.....The ex-boyfriend and business partner of a woman who died in the Aliso Viejo explosion this week has been arrested after a destructive device was found in his Long Beach home, but he has not been charged in connection with the explosion, the FBI said Thursday.
Stephen Beal, 59, was charged with being in possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. He appeared in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on Thursday, but his detention hearing was continued until Monday.
Police on Wednesday searched Beal’s Long Beach home on warrants involved in Ildiko Krajnyak's death. They told neighbors to keep a distance during their search in case of explosion.
Authorities found two improvised explosive devices, two handguns, a shotgun, chemical precursors and component parts of IEDs, according to the court filing.
Beal told the FBI he was a model rocket hobbyist but has not touched the rocket-making equipment and chemicals found in his home since 2004, according to the complaint. Beal also said he made fireworks, including mortars, but stopped after Sept. 11, 2001, because he "did not want to make the wrong impression," the complaint said.
Beal also told the FBI he saw reports about the explosion and said that he did not possess the material to create an explosion that large.
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Krajnyak, 48, died on Tuesday when an explosion went off at her day spa in the first floor of a two-story medical office building at 11 Mareblu.
Officers who responded to the scene found human remains outside a broken window and at an adjacent parking lot, according to the complaint. Authorities later determined that the remains belonged to Krajnyak, the complaint said.
Two female customers, a mother and daughter, were also injured. The two were about to pay when one of them noticed three or four brown cardboard boxes on the floor next to the front counter, according to the complaint.
Krajnyak picked up and opened one of the boxes, which exploded, the customer told investigators.
A nine-volt battery, cellphone, loose wires and melted material that appeared to be duct tape were found at the spot where the device is believed to have been set off.