South Carolina woman charged with murder of four family members 'believed she would inherit $100,000'

Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion is advised.

PENDLETON, SOUTH CAROLINA: Amy Vilardi and her husband Ross have been arrested and charged with the 2015 murders of Amy's mother, Cathy Taylor Scott, 60, her grandmother, Violet Taylor, 82, her stepfather, Mike Scott, 58, and Mike’s mother, Barbara Scott, 80.

During their recent court appearance, Amy and Ross Vilardi were denied bond. Exclusive court documents obtained by Daily Mail now reveal a chilling possible motive for the heinous crimes.

It is claimed that the couple believed Amy would inherit $100,000, which included properties in their home. This revelation has left the rural community of Pendleton in shock as the victims and their alleged killers both resided here.

Potential motive behind couple’s murders revealed

Half a year following the murders, Vilardi and her husband initiated legal action against the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, seeking the return of seized property from search warrants executed at the victims' residence.

Notably, the Vilardis’ trailer and storage facility, owned by Vilardi's husband, contained $88,500 in cash and other items they argued did not have evidentiary value.

This inadvertently triggered a prolonged legal battle over Vilardi's grandmother’s estate, as family members intervened to prevent her and her husband, married just eight weeks after the murders, from receiving any inheritance.

Court documents revealed that the legal dispute unearthed questionable financial transactions preceding the murders, possibly leading Vilardi to mistakenly believe she was the sole heir to $105,000.

It's noteworthy that Vilardi's grandmother, Violet, inherited a substantial sum from her late husband in 1985.

Family members, including Vilardi's uncles and mother, transferred their interests to Violet, who was helped by her daughter Cathy Taylor Scott (Vilardi's mother) when it came to financial matters.

Eighteen months before her murder, Violet granted power of attorney to Cathy, who, on August 14, 2014, withdrew $75,000 from money market accounts and an additional $40,000 from a savings account, placing the former in a checking account in her own name, and the latter in a joint checking account with her mother.

One of the last checks from that account was a $11,426 check made out to Duckett-Robinson Funeral Home, a prepayment for Violet’s funeral expenses.

Vilardi's 911 call reporting the bodies of her family members came a little over a month later.

Detectives, working under the assumption that the victims knew their killers, described the nature of attacks as "very aggressive and personal." Sheriff Chad McBride, upon the arrests, stated, "I think we knew this day would come."

He added that the elderly women were shot as they emerged from their bedrooms, following the shooting of Mike Scott in the lounge. Cathy, however, managed to escape to the master bedroom, per the detectives, but was then followed and shot twice.

Amu Vilardi admits she argued with her mother

Vilardi acknowledged that she had arguments with her mother leading up to her death, preventing the older woman from seeing her six- and four-year-old grandchildren, despite their close physical proximity.

However, she downplayed the disagreement, describing it as a typical family spat.

In television interviews, the 40-year-old mother of two wept, seeking "answers" from investigators and expressing disbelief at how the killers could "live with" themselves.

At the time of her mother’s death, Vilardi served as the sole legal representative of the estate. While Vilardi believed the estate to include a substantial sum due to being granted power of attorney by Violet, a ruling by Anderson County Judge Martha Newton on May 3, 2018, contested this notion.

Newton noted that the only funds that went into Cathy's account from Violet's originated from inheritance, social security retirement, pension benefits, and accrued interest.

Three years after the murders, the judge found that Cathy Scott had "breached her fiduciary duty" by transferring money from accounts she did not contribute to. 

The money Vilardi sought to claim as Cathy’s heir was determined to belong to Violet and was to be distributed to her surviving children, Amy's uncles David and Roger Taylor.

In a separate legal matter, a second lawsuit revealed that nine months before losing the claim to Taylor’s estate, Vilardi and her husband faced a breach of contract lawsuit in August 2017.

They were sued by a couple to whom they had agreed to sell the double-wide trailer where the victims lived and their neighboring single-wide trailer, which Vilardi used for a dog grooming business.

Court documents revealed that the Vilardis were accused of pocketing a $10,000 deposit and failing to provide the agreed-upon deeds.

The case was ultimately dismissed in October 2019 after Vilardi sold the property to the couple for $63,750.