Chilling new details have emerged in the execution of a Simi Valley doctor and his wife — their killer son sat in wait to ambush and gun down the beloved couple in their own garage, a neighbor told The Post.
Ketih Cordes drove past the home in his black Honda Civic, then staked it out as he waited for the perfect moment to strike, the neighbor said Wednesday.
“He did like a drive-by, like a dry run at 11:25 and then went and staked out at that cul de sac,” said Mike Hylton, who lives five houses down from the bloodied crime scene.
“Then at 12:01 he must have waited for the garage door to open and that was it,” the neighbor said.
That’s when Hylton’s son heard shots fired, looked outside and saw a car take off. Hylton ran to the couple’s home where he saw Dr. Eric Cordes, 63, and his wife Vicki Schiller, 66, shot multiple times in their garage.
Cordes was shot in the neck and head, and was “hanging out of his Masaratti door jam,” Hylton said.
Schiller was behind him laying on the ground with “holes all over her,” Hylton added.
“I watched them die,” Hylton recounted. Neighbors gathered around the bloody scene as police and paramedics tried to revive the couple.
“When the police got here they tried to revive him. They drug Eric out and tried to do CPR but it was too late for him,” Hylton told The Post.
“He passed right away, she may have lived for another ten minutes or so,” said Hylton.
Less than three hours later police located the Black Honda Civic, that the suspect drove, 70 miles away in Ayala Park in Chino. It had been set on fire and the body inside was badly burned, police have yet to identify the occupant.
The shooter is believed to be Cordes’ son who had been living in Kentucky, according to Hylton. “There was a dispute over money and basically there was a threat and he followed through with it,” Hylton told The Post.
Red smears that appear to be blood stains remain on the sidewalk outside the home’s garage door. While a small vigil with a candle and flowers where left in the driveway.
“They were very loving, very respectful, to the community,” Hylton said. He spent time with the couple going camping and during block parties.
“We used to have cool little block parties. We’d go camping with them in the desert. they had an RV,” Hylton said.
Police have yet to released the name of the suspect or a motive but assured the public the incident appeared to be targeted. There is no ongoing threat to the community, authorities said.
