Charge dropped against ex of Orange County blast victim

An explosion at a California medical building that killed the owner of a day spa and seriously injured two patrons is being investigated as a crime after officials found remnants of an explosive device inside the spa, officials said Wednesday. (May 16)
AP

This Feb. 24 photo released by Melanie Grunder shows Stephen Beal in Newbury Park. Prosecutors have dropped charges against Beal, arrested on suspicion of having explosives after a blast killed his former girlfriend at her day spa.(Photo: Melanie Grunder, AP)

LONG BEACH - A Southern California man arrested on suspicion of having explosives after a blast killed his ex-girlfriend at her day spa has walked free after U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that they had dropped the charge against him.

Stephen Bealwas released from jail Sunday — a day after a judge approved prosecutors' request to drop a single charge of possessing an unregistered destructive device, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Beal, 59, was arrested during the investigation into the May 15 bombing that killed Ildiko Krajnyak in her Orange County spa, but he was never named as a suspect in the blast.

Federal investigators said they had discovered two improvised explosive devices, three firearms and more than 100 pounds of explosive material during a search that Beal allowed of his house.

Prosecutors dropped the charge after the FBI said it had questions about whether material found in the house met the legal definition of a "destructive device."

Beal, a model-rocket hobbyist, told investigators he had not made any bombs and did not