The gruesome discovery initially puzzled police: a Mercedes sport utility vehicle engulfed in flames on a quiet Studio City side street and, inside, the bullet-riddled bodies of two young men with no known ties to the area.
Detectives eventually came to believe the slayings had nothing to do with gangs or drugs. Instead, they seem to have been the fallout from a bizarre drama involving a Playboy cover model, a $40-million Wall Street investment scam and a botched attempt to sell as much as $700,000 worth of jewelry purchased with ill-gotten funds.
To different degrees, the victims -- nightclub doorman Michael Tardio, 35, and his friend Christopher Monson, 31 -- were peripheral players in this larger story. But their unsolved slayings on Sept. 2, 2002, are perhaps its most bitter footnote.
Tardio had driven to the San Fernando Valley the night before, according to Robert Bub and Brian Tyndall, detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery Homicide Division, to sell the jewelry on behalf of pin-up girl Sandy Bentley, who was his girlfriend at the time. Monson was just along for the ride.
In an effort to generate new leads in the case, detectives are making some details public this week for the first time. Today, they plan to hold a press conference, at which they will announce a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any suspects.
Members of the victims' families remain surprised that the two men were involved at all. Tardio, a former model who had lived in the Los Angeles area since 1998, and Monson, an aspiring actor who ran a self-storage business in Culver City, moved comfortably in the exclusive echelons of the L.A. club scene, a universe populated by its share of dodgy characters. But friends and police said neither man was known to live a dangerous, fast-lane lifestyle.
"Here's my brother, who dies in a very kind of murky situation, who by and large was a really good guy," said Michael's older brother, Neil Tardio Jr. of Los Angeles. But in this case, Neil Tardio said, his brother "was in over his head."
Michael Tardio reportedly knew that his errand would entangle him further in the complicated love life of Bentley, who police said is not a suspect in his death.
The blond, 5-foot-9 professional model and her twin sister, Mandy Bentley, cemented their status as minor celebrities with their appearance on the May 2000 cover of Playboy. They generated more attention by dating the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner, and living with him at his mansion in Holmby Hills in 1999 and 2000.
