. Having moved from New York to LA in 1998,

the 35 year old was a model, supplementing his income with a steady gig as a dormant at the Garden of Eden.

At the time, Hollywood's hottest nightclub on 7080, Hollywood Boulevard.

His best friend was 31 year old actor Christopher Monsun, who had his own side hustle, running his family's storage unit business.

Quote, both young men came from successful families, said LA Times Crime Reporter Andrew Blankstein, Michael Tardio, he's kind of living the fast life.

While they were up for a party, for sure, these best friends were also clean-cut, responsible, and considerate, and genuinely pretty down to earth.

Which is why when their bodies were found half burned and shot execution style in Michael's Mercedes, parked in an upper class and quiet part of the valley, it was so shocking.

Investigator Bill Cox recalls how the scene was brutal and frustrating. Quote, there was no identifiable fingerprints found on there.

There was no really usable evidence, he says. None of the people that lived in the neighborhood had heard any shots at all.

Because of this, the theory formed that the best friends were shot somewhere else, and then brought to Studio City, placed in the car, and the car was later lit on fire.

As the word got out, investigators and friends wondered who would do this to Michael and Chris.

But they loved the club scene, and investigators surmised that their circles might have had their fair share of sketchy individuals.

But still, the two guys didn't roll that deep with people that they didn't trust.

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