Investigations
Amy Vilardi convicted of four 2015 Pendleton murders
Anderson County detectives reopened the cold case in 2023 with help from Cold Justice.
In Pendleton, South Carolina, a jury convicted Amy Vilardi in February 2026 of murdering her mother, stepfather, and two grandmothers inside their Anderson County home on Halloween 2015. She received four life sentences. Her husband, Rosmore Vilardi, still faces the same four murder counts.
Amy Vilardi placed the 911 call on November 1, 2015, reporting blood and four bodies at the family double-wide on Refuge Road. Deputies found Cathy Scott, Terry Michael Scott, Barbara Scott, and Violet Taylor with stab wounds and single gunshot wounds to the head. Investigators recovered shoe prints, a bleach bottle, and discarded cell phones but no murder weapon, and the case eventually went cold.
Amy Vilardi and Rosmore Vilardi lived next door. Deputies searched their trailer days after the killings and seized about $68,000 in cash and 18 firearms from a bedroom safe. Both failed polygraph tests about the murders but walked free without charges. The couple later renovated the victims' home, moved in, and spent heavily on vehicles before selling the property and relocating to West Columbia.
In 2023, the Anderson County Sheriff's Office reopened the investigation with help from the Oxygen series Cold Justice. Detective Tyler Duncan and investigator Steve Spingola re-interviewed witnesses and dug through old files. Duncan found a Facebook video in which Amy Vilardi and Rosmore Vilardi argued with Cathy Scott on the porch, contradicting years of claims about a close family.
Investigator Spingola matched serial numbers on stacks of cash in Terry Michael Scott's phone photos to bills found in the Vilardis' safe. Duncan compared surveillance footage from a nearby QuikTrip to bloody ASICS Speed Star prints at the scene and identified Rosmore Vilardi wearing the same shoes on the night of the murders. Former friends told detectives Amy Vilardi had threatened violence and resented her mother for years.
On December 20, 2023, detectives confronted Rosmore Vilardi with the shoe and cash evidence at the couple's West Columbia home. That day, deputies charged both with four counts of murder and a judge denied bond.
Jury selection began February 23, 2026 in Amy Vilardi's trial, which prosecutors split from her husband's case. Closing arguments ended February 27, and she was found guilty on all four counts. Rosmore Vilardi remained in the Anderson County Detention Center awaiting trial.
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