Judge denies request filed by daughter in unsolved Anderson Co. quadruple homicide case

PENDLETON, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - On Thursday a judge denied a request by the daughter of a quadruple homicide victim to have the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office release property seized amid the investigation without going to trial.

Amy Vilardi and her husband, Ross Vilardi, filed a motion in 2016 requesting the Sheriff’s Office release more than $100,000 in property taken when search warrants were executed at a home on Refuge Road in Pendleton.

Six months prior, investigators found the bodies of 80-year-old Barbara Scott, 60-year-old Cathy Scott, 59-year-old Michael Scott, and 82-year-old Violet Taylor shot to death inside the home.

The victims were Amy Vilardi’s grandmother, mother, step-father and her step-father’s mother, respectively.

In a lawsuit filed in June 2016, the Vilardis said a substantial amount of property including $60,000 in cash without evidentiary value were seized by investigators. According to search warrants, items seized included nearly two dozen firearms, boxes of ammunition, two vehicles, laptops, video game consoles, cell phones and other electronic mobile devices.

In the summons for claim and delivery, the Vilardis said they have not been linked via DNA or evidence to any wrongdoing in the case and they are entitled to the inherited property.

On Mar. 28, the Vilardis filed a motion requesting a summary judgment in the case - for the property to be released without a full trial. The request states that the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office has had more than 30 days to photograph and inventory cash taken from the property and said it should be returned to them.

A judge denied the motion, saying there are “material and substantial issues” in the case that need to be decided by a trial.

In the judge’s response, it states that all the money in the estate account for Cathy Scott, with the exception of $4,574.83, was spent by the Vilardis and that they said they were “starting to run into the negative.”

The condition of Amy Vilardi’s appointment as a personal representative of her mother’s estate was that “no money would be spent without posting a bond,” the judge said.

“It was a breach of her fiduciary duties to delete the liquid assets of the estate,” the response states.

Stay with FOX Carolina for updates on this developing story.

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