She received four consecutive life prison sentences as her husband awaits trial.
ANDERSON, S.C. — A South Carolina jury found Amy Vilardi guilty of murdering four relatives in a 2015 quadruple killing that went unsolved for years. Prosecutors said the deaths were tied to money, and the verdict ends one chapter in a case that has haunted an Anderson County family since Halloween.
The conviction lands after a trial that revisited bloody crime-scene evidence, phone records and witness testimony from a case that investigators described as one of the most brutal they had seen. Vilardi was accused of conspiring with her husband, Rosmore “Ross” Vilardi, who will be tried later. The victims were found at a home on Refuge Road near Pendleton, and authorities said there was no sign of forced entry.
The four victims were Cathy Scott, Michael “Mike” Scott, Barbara Scott and Violet Taylor. Investigators said the bodies were discovered Nov. 2, 2015, inside the house on the family’s property. Coroner Greg Shore testified there was no sign of a struggle or forced entry and said the killings likely happened Oct. 31, 2015. At the time, Amy Vilardi told reporters she went to check on her family and found them dead.
Prosecutors urged jurors to focus on finances as they built their case. They said the couple was behind on bills around the time of the killings and pointed to testimony that Mike Scott was known to keep large amounts of cash at home. Investigators later found more than $60,000 in a bedroom safe, prosecutors said. In court, the state also highlighted a text exchange pulled from Vilardi’s phone that prosecutors said showed planning around Nov. 1.
During the trial, jurors saw photographs from the scene and listened to the only 911 call tied to the case. In that call, Vilardi is heard describing blood inside the home and telling the operator that the victims felt cold. Witnesses from the sheriff’s office and the coroner’s office described the response that day, including body-camera video and still images that showed a bloody interior. People in the gallery wept at times as the state replayed pieces of the first hours of the investigation.
Investigators and prosecutors also leaned on physical details from the house. The state told jurors about an impression believed to be from a sock or shoe made by someone who stepped in blood and walked through parts of the scene. Prosecutors said the pattern was consistent with a specific type of athletic shoe they argued Vilardi owned, but they said the shoes themselves were never found. They also emphasized that none of the victims were wearing shoes or socks, a point they said mattered when interpreting what was left on the floor.
Much of the case centered on what detectives said happened in the days after the killings. Prosecutors told jurors that Ross Vilardi paid a landlord $8,000 in cash shortly after the deaths. They also said the couple talked about moving into the victims’ home within days, framing it as a sign that the crime was linked to property and money. The defense challenged that framing and argued the state’s story depended heavily on inferences rather than a single piece of direct proof.
The state called a former cellmate, Jackie Phillips, who testified that Vilardi spoke about the killings while in custody. Phillips said Vilardi admitted involvement, but defense attorneys pressed her about differences between what she said on the stand and what she told investigators earlier. In one recorded interview played for the jury, Phillips used wording that suggested two people, then later corrected herself in court. Under questioning, Phillips said she was repeating what she claimed she was told.
On other days of testimony, jurors heard about items collected over the years and what happened to them. An investigator testified that authorities found numerous firearms during a search connected to the case, and jurors were shown images. In cross-examination, the defense asked whether those weapons were tied to the killings. The investigator said that, to his knowledge, they were not. He also testified that some firearms were later returned to owners after a court order.
The case was dormant for years after the 2015 deaths, and the delay became part of the story the jury heard as the trial unfolded. Investigators renewed public attention to the case in later years, while the family continued to wait for an arrest. When charges were eventually filed against Amy and Ross Vilardi, authorities said they would explain more in court rather than in public statements. In South Carolina, such long gaps between a homicide and an arrest are unusual but not unheard of in cases where evidence develops slowly.
After the guilty verdict, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson praised jurors and prosecutors for working through what he called a decade-old case and said he hoped the result would bring closure to relatives who lost loved ones. The Anderson County sheriff also described the verdict as a long time coming. The conviction means Amy Vilardi will spend the rest of her life in prison under four consecutive life sentences.
Attention now shifts to Rosmore “Ross” Vilardi, who is charged in the same deaths and will face his own trial at a later date. A judge ordered separate trials for the couple, and court dates for Ross Vilardi were still pending as the verdict against Amy Vilardi came down. Prosecutors have said they will continue to rely on financial records, digital evidence and witness testimony as the remaining case moves forward.
For the community around Pendleton, the trial reopened memories of a crime that stunned neighbors and investigators. The victims were older members of a family that lived close together on the same property, and the home on Refuge Road became the center of an investigation that stretched nearly a decade. The lack of forced entry and the closeness of the victims to the suspects were key facts investigators emphasized from the start.
In court, the state asked jurors to see the case as a story of planning and opportunity. The defense pushed back, arguing the evidence did not prove who carried out the killings and when. Jurors ultimately sided with prosecutors, returning guilty verdicts on all four counts of murder.
Author note: Last updated March 1, 2026.