August 10, 2023 • 34 mins
Ildiko Krajnyak, having just returned from a visit to her family in Hungary, finds herself on the cusp of a life-altering moment as she opens a seemingly innocuous package, only to be thrust into a realm of near-instant vaporization by a devastating explosion.
Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack unfurl the intricate threads of Stephen Beal's connection to Ildiko Krajnyak. They delve deep into the captivating dynamics that once defined the relationship between Beal and Krajnyak, former lovers and business partners, and explore the deadly explosion that tragically marked their intersecting paths.
Alongside this narrative, Joe Scott and Dave illuminate facets of the human psyche, the complexities of relationships, and the intricate artistry involved in crafting lethal devices.
Time Codes:
00:00:20 - Joseph Scott Morgan introduces the potential inside a package, setting the episode's tone about potential energy and explosive themes, hinting at a devastating event where a package almost vaporized its opener.
00:03:20 - Stephen Beal, with his obsession as a model rocket hobbyist, is introduced as the episode's main subject.
00:04:20 - Dave Mack delves deeper into Beal's progression from model rockets to destructive explosives, he touches upon the mysterious circumstances surrounding Stephen's first wife, suggesting a potential link to Ildiko Krajnyak's case.
00:07:38 - Joe Scott discusses the challenges of assimilating into a new culture in the context of Ildiko, a Hungarian woman who was very attached to her family.
00:08:20 - Dave Mack elaborates on the professional relationship between Stephen and Ildiko Krajnyak after their romantic split with reflection on the complexities of maintaining business ties after a personal relationship ends.
00:10:40 - Dave gives insights into Ildiko Krajnyak's new romantic affiliations and Stephen's continued obsession with her. He narrates the tragic event when Ildiko was nearly vaporized after a package exploded as she opened it.
00:15:22 - Joseph Scott Morgan recalls a gas explosion from his past, shedding light on the horrors of such incidents. Dave Mack offers a riveting survivor's perspective on enduring an explosion.
00:18:31 - Morgan walks listeners through the investigator's precise methods in an explosion's aftermath, describes the challenges, and highlights the complexity of the task.
00:20:09 - The Olympic Park bombing is referenced, emphasizing the enduring trauma of explosion victims.
00:22:57 - Morgan describes the significance of minutiae at a crime scene, explaining the process of triaging survivors and securing a scene after an explosion, highlighting the potential of everything as evidence.
00:24:14 - Mack decodes the investigative process post-explosion, including deciphering the intended victim. The intricacies of blast trauma and bomb residue in forensic science are explained.
00:30:41 - Discussion of the complexities of constructing a lethal device with common materials, with emphasis on the importance of knowledge and access to the environment where the device will be placed.
00:32:07 - Dave Mack points out the immediate suspicions about Stephen Beal after Ildiko Krajnyak's tragedy and highlights the strategic search at Beal's residence, leading to explosive discoveries.
00:34:23 - Joe Scott Morgan expresses his suspicion over Beal's claim that he did not have the materials to create an explosion that large, pointing out the length of time it took for this case to make it through the system
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. Think about packages just
for a second. Is there anything more exciting than the
potential of what's contained inside of a package? And when
I say package, I'm not talking about some kind of
(00:29):
fancy envelope that arrives from whatever carrier where you kind
of rip that seal off of it. I'm talking about
a package where you've got something that's arriving from either
a department store, or you've got it coming to you
as a birthday gift, or maybe even Christmas. You look
at a Christmas tree and you think about all of
(00:50):
the brilliantly wrapped packages, and the one word that comes
to mind is potential. Why is that going to talk
about potential? We're going to talk about potential energy, because
when you unwrap a package there could be anything in there.
For today's discussion, we're going to talk about a package
(01:14):
that was so devastating when opened that the poor soul
that opened it was almost vaporized. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan
and this is Bodybacks Dave Mack. When I was a
little boy, the thing I always wanted and was never given.
(01:38):
I'm a grown man. I still think about this I
ought to go out and buy it right now. I
always wanted an ST's rocket set, and for some reason,
those that had parental control over me never trusted me.
I guess they thought I was going to put my
eye out or blow something up. But I always wanted
an ST's rocket set. I always had visions, you know.
I came up just like you when the moonshot was
(02:00):
going on, and it was fascinating to me because with that,
I saw what could happen when this thing was initiated
and would go up in the air. I've always been
fascinated by going to fireworks shows. I just took my
family down to our favorite place in the world, an
island off of the shore of Alabama, Barrier Island, called
(02:20):
Dauphin Island, and we sat down there and watched the
Fourth of July fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico, which
is an astounding thing to see reflected there in the water,
that explosive event where you see the chemistry literally brought
to life because of all of the different chemicals that
are contained in these explosions. So I've always been fascinated
by this. But you know, this case that we're talking
(02:43):
about today, it involves somebody that was, in a more
sinister sense fascinated by explosions as well.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Stephen Beale is a man who is an actor, claims
to be and many other things in his career, but
the biggest one is a model rocket hobbyist. He actually
claims to have had one of his model rockets achieve
Mack two. But safe to assume that Stephen Beal has
(03:12):
been a man consumed with model rockets and realizing that
to send a rocket up, you've got to have an explosion,
a controlled explosion, and that would kind of lead you
down the path of explosives bombs, which is where this
story comes into play. Stephen Beal was involved in a relationship.
(03:35):
So Ildigo and Stephen had been dating for a while,
and Ildego is this beautiful, vibrant Hungarian and they met online.
He had been married previously showed Sochi, and Stephen Bial's
first wife had passed away in an odd way. It
was some mystery surrounding that there was.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Can I interject something real quick because talking about chemicals here.
One of the things about Stephen Beale's first wife's death
there was alleged to have been the substance of lead,
the element lead involved in her death. But the medical
examiner slash Corner never could come to a conclusion. They
(04:15):
just said, I've seen it quoted as mysterious circumstances. Right.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
The thing is part of the reason they had trouble
with it is Steven Beal would not cooperate with the investigation.
He would not cooperate with her doctors, he would not
cooperate with the coroner. He would not cooperate with investigations.
When somebody dies unexpectedly, there is an investigation. When it
came right down to it, they never were able to
(04:41):
come up with a suitable finish. So it was left
open pretty much. And we'll come back to that in
a minute, because it will come back into play, believe
it or not. So we have Stephen bial and his
girlfriend Ildego, and they both have a passion. They live
in southern California, by the way, we're talking about Orange County,
Long Beach in that general vicinity, and together they open
(05:04):
a spa day spa. At this spa, there are a
number of people who actually are there because of Ildego
and her relationship with Hungary, her family coming from Hungary,
and her friends. You come from another place, you tend
to gravitate towards those you have a similar background in language.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I've been out to La many times to do television
shows and everything, and you know who I find many
times that are limo drivers that I come in contact with,
are people that are part of the Albanian culture. And
I've gotten to know several of those people find people,
and I would have imagined that there is probably what
do they refer to it as a diaspora of Hungarians
(05:45):
that are located there as well. And you're right, they
get together in like this little clutch. And because Lord
have mercy, just looking at the spelling of her name,
it it'd be difficult to pronounce. I can only imagine
how hard it is to assimilate. You want people that
can actually enter. Would you speak your own language and
remind you of home?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And you've pointed out speak your own language and remembering home,
and that all plays into this as well, because Ildigo
was very attached to her family, and in May she
actually had gone and spent time in Hungary, her native nation.
Want to back up to Stephen Beale and miss Ildego,
(06:22):
they had been in a relationship, but the relationship fell
apart after they opened the spa. It was kind of
a compact period of time here between the relationship beginning
and the spa opening. Happened fairly quick and they were
both all in, but the relationship broke down. Stephen Beale
and Ildigo were no longer a couple, but they were
(06:43):
still partners in the spa. But Stephen was more of
a silent partner. He wasn't really there much, but he
had a key. He still had a key, that's what
allowed him access to the spa while missus Ildego had
gone back to Hungary to visit her mother and other
family men.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
What a kind of an interesting dynamic that two people
would be involved in this kind of romantic relationship and
then this kind of dissipates. They break up for whatever
reason at this point in time, but you still have
a business relationship. And I know that there are other
relationships out there like this, But how awkward would that be?
(07:21):
Because whatever friction existed romantically, you have to think that
it's going to probably bleed over into the business relationship.
And I don't know anything about running a day spa,
but I would imagine much like a restaurant it's something
that you have to have attention on, like twenty four
to seven. You're always thinking of it, just to keep
the thing afloat.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Ildigo was actually a licensed cosmetologist and Stephen Bill was not.
Stephen Bill was a part time actor and businessman and
rocket hobbyist, but he had no background in cosmetology. He
had no background in running a spa. Ildigo did. So basically,
she was the license cosmetologists heading up the spa and
he was just a partner in the business because at
(08:05):
the time they started it, they were a couple romantically linked,
and when that broke down, Ildigo had moved on and
she was dating somebody, certainly at least one romantic rival
for Steven Bial, and Steven Bial was not really moving on.
He said he was, but not really. He was pretty
obsessed with her. So when Ildigo comes back from her
(08:27):
trip to Hungary, she's in the spa and there's plenty
of mail. There were a couple of boxes, a bunch
of letters, and there were two of her Hungarian friends
who were also there at the spa that morning, and
it was in that moment when she was checking the
mail that Ildigo picked up one of the boxes and
opened it. The forty eight year old was blown up
(08:48):
by opening this box. It was such a big explosion
that when investigators looked at it when they first got
the call about an explosion, they thought gas line or
something along those lines. When they got there and found
out it was a box that had something in it,
they're like, this is not an accident. The two other
(09:09):
women were injured, but Ildigo was killed pretty much you
mentioned vaporized. It happened real fast, and at forty years old,
she was dead.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah. And when you begin to think about bombings, you
think about a kill radius. And we've seen this over
the years. We've been at war for a long time
as a country and unfortunately, and I personally have have
had former students of mine that have died as a
result of improvised explosive devices overseas. And you know, they
talk about a blast radius. Sometimes you'll hear the term
(09:40):
kill radius and how much of that energy travels outward
and can really wreak havoc. But when you begin to
talk about an explosive device that goes off inside of
an enclosed space, that's a completely different dynamic. But Dave,
I know this, when that explosion initiated. I can tell
(10:03):
you who wasn't there, Stephen William Beal. I always have
(10:25):
trouble pronouncing some of these names in southern California. I
don't know what it is. Dave. I know you're from
southern California originally and from the OC. I believe I've
always wanted to say that in a conversation.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Joe, I actually lived about a mile and a half
from where this house was in Long Beach, where Stephen
Bial's house.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Was, well, where his house was, but I think the
SPA was in a place called Alicio vheo. Is that
how you pronounced it vio in southern California in the OC.
And yeah, mister Stephen Beial, actually he was a Long
Beach resident and tobacco a little bit. We have to
understand that this case has been ongoing for some time now.
(11:05):
We're talking about roughly five years down range when this
thing is finally adjudicated. This occurred in the morning on
May fifteenth, twenty eighteen, and I can just imagine you're
hanging around the firehouse, you're a local firefighter, and then
all of a sudden, the bell starts cleaning and you're
(11:25):
getting reports that are rolling in to the fire station
where they're saying there has been an explosion. There's actually
been an explosion, and the fire department. I know the
police will show up, but the firefighters in this case,
these are the people that are right on point, because
when you think about explosion, one of the first things
(11:46):
you think about, other than the devastation that takes place
as a result of the initiation of this event, is
going to be associated fire and then having to triage
any injuries that might be there. And of course the
fire department is uniquely equipped to do this. All these guys,
most of them are at some level in paramedical training,
whether it's an EMT or a full on paramedic. So
(12:10):
when they arrive at this location, there is what's referred
to and you'll hear this in bomb investigations. They see
from Jump Street that this is what they have what
they call a debris field. So you've got these fragmented
bits and pieces that are everywhere. Interestingly, when you roll
up on a building and you see a structure that's
(12:32):
kind of blown out like this, the first thing you're
going to think of is not a package bomb, a
mail bomb. You're going to think gas Maine explosion. And
you know, Dave, I don't think I've ever mentioned this
on the podcast. I actually worked a case, and this
is early on in my career. Again, I was still
in the New Orleans area when this happened. We had
a family that had gone off on vacation and they
(12:55):
had a brick ranch home. One of the eyes on
their gas of and had been left on and the
house was filled with gas and there was mail stacking
up on the front porch of the house. Their male
person had come by and kind of checking status to
see who was there. And when the doorbell was wrong,
(13:18):
that was enough. That was an initiator because of the
current that it set off a blast that literally leveled
this brick home. That's how powerful a gas explosion is,
and it took it down to it literally took it
down to the slab. There were homes damaged. Of course,
the person that rang the doorbell was deceased, and you
(13:38):
have all of these types of events that occur like this.
The first thing you're going to think of when you're
a firefighter and you're rolling out, you're hearing explosion is
not going to be package bomb. It's just that's not
on your radar. I mean, you've heard about them, but
most of the time you're thinking that this is some
kind of gas main leak that happens.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
We tend to see things on television and movies and
have a certain visual that applies to seeing an explosive.
In reality, it doesn't happen that way. You're not watching
for it, your eyes are not trained on it. It's
something that happens, like in this particular case. I was
reading one of the victims who survived, and she said
(14:20):
that her back was turned. She didn't see when when
Mozildiago List lifted the box or opened it. She didn't
see that. But she described what she did see, and
it was a bright light and it was being pushed
into a wall, and it was a dramatic recounting of
something she didn't see. What she knew when arriving on
a scene and you we've got fire and police body
(14:42):
parts were found in the parking lot. What does that
tell you? From the outside looking and showing up at
the scene. Where do you start in examining the deceased?
Do you start with the foot in the parking lot?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Well, you secure it. That's the most important thing, any
kind of well, anything there. It's not just simply the
anatomical elements that are torn apart, that are torn to
shreds in this environment. From an investigative standpoint, every bit
of fragment that's out there has the potential to lead
(15:18):
back to an explanation. We're not talking suspect at this point.
We're talking explanation because that's what you want to know.
What happened. What brought this about is hey, look we've
got one explosion. Is there a chance that there will
be another explosion? So we have to be very careful
out there and what will occur. I know that many
(15:38):
people have seen over the years when you watch crime
shows and all these sorts of things, you see these
little evidence markers that we put out. Lots of times
there are these little yellow tents. They're made out of
heart plastically have numbers on them. What happens with a
debris feel this big many times is that instead of
little yellow markers, many times you'll have various colored little
(16:00):
flags that are placed out there, and each color will
denote a different type of item. Let's just say you
have a biological sample that's there, maybe you'll put a
green flag by that. And when I say biological sample,
it could be like, for instance, a part of the
limb that's you can look at and say, okay, that's
a hand. Or you could look down and just see
(16:22):
kind of a little mound of what appears to be
red tissue, and that might be say, thigh muscle, but
you have no idea what particularly it is, but it
has some kind of resemblance to something that may have
originated from a body, and you get this kind of
commingling of all of this debris. So if you've got
(16:43):
mortar where it's been holding together bricks, and this building
does have a brick facing on it, and glass and metal,
so you'll get this kind of commingling of all of
these different items. You might have a bit of muscle
that's immediately adjacent to a bit of brick, So you
could have little flags all in one particular area, dependent
upon what you're looking for. And there were two patrons
(17:07):
inside of this place, who, by the way, have never
been named. There's no need to name them by the courts.
But I can't tell you this, these two unfortunate ladies
that were in there. From what I understand and what
has been put forward. They have been scarred for life,
and that's not unexpected. You know, my office worked the
infamous Olympic Park bombing back in nineteen ninety six, And
(17:31):
for my money, I don't want to go chasing rabbits
here in this conversation, but I will say that one
of the biggest heroes of all time was Richard Jewell.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The guy that they blamed for it at first.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, the guy that they blamed for it. And because
he reoriented that device at that particular time when he
recognized it, a lot of lives were spared. But we
did have one victim of the blast that died as
a direct result of the initiation of that device. But
you know, we don't hear about all of the victims
(18:02):
that were there at Centennial Park that night that were
maimed for life, that will carry scars for the rest
of their life. So well, there are there were other
people that were grievously injured that were out there. And
when you have that kind of event that goes on
in that environment, if you have these eye or ear witnesses.
(18:22):
You mentioned this one lady that didn't see it, but
she apparently felt it and her back was to it.
I think she may have been in another room and
she actually talks about this force that knocks her down.
That's a real important part of the mechanics of an
explosion because there's multiple elements.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
You.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
First off, when you think about explosions, you have potential
energy and what does that mean. Well, say, in this
particular case, you have a box that is sitting there.
It's not doing anything, it's not necessarily inert, but it
has to have a triggering mechanism. So we have potential
(19:04):
energy that is sitting there, and when that thing is
released is released and that trigger mechanism takes place, then
the explosion initiates and you have a sequence that goes
through it. Where in this particular case, a non volt
battery was actually used as the little electrical charge and
(19:25):
that's really all that it took. And Dave, you know,
in this case, in this debris field, it's hard to
imagine for me it is because, yeah, people think I'm
a detailed person because I'm an investigator by trade, but
when it gets down to these little fine points, it's
frustrating to me. They actually found the body half of
the body of a non volt battery that was still
(19:46):
contained at the scene. And you know what else, This
thing was so powerful that the wiring that was used
in this blast, in this device, if you will, was
blown up into the ceiling and they actually recovered that wiring.
And so when you're looking at this from an investigative standpoint,
it looks like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, and you don't
(20:08):
know what is actually it contains value and what doesn't.
What's going to point to a reason as to what
happened at the scene, But everything has a certain level
of importance to it. Where to begin is a question
(20:45):
I think that many people have asked over the years.
When you have an explosion event that occurs, the starting
point is obviously is to triage everybody is there. That
is that anybody that survived this event. You think that
is going to have the potential to make it out alive.
You get them out of there soon as you possibly can.
(21:06):
But after that, Dave, everything has potential to be evidence,
and everything is treated that way and the scene is
immediately locked down.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
This happened. Police were thinking on their way to the scene.
Before they get there, they know they've had an explosion,
and so they're thinking gas line or and again it
does come up in discussion, what's the possibility we're dealing
with somebody committing an act of terror, but is it
a car bomb? They didn't know, but when police arrived,
(21:36):
when investigators arrived on the scene, they knew based on
the severity of Ildego's injuries and the size of the blast.
They knew right away or believed based on experience that
it was a homicide, that this was an intentional act.
Now they just had to determine why she the intended
(21:57):
target or was it somebody else where it took place,
and who was holding it. And immediately they look at
and once you've determined a homicide, who are the closest
to you're looking at husband's boyfriends, things like that. And
you mentioned the wire and the nine bolt battery, and
that really was a huge part of their investigation because
the wire was embedded in the ceiling. So as part
(22:20):
of their investigation of putting all this back together, they
start at the bomb. But now they're doing background work
on her relationships and who else benefited from this type
of an act of aggression. You're the forensic guy. You
know there's a bomb. We can all tell it was
a bomb, but don't you have to be able to
(22:41):
examine the body of the victim here and determine what
actually caused their demise. It's not enough to say that
she was blown up. It has to be more than that,
because you have to figure out what was the bomb
made of so you can figure out who built it?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Right, Yeah, you do. The body is going to reveal
blast trauma. Remember, she's the one that has opened this
package day, that has initiated the sequence. Her body, her
clothing that that remains will have what's referred to as
bomb residue on every bit of her.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Is that similar to like the stippling we get when
somebody puts a gun up against somebody's body, against their skin.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, it can be. It can also be. It has
a real close familial chemical familial context to gunpowder residue
testing GSR. It's the same principle. You go into an
environment and you're checking to see if they have powder
residue on them. In this case, we're talking about a
variety of different chemicals that were actually involved in this
(23:49):
case where you have things that are well, let me
kind of give you the view of it. What we
do know is that there was a substance that Beal
had access to that. Have you ever seen a magician
that would take what's referred to as flash powder and
kind of throw it down and smoke kind of goes up. Well,
(24:10):
there's a chemical that he had access to. That's the
name of it is potassium perchlorate. And so it is
a flash powder. And what this means is that you
actually see in percussion caps with gunfire. Okay, so the
little cap that's in the base of a bullet, in
the base of an ammunition, similar composition, and it's an
(24:30):
unstable compound. It burns very quickly, and that's what you
want when you're initiating a firing sequence.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
When you say unstable versus stables, that mean it can
just go off if you bump it.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
No, it's not like liquid nitroglycerin or something I'm just
talking about. When it's initiated. It has to be initiated
with like fire being applied to it or electricity. In
this case, it was an electric current. It's going to
go off really quickly because it burns so quickly, and
it's kind of chemically unstable when compared to to say,
for instance, black powder, which was found at mister Bill's residence.
(25:06):
It's a bit more stable, but highly more explosive. This
is the trick trying to understand how to mix all
of these chemicals and understand. Bill was an amateur rocket guy,
like we mentioned Dave. Reportedly, he has launched rockets that
were so large that it required a team to assist him. Now,
(25:27):
he would go out in the desert in California, which
there's a lot of desert out there, and some of
these rockets, these homemade rockets that he built, were as
tall as a house. Just kind of wrap your mind
around that that a private citizen would build one of
these things. And I think it's grand that people can
do that if they know what they're doing and all
(25:48):
of that. But you mentioned the speed at which that occurred,
the velocity of these things. I think you had mentioned
mock too. I had heard certainly upward above mock one
relative to the rate at which these things were ascending.
But he also had a background. He was a pyrotechnic
(26:09):
enthusiast as well, which means that he dealt with fireworks.
And I would imagine if he was in the movie
industry thinks he's an actor that sort of thing. Maybe
he was an actor. I have no idea, but maybe
he had some experience in that realm as well. But
you have to understand the composition when you begin to
think about this flash powder when combined with not just
(26:32):
black powder, but there's also a substance out there referred
to as red gum, which is unique in that it's
used as a binder in fireworks. And this is the
thing about it, and it is so fascinating from scientific standpoint.
Red gum and black powder are both organic substances, which
means that they're made from some base materials that are
(26:55):
out there that are like red gum essentially hence gum.
It's actually extracted from a plant and has been known
for years and years. So that's an organic substance. So
when you're trying to do your chemical testing and you
do these chemical swabs that they do, you know where
they'll apply it to a surface. If you get a
hit on this, then you say, oh okay, well this
(27:16):
chemical is here. You do another hit and maybe you'll
find some kind of inorganic substance that's kind of chemically constructed,
made in a laboratory like this. It's not really it's
more refined, and you combine those two things. You say, well,
I have these two elements out here that I know
that when combined, create a hell of an explosion. And
that's what happened in this particular case. When he loaded
(27:38):
up that box with this explosive mixture that he had
and he initiated this thing with the battery, all hellbro clues.
Here's another thing that's from an investigative standpoint. You can
have wire, you can have a nine volt battery, you
can have all of these various chemical elements that are
(27:59):
out there. But if you don't know how to construct
this thing, that's a problem because it's just all of
those elements in and of themselfs are not necessarily going
to be lethal. But it's putting all of these pieces
together and then going into an environment which you have
access to, placing it amongst all the other male that's
(28:22):
there on ac counter. And you know she's coming. What'd
you say that she's just taken a trip to Hungary, had.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
She Yeah, she had been in Hungry visiting family, and
this was my understanding her first day back, and that's
why the two women were there for their small treatment.
And it was early enough in the day that she
still had her mail, and because her business partner and
former love interest Steve and Bill had a key to
the facility, during the investigation, they were able to figure
(28:47):
out a lot. But you know, I wanted to point
out something, Joe. And this is a common practice in investigators.
When somebody's dead and you know it was an intentional act,
as they believe from the beginning on this, they immediately
start looking at close associates, love interest And in this case,
you have the ex boyfriend who talking to a few friends,
(29:09):
they find out he was very obsessed with her and
she has begun dating other people. He suspect here, Stephen
bial is immediately somebody they're going to look into. So
we're talking a day after this bomb went off. The
day after the police show up at his house with
a warrant. They want to look around.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
How many people do you know in your little circle
have experienced I mean real experience with explosives where they're
building rockets and they're doing pyrotechnics, and do you know
that many people around you? And so as an investigator,
this is an excellent point. You know, here this lady
(29:51):
who originates from Hungary, she's been in a romantic relationship
with a guy that builds rockets and has access to
explosives and if thing by asking him about it, he
can simply say, oh, yeah, I'll build rockets or I
like to do fireworks, and people say, oh, okay, well
that explains a lot.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
It explains everything, but it also points wait a minute,
your ex girlfriend and business partner got blown up, Well
who are the possible people? And immediately he's right there.
So they go on search his house. And this is
one of those police things that I'm sure that within
your your realm of your sphere of influence and talking
(30:29):
with investigators that I bet y'all have some funny discussions
about we're gonna we're gonna get this guy. We're gonna
just trip him up a little bit. Because when they
went to his house, they already knew so much. But
when they went to his home in Long Beach, a
search warrant was served and Joe. They found it mostly
in his garage, but some inside the house, about one
(30:52):
hundred and thirty pounds worth of explosives. They found a
seven foot tall rocket, They found own rocket making equipment,
two containers of potassium percalora. I don't know how to
say it is that on the periodic table. I don't know.
My table's got pizza on it. So you've got the
(31:12):
tube container. You mentioned the red gum. He's got two
containers of that and at least three containers of black powder. Now,
according to the affidavit, Bill told detectives he saw media
coverage of the explosion and claimed he did not have
material to create an explosion that large.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, it would raise suspicions for me. And that's what's
so fascinating by about this case is that it took
so long to make it through the system. We're talking
about twenty eighteen, and what Bill was engaged in rises
to a federal crime. You've got the FBI getting involved,
the ATF, who arguably the premiere organization that investigates fires
(31:55):
and explosions. That's kind of their Baileywick, if you will,
and not to mention, you know, all of the other
associated groups where you've got people, certainly in southern California
that are very well equipped to handle events like this,
And you think about who has this kind of knowledge,
who has access to these materials, who has the ability
(32:16):
to gain access to a location where he knows that
the intended target would be able to put her hands
on this thing that's going to create this event. And
of course he's nowhere around the area when this thing initiates.
He's the owner of the business. She hasn't been around
for a few days. They got mail that stacked up.
(32:36):
There's CCTV footage of him at any number of times
going back and forth into these locations, which I think
played a key role because you're putting him in that
location as he is entering this building and this sort
of thing, and then he knows because you know, this
guy blows things up in big open areas. You've been
(32:57):
to a firework show. These things are done in a distance,
they're out in an open area. But Dave, here's what
actually brought about her death. The fact that this potential
energy that was contained within this bomb was contained within
a structure. So you've got a bomb contained in a
(33:18):
box and the box is contained in a structure. This
is what's referred to as a pressure event. You've got
this intense pressure. If you've ever seen anybody shake up
a bottle of just champagne and then pop the cork on,
the pop goes, the cork goes flying off in the distance,
that's very minimal when you think about the pressure that
is initiated. That pressure from that device going off is
(33:41):
trying to seek that location where it can free itself
into the open air and it will eventually dissipate, but
it has to travel this course that goes through furniture,
through a desk, through a wall, and ultimately through the
body of an innocent victim. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and
(34:05):
this is bodybags.
Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. Think about packages just
for a second. Is there anything more exciting than the
potential of what's contained inside of a package? And when
I say package, I'm not talking about some kind of
(00:29):
fancy envelope that arrives from whatever carrier where you kind
of rip that seal off of it. I'm talking about
a package where you've got something that's arriving from either
a department store, or you've got it coming to you
as a birthday gift, or maybe even Christmas. You look
at a Christmas tree and you think about all of
(00:50):
the brilliantly wrapped packages, and the one word that comes
to mind is potential. Why is that going to talk
about potential? We're going to talk about potential energy, because
when you unwrap a package there could be anything in there.
For today's discussion, we're going to talk about a package
(01:14):
that was so devastating when opened that the poor soul
that opened it was almost vaporized. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan
and this is Bodybacks Dave Mack. When I was a
little boy, the thing I always wanted and was never given.
(01:38):
I'm a grown man. I still think about this I
ought to go out and buy it right now. I
always wanted an ST's rocket set, and for some reason,
those that had parental control over me never trusted me.
I guess they thought I was going to put my
eye out or blow something up. But I always wanted
an ST's rocket set. I always had visions, you know.
I came up just like you when the moonshot was
(02:00):
going on, and it was fascinating to me because with that,
I saw what could happen when this thing was initiated
and would go up in the air. I've always been
fascinated by going to fireworks shows. I just took my
family down to our favorite place in the world, an
island off of the shore of Alabama, Barrier Island, called
(02:20):
Dauphin Island, and we sat down there and watched the
Fourth of July fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico, which
is an astounding thing to see reflected there in the water,
that explosive event where you see the chemistry literally brought
to life because of all of the different chemicals that
are contained in these explosions. So I've always been fascinated
by this. But you know, this case that we're talking
(02:43):
about today, it involves somebody that was, in a more
sinister sense fascinated by explosions as well.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Stephen Beale is a man who is an actor, claims
to be and many other things in his career, but
the biggest one is a model rocket hobbyist. He actually
claims to have had one of his model rockets achieve
Mack two. But safe to assume that Stephen Beal has
(03:12):
been a man consumed with model rockets and realizing that
to send a rocket up, you've got to have an explosion,
a controlled explosion, and that would kind of lead you
down the path of explosives bombs, which is where this
story comes into play. Stephen Beal was involved in a relationship.
(03:35):
So Ildigo and Stephen had been dating for a while,
and Ildego is this beautiful, vibrant Hungarian and they met online.
He had been married previously showed Sochi, and Stephen Bial's
first wife had passed away in an odd way. It
was some mystery surrounding that there was.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Can I interject something real quick because talking about chemicals here.
One of the things about Stephen Beale's first wife's death
there was alleged to have been the substance of lead,
the element lead involved in her death. But the medical
examiner slash Corner never could come to a conclusion. They
(04:15):
just said, I've seen it quoted as mysterious circumstances. Right.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
The thing is part of the reason they had trouble
with it is Steven Beal would not cooperate with the investigation.
He would not cooperate with her doctors, he would not
cooperate with the coroner. He would not cooperate with investigations.
When somebody dies unexpectedly, there is an investigation. When it
came right down to it, they never were able to
(04:41):
come up with a suitable finish. So it was left
open pretty much. And we'll come back to that in
a minute, because it will come back into play, believe
it or not. So we have Stephen bial and his
girlfriend Ildego, and they both have a passion. They live
in southern California, by the way, we're talking about Orange County,
Long Beach in that general vicinity, and together they open
(05:04):
a spa day spa. At this spa, there are a
number of people who actually are there because of Ildego
and her relationship with Hungary, her family coming from Hungary,
and her friends. You come from another place, you tend
to gravitate towards those you have a similar background in language.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I've been out to La many times to do television
shows and everything, and you know who I find many
times that are limo drivers that I come in contact with,
are people that are part of the Albanian culture. And
I've gotten to know several of those people find people,
and I would have imagined that there is probably what
do they refer to it as a diaspora of Hungarians
(05:45):
that are located there as well. And you're right, they
get together in like this little clutch. And because Lord
have mercy, just looking at the spelling of her name,
it it'd be difficult to pronounce. I can only imagine
how hard it is to assimilate. You want people that
can actually enter. Would you speak your own language and
remind you of home?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And you've pointed out speak your own language and remembering home,
and that all plays into this as well, because Ildigo
was very attached to her family, and in May she
actually had gone and spent time in Hungary, her native nation.
Want to back up to Stephen Beale and miss Ildego,
(06:22):
they had been in a relationship, but the relationship fell
apart after they opened the spa. It was kind of
a compact period of time here between the relationship beginning
and the spa opening. Happened fairly quick and they were
both all in, but the relationship broke down. Stephen Beale
and Ildigo were no longer a couple, but they were
(06:43):
still partners in the spa. But Stephen was more of
a silent partner. He wasn't really there much, but he
had a key. He still had a key, that's what
allowed him access to the spa while missus Ildego had
gone back to Hungary to visit her mother and other
family men.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
What a kind of an interesting dynamic that two people
would be involved in this kind of romantic relationship and
then this kind of dissipates. They break up for whatever
reason at this point in time, but you still have
a business relationship. And I know that there are other
relationships out there like this, But how awkward would that be?
(07:21):
Because whatever friction existed romantically, you have to think that
it's going to probably bleed over into the business relationship.
And I don't know anything about running a day spa,
but I would imagine much like a restaurant it's something
that you have to have attention on, like twenty four
to seven. You're always thinking of it, just to keep
the thing afloat.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Ildigo was actually a licensed cosmetologist and Stephen Bill was not.
Stephen Bill was a part time actor and businessman and
rocket hobbyist, but he had no background in cosmetology. He
had no background in running a spa. Ildigo did. So basically,
she was the license cosmetologists heading up the spa and
he was just a partner in the business because at
(08:05):
the time they started it, they were a couple romantically linked,
and when that broke down, Ildigo had moved on and
she was dating somebody, certainly at least one romantic rival
for Steven Bial, and Steven Bial was not really moving on.
He said he was, but not really. He was pretty
obsessed with her. So when Ildigo comes back from her
(08:27):
trip to Hungary, she's in the spa and there's plenty
of mail. There were a couple of boxes, a bunch
of letters, and there were two of her Hungarian friends
who were also there at the spa that morning, and
it was in that moment when she was checking the
mail that Ildigo picked up one of the boxes and
opened it. The forty eight year old was blown up
(08:48):
by opening this box. It was such a big explosion
that when investigators looked at it when they first got
the call about an explosion, they thought gas line or
something along those lines. When they got there and found
out it was a box that had something in it,
they're like, this is not an accident. The two other
(09:09):
women were injured, but Ildigo was killed pretty much you
mentioned vaporized. It happened real fast, and at forty years old,
she was dead.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah. And when you begin to think about bombings, you
think about a kill radius. And we've seen this over
the years. We've been at war for a long time
as a country and unfortunately, and I personally have have
had former students of mine that have died as a
result of improvised explosive devices overseas. And you know, they
talk about a blast radius. Sometimes you'll hear the term
(09:40):
kill radius and how much of that energy travels outward
and can really wreak havoc. But when you begin to
talk about an explosive device that goes off inside of
an enclosed space, that's a completely different dynamic. But Dave,
I know this, when that explosion initiated. I can tell
(10:03):
you who wasn't there, Stephen William Beal. I always have
(10:25):
trouble pronouncing some of these names in southern California. I
don't know what it is. Dave. I know you're from
southern California originally and from the OC. I believe I've
always wanted to say that in a conversation.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Joe, I actually lived about a mile and a half
from where this house was in Long Beach, where Stephen
Bial's house.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Was, well, where his house was, but I think the
SPA was in a place called Alicio vheo. Is that
how you pronounced it vio in southern California in the OC.
And yeah, mister Stephen Beial, actually he was a Long
Beach resident and tobacco a little bit. We have to
understand that this case has been ongoing for some time now.
(11:05):
We're talking about roughly five years down range when this
thing is finally adjudicated. This occurred in the morning on
May fifteenth, twenty eighteen, and I can just imagine you're
hanging around the firehouse, you're a local firefighter, and then
all of a sudden, the bell starts cleaning and you're
(11:25):
getting reports that are rolling in to the fire station
where they're saying there has been an explosion. There's actually
been an explosion, and the fire department. I know the
police will show up, but the firefighters in this case,
these are the people that are right on point, because
when you think about explosion, one of the first things
(11:46):
you think about, other than the devastation that takes place
as a result of the initiation of this event, is
going to be associated fire and then having to triage
any injuries that might be there. And of course the
fire department is uniquely equipped to do this. All these guys,
most of them are at some level in paramedical training,
whether it's an EMT or a full on paramedic. So
(12:10):
when they arrive at this location, there is what's referred
to and you'll hear this in bomb investigations. They see
from Jump Street that this is what they have what
they call a debris field. So you've got these fragmented
bits and pieces that are everywhere. Interestingly, when you roll
up on a building and you see a structure that's
(12:32):
kind of blown out like this, the first thing you're
going to think of is not a package bomb, a
mail bomb. You're going to think gas Maine explosion. And
you know, Dave, I don't think I've ever mentioned this
on the podcast. I actually worked a case, and this
is early on in my career. Again, I was still
in the New Orleans area when this happened. We had
a family that had gone off on vacation and they
(12:55):
had a brick ranch home. One of the eyes on
their gas of and had been left on and the
house was filled with gas and there was mail stacking
up on the front porch of the house. Their male
person had come by and kind of checking status to
see who was there. And when the doorbell was wrong,
(13:18):
that was enough. That was an initiator because of the
current that it set off a blast that literally leveled
this brick home. That's how powerful a gas explosion is,
and it took it down to it literally took it
down to the slab. There were homes damaged. Of course,
the person that rang the doorbell was deceased, and you
(13:38):
have all of these types of events that occur like this.
The first thing you're going to think of when you're
a firefighter and you're rolling out, you're hearing explosion is
not going to be package bomb. It's just that's not
on your radar. I mean, you've heard about them, but
most of the time you're thinking that this is some
kind of gas main leak that happens.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
We tend to see things on television and movies and
have a certain visual that applies to seeing an explosive.
In reality, it doesn't happen that way. You're not watching
for it, your eyes are not trained on it. It's
something that happens, like in this particular case. I was
reading one of the victims who survived, and she said
(14:20):
that her back was turned. She didn't see when when
Mozildiago List lifted the box or opened it. She didn't
see that. But she described what she did see, and
it was a bright light and it was being pushed
into a wall, and it was a dramatic recounting of
something she didn't see. What she knew when arriving on
a scene and you we've got fire and police body
(14:42):
parts were found in the parking lot. What does that
tell you? From the outside looking and showing up at
the scene. Where do you start in examining the deceased?
Do you start with the foot in the parking lot?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Well, you secure it. That's the most important thing, any
kind of well, anything there. It's not just simply the
anatomical elements that are torn apart, that are torn to
shreds in this environment. From an investigative standpoint, every bit
of fragment that's out there has the potential to lead
(15:18):
back to an explanation. We're not talking suspect at this point.
We're talking explanation because that's what you want to know.
What happened. What brought this about is hey, look we've
got one explosion. Is there a chance that there will
be another explosion? So we have to be very careful
out there and what will occur. I know that many
(15:38):
people have seen over the years when you watch crime
shows and all these sorts of things, you see these
little evidence markers that we put out. Lots of times
there are these little yellow tents. They're made out of
heart plastically have numbers on them. What happens with a
debris feel this big many times is that instead of
little yellow markers, many times you'll have various colored little
(16:00):
flags that are placed out there, and each color will
denote a different type of item. Let's just say you
have a biological sample that's there, maybe you'll put a
green flag by that. And when I say biological sample,
it could be like, for instance, a part of the
limb that's you can look at and say, okay, that's
a hand. Or you could look down and just see
(16:22):
kind of a little mound of what appears to be
red tissue, and that might be say, thigh muscle, but
you have no idea what particularly it is, but it
has some kind of resemblance to something that may have
originated from a body, and you get this kind of
commingling of all of this debris. So if you've got
(16:43):
mortar where it's been holding together bricks, and this building
does have a brick facing on it, and glass and metal,
so you'll get this kind of commingling of all of
these different items. You might have a bit of muscle
that's immediately adjacent to a bit of brick, So you
could have little flags all in one particular area, dependent
upon what you're looking for. And there were two patrons
(17:07):
inside of this place, who, by the way, have never
been named. There's no need to name them by the courts.
But I can't tell you this, these two unfortunate ladies
that were in there. From what I understand and what
has been put forward. They have been scarred for life,
and that's not unexpected. You know, my office worked the
infamous Olympic Park bombing back in nineteen ninety six, And
(17:31):
for my money, I don't want to go chasing rabbits
here in this conversation, but I will say that one
of the biggest heroes of all time was Richard Jewell.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The guy that they blamed for it at first.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, the guy that they blamed for it. And because
he reoriented that device at that particular time when he
recognized it, a lot of lives were spared. But we
did have one victim of the blast that died as
a direct result of the initiation of that device. But
you know, we don't hear about all of the victims
(18:02):
that were there at Centennial Park that night that were
maimed for life, that will carry scars for the rest
of their life. So well, there are there were other
people that were grievously injured that were out there. And
when you have that kind of event that goes on
in that environment, if you have these eye or ear witnesses.
(18:22):
You mentioned this one lady that didn't see it, but
she apparently felt it and her back was to it.
I think she may have been in another room and
she actually talks about this force that knocks her down.
That's a real important part of the mechanics of an
explosion because there's multiple elements.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
You.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
First off, when you think about explosions, you have potential
energy and what does that mean. Well, say, in this
particular case, you have a box that is sitting there.
It's not doing anything, it's not necessarily inert, but it
has to have a triggering mechanism. So we have potential
(19:04):
energy that is sitting there, and when that thing is
released is released and that trigger mechanism takes place, then
the explosion initiates and you have a sequence that goes
through it. Where in this particular case, a non volt
battery was actually used as the little electrical charge and
(19:25):
that's really all that it took. And Dave, you know,
in this case, in this debris field, it's hard to
imagine for me it is because, yeah, people think I'm
a detailed person because I'm an investigator by trade, but
when it gets down to these little fine points, it's
frustrating to me. They actually found the body half of
the body of a non volt battery that was still
(19:46):
contained at the scene. And you know what else, This
thing was so powerful that the wiring that was used
in this blast, in this device, if you will, was
blown up into the ceiling and they actually recovered that wiring.
And so when you're looking at this from an investigative standpoint,
it looks like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, and you don't
(20:08):
know what is actually it contains value and what doesn't.
What's going to point to a reason as to what
happened at the scene, But everything has a certain level
of importance to it. Where to begin is a question
(20:45):
I think that many people have asked over the years.
When you have an explosion event that occurs, the starting
point is obviously is to triage everybody is there. That
is that anybody that survived this event. You think that
is going to have the potential to make it out alive.
You get them out of there soon as you possibly can.
(21:06):
But after that, Dave, everything has potential to be evidence,
and everything is treated that way and the scene is
immediately locked down.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
This happened. Police were thinking on their way to the scene.
Before they get there, they know they've had an explosion,
and so they're thinking gas line or and again it
does come up in discussion, what's the possibility we're dealing
with somebody committing an act of terror, but is it
a car bomb? They didn't know, but when police arrived,
(21:36):
when investigators arrived on the scene, they knew based on
the severity of Ildego's injuries and the size of the blast.
They knew right away or believed based on experience that
it was a homicide, that this was an intentional act.
Now they just had to determine why she the intended
(21:57):
target or was it somebody else where it took place,
and who was holding it. And immediately they look at
and once you've determined a homicide, who are the closest
to you're looking at husband's boyfriends, things like that. And
you mentioned the wire and the nine bolt battery, and
that really was a huge part of their investigation because
the wire was embedded in the ceiling. So as part
(22:20):
of their investigation of putting all this back together, they
start at the bomb. But now they're doing background work
on her relationships and who else benefited from this type
of an act of aggression. You're the forensic guy. You
know there's a bomb. We can all tell it was
a bomb, but don't you have to be able to
(22:41):
examine the body of the victim here and determine what
actually caused their demise. It's not enough to say that
she was blown up. It has to be more than that,
because you have to figure out what was the bomb
made of so you can figure out who built it?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Right, Yeah, you do. The body is going to reveal
blast trauma. Remember, she's the one that has opened this
package day, that has initiated the sequence. Her body, her
clothing that that remains will have what's referred to as
bomb residue on every bit of her.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Is that similar to like the stippling we get when
somebody puts a gun up against somebody's body, against their skin.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, it can be. It can also be. It has
a real close familial chemical familial context to gunpowder residue
testing GSR. It's the same principle. You go into an
environment and you're checking to see if they have powder
residue on them. In this case, we're talking about a
variety of different chemicals that were actually involved in this
(23:49):
case where you have things that are well, let me
kind of give you the view of it. What we
do know is that there was a substance that Beal
had access to that. Have you ever seen a magician
that would take what's referred to as flash powder and
kind of throw it down and smoke kind of goes up. Well,
(24:10):
there's a chemical that he had access to. That's the
name of it is potassium perchlorate. And so it is
a flash powder. And what this means is that you
actually see in percussion caps with gunfire. Okay, so the
little cap that's in the base of a bullet, in
the base of an ammunition, similar composition, and it's an
(24:30):
unstable compound. It burns very quickly, and that's what you
want when you're initiating a firing sequence.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
When you say unstable versus stables, that mean it can
just go off if you bump it.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
No, it's not like liquid nitroglycerin or something I'm just
talking about. When it's initiated. It has to be initiated
with like fire being applied to it or electricity. In
this case, it was an electric current. It's going to
go off really quickly because it burns so quickly, and
it's kind of chemically unstable when compared to to say,
for instance, black powder, which was found at mister Bill's residence.
(25:06):
It's a bit more stable, but highly more explosive. This
is the trick trying to understand how to mix all
of these chemicals and understand. Bill was an amateur rocket guy,
like we mentioned Dave. Reportedly, he has launched rockets that
were so large that it required a team to assist him. Now,
(25:27):
he would go out in the desert in California, which
there's a lot of desert out there, and some of
these rockets, these homemade rockets that he built, were as
tall as a house. Just kind of wrap your mind
around that that a private citizen would build one of
these things. And I think it's grand that people can
do that if they know what they're doing and all
(25:48):
of that. But you mentioned the speed at which that occurred,
the velocity of these things. I think you had mentioned
mock too. I had heard certainly upward above mock one
relative to the rate at which these things were ascending.
But he also had a background. He was a pyrotechnic
(26:09):
enthusiast as well, which means that he dealt with fireworks.
And I would imagine if he was in the movie
industry thinks he's an actor that sort of thing. Maybe
he was an actor. I have no idea, but maybe
he had some experience in that realm as well. But
you have to understand the composition when you begin to
think about this flash powder when combined with not just
(26:32):
black powder, but there's also a substance out there referred
to as red gum, which is unique in that it's
used as a binder in fireworks. And this is the
thing about it, and it is so fascinating from scientific standpoint.
Red gum and black powder are both organic substances, which
means that they're made from some base materials that are
(26:55):
out there that are like red gum essentially hence gum.
It's actually extracted from a plant and has been known
for years and years. So that's an organic substance. So
when you're trying to do your chemical testing and you
do these chemical swabs that they do, you know where
they'll apply it to a surface. If you get a
hit on this, then you say, oh okay, well this
(27:16):
chemical is here. You do another hit and maybe you'll
find some kind of inorganic substance that's kind of chemically constructed,
made in a laboratory like this. It's not really it's
more refined, and you combine those two things. You say, well,
I have these two elements out here that I know
that when combined, create a hell of an explosion. And
that's what happened in this particular case. When he loaded
(27:38):
up that box with this explosive mixture that he had
and he initiated this thing with the battery, all hellbro clues.
Here's another thing that's from an investigative standpoint. You can
have wire, you can have a nine volt battery, you
can have all of these various chemical elements that are
(27:59):
out there. But if you don't know how to construct
this thing, that's a problem because it's just all of
those elements in and of themselfs are not necessarily going
to be lethal. But it's putting all of these pieces
together and then going into an environment which you have
access to, placing it amongst all the other male that's
(28:22):
there on ac counter. And you know she's coming. What'd
you say that she's just taken a trip to Hungary, had.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
She Yeah, she had been in Hungry visiting family, and
this was my understanding her first day back, and that's
why the two women were there for their small treatment.
And it was early enough in the day that she
still had her mail, and because her business partner and
former love interest Steve and Bill had a key to
the facility, during the investigation, they were able to figure
(28:47):
out a lot. But you know, I wanted to point
out something, Joe. And this is a common practice in investigators.
When somebody's dead and you know it was an intentional act,
as they believe from the beginning on this, they immediately
start looking at close associates, love interest And in this case,
you have the ex boyfriend who talking to a few friends,
(29:09):
they find out he was very obsessed with her and
she has begun dating other people. He suspect here, Stephen
bial is immediately somebody they're going to look into. So
we're talking a day after this bomb went off. The
day after the police show up at his house with
a warrant. They want to look around.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
How many people do you know in your little circle
have experienced I mean real experience with explosives where they're
building rockets and they're doing pyrotechnics, and do you know
that many people around you? And so as an investigator,
this is an excellent point. You know, here this lady
(29:51):
who originates from Hungary, she's been in a romantic relationship
with a guy that builds rockets and has access to
explosives and if thing by asking him about it, he
can simply say, oh, yeah, I'll build rockets or I
like to do fireworks, and people say, oh, okay, well
that explains a lot.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
It explains everything, but it also points wait a minute,
your ex girlfriend and business partner got blown up, Well
who are the possible people? And immediately he's right there.
So they go on search his house. And this is
one of those police things that I'm sure that within
your your realm of your sphere of influence and talking
(30:29):
with investigators that I bet y'all have some funny discussions
about we're gonna we're gonna get this guy. We're gonna
just trip him up a little bit. Because when they
went to his house, they already knew so much. But
when they went to his home in Long Beach, a
search warrant was served and Joe. They found it mostly
in his garage, but some inside the house, about one
(30:52):
hundred and thirty pounds worth of explosives. They found a
seven foot tall rocket, They found own rocket making equipment,
two containers of potassium percalora. I don't know how to
say it is that on the periodic table. I don't know.
My table's got pizza on it. So you've got the
(31:12):
tube container. You mentioned the red gum. He's got two
containers of that and at least three containers of black powder. Now,
according to the affidavit, Bill told detectives he saw media
coverage of the explosion and claimed he did not have
material to create an explosion that large.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, it would raise suspicions for me. And that's what's
so fascinating by about this case is that it took
so long to make it through the system. We're talking
about twenty eighteen, and what Bill was engaged in rises
to a federal crime. You've got the FBI getting involved,
the ATF, who arguably the premiere organization that investigates fires
(31:55):
and explosions. That's kind of their Baileywick, if you will,
and not to mention, you know, all of the other
associated groups where you've got people, certainly in southern California
that are very well equipped to handle events like this,
And you think about who has this kind of knowledge,
who has access to these materials, who has the ability
(32:16):
to gain access to a location where he knows that
the intended target would be able to put her hands
on this thing that's going to create this event. And
of course he's nowhere around the area when this thing initiates.
He's the owner of the business. She hasn't been around
for a few days. They got mail that stacked up.
(32:36):
There's CCTV footage of him at any number of times
going back and forth into these locations, which I think
played a key role because you're putting him in that
location as he is entering this building and this sort
of thing, and then he knows because you know, this
guy blows things up in big open areas. You've been
(32:57):
to a firework show. These things are done in a distance,
they're out in an open area. But Dave, here's what
actually brought about her death. The fact that this potential
energy that was contained within this bomb was contained within
a structure. So you've got a bomb contained in a
(33:18):
box and the box is contained in a structure. This
is what's referred to as a pressure event. You've got
this intense pressure. If you've ever seen anybody shake up
a bottle of just champagne and then pop the cork on,
the pop goes, the cork goes flying off in the distance,
that's very minimal when you think about the pressure that
is initiated. That pressure from that device going off is
(33:41):
trying to seek that location where it can free itself
into the open air and it will eventually dissipate, but
it has to travel this course that goes through furniture,
through a desk, through a wall, and ultimately through the
body of an innocent victim. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and
(34:05):
this is bodybags.
Host
Joseph Scott Morgan
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