HOLIDAY SPECIAL: The Santa Claus Massacre 1
Murder: True Crime Stories
Crime House
4.6 • 766 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year — but for Bruce Pardo, the holidays brought something far darker. After losing his marriage, his family, and even his dog, Bruce’s bitterness turned deadly. In this first part of our Christmas Crime Special, we meet the Ortega family — a loving, tight-knit clan from Covina, California. When Sylvia Ortega met Bruce, she believed she’d finally found her happily ever after. But behind Bruce’s charming smile was a trail of deceit, neglect, and violence stretching back decades. As Carter Roy guides us through the Ortegas’ story, we uncover how one man’s obsession and thirst for revenge set the stage for one of the most horrifying crimes in Christmas history.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Crime House. |
| 0:10.5 | Happy holidays to all the Crime House listeners out there. |
| 0:14.3 | I'm Carter Roy, host of murder, true crime stories. |
| 0:18.6 | And this is the first episode of Crime House's Christmas Crime Special, the Santa Claus Massacre. |
| 0:26.6 | They say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. |
| 0:31.6 | It's not just about the presents or twinkling lights. |
| 0:34.6 | Most of all, it's about spending time with loved ones and celebrating |
| 0:39.4 | everything we're thankful for. But for some people, the holidays are a cruel reminder of what |
| 0:47.4 | they've lost. Bruce Pardo was one of those people. After years of hiding his true colors, Bruce's dark past finally |
| 0:58.4 | cut up to him by 2008, and the truth cost him everything, his wife, his family, even his dog. |
| 1:08.9 | And instead of holing up alone that holiday season, Bruce decided to take action. |
| 1:16.3 | Slowly but surely he developed a terrible plan, and all he wanted for Christmas was revenge. |
| 1:40.8 | Today we'll meet the Ortega's, a tight-knit Mexican-American family living in Covina, California. |
| 1:47.6 | Growing up, Sylvia Ortega knew true love existed. She'd seen it with her own parents. And when she met Bruce Pardo in 2004, she was certain this was her happily ever after. |
| 1:56.8 | But soon she learned a terrible secret about Bruce, one that shattered everything. |
| 2:03.6 | Next time, we'll learn what happened when Bruce faced rejection for the first time in his life. |
| 2:09.6 | Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, |
| 2:13.6 | he vowed to take revenge on Sylvia and everyone she loved. |
| 2:19.1 | And he chose to do it on what should have been the happiest night of the year. |
| 2:23.9 | Christmas Eve. |
| 2:26.0 | All that and more coming up. |
| 2:37.6 | Based on the worldwide best-selling novel. Why do you want this job? |
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