Deadly explosion at SoCal day spa linked to suspicious device
LOS ANGELES — An explosion that ripped through an Aliso Viejo day spa on Tuesday, killing the business owner and injuring two customers, does not appear to have been the result of an accident, authorities said.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, an FBI official said the explosion appears to have been caused by a device that was “not consistent” with the beauty business, Magyar Kozmetika.
The 1:10 p.m. blast rattled the suburban Orange County community and sparked a massive response from law enforcement. The explosion is being treated as a homicide, and evidence from the scene has been sent to the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Va.
It wasn’t clear how the device came to be in the business, said Paul Delacourt, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the federal law enforcement branch of the U.S. Postal Service, said the package delivered to the spa did not go through the Postal Service mail system.
“We do not believe this was an accident,” Delacourt told reporters. “This explosion was caused by a device . ... The damage at the scene was extensive.”
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation, with assistance from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI, officials said.
On Wednesday, authorities identified the woman who was killed as Ildiko Krajnyak. The 48-year-old Coto de Caza resident worked for three decades as an aesthetician, according to public records and her LinkedIn account.
Tuesday night, Orange County Sheriff ’s Cmdr. Dave Sawyer said that it was too early to determine whether the explosion was a bombing, and that investigators were interviewing those who were injured and had been taken to hospitals.
Law enforcement officials were executing search warrants at the damaged business, Krajnyak’s home and a residence in Long Beach, authorities said.
Delacourt said there was no indication of other threats or of secondary devices in the community.
The explosion shook the two-story building so forcefully that employees at neighboring businesses thought it was an earthquake. Some stepped outside, anticipating more shaking.