MONROVIA : Man Held in Bomb Blast Under Ex-Wife’s Pickup
A Monrovia man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of placing a pipe bomb that exploded under his ex-wife’s pickup truck outside a house in Lancaster, sheriff’s deputies said.
No one was injured in the incident, but investigators were trying to determine whether the suspect, Charles Edwin Smith, 70, was also connected to a March 26 explosion that damaged his ex-wife’s motor home.
Smith was taken into custody at his Monrovia residence about 1:30 a.m. and jailed at the Sheriff’s Temple City station on suspicion of exploding a destructive device, Deputy George Ducoulombier said. Smith was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
The arrest occurred about 90 minutes after an explosion rocked the 1100 block of Herzel Avenue in Lancaster, where Smith’s former wife, Rini uzanne, 51, was staying. The home belonged to Duzanne’s daughter from a previous marriage.
Duzanne said she left her husband in September, 1988, and became embroiled in a bitter divorce that became final in November.
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