Woman who gave emotional interviews about family’s ‘gory’ murders in 2015 now arrested in their deaths

A South Carolina woman who had given emotional interviews in 2015 about the murder of four of her family members — including her own mother — has now been arrested for the “gory” quadruple homicide.

Amy Vilardi and her husband Rosmore “Ross” Vilardi were taken into custody Friday and charged with four counts each of murder in connection with the bloody Halloween slayings that authorities said “rocked the Anderson County community to its core.”

Amy, who lived at the time on the same property as the victims, but in a separate house, was the one who called 911 on Nov. 2, claming to have stumbled upon the blood-soaked scene.

A few days later, she sat down with the television station WYFF4 and described the moment she said she found her loved ones’ bodies.

“When I went to knock on the back door, the door just pushed open so I walked in and it was dark and I just flipped the light on and there they were. They were just… they were there,” a seemingly shaken Amy said, with her husband sitting beside her.

“I don’t understand why any of it has happened and I just keep thinking it’s a dream I’m going to wake up from,” she lamented. “Whoever did this, I don’t see how you can live with yourself.”

Amy, left, and Rosmore “Ross” Vilardi, right, who appeared in emotional interviews after the 2015 murders of the woman’s for family members, have now been charged with the killings.
Amy Vilardi, from South Carolina, faces four counts of murder. Anderson County Sheriff’s Office SC
Rosmore “Ross” Vilardi faces four counts of murder. Anderson County Sheriff’s Office SC

The Vilardis are accused of killing Cathy Scott, 60; Mike Scott, 59; Barbara Scott, 80, and Violet Taylor, 82, in the victims’ home in Pendleton.

Cathy Scott was Amy’s mother, and Violet Taylor was her grandmother. Mike Scott was Cathy Scott’s husband and the son of Barbara Scott.

Each victim had been stabbed to death and then shot post-mortem at least once, law enforcement officials said.

“They were senselessly and brutally murdered,” Anderson County Sheriff Chad McBride said in a press conference announcing the couple’s arrests. “It was a bad scene. It was probably what some of our folks would probably say was one of the worst things they’d ever seen.”

Cathy Scott, 60, Amy Vilardi’s mother, was killed on Halloween 2015 in Pendleton, South Carolina.
Mike Scott, 59, was Cathy Scott’s husband.
Barbara Scott, 80, was Mike Scott’s mother.
Violet Taylor, 82, was Amy Vilardi’s grandmother.

“It was gruesome. It was gory. And it was just a devastating scene to see,” he added.

In another interview at the time with the news station 7News, Amy said her murdered relatives were “wonderful people” who “just didn’t deserve this.”

Over the intervening years, the Vilardis have denied any connection to the killings.

All four victims were found stabbed and shot in their home on Nov. 2, 2015, two days after their killings.

Despite their protestations of innocence, the pair were named persons of interest in the killings back in March, reported Fox Carolina.

“I think we knew this day would come,” McBride told reporters Friday.

The sheriff declined to say what led investigators to finally collar the Vilardis at their home in Columbia after eight years.

“Some things have to be preserved for our day in court,” he said. “Anything I say, as far as details, the other side can use against us.”

Vilardi, right, said in interviews that she was the one who found her loved ones’ bodies and called 911.

Likewise, no motive was given for the mass slaughter.

The Vilardis made their initial court appearances Saturday and were ordered jailed without bonds. They are due back in court on Feb. 20, 2024.