Business friend of Calif. blast victim arrested

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. — A business acquaintance of the woman killed in a Southern California office building explosion has been arrested on suspicion of possessing an unregistered destructive device, the FBI said Thursday.

The arrest of Stephen Beal, 59, an actor in several short films who neighbors said liked rockets, followed a search of his Long Beach residence by authorities, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a statement.

Eimiller stressed that Beal was not being held in connection with Tuesday’s explosion. She said he was expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana later Thursday and that no additional details would be available until a federal criminal complaint is issued.

Beal’s Facebook page has many photos of him traveling with the blast victim, Ildiko Krajnyak, 48, a licensed cosmetologist who owned the day spa where the blast occurred. Their travel destinations included Mexico, Canada and Portugal.

State documents show Beal and Krajnyak as officers in a skin care business called I&S Enterprises.

Authorities have declined to publicly say if they believed the victim was the target, but one official briefed on the investigation said the woman had been the intended recipient of an explosive package.

Remnants of a device were found inside the badly damaged spa, where the powerful explosion shook the city of Aliso Viejo, about 50 miles south of Los Angeles. The blast tore a corner off the building that houses medical offices. Two patrons were seriously injured.

“We do not believe this was an accident,” said Paul Delacourt, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s field office in Los Angeles. “Although the damage was extensive, there are some components that we have located at the scene of the explosion that are inconsistent with what one might expect to find at this business.”

Stuart Davis, who lives a few doors down from Beal’s Long Beach home, said he often saw Beal and his adult son working on large rockets on their front lawn. The son told Davis that they built movie props, he said.

“I’d come home from home sometimes and there would be rockets, but big, like something you’d see in a movie,” Davis said.

Photos on Beal’s Facebook page showed him vacationing with Krajnyak in Cuba, Mexico and Portugal.