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Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, 45, dressed as Santa Claus, opened fire at a Christmas Eve family party in Covina and set the house on fire, killing nine people before shooting himself in Sylmar, investigators said.

The Covina Police Department later released logging-tape recordings of the 911 calls placed on Christmas Eve 2008. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Pardo's divorce from Sylvia Ortega Pardo had been finalized about a week earlier. Late on Dec. 24, 2008, he drove to the Covina home of his former in-laws, Joseph and Alicia Ortega, where relatives had gathered for a Christmas Eve party.

An 8-year-old girl who answered the door was shot in the face and survived, investigators said. Pardo carried four 9 mm handguns and a gift-wrapped package that hid a homemade device rigged to spray flammable liquid, which he used to ignite the two-story house.

Neighbors reported the fire, and a wounded survivor who fled to a nearby home told a dispatcher that Pardo was responsible. Firefighters found nine bodies inside. Several were burned so badly that the victims were identified through dental and medical records.

The dead were Pardo's ex-wife, Sylvia Ortega Pardo, 43; her parents, Joseph Ortega, 79, and Alicia Ortega, 70; her brothers Charles Ortega, 50, and James Ortega, 52, and their wives, Cheri Ortega, 45, and Teresa Ortega, 52; her sister, Alicia Ortega Ortiz, 46; and Ortiz's 17-year-old son, Michael. Two other people were wounded along with the girl at the door.

Pardo suffered third-degree burns when the Santa suit caught fire, according to investigators, and he left his rented car about a block away rigged to burn and to detonate roughly 200 rounds of ammunition. He drove a borrowed car to his brother's home in Sylmar, where he shot himself; his body was found early on Christmas morning. An autopsy later found cocaine in his system, and detectives said he had planned to flee to Canada before the fire left him badly burned.