Local News in Brief : 2 Held in Explosion of Purported Drug Lab
A Canoga Park woman and a San Bernardino man have been arrested on suspicion of murder and manufacturing methamphetamines in connection with a drug laboratory explosion that killed one of their associates, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Friday.
Merrie Peterson, 29, and Ralph Hysell, 24, were arrested last Saturday by federal drug agents at an Ontario motel, said Deputy Chris Robbins.
Their alleged associate, Donald Sanders, 25, of San Bernardino, was killed in an early-morning explosion Oct. 23 at the Airport Plaza Inn in Inglewood when a drug lab producing methamphetamine exploded, Robbins said. Sanders died of inhaling the drug and of chemical burns, investigators said.
Peterson and Hysell allegedly took Sanders’ body to another motel in Gardena, where they abandoned it, Robbins said.
Officers of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency seized five pounds of the drug during the arrests in Ontario, Robbins said. He said the two suspects are in federal custody.
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