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Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: Ticking Time Bomb, Ildiko Krajnyak's Final Moments · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:08
Speaker 1: Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. Think about packages just
0:21
Speaker 1: for a second. Is there anything more exciting than the
0:24
Speaker 1: potential of what's contained inside of a package? And when
0:27
Speaker 1: I say package, I'm not talking about some kind of
0:29
Speaker 1: fancy envelope that arrives from whatever carrier where you kind
0:34
Speaker 1: of rip that seal off of it. I'm talking about
0:37
Speaker 1: a package where you've got something that's arriving from either
0:40
Speaker 1: a department store, or you've got it coming to you
0:44
Speaker 1: as a birthday gift, or maybe even Christmas. You look
0:47
Speaker 1: at a Christmas tree and you think about all of
0:50
Speaker 1: the brilliantly wrapped packages, and the one word that comes
0:56
Speaker 1: to mind is potential. Why is that We're going to
1:00
Speaker 1: talk about potential. We're going to talk about potential energy,
1:06
Speaker 1: because when you unwrap a package there could be anything
1:09
Speaker 1: in there. For today's discussion, we're going to talk about
1:14
Speaker 1: a package that was so devastating when opened that the
1:18
Speaker 1: poor soul that opened it was almost vaporized. I'm Joseph
1:23
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan and this is Bodybacks Dave Mack. When I
1:32
Speaker 1: was a little boy, the thing I always wanted and
1:36
Speaker 1: was never given. I'm a grown man. I still think
1:40
Speaker 1: about this. I ought to go out and buy it
1:42
Speaker 1: right now. I always wanted an ST's rocket set, and
1:46
Speaker 1: for some reason, those that had parental control over me
1:49
Speaker 1: never trusted me. I guess they thought I was going
1:52
Speaker 1: to put my eye out or blow something up. But
1:54
Speaker 1: I always wanted an ST's rocket set. I always had visions,
1:57
Speaker 1: you know. I came up just like you when and
2:00
Speaker 1: the moonshot was going on, and it was fascinating to
2:03
Speaker 1: me because with that, I saw what could happen when
2:07
Speaker 1: this thing was initiated and would go up in the air.
2:10
Speaker 1: I've always been fascinated by going to fireworks shows. I
2:13
Speaker 1: just took my family down to our favorite place in
2:16
Speaker 1: the world, an island off of the shore of Alabama,
2:20
Speaker 1: Barrier Island called Dauphin Island, and we sat down there
2:22
Speaker 1: and watched the Fourth of July fireworks over the Gulf
2:26
Speaker 1: of Mexico, which is an astounding thing to see reflected
2:29
Speaker 1: there in the water, that explosive event where you see
2:32
Speaker 1: the chemistry literally brought to life because of all of
2:35
Speaker 1: the different chemicals that are contained in these explosions. So
2:38
Speaker 1: I've always been fascinated by this. But you know, this
2:41
Speaker 1: case that we're talking about today. It involves somebody that was,
2:46
Speaker 1: in a more sinister sense fascinated by explosions as well.
2:51
Speaker 2: Stephen Beale is a man who is an actor, claims
2:55
Speaker 2: to be and many other things in his career, but
2:59
Speaker 2: the biggest one is a model rocket hobbyist. He actually
3:04
Speaker 2: claims to have had one of his model rockets achieve
3:07
Speaker 2: Mack two. But safe to assume that Stephen Beal has
3:12
Speaker 2: been a man consumed with model rockets and realizing that
3:18
Speaker 2: to send a rocket up you've got to have an explosion,
3:21
Speaker 2: a controlled explosion, and that would kind of lead you
3:25
Speaker 2: down the path of explosives bombs, which is where this
3:29
Speaker 2: story comes into play. Stephen Beal was involved in a relationship.
3:35
Speaker 2: So Ildigo and Stephen had been dating for a while,
3:38
Speaker 2: and Ildego is this beautiful, vibrant Hungarian and they met online.
3:45
Speaker 2: He had been married previously showed Sochi, and Stephen Bial's
3:49
Speaker 2: first wife had passed away in an odd way. It
3:51
Speaker 2: was some mystery surrounding that there was.
3:54
Speaker 1: Can I interject something real quick because talking about chemicals here.
3:58
Speaker 1: One of the things about Stephen Beale's first wife's death
4:02
Speaker 1: there was alleged to have been the substance of lead,
4:07
Speaker 1: the element lead involved in her death. But the medical
4:12
Speaker 1: examiner slash Corner never could come to a conclusion. They
4:15
Speaker 1: just said, I've seen it quoted as mysterious circumstances. Right.
4:21
Speaker 2: The thing is part of the reason they had trouble
4:23
Speaker 2: with it is Steven Beal would not cooperate with the investigation.
4:28
Speaker 2: He would not cooperate with her doctors, he would not
4:30
Speaker 2: cooperate with the coroner. He would not cooperate with investigations.
4:34
Speaker 2: When somebody dies unexpectedly, there is an investigation. When it
4:39
Speaker 2: came right down to it, they never were able to
4:41
Speaker 2: come up with a suitable finish. So it was left
4:45
Speaker 2: open pretty much. And we'll come back to that in
4:47
Speaker 2: a minute, because it will come back into play, believe
4:50
Speaker 2: it or not. So we have Stephen bial and his
4:53
Speaker 2: girlfriend Ildego, and they both have a passion. They live
4:57
Speaker 2: in southern California, by the way, we're talking about Orange County,
5:00
Speaker 2: Long Beach in that general vicinity, and together they open
5:04
Speaker 2: a spa day spa. At this spa, there are a
5:08
Speaker 2: number of people who actually are there because of Ildego
5:11
Speaker 2: and her relationship with Hungary, her family coming from Hungary
5:16
Speaker 2: and her friends. You come from another place, you tend
5:19
Speaker 2: to gravitate towards those you have a similar background in language.
5:22
Speaker 1: I've been out to La many times to do television
5:25
Speaker 1: shows and everything, and you know who I find many
5:28
Speaker 1: times that are limo drivers that I come in contact with,
5:32
Speaker 1: are people that are part of the Albanian culture. And
5:36
Speaker 1: I've gotten to know several of those people find people,
5:38
Speaker 1: and I would have imagined that there is probably what
5:41
Speaker 1: do they refer to it as a diaspora of Hungarians
5:45
Speaker 1: that are located there as well. And you're right, they
5:47
Speaker 1: get together in like this little clutch. And because Lord
5:50
Speaker 1: have mercy, just looking at the spelling of her name,
5:53
Speaker 1: it it'd be difficult to pronounce. I can only imagine
5:56
Speaker 1: how hard it is to assimilate. You want people that
5:59
Speaker 1: can actually enter. Would you speak your own language and
6:01
Speaker 1: remind you of home?
6:02
Speaker 2: And you've pointed out speak your own language and remembering home,
6:06
Speaker 2: and that all plays into this as well, because Ildigo
6:10
Speaker 2: was very attached to her family, and in May she
6:14
Speaker 2: actually had gone and spent time in Hungary, her native nation.
6:19
Speaker 2: Want to back up to Stephen Beale and miss Ildego,
6:22
Speaker 2: they had been in a relationship but the relationship fell
6:26
Speaker 2: apart after they opened the spa. It was kind of
6:29
Speaker 2: a compact period of time here between the relationship beginning
6:32
Speaker 2: and the spa opening. Happened fairly quick and they were
6:36
Speaker 2: both all in, but the relationship broke down. Stephen Beale
6:40
Speaker 2: and Ildigo were no longer a couple, but they were
6:43
Speaker 2: still partners in the spa. But Stephen was more of
6:46
Speaker 2: a silent partner. He wasn't really there much, but he
6:50
Speaker 2: had a key. He still had a key, that's what
6:53
Speaker 2: allowed him access to the spa while missus Ildigo had
6:57
Speaker 2: gone back to Hungary to visit her mother and other family.
7:00
Speaker 1: What a kind of an interesting dynamic that two people
7:03
Speaker 1: would be involved in this kind of romantic relationship and
7:07
Speaker 1: then this kind of dissipates. They break up for whatever
7:12
Speaker 1: reason at this point in time, but you still have
7:15
Speaker 1: a business relationship. And I know that there are other
7:17
Speaker 1: relationships out there like this, But how awkward would that be?
7:21
Speaker 1: Because whatever friction existed romantically, you have to think that
7:25
Speaker 1: it's going to probably bleed over into the business relationship.
7:30
Speaker 1: And I don't know anything about running a day spa,
7:32
Speaker 1: but I would imagine much like a restaurant it's something
7:36
Speaker 1: that you have to have attention on, like twenty four
7:39
Speaker 1: to seven. You're always thinking of it, just to keep
7:41
Speaker 1: the thing afloat.
7:42
Speaker 2: Ildigo was actually a licensed cosmetologist and Stephen Bill was not.
7:47
Speaker 2: Stephen Bill was a part time actor and businessman and
7:51
Speaker 2: rocket hobbyist, but he had no background in cosmetology. He
7:54
Speaker 2: had no background in running a spa. Ildigo did. So basically,
7:58
Speaker 2: she was the license cosmetologists heading up the spa and
8:02
Speaker 2: he was just a partner in the business because at
8:05
Speaker 2: the time they started it, they were a couple romantically linked,
8:08
Speaker 2: and when that broke down, Ildigo had moved on and
8:11
Speaker 2: she was dating somebody, certainly at least one romantic rival
8:16
Speaker 2: for Steven Bial, and Steven Bial was not really moving on.
8:20
Speaker 2: He said he was, but not really. He was pretty
8:23
Speaker 2: obsessed with her. So when Ildigo comes back from her
8:27
Speaker 2: trip to Hungary, she's in the spa and there's plenty
8:29
Speaker 2: of mail. There were a couple of boxes, a bunch
8:31
Speaker 2: of letters, and there were two of her Hungarian friends
8:35
Speaker 2: who were also there at the spa that morning, and
8:38
Speaker 2: it was in that moment when she was checking the
8:40
Speaker 2: mail that Ildigo picked up one of the boxes and
8:44
Speaker 2: opened it. The forty eight year old was blown up
8:48
Speaker 2: by opening this box. It was such a big explosion
8:54
Speaker 2: that when investigators looked at it when they first got
8:58
Speaker 2: the call about an explosion, they thought a gas line
9:00
Speaker 2: or something along those lines. When they got there and
9:03
Speaker 2: found out it was a box that had something in it,
9:06
Speaker 2: they were like, this is not an accident. The two
9:08
Speaker 2: other women were injured, but Ildigo was killed pretty much
9:13
Speaker 2: you mentioned vaporized. It happened real fast, and at forty
9:17
Speaker 2: years old, she was dead.
9:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. And when you begin to think about bombings, you
9:21
Speaker 1: think about a kill radius. And we've seen this over
9:23
Speaker 1: the years. We've been at war for a long time
9:26
Speaker 1: as a country and unfortunately, and I personally have have
9:29
Speaker 1: had former students of mine that have died as a
9:32
Speaker 1: result of improvised explosive devices overseas. And you know, they
9:37
Speaker 1: talk about a blast radius. Sometimes you'll hear the term
9:40
Speaker 1: kill radius and how much of that energy travels outward
9:45
Speaker 1: and can really wreak havoc. But when you begin to
9:49
Speaker 1: talk about an explosive device that goes off inside of
9:55
Speaker 1: an enclosed space, that's a completely different dynamic. But Dave,
9:59
Speaker 1: I know this, when that explosion initiated. I can tell
10:03
Speaker 1: you who wasn't there, Stephen William Beal. I always have
10:26
Speaker 1: trouble pronouncing some of these names in southern California. I
10:29
Speaker 1: don't know what it is. Dave. I know you're from
10:31
Speaker 1: southern California originally and from the OC. I believe I've
10:35
Speaker 1: always wanted to say that in a conversation.
10:37
Speaker 2: Joe, I actually lived about a mile and a half
10:40
Speaker 2: from where this house was in Long Beach, where Stephen
10:42
Speaker 2: Bial's house.
10:43
Speaker 1: Was, well, where his house was, but I think the
10:45
Speaker 1: SPA was in a place called Alicio vheo. Is that
10:49
Speaker 1: how you pronounced it vio in southern California in the OC.
10:54
Speaker 1: And yeah, mister Stephen Beial, actually he was a Long
10:57
Speaker 1: Beach resident. And to bacca up a little bit, we
11:00
Speaker 1: have to understand that this case has been ongoing for
11:04
Speaker 1: some time now. We're talking about roughly five years down
11:09
Speaker 1: range when this thing is finally adjudicated. This occurred in
11:13
Speaker 1: the morning on May fifteenth, twenty eighteen, and I can
11:17
Speaker 1: just imagine you're hanging around the firehouse, you're a local firefighter,
11:21
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, the bell starts cleaning
11:25
Speaker 1: and you're getting reports that are rolling in to the
11:29
Speaker 1: fire station where they're saying there has been an explosion.
11:34
Speaker 1: There's actually been an explosion, and the fire department. I know,
11:37
Speaker 1: the police will show up, but the firefighters in this case,
11:40
Speaker 1: these are the people that are right on point, because
11:43
Speaker 1: when you think about explosion, one of the first things
11:46
Speaker 1: you think about, other than the devastation that takes place
11:49
Speaker 1: as a result of the initiation of this event, is
11:52
Speaker 1: going to be associated fire and then having to triage
11:56
Speaker 1: any injuries that might be there. And of course the
11:58
Speaker 1: fire department is uniquely equipped to do this. All these guys,
12:01
Speaker 1: most of them are at some level in paramedical training,
12:05
Speaker 1: whether it's an EMT or a full on paramedic. So
12:10
Speaker 1: when they arrive at this location, there is what's referred
12:13
Speaker 1: to and you'll hear this in bomb investigations. They see
12:18
Speaker 1: from Jump Street that this is what they have what
12:21
Speaker 1: they call a debris field. So you've got these fragmented
12:25
Speaker 1: bits and pieces that are everywhere. Interestingly, when you roll
12:30
Speaker 1: up on a building and you see a structure that's
12:32
Speaker 1: kind of blown out like this, the first thing you're
12:35
Speaker 1: going to think of is not a package bomb, a
12:38
Speaker 1: mail bomb. You're going to think gas Maine explosion. And
12:41
Speaker 1: you know, Dave, I don't think I've ever mentioned this
12:43
Speaker 1: on the podcast. I actually worked a case, and this
12:46
Speaker 1: is early on in my career. Again, I was still
12:49
Speaker 1: in the New Orleans area when this happened. We had
12:52
Speaker 1: a family that had gone off on vacation and they
12:55
Speaker 1: had a brick ranch home. One of the eyes on
12:59
Speaker 1: their gas of and had been left on and the
13:02
Speaker 1: house was filled with gas and there was mail stacking
13:06
Speaker 1: up on the front porch of the house. Their male
13:10
Speaker 1: person had come by and kind of checking status to
13:14
Speaker 1: see who was there. And when the doorbell was wrong,
13:18
Speaker 1: that was enough. That was an initiator because of the
13:21
Speaker 1: current that it set off a blast that literally leveled
13:25
Speaker 1: this brick home. That's how powerful a gas explosion is,
13:29
Speaker 1: and it took it down to it literally took it
13:32
Speaker 1: down to the slab. There were homes damaged. Of course,
13:36
Speaker 1: the person that rang the doorbell was deceased, and you
13:39
Speaker 1: have all of these types of events that occur like this.
13:42
Speaker 1: The first thing you're going to think of when you're
13:45
Speaker 1: a firefighter and you're rolling out, you're hearing explosion is
13:48
Speaker 1: not going to be package bomb. It's just that's not
13:51
Speaker 1: on your radar. I mean, you've heard about them, but
13:54
Speaker 1: most of the time you're thinking that this is some
13:56
Speaker 1: kind of gas main leak that happens.
13:59
Speaker 2: We tend to see things on television and movies and
14:04
Speaker 2: have a certain visual that applies to seeing an explosive.
14:08
Speaker 2: In reality, it doesn't happen that way. You're not watching
14:11
Speaker 2: for it, your eyes are not trained on it. It's
14:13
Speaker 2: something that happens, like in this particular case. I was
14:16
Speaker 2: reading one of the victims who survived, and she said
14:20
Speaker 2: that her back was turned. She didn't see when when
14:24
Speaker 2: Mozildago list lifted the box or opened it. She didn't
14:27
Speaker 2: see that. But she described what she did see, and
14:30
Speaker 2: it was a bright light and it was being pushed
14:32
Speaker 2: into a wall, and it was a dramatic recounting of
14:35
Speaker 2: something she didn't see. What she knew when arriving on
14:39
Speaker 2: a scene and you we've got fire and police body
14:42
Speaker 2: parts were found in the parking lot. What does that
14:46
Speaker 2: tell you from the outside looking and showing up at
14:50
Speaker 2: the scene. Where do you start in examining the deceased?
14:55
Speaker 2: Do you start with the foot in the parking lot?
14:58
Speaker 1: Well, you you secure it, and that's the most important thing,
15:01
Speaker 1: any kind of well, anything there. It's not just simply
15:06
Speaker 1: the anatomical elements that are torn apart, that are torn
15:10
Speaker 1: to shreds in this environment. From an investigative standpoint, every
15:14
Speaker 1: bit of fragment that's out there has the potential to
15:18
Speaker 1: lead back to an explanation. We're not talking suspect at
15:22
Speaker 1: this point. We're talking explanation because that's what you want
15:25
Speaker 1: to know. What happened, What brought this about is hey,
15:28
Speaker 1: look we've got one explosion. Is there a chance that
15:32
Speaker 1: there will be another explosion? So we have to be
15:34
Speaker 1: very careful out there and what will occur. I know
15:38
Speaker 1: that many people have seen over the years when you
15:41
Speaker 1: watch crime shows and all these sorts of things, you
15:44
Speaker 1: see these little evidence markers that we put out lots
15:46
Speaker 1: of times. There are these little yellow tents. They're made
15:48
Speaker 1: out of heart plastically have numbers on them. What happens
15:51
Speaker 1: with a debris fiell this big many times is that
15:56
Speaker 1: instead of little yellow markers, many times you'll have various
16:00
Speaker 1: colored little flags that are placed out there, and each
16:03
Speaker 1: color will denote a different type of item. Let's just
16:06
Speaker 1: say you have a biological sample that's there, maybe you'll
16:09
Speaker 1: put a green flag by that. And when I say
16:12
Speaker 1: biological sample, it could be like, for instance, a part
16:16
Speaker 1: of a limb that's you can look at and say, okay,
16:19
Speaker 1: that's a hand. Or you could look down and just
16:21
Speaker 1: see kind of a little mound of what appears to
16:26
Speaker 1: be red tissue, and that might be say, thigh muscle,
16:31
Speaker 1: but you have no idea what particularly it is, but
16:33
Speaker 1: it has some kind of resemblance to something that may
16:38
Speaker 1: have originated from a body, and you get this kind
16:40
Speaker 1: of commingling of all of this debris. So if you've
16:43
Speaker 1: got mortar where it's been holding together bricks, and this
16:46
Speaker 1: building does have a brick facing on it, and glass
16:49
Speaker 1: and metal, so you'll get this kind of commingling of
16:52
Speaker 1: all of these different items. You might have a bit
16:55
Speaker 1: of muscle that's immediately adjacent to a bit of brick,
16:58
Speaker 1: so you could have little flags all in one particular area,
17:02
Speaker 1: dependent upon what you're looking for. And there were two
17:06
Speaker 1: patrons inside of this place, who, by the way, have
17:09
Speaker 1: never been named. There's no need to name them by
17:11
Speaker 1: the courts, but I can't tell you this. These two
17:14
Speaker 1: unfortunate ladies that were in there. From what I understand,
17:18
Speaker 1: and what has been put forward. They have been scarred
17:21
Speaker 1: for life, and that's not unexpected. You know, my office
17:25
Speaker 1: worked the infamous Olympic Park bombing back in nineteen ninety six,
17:30
Speaker 1: and for my money, I don't want to go chasing
17:34
Speaker 1: rabbits here in this conversation, but I will say that
17:37
Speaker 1: one of the biggest heroes of all time was Richard Jewell.
17:40
Speaker 2: The guy that they blamed for it at first.
17:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, the guy that they blamed for it. And because
17:44
Speaker 1: he reoriented that device at that particular time when he
17:48
Speaker 1: recognized it, a lot of lives were spared. But we
17:51
Speaker 1: did have one victim of the blast that died as
17:55
Speaker 1: a direct result of the initiation of that device. But
17:59
Speaker 1: you know, day we don't hear about all of the
18:02
Speaker 1: victims that were there at Centennial Park that night that
18:04
Speaker 1: were maimed for life, that will carry scars for the
18:08
Speaker 1: rest of their life. So well, there are there were
18:11
Speaker 1: other people that were grievously injured that were out there.
18:14
Speaker 1: And when you have that kind of event that goes
18:17
Speaker 1: on in that environment, if you have these eye or
18:22
Speaker 1: ear witnesses. You mentioned this one lady that didn't see it,
18:26
Speaker 1: but she apparently felt it and her back was to it.
18:30
Speaker 1: I think she may have been in another room and
18:31
Speaker 1: she actually talks about this force that knocks her down.
18:36
Speaker 1: That's a real important part of the mechanics of an
18:40
Speaker 1: explosion because there's multiple elements.
18:43
Speaker 2: You.
18:43
Speaker 1: First off, when you think about explosions, you have potential
18:48
Speaker 1: energy and what does that mean. Well, say, in this
18:53
Speaker 1: particular case, you have a box that is sitting there.
18:57
Speaker 1: It's not doing anything, it's not necessarily inert, but it
19:02
Speaker 1: has to have a triggering mechanism. So we have potential
19:04
Speaker 1: energy that is sitting there, and when that thing is
19:08
Speaker 1: released is released and that trigger mechanism takes place, then
19:14
Speaker 1: the explosion initiates and you have a sequence that goes
19:17
Speaker 1: through it. Where in this particular case, a non volt
19:21
Speaker 1: battery was actually used as the little electrical charge and
19:25
Speaker 1: that's really all that it took. And Dave, you know,
19:27
Speaker 1: in this case, in this debris field, it's hard to
19:31
Speaker 1: imagine for me it is because, yeah, people think I'm
19:34
Speaker 1: a detailed person because I'm an investigator by trade, but
19:37
Speaker 1: when it gets down to these little fine points, it's
19:39
Speaker 1: frustrating to me. They actually found the body half of
19:43
Speaker 1: the body of a non volt battery that was still
19:46
Speaker 1: contained at the scene. And you know what else, This
19:48
Speaker 1: thing was so powerful that the wiring that was used
19:53
Speaker 1: in this blast, in this device, if you will, was
19:56
Speaker 1: blown up into the ceiling and they actually recovered that wire.
20:00
Speaker 1: And so when you're looking at this from an investigative standpoint,
20:04
Speaker 1: it looks like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, and you don't
20:09
Speaker 1: know what is actually it contains value and what doesn't.
20:15
Speaker 1: What's going to point to a reason as to what
20:18
Speaker 1: happened at the scene, But everything has a certain level
20:22
Speaker 1: of importance to it. Where to begin is a question
20:45
Speaker 1: I think that many people have asked over the years.
20:48
Speaker 1: When you have an explosion event that occurs, the starting
20:53
Speaker 1: point is obviously is to triage everybody is there. That
20:56
Speaker 1: is that anybody that survived this event. You think that
20:59
Speaker 1: is I'm going to have the potential to make it
21:02
Speaker 1: out alive. You get them out of there soon as
21:05
Speaker 1: you possibly can. But after that, Dave, everything has potential
21:10
Speaker 1: to be evidence, and everything is treated that way and
21:13
Speaker 1: the scene is immediately locked down.
21:15
Speaker 2: This happened police were thinking on their way to the scene.
21:19
Speaker 2: Before they get there, they know they've had an explosion,
21:22
Speaker 2: and so they're thinking gas line or and again it
21:26
Speaker 2: does come up in discussion, what's the possibility we're dealing
21:29
Speaker 2: with somebody committing an act of terror? But is it
21:33
Speaker 2: a car bomb? They didn't know, But when police arrived,
21:36
Speaker 2: when investigators arrived on the scene, they knew based on
21:41
Speaker 2: the severity of Ildego's injuries and the size of the blast.
21:46
Speaker 2: They knew right away or believed based on experience, that
21:51
Speaker 2: it was a homicide, that this was an intentional act.
21:54
Speaker 2: Now they just had to determine why she the intended
21:57
Speaker 2: target or was it somebody else where it took place,
22:03
Speaker 2: and who was holding it. And immediately they look at
22:05
Speaker 2: and once you've determined the homicide, who are the closest
22:08
Speaker 2: to you're looking at husband's boyfriends, things like that. And
22:11
Speaker 2: you mentioned the wire and the nine bolt battery, and
22:14
Speaker 2: that really was a huge part of their investigation because
22:17
Speaker 2: the wire was embedded in the ceiling. So as part
22:20
Speaker 2: of their investigation of putting all this back together, they
22:23
Speaker 2: start at the bomb. But now they're doing background work
22:27
Speaker 2: on her relationships and who else benefited from this type
22:31
Speaker 2: of an act of aggression. You're the forensic guy. You
22:35
Speaker 2: know there's a bomb. We can all tell it was
22:37
Speaker 2: a bomb, But don't you have to be able to
22:41
Speaker 2: examine the body of the victim here and determine what
22:47
Speaker 2: actually caused their demise. It's not enough to say that
22:49
Speaker 2: she was blown up. It has to be more than that,
22:52
Speaker 2: because you have to figure out what was the bomb
22:56
Speaker 2: made of so you can figure out who built it?
22:58
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, you do. The body is going to reveal
23:03
Speaker 1: blast trauma. Remember, she's the one that has opened this
23:08
Speaker 1: package day, that has initiated the sequence. Her body, her
23:12
Speaker 1: clothing that that remains will have what's referred to as
23:16
Speaker 1: bomb residue on every bit of her.
23:18
Speaker 2: Is that similar to like the stippling we get when
23:20
Speaker 2: somebody puts a gun up against somebody's body, against their skin.
23:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it can be. It can also be. It has
23:26
Speaker 1: a real close familial chemical familial context to gunpowder residue
23:32
Speaker 1: testing GSR. It's the same principle. You go into an
23:36
Speaker 1: environment and you're checking to see if they have powder
23:40
Speaker 1: residue on them. In this case, we're talking about a
23:43
Speaker 1: variety of different chemicals that were actually involved in this case,
23:49
Speaker 1: where you have things that are well, let me kind
23:53
Speaker 1: of give you the view of it. What we do
23:55
Speaker 1: know is that there was a substance that bial has
24:00
Speaker 1: access to that. Have you ever seen a magician that
24:04
Speaker 1: would take what's referred to as flash powder and kind
24:07
Speaker 1: of throw it down and smoke kind of goes up. Well,
24:10
Speaker 1: there's a chemical that he had access to. That's the
24:13
Speaker 1: name of it is potassium perchlorate. And so it is
24:18
Speaker 1: a flash powder. And what this means is that you
24:21
Speaker 1: actually see in percussion caps with gunfire. Okay, so the
24:25
Speaker 1: little cap that's in the base of a bullet, in
24:27
Speaker 1: the base of an ammunition similar composition, and it's an
24:30
Speaker 1: unstable compound. It burns very quickly, and that's what you
24:34
Speaker 1: want when you're initiating a firing sequence.
24:37
Speaker 2: When you say unstable versus stables, that mean it can
24:40
Speaker 2: just go off if you bump it.
24:42
Speaker 1: No, it's not like liquid nitroglycerin or something. I'm just
24:45
Speaker 1: talking about. When it's initiated. It has to be initiated
24:48
Speaker 1: with like fire being applied to it or electricity. In
24:51
Speaker 1: this case, it was an electric current. It's going to
24:53
Speaker 1: go off really quickly because it burns so quickly, and
24:57
Speaker 1: it's kind of chemically unstable when compared to to say,
25:01
Speaker 1: for instance, black powder, which was found at mister Bill's residence.
25:06
Speaker 1: It's a bit more stable, but highly more explosive. This
25:10
Speaker 1: is the trick trying to understand how to mix all
25:12
Speaker 1: of these chemicals and understand. Bill was an amateur rocket guy.
25:18
Speaker 1: Like we mentioned Dave. Reportedly, he has launched rockets that
25:24
Speaker 1: were so large that it required a team to assist him. Now,
25:28
Speaker 1: he would go out in the desert in California, which
25:30
Speaker 1: there's a lot of desert out there, and some of
25:34
Speaker 1: these rockets, these homemade rockets that he built, were as
25:39
Speaker 1: tall as a house. Just kind of wrap your mind
25:41
Speaker 1: around that that a private citizen would build one of
25:44
Speaker 1: these things. And I think it's grand that people can
25:46
Speaker 1: do that if they know what they're doing and all
25:48
Speaker 1: of that. But you mentioned the speed at which that occurred,
25:53
Speaker 1: the velocity of these things. I think you had mentioned
25:56
Speaker 1: mock too. I had heard certainly upward above mock one
26:01
Speaker 1: relative to the rate at which these things were ascending.
26:05
Speaker 1: But he also had a background. He was a pyrotechnic
26:09
Speaker 1: enthusiast as well, which means that he dealt with fireworks.
26:14
Speaker 1: And I would imagine if he was in the movie
26:16
Speaker 1: industry thinks he's an actor that sort of thing. Maybe
26:19
Speaker 1: he was an actor. I have no idea, but maybe
26:21
Speaker 1: he had some experience in that realm as well. But
26:25
Speaker 1: you have to understand the composition when you begin to
26:28
Speaker 1: think about this flash powder when combined with not just
26:32
Speaker 1: black powder, but there's also a substance out there referred
26:36
Speaker 1: to as red gum, which is unique in that it's
26:41
Speaker 1: used as a binder in fireworks. And this is the
26:43
Speaker 1: thing about it, and it is so fascinating from scientific standpoint.
26:47
Speaker 1: Red gum and black powder are both organic substances, which
26:51
Speaker 1: means that they're made from some base materials that are
26:55
Speaker 1: out there that are like red gum essentially hence gum.
27:00
Speaker 1: It's actually extracted from a plant and has been known
27:02
Speaker 1: for years and years. So that's an organic substance. So
27:05
Speaker 1: when you're trying to do your chemical testing and you
27:08
Speaker 1: do these chemical swabs that they do, you know, where
27:11
Speaker 1: they'll apply it to a surface. If you get a
27:14
Speaker 1: hit on this, then you say, oh, okay, well this
27:16
Speaker 1: chemical is here. You do another hit and maybe you'll
27:18
Speaker 1: find some kind of inorganic substance that's kind of chemically constructed,
27:23
Speaker 1: made in a laboratory like this. It's not really it's
27:26
Speaker 1: more refined, and you combine those two things, you say, well,
27:29
Speaker 1: I have these two elements out here that I know
27:32
Speaker 1: that when combined, create a hell of an explosion. And
27:34
Speaker 1: that's what happened in this particular case when he loaded
27:38
Speaker 1: up that box with this explosive mixture that he had
27:43
Speaker 1: and he initiated this thing with the battery. All hellbro clues.
27:48
Speaker 1: Here's another thing that's from an investigative standpoint. You can
27:52
Speaker 1: have wire, you can have a nine volt battery, you
27:56
Speaker 1: can have all of these various chemical elements that are
27:59
Speaker 1: out there. But if you don't know how to construct
28:03
Speaker 1: this thing, that's a problem because it's just all of
28:06
Speaker 1: those elements in and of themselfs are not necessarily going
28:09
Speaker 1: to be lethal. But it's putting all of these pieces
28:13
Speaker 1: together and then going into an environment which you have
28:18
Speaker 1: access to, placing it amongst all the other male that's
28:22
Speaker 1: there on ac counter. And you know she's coming. What'd
28:24
Speaker 1: you say that she's just taken a trip to Hungary,
28:26
Speaker 1: had she?
28:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, she had been in Hungry visiting family, And this
28:31
Speaker 2: was my understanding her first day back. And that's why
28:33
Speaker 2: the two women were there for their spaw treatment. And
28:37
Speaker 2: it was early enough in the day that she still
28:38
Speaker 2: had her mail, and because her business partner and former
28:42
Speaker 2: love interest Steve and Bill had a key to the facility,
28:45
Speaker 2: during the investigation, they were able to figure out a lot.
28:49
Speaker 2: But you know, I wanted to point out something, Joe,
28:51
Speaker 2: And this is a common practice in investigators. When somebody's
28:55
Speaker 2: dead and you know it was an intentional act, as
28:58
Speaker 2: they believe from the beginning on this, they immediately start
29:01
Speaker 2: looking at close associates, love interest and in this case,
29:05
Speaker 2: you have the ex boyfriend who talking to a few friends,
29:09
Speaker 2: they find out he was very obsessed with her and
29:12
Speaker 2: she has begun dating other people. He suspect here, Stephen
29:16
Speaker 2: bial is immediately somebody they're going to look into. So
29:20
Speaker 2: we're talking a day after this bomb went off. The
29:23
Speaker 2: day after the police show up at his house with
29:27
Speaker 2: a warrant. They want to look around.
29:30
Speaker 1: How many people do you know in your little circle
29:33
Speaker 1: have experienced, I mean real experience with explosives where they're
29:38
Speaker 1: building rockets and they're doing pyrotechnics, and do you know
29:43
Speaker 1: that many people around you? And so as an investigator,
29:47
Speaker 1: this is an excellent point. You know, here this lady
29:51
Speaker 1: who originates from Hungary, she's been in a romantic relationship
29:55
Speaker 1: with a guy that builds rockets and has access to explosives,
29:59
Speaker 1: and if they anybody ask him about it, he can
30:01
Speaker 1: simply say, oh, yeah, I'll build rockets or I like
30:05
Speaker 1: to do fireworks, and people say, oh, okay, well that
30:08
Speaker 1: explains a lot.
30:09
Speaker 2: It explains everything, but it also points wait a minute,
30:12
Speaker 2: your ex girlfriend and business partner got blown up, Well
30:18
Speaker 2: who are the possible people? And immediately he's right there.
30:21
Speaker 2: So they go on search his house. And this is
30:22
Speaker 2: one of those police things that I'm sure that within
30:26
Speaker 2: your your realm of your sphere of influence and talking
30:29
Speaker 2: with investigators that I bet y'all have some funny discussions
30:33
Speaker 2: about we're gonna we're gonna get this guy. We're gonna
30:35
Speaker 2: just drip him up a little bit. Because when they
30:38
Speaker 2: went to his house, they already knew so much. But
30:42
Speaker 2: when they went to his home in Long Beach, a
30:44
Speaker 2: search warrant was served and Joe. They found it mostly
30:49
Speaker 2: in his garage, but some inside the house, about one
30:52
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty pounds worth of explosives. They found a
30:56
Speaker 2: seven foot tall rockety rocket making equipment, two containers of
31:04
Speaker 2: potassium percalor I don't know how to say it is
31:07
Speaker 2: that on the periodic table. I don't know. My table's
31:09
Speaker 2: got pizza on it. So you've got the tube container
31:13
Speaker 2: you mentioned the red gum. He's got two containers of
31:15
Speaker 2: that and at least three containers of black powder. Now,
31:19
Speaker 2: according to the affidavit, Bill told detectives he saw media
31:24
Speaker 2: coverage of the explosion and claimed he did not have
31:27
Speaker 2: material to create an explosion that large.
31:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it would raise suspicions for me. And that's what's
31:34
Speaker 1: so fascinating by about this case is that it took
31:38
Speaker 1: so long to make it through the system. We're talking
31:41
Speaker 1: about twenty eighteen, and what Bill was engaged in rises
31:46
Speaker 1: to a federal crime. You've got the FBI getting involved,
31:49
Speaker 1: the ATF, who arguably the premiere organization that investigates fires
31:55
Speaker 1: and explosions. That's kind of their Baileywick, if you will,
31:59
Speaker 1: and not to me, you know, all of the other
32:01
Speaker 1: associated groups where you've got people, certainly in southern California
32:05
Speaker 1: that are very well equipped to handle events like this,
32:09
Speaker 1: And you think about who has this kind of knowledge,
32:13
Speaker 1: who has access to these materials, who has the ability
32:16
Speaker 1: to gain access to a location where he knows that
32:20
Speaker 1: the intended target would be able to put her hands
32:24
Speaker 1: on this thing that's going to create this event. And
32:28
Speaker 1: of course he's nowhere around the area when this thing initiates.
32:32
Speaker 1: He's the owner of the business. She hasn't been around
32:34
Speaker 1: for a few days. They got mail is stacked up.
32:36
Speaker 1: There's CCTV footage of him at any number of times
32:40
Speaker 1: going back and forth into these locations, which I think
32:44
Speaker 1: played a key role because you're putting him in that
32:47
Speaker 1: location as he is entering this building and this sort
32:50
Speaker 1: of thing, and then he knows because you know, this
32:54
Speaker 1: guy blows things up in big open areas. You've been
32:57
Speaker 1: to a firework show. These things are done in a distance,
33:00
Speaker 1: they're out in an open area. But Dave, here's what
33:04
Speaker 1: actually brought about her death. The fact that this potential
33:10
Speaker 1: energy that was contained within this bomb was contained within
33:15
Speaker 1: a structure. So you've got a bomb contained in a
33:18
Speaker 1: box and the box is contained in a structure. This
33:21
Speaker 1: is what's referred to as a pressure event. You've got
33:24
Speaker 1: this intense pressure. If you've ever seen anybody shake up
33:26
Speaker 1: a bottle of just champagne and then pop the cork on.
33:30
Speaker 1: The pop goes, the cork goes flying off in the distance.
33:33
Speaker 1: That's very minimal when you think about the pressure that
33:36
Speaker 1: is initiated. That pressure from that device going off is
33:41
Speaker 1: trying to seek that location where it can free itself
33:46
Speaker 1: into the open air and it will eventually dissipate, but
33:49
Speaker 1: it has to travel this course that goes through furniture,
33:54
Speaker 1: through a desk, through a wall, and ultimately through the
33:58
Speaker 1: body of an innocent victim. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and
34:05
Speaker 1: this is bodybags