COVINA, Calif., Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Police say a California man who killed nine people Christmas Eve had $17,000 in cash and a plane ticket to Canada when he was found dead after the massacre.
Covina, Calif., police said Friday that investigators found the cash strapped to Bruce Jeffrey Pardo's body. The plane ticket was for a Christmas Day flight.
Pardo, 45, burst into a house dressed as Santa Claus at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police searching the burned out house -- where Pardo allegedly shot party-goers while spraying racing fuel and setting the place on fire -- said they found a ninth body Friday.
All but nine of the 25 people attending the party at the home of Pardo's ex-wife's parents had been accounted for, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Covina Police Lt. Tim Doonan said investigators found four empty handguns at the scene of the massacre.
Police found Pardo dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his brother's house 40 miles away in Sylmar, Calif. Covina police said Friday Pardo's body had third-degree burns on both arms and the Santa Claus suit had melted onto his skin, the Times reported.
Pardo's ex-wife, Sylvia, 43, and her parents, Joseph Ortega, 80, and Alicia Ortega, 70, are believed to be among the dead, whose bodies were so badly burned they will have to be identified using dental records, the newspaper said. Two other shooting victims, an 8-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, survived with minor injuries.
Police said a rental car Pardo allegedly used to drive to and from the crime scene contained a booby-trapped pipe bomb that exploded Thursday as bomb squad personnel investigated a suspicious package in the vehicle, parked near Pardo's brother's home.
The device, a trigger that lit a flare, was attached by a wire to a Santa suit in the car. No one was injured when it went off, police said.
