The Missing - A Weekly Exposé of Lost Souls - Issue #26

December 30, 2008

The Mysterious Disappearance of Bryan Braumberger

In this week's edition of "The Missing," we revisit the mysterious disappearance of Bryan Jeffrey Braumberger, an 18-year-old resident of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, who went missing in May 2007.

"The whole thing has just been a total mystery right from the very start," Bryan's father, Ron Braumberger, said in an interview with Investigation Discovery. "The police worked on it for months and it finally got to the point where there just wasn't anything more coming in. There has been nothing new and you can only go so far with nothing."

The events surrounding Bryan's disappearance began on May 31, 2007, when he went to a friend's house in New Westminster, to watch TV and play video games. There was nowhere for Bryan to park his vehicle when he got there, so he parked it next door at a church lot on 8th Avenue.

"When they finished playing games they walked to the church and Brian got into his car," Ron said. "It was about 12:15 a.m. He told his friend he was going home because he had to get up for work the next morning."

The drive from New Westminster to Burnaby would have taken Bryan about 8 minutes; however there is no evidence suggesting that he made it home. A witness later reported seeing Bryan's car, a red 1998 Honda CRX, at about 2:00 a.m., in the vicinity of Austin and Marmount Avenue in Coquitlam; however it remains unclear if it was Bryan's vehicle and whether he was the individual driving it. The location of the sighting is roughly 10 miles from New Westminster.

Later that day, police found Bryan's vehicle abandoned in the staff parking lot of the George Derby Center in the 7500-block of Cumberland Street. The location is about a two-minute drive from his house. Bryan's parents were on their way home from a vacation, so they were unaware of what was happening. The police did not suspect anything was amiss, so they ordered the vehicle towed.

When Bryan's parent's arrived home later that day there was a message on their answering machine from the police, notifying them that their son's vehicle had been towed. Concerned, Bryan's parent's contacted his employer, at which time they learned that he had never made it to work that day. His parents contacted all of his friends and when that failed to provide them with any new information they contacted the police and reported their son missing.

'Santa Suit' Killer's Rampage Leaves Nine Dead in California

December 29, 2008

Due to the actions of a single individual, at least 13 young people have been orphaned following a brutal massacre that occurred in Covina, California, on Christmas Eve.

Last Wednesday, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, 45, donned a Santa costume and armed himself with four handguns and a flamethrower before knocking on the front door of a home owned by his ex-wife's parents.

According to police, an eight-year-old girl answered the door, at which time Pardo shot her in the face. Pardo then burst inside, interrupting a Christmas Eve party with a hail of gunfire. Sixteen of the 25 guests managed to make it outside, while the others, who never had a chance to react, were shot execution-style.

Once he was satisfied with the carnage he had inflicted on the unsuspecting family, Pardo took out a homemade pressurized device that he had disguised as a present and doused the interior of the house with a flammable cocktail made up of high-octane racing fuel and compressed air. Unfortunately for Pardo, his plan hit a snag when the vapor suddenly ignited. It remains unclear whether a pilot light or candle was the cause; however, the ensuing fire caused Pardo to suffer third-degree burns to his arms and legs. The heat was so intense that portions of the Santa costume melted onto Pardo's flesh.

Partygoers who had managed to escape, some with serious injury, immediately called 911 to report the shootings and fire.

"He's shooting my whole family. My mum's house is on fire," Pardo's ex-sister-in-law, Leticia, told the emergency dispatcher. "We need someone immediately. My daughter's been shot. She was shot in the face."

Listen to the 911 callOpen Audio in New Window

Unbeknownst to police and firefighters who arrived on the scene, a severely injured Pardo had already fled the area and was en route to his brother's house in Sylmar, roughly 25 miles from the scene of the shooting.

It took nearly 100 firefighters an hour and a half to finally get the blaze under control. During a walkthrough of the interior, investigators found the charred remains of three victims in the living room area. Not long thereafter, authorities found the remains of five additional victims.

Happy Holidays!

December 25, 2008

While you're here, please be sure to check out two new packages at Investigation Discovery: Top 10 Crime Stories of 2008 and The Shift - an exciting new series that follows a team of homicide detectives at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Posts to this blog will resume on Monday.

We hope you have an exciting and crime-free Holiday!