From JonBenet Ramsey to the Carnation Murders, shocking crimes that still haunt the US during Christmas
Christmas has always been considered the season of joy. However, some sensational crimes that led to murders and bloodshed happened during this time in the past. The Covina Massacre, the Ronald Gene Simmons case, JonBenet Ramsey's murder, Za’Zell Preston's murder and the 2007 Carnation Murders still cast a dark shadow on the holiday season.
One of the famous crimes that happened during the Christmas season was the murder of six-year-old pageant queen Ramsey. She was reportedly murdered in her own home during Christmas on December 25 or 26 in 1996 in Boulder, Colorado, as per All That's Interesting.
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Her father, John, found her body in the basement of their house about seven hours after she had been reported missing. The child had sustained a broken skull from a blow to the head and had been strangled. The autopsy report claimed that the official cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma." The case became popular as Ramsey was the daughter of a former beauty pageant queen, Patsy. The crime is still considered a cold case, with police struggling to find the suspect, and remains an open investigation with the Boulder Police Department.
Covina Massacre
The Bruce Pardo Murders, popularly known as the Covina Massacre, happened in the suburbs of Los Angeles on December 24, 2008, at a Christmas party. In this case, nine people were killed through gunshots or in an arson fire inside a house at 1129 East Knollcrest Drive. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, the killer, entered the house disguised as Santa Claus and immediately shot his eight-year-old niece Katrina Yuzefpolsky. He then fatally gunned down all the party attendees. He also brought a package containing the compressor to spray gasoline. After his killing spree, he sprayed gasoline everywhere and set the home on fire. Once the home was on fire, he fled in a rental car to his brother's house in Sylmar.
Later, he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the house. The target was his ex-wife Sylvia. The reason being that he had some details of one of his sons Matthew, who had sustained severe brain damage several years ago in an apparent swimming pool accident. When she found out, her anger over the situation was immense and she also found out that Pardo had claimed the child as a tax dependent for several years. This eventually led to their divorce. The divorce triggered him to gon the rampage, reported CNN.
Ronald Gene Simmons executions
Ronald Gene Simmons was a retired Air Force Sergeant. During Christmas season in 1987, he methodically executed 14 members of his family: six daughters, three sons, two grandsons, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law and his wife. On December 22, just two days before Christmas, he shot his son Gene and his long-suffering wife, Rebecca. Later, he strangled one of his daughters Barbara along with his other children, including 17-year-old Loretta, whom he strangled and held under the water in a rain barrel. The three other children, Eddy, Marianne and Becky, were killed in a similar fashion. After Christmas, on December 26, some of the other family members came in, as per All That's Interesting.
Then he killed his son Billy and daughter-in-law Renata by shooting them. Meanwhile, his grandson Trae was strangled and drowned, then daughter Sheila and her husband Dennis McNulty were fatally shot. Later, he shot his daughter, christened Sylvia Gail, and also grandson Michael. Later, he drove into Russellville and shot dead a young woman named Kathy Kendrick at a law office, as well as a young man named JD Chaffin. Simmons was charged with sixteen counts of murder, found guilty and sentenced to death. On 31 May Arkansas governor (later president) Bill Clinton signed Simmons execution warrant, and on 25 June 1990 he died, as he had chosen to do, by lethal injection, as per All That's Interesting.
Murder Of Za’Zell Preston
As previously reported by MEAWW, Zazell was a 26-year-old mother-of-three. She died after her husband, Wallace, 39, from Anaheim, California, got home from a neighbor's Christmas party in 2011. Later, an argument occurred between the duo. When her husband attacked her in a drunken rage, Preston had allegedly tried to flee, but Wallace had dragged her back in, continuing his attack. Neighbors told the police that they saw Wallace picking up what looked like a dead body. When police arrived, they found bloodstains all around the couple's home, and Preston's body propped up on the couch. However, Wallace claimed that Preston died from injuries after a fall where she hit her head. After he killed Preston, he propped up her lifeless body and lied to the children that their mother had "ruined Christmas" by getting drunk. He put Preston's body on the couch with sunglasses on and had their children open presents around her. These children were then aged three, eight, and one was a newborn.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer reportedly said in a statement. "A young mother finally losing her life after years of violence at the hands of her husband is a heart-wrenching tragedy. That heartbreak is only exacerbated by the fact that her children witnessed much of the violence and were forced to celebrate Christmas in the presence of their dead mother. That is not a Christmas memory any child should be forced to have. We all have an obligation to speak up against violence of any kind, especially domestic violence where the victims are so fiercely controlled by their abusers. The cycle of domestic violence is a vicious one and I want every victim of domestic violence to know that they are not alone. No one should have to live in fear of violence in their own home." Meanwhile, Wallace was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in the 2011 death of the 26-year-old, reported PEOPLE.
The 2007 Carnation Murders
The Carnation murders are one of the most shocking crimes that occurred in the country. The dreadful crime was a mass murder on December 24, 2007, near Carnation, Washington. In this case, Michele Anderson used a family gathering on Christmas as a means to a massacre her family along with her boyfriend Joseph McEnroe. Altogether six of Michele's family members died in the massacre: Wayne Scott, Judy, Scott, Erica Mantle, Olivia and Nathan. Anderson and McEnroe were arrested two days later and were charged with six counts of aggravated first-degree murder. Both confessed to the murders and were only convicted years later, between 2015 and 2016, and sentenced to six lifetimes in prison, reported SportsKeeda.
