http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID =5065145
this is a possibility
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID =5065145
this is a possibility
<br />Petulance...it's a bitch.
Joe and Alice Ortega - who owned the home where the tragedy occurred - this picture was taken at their 50th wedding anniversary party:
A family photo that partially survived the fire :
You poor children. [size=11pt]After Christmas Eve killings in Covina, grief[/size]
By Jason Song, Hector Becerra and Cara Mia DiMassa
December 28, 2008
The Ortega home, a tidy, one-story structure at the end of a Covina cul-de-sac, had been at the center of so many family events: pizza nights, poker parties and an annual Christmas Eve party where the large, close-knit family gathered to celebrate the holidays.
On Saturday, it was a place for grief. Leaning toward the yellow police tape that encircled the ruins of the home, family members wrapped their arms around each other. They gestured at items that had been salvaged and laid on the front lawn: a file cabinet, charred photo albums and singed pictures. They bowed their heads. They wiped away tears.
Three days earlier, the ex-husband of one of the Ortegas arrived at their holiday celebration dressed as Santa Claus and armed with four semiautomatic weapons and an incendiary device. When he left, nine family members were dead and the house was engulfed in flames.
Members of the Ortega family declined to speak to the media Saturday. But friends and neighbors described them as a family that reveled in togetherness. Whether it was betting on a horse race and splitting the winnings or going en masse to donate blood when a friend's child was ill, the Ortegas did things together.
"If you were a friend of any of them, you were a friend to all of them," said Linda Perez, who has known the Ortegas for eight years.
The idyllic togetherness was shattered Wednesday night by Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, who later drove to his brother's house in Sylmar, booby-trapped his rental car and killed himself.
Covina police Saturday released the names of the nine people they believe perished but who have not been officially identified by the coroner's office: Pardo's ex-wife, Sylvia Pardo, 43; her parents, Joseph and Alicia Ortega, 80 and 70 respectively; three of her four siblings, James Ortega, 52, Charles Ortega, 50, and Alicia Ortiz, 46; James' wife, Teresa Ortega, 51; and Charles' wife, Cheri Ortega, 45; and Michael Ortiz, 17, Alicia Ortiz's son.
[size=12pt]The slayings left 15 children without one or both parents.[/size]
The patriarch and matriarch, known as Papa Joe and Alice, were at the center of the family's life. Papa Joe wore a different baseball cap almost every day; Alice doted on her two dogs, a mutt and an Alaskan husky.
"She'd always say, 'Que lindo,' and would baby talk to them," said Robert Magcalas, a neighbor who still had on his kitchen table the stocking and Christmas card he was planning to give the Ortegas. "You could tell she really cared for them and was a nice lady."
Immigrants from Torreon in the north-central Mexican state of Coahuila, the Ortegas bought the Covina house in 1982. Three years ago, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Torreon. Photos ran in the El Siglo de Torreon newspaper, with Joseph and Alicia Ortega beaming and surrounded by sons and daughters.
On Saturday, the newspaper reported that the couple married 53 years ago in Torreon and soon after immigrated to the U.S. Javier Garza, editorial director of the newspaper, said Alicia Ortega's family is well known in the city. The children of Alicia's sisters "are well-respected businessmen," Garza said.
Mitzie Avery, who lived next to Charles and Cheri Ortega in West Covina, said that she and her family had joined the Ortega family for previous Christmas Eve celebrations. She remembered them as loving and always considerate.
"When you walked into a room, every one of the Ortega kids would get up and give you a kiss and a hug," she said. "When you were leaving, they would come up and say goodbye. They were the most respectful family I'd ever known. It all started with Joe and Alice."
Friend Linda Perez described a family trip last year with 15 Ortegas to the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.
Papa Joe played blackjack and poker; Alice spent most of her time playing quarter video poker. "She could sit there and play for hours," Perez said.
Perez said Bruce Pardo stuck out a bit at Ortega get- togethers because he was "quieter than everyone else. But he really wanted to belong. He really embraced the family gatherings."
Pardo's mother, Nancy Windsor, 72, still reeling from the events of the last few days, her eyes red-rimmed from crying over the ghastly deaths of her son and those killed Christmas Eve, echoed the sentiment about the family's welcoming spirit. She said she had spoken over the phone with Sylvia Pardo's son from a previous marriage, Sal Castillo, in the aftermath of the shooting.
"I will say this to you," said the sobbing Windsor, who has been living out of a suitcase since last month when her home at Oakridge Mobile Home Park was destroyed in the Sylmar fire. "I will compose myself in a moment.
"It would have been so easy for that family to hate me. And Sal was just so wonderful. He said, 'We love you, and you're family.' I love them so much. And it's very hard this has happened."
I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to. - Donnie Darko
oh my GOD. He took out that whole goddamn family......how sad. I feel even sadder now KNOWING who the people are and seeing how close the relations are. That is horrible. 15 children???? Good lord. What a tragic Christmas. Well, I hope that all people affected by this, not just the poor girl who was shot in the face, can move on from this one day.
Does anybody know the relation of the 8 year old girl?
From one of the articles up thread.
The 8-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl who was shot in the back survived and were transported to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The 16-year old is the daughter of Pardo's ex-wife and has been discharged from Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. The 8-year-old, who is also a relative, was in stable condition today in the hospital's intensive care unit, said County-USC spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda.
"She's alert, she's doing fine. They're doing whatever they can so she's not more traumatized than she is already," De La Cerda said. A social worker has been called to help the girl, who has been visited by her mother.
Originally Posted by bowieluva
[quote author=oohsofaabulous link=topic=17847.msg1130918#msg1130918 date=1230459748]
oh my GOD. He took out that whole goddamn family......how sad. I feel even sadder now KNOWING who the people are and seeing how close the relations are. That is horrible. 15 children???? Good lord. What a tragic Christmas. Well, I hope that all people affected by this, not just the poor girl who was shot in the face, can move on from this one day.
Does anybody know the relation of the 8 year old girl?
[/quote]
He missed one of his ex-wife's sisters, Leticia (who made that frightening 11-minute 911). The 8-year-old girl is Leticia's daughter (niece of Sylvia, the ex-wife).
[quote author=MorbidlyLovely link=topic=17847.msg1130976#msg1130976 date=1230476926]
He missed one of his ex-wife's sisters, Leticia (who made that frightening 11-minute 911). The 8-year-old girl is Leticia's daughter (niece of Sylvia, the ex-wife).
[/quote]
That was one of the most horrifying and sad 911 calls I have ever heard.
The dispatcher did an excellent job trying to keep her as calm as possible under the circumstances.
I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to. - Donnie Darko
Where is this 11 minute 911 call? Link please.
I'm firewalled at work, thank God, because I couldn't handle listen to this but I believe you can hear it here:
http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/N...p;pageId=3.2.1
Reading the below description of it was horrendous enough. I don't know how I feel about 911 calls being released. Exploitative? If I'm sobbing and watching my family getting slaughtered, does the public need to hear that?
On the other hand, it drives it home. The unthinkable tragedy and misery.
Description of the call:
COVINA, Calif. -- A survivor of a horrific shooting at a Christmas Eve party frantically begged an emergency dispatcher for help as she hid in a neighbor's house, her daughter wailing in the background with a gunshot wound to the face, according to a 911 tape released by police Friday.
"He's still shooting out there," the woman sobbed, describing how her ex-brother-in-law was armed and dressed in a Santa suit. "He's shooting my whole family! My mom's house is on fire!"
The tape was released two days after Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, armed with four guns and a fuel-spraying device, killed nine people at his ex-wife's parents' home during a holiday party in Covina. He later killed himself at his brother's home, police said.
The caller was at the party but escaped to a nearby home after Pardo barged in and opened fire. She told the dispatcher her name was Leticia, but her last name could not be heard through her sobs on the noisy 11-minute tape.
"I have a feeling I know who it is," she said, and identified the shooter as her former brother-in-law. "They're going through a divorce right now."
She told the dispatcher that Pardo came to the door dressed in a Santa Claus suit, started shooting and "everyone started panicking and running," diving under the dining room table to hide.
Asked who was at the party, the woman said there were at least 25 people in the house. She listed her husband and two daughters, nephews, nieces and a girlfriend - "that's half my family!" she cried.
The woman and the neighbors saw the shooter "knocking out the lights on the street" and told the dispatcher that he had changed out of the Santa suit.
"We can't allow him to come into this house. We've got to lock all the doors!" she said.
Her daughter had been shot in the side of the face and was bleeding. When the girl started to whimper and wail in pain, the woman comforted her: "It's OK, mami."
The devastation and panic she was feeling was evident in her voice.
"I can't believe that he did this to my family. I just have this feeling in my stomach," she moaned, breaking down. "I'm trying to keep it together here."
[quote author=deathbecomesme link=topic=17847.msg1131335#msg1131335 date=1230505457]
I'm firewalled at work, thank God, because I couldn't handle listen to this but I believe you can hear it here:
http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/N...p;pageId=3.2.1
Reading the below description of it was horrendous enough. I don't know how I feel about 911 calls being released. Exploitative? If I'm sobbing and watching my family getting slaughtered, does the public need to hear that?
On the other hand, it drives it home. The unthinkable tragedy and misery.
[/quote]
I'm of two minds about such stuff being released too. In addition to being exploitive, I also wonder what it does to any "accused" getting a fair trial. I realize that won't be a factor in this case, unless they decide there was an accomplice or something. But looking at the Casey Anthony case and all the stuff that's out there tainting a potential jury pool. I just don't know.
[quote author=puzzld link=topic=17847.msg1131354#msg1131354 date=1230506428]
I'm of two minds about such stuff being released too. In addition to being exploitive, I also wonder what it does to any "accused" getting a fair trial. I realize that won't be a factor in this case, unless they decide there was an accomplice or something. But looking at the Casey Anthony case and all the stuff that's out there tainting a potential jury pool. I just don't know.
[/quote]
Oh, yea, the whole fair trial angle. Brilliant point.
Not just for this case or the Anthony case but for any. The entire country is now just one giant tainted jury pool.
I don't really know why it's necessary to release the 911 call. I mean, it's just exploitive and horrible, listening to other people's terror and pain. (I wil not be tuning in) The guy is dead, what's releasing it going to do?
And I read this article on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/27/santa.shooting/index.html
The man who police say dressed as Santa Claus and killed nine people at a Christmas Eve party lived with guilt from an incident that left his son from a previous relationship a paraplegic, according to an attorney who once represented the woman in that relationship.
Oh well now it totally makes sense that he would shoot an eight year old in the face. He sounds like he really carried that guilt around and developed empathy for the human race.
[quote author=nestlequikie link=topic=17847.msg1130859#msg1130859 date=1230449068]
A family photo that partially survived the fire
[/quote]
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID =252928029
Think this is the kid in the burned picture?
[quote author=mydeathspace link=topic=17847.msg1131530#msg1131530 date=1230516041]
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID =252928029
Think this is the kid in the burned picture?
[/quote]
He hasn't logged in, nor has the one *boogins* posted.
Wonder if the kid had two pages?
[quote author=deathbecomesme link=topic=17847.msg1131363#msg1131363 date=1230507038]
Oh, yea, the whole fair trial angle. Brilliant point.
Not just for this case or the Anthony case but for any. The entire country is now just one giant tainted jury pool.
[/quote]
I still believe the truth will set you free.
[quote author=aquatwins link=topic=17847.msg1131743#msg1131743 date=1230532269]
I still believe the truth will set you free.
[/quote]
Yeah, so will blowing your brains out after your explosive device malfunctions on you.
[quote author=bowieluva link=topic=17847.msg1131747#msg1131747 date=1230532423]
Yeah, so will blowing your brains out after your explosive device malfunctions on you.
[/quote]
I mean if you truly are innocent obviously this guy was not.
[quote author=aquatwins link=topic=17847.msg1131749#msg1131749 date=1230532597]
I mean if you truly are innocent obviously this guy was not.
[/quote]
Yeah. That's why this place does such a land office business.
http://www.innocenceproject.org/
Cops: 'Santa' gunman planned to kill his mom
Ex-wife's attorney was apparently also a target in Christmas Eve massacre
The Associated Press
updated 5:23 a.m. MT, Tues., Dec. 30, 2008
COVINA, Calif. - The man who killed nine people at his former in-law's Christmas party while dressed as Santa Claus had plotted the attack several months ago and his hit list was longer than first thought.
Police said Monday that Bruce Pardo planned to also kill his mother and his ex-wife's divorce attorney but committed suicide before he could complete the task.
Authorities said his plan was thorough and detailed. Pardo had a getaway car, an airplane ticket to the Midwest, several guns, and high-powered ammunition only sold outside the state.
He launched the attack on Christmas Eve, putting on his Santa Claus suit, arming himself with four guns and barging into a party at his ex-relatives' home. He then killed nine people and torched the home.
Police Lt. Pat Buchanan said Pardo knew his mother had been invited to the party and intended to kill her because he felt she sided with his ex-wife in their divorce. Lucky for her, Buchanan said, she felt ill and opted to stay home.
His ex-wife's attorney also was apparently a target. Police Chief Kim Raney said Pardo left a rented vehicle near the attorney's Glendale home the day of the shooting and filled it with maps, clothes and a fuel tank.
But Pardo never made it to the vehicle. He was burned while torching the in-law's house and later killed himself at his brother's home.
If Pardo had lived, "his next destination was Glendale," Raney told hundreds of mourners who gathered at a local school Monday to offer each other comfort.
'Senseless act'
The residents, many wearing orange ribbons to remember the victims, gasped as Raney explained the latest details of the investigation. Raney pledged he would "try to bring sense to what was a senseless act."
The quiet community of backyard pools and wide boulevards was still coping with the bizarre and violent crime. Elderly women took notes on city officials' remarks from the meeting and women wiped tears from their eyes during a prayer.
Mayor Kevin Stapleton asked residents to respect the privacy of the surviving family members and their neighbors.
"I know people want to go by and see the location. But keep in mind that people live there and we need to get them some return to normalcy," Stapleton said.
County mental health counselors and trauma specialists distributed pamphlets and referrals, while neighbors hugged and shook their heads in grief and confusion.
David Singer, a psychiatrist and volunteer trauma therapist, advised parents on how to talk to children who might be confused and frightened by the idea of Santa Claus committing such a horrible crime.
"He was so full of hate that he had to disguise his hate by dressing up as someone full of love — Santa Claus," Singer said.
Pardo had planned to eventually flee to Canada following the killing spree but suffered third-degree burns in the fire — which melted part of the Santa suit to him — and decided to kill himself instead, investigators said. His body, with a bullet wound to the head, was found at his brother's home about 40 miles away.
500 rounds of ammunition
The rented compact car he had driven to his former in-laws' house was rigged to set off 500 rounds of ammunition and later exploded outside his brother's home. No one was injured.
Police found a second car rented by Pardo late Saturday, but Buchanan said the bomb squad did not find any explosives in that vehicle.
Not far from the school, the charred remnants of the destroyed home still smelled of smoke. A pile of votive candles, flower and stuffed animals lay outside a chain-link fence protecting the site.
Jill Amparan placed a bouquet of flowers on the curb and said a prayer with her friend, Elizabeth Chavez. Still dressed in their scrubs after leaving their jobs at a medical clinic, the women expressed anger at Pardo's actions.
"People die every day but the way this happened is awful," Amparan said.
Chavez said her 9-year-old daughter has been riveted by the story of a man dressed as Santa Claus committing such a horrible crime.
"She brought a newspaper article to day care to show her teacher," she said.
The whole incident left both women wondering what made Pardo so desperate to get back at his ex-wife by hurting the ones she loved.
"He had a house, friends, family and a church community. That's supposed to help you when things get bad," Amparan said.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28423942/
Man, this guy sucked so fucking hard.
Ex-wife's friend: Gunman distant after wedding
Sylvia Pardo’s best friend struggles to understand Christmas Eve slayings
The Associated Press
updated 7:12 p.m. MT, Tues., Dec. 30, 2008
POMONA, Calif. - When Roxanne Jauregui heard on Christmas Day that there had been a horrible shooting on her best friend's street in Covina, she picked up her cell phone and called her soul mate of 30 years to get some firsthand details.
She didn't realize her friend was among the victims.
Sylvia Pardo and eight of her immediate family members died late Christmas Eve when Pardo's ex-husband donned a Santa Claus suit, burst into a holiday party on a shooting rampage and then torched his former in-laws' home.
Police said later that Bruce Pardo likely planned to kill his own mother and his wife's divorce attorney as well before fleeing, but he suffered third-degree burns in the fire and committed suicide at his brother's house.
Calls her cell phone every day
Jauregui still calls Sylvia Pardo's cell phone every day. She knows she will never get a call back, but she needs to hear her friend's voice, a cheerful message that's full of the laughter that defined her personality and their friendship.
Sometimes Jauregui leaves a message — part therapy, part habit.
"I have to live with her death and now I have to live with how it happened," said Jauregui, who was close to her friend's whole extended family. "It replays in my mind, that night — I just picture it. And I can't run to her parents, I can't run to her sister. There's no one left."
Jauregui, 43, first met Sylvia Pardo when the two girls were 13 and growing up in Monterey Park, just east of Los Angeles. She accompanied her friend's large family on annual camping trips to Sequoia and King's Canyon National Park and spent weekends dancing with her at disco clubs and house parties in the San Gabriel Valley.
The two kept in touch into adulthood and remained inseparable. Sylvia Pardo would call Jauregui every day on her way home from her job in El Monte as an administrative assistant at a flower-breeding company, and the two women saw each other regularly for shopping, drinks and dinners.
Smitten with Pardo
When Pardo met a new man, a tall, handsome electrical engineer, Jauregui said her friend was immediately smitten. She was attracted by Bruce Pardo's good looks and his education and loved that he was talkative and had a good sense of humor. Jauregui and her husband went on double dates with the new couple and found him charming and sweet.
The relationship progressed quickly, Jauregui said, and the two were married in January 2006. In photos, the two are grinning and cuddling by a swimming pool — Bruce Pardo looking fit and tan — or posing in formal attire at a fancy dinner.
But almost immediately after the wedding, things changed. Jauregui said her friend would call her distraught and said that her husband had become withdrawn and indifferent within months of their nuptials. He resisted opening joint bank accounts and insisted that they keep their money separate. He was no longer affectionate or attentive, she told her friend, and seemed to expect her to provide for her three children from previous relationships without any help.
"She told me, 'I don't think he loves me anymore,' and I said, 'Just ride it out and we'll see,'" Jauregui said. "But it didn't get better — they just kept growing apart."
The final straw, Jauregui said, was when Sylvia Pardo discovered tax papers that indicated her new husband had a son from a previous relationship that he hadn't told her about. She confronted him and he denied it, so she called his mother, who told her Bruce Pardo had a son who was severely disabled after falling into a pool and almost drowning.
Bruce Pardo was supposed to have been watching the boy when the accident occurred, his mother told Sylvia Pardo.
Revelation was devastating
The revelation devastated Sylvia Pardo — who had hoped to have a child with him — and she told her husband she wanted a divorce. He barely reacted, she would later tell Jauregui, and calmly moved her belongings to the curb and told her to move out.
"How can you marry somebody and not know a secret, that there was a child, a hidden child?" Jauregui said. "She thought she was his first wife and would have his first child. She wanted his child."
After Sylvia Pardo moved out, she talked less and less about her estranged husband, but the two women were closer than ever. Jauregui last saw her friend four days before she died — and two days after her divorce was finalized.
The two women and another friend spent all day shopping in Chino Hills before going for drinks and dinner and then attending a company party at Sylvia Pardo's brother's house. All of Sylvia Pardo's extended family was there, Jauregui recalled, and they huddled around a fire pit together eating pozole and reminiscing about old times as the party rolled on around them. Sylvia Pardo was looking forward to putting the divorce behind her, and they made plans to spend New Year's Eve together.
"She really reveled in the fact that we'd been friends 30 years. She said, 'Isn't that special? Isn't that great?'" Jauregui said.
Last-minute change of plans
The family invited Jauregui, her husband and their two teenage children to their traditional Christmas Eve bash in Covina, but at the last minute Jauregui and her husband decided to attend midnight Mass instead.
Jauregui now shudders when she thinks how things could have turned out differently. She keeps tracing the floor plan of her best friend's childhood home in her mind, wondering where she was when she was gunned down — and knowing she wouldn't have been far from her soul mate's side.
"If he didn't care about her or her mom and dad, he certainly didn't care about me. We wouldn't have made it out alive. We wouldn't have had a chance," Jauregui said, mascara streaking down her cheeks from her tears.
"It just goes through your mind: What was she thinking at that moment when she looked in his eyes?"
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28440671/page/2/
[quote author=mydeathspace link=topic=17847.msg1131530#msg1131530 date=1230516041]
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID =252928029
Think this is the kid in the burned picture?
[/quote]
Yes, I can confirm that is his myspace. And my camera's memory card is corrupt and i cannot find the usb cord otherwise you guys would have pictures of the house.
An update on the survivors on the 5th anniversary last Xmas -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/1...#slide=3270290
Surviving Family Members Cling To Holiday Traditions
By TAMI ABDOLLAH 12/25/13 04:53 AM ET EST Leticia Yuzefpolsky,
Bruce Pardo Santa Suit Murder, Covina Police Department, Covina Santa Suit Murders, Ortega Family Santa Suit Murder, Santa Suit Slayings, Los Angeles News
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Five years after a man dressed as Santa Claus massacred nine members of her family on Christmas Eve, the surviving daughter of the Ortega clan worked to master her mother's pozole recipe to serve at a traditional family dinner that's now forever tinged with tragedy.
The recipe was one from Leticia Yuzefpolsky's childhood and a reminder of festive meals she hadn't enjoyed since Bruce Pardo walked through the door of her parents' home outside Los Angeles five years ago, killed her family and burned the place down. In a matter of minutes, Yuzefpolsky lost nearly everyone she'd looked up to: her parents, two brothers and two sisters. Her two sisters-in-law and 17-year-old nephew also died.
But she was far from alone in her losses. Thirteen sons and daughters lost at least one parent that night in Covina, a suburb about 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Yuzefpolsky, the youngest of five children, became the reluctant matriarch, maintaining the tight-knit family's traditions and happier memories. The remaining family meets for dinner, exchanges gifts and shares memories.
A Christmas Day trip to church now is followed by a trip to the cemetery.
Pardo, her former brother-in-law, had carried a small arsenal of guns and fuel to torch the family's home that Christmas Eve. It was part of a plan triggered by his ex-wife's decision to divorce him. An FBI profile found that his actions were likely spurred by extreme narcissism and obsessive compulsive disorder.
When Pardo was severely burned in the attack, he ditched his elaborate getaway plan and killed himself with a gunshot to the mouth.
Meanwhile, Yuzefpolsky's family scrambled to pick up the pieces. With his parents dead, one nephew became the guardian of his three minor siblings. Yuzefpolsky and her husband took in her sister's youngest daughter.
Her then-8-year-old daughter Katrina was wounded by a gunshot to the cheek after Santa came to the door.
Yuzefpolsky worked to save Christmas for her kids ? telling them that wasn't the real Santa ? and calling friends from the hospital to make sure gifts were put under their tree. The kids were later sent to a camp that helps with grief.
For Yuzefpolsky, now 41, years of therapy have helped, though she still suffers from some anxiety and nightmares.
"I lost my identity completely," Yuzefpolsky said. "I always used to tease them that I have five sets of parents ... everyone telling me what to do and how to do it. I can't even tell you how much I miss them."
An overwhelming but hard-to-describe feeling of loss often sneaks up on her, especially in December.
"Everywhere you turn there are memories of what we used to have, and then memories of that night. You can't escape it," Yuzefpolsky said. Christmas "will always be there, and we continue to celebrate it."
The family has been especially touched by others' tragedies, particularly during the holidays. When a Connecticut woman lost her three daughters and parents in a house fire two years ago, Yuzefpolsky encouraged her daughters to write letters to the woman. Last year, when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Newtown school, they again wrote letters.
"Katrina usually writes: 'It'll be hard, but just have hope. Don't give up,'" Yuzefpolsky said.
That's most likely the family's abiding message.
"We have to keep moving in our everyday moments," she said. "There are those moments we think we've been through the worst so this cannot break us."
For the small Covina Police Department, whose officers responded to one of Los Angeles County's worst mass murders, memories also persist. The 10 detectives who worked the case all remain with the department. Some of them sometimes swing by the now-empty lot where the murders took place, sure they can still smell the smoke in the air.
The case ? with its house fire, many crime scenes and multiple victims on a rainy holiday ? has proven to be a teachable moment for other departments around the country.
And though the active investigation wrapped up roughly three years ago, the department continues to keep in touch with family and survivors] pursuing leads and following up on details ? especially around Christmas.
Rental car after explosion
Charred suit rigged to explode
Sylvia & Bruce in 2007
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