Stephen Beal on Dateline’s Death at the Spa: Verdict and Sentence

The Dateline NBC episode “Death at the Spa,” which aired February 9, 2024, follows the case of Stephen Beal, a Long Beach hobbyist convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend Ildiko Krajnyak with a homemade package bomb at her Aliso Viejo day spa in May 2018. After a mistrial in 2022 and a retrial in 2023, Beal was found guilty on four federal felony counts and sentenced in January 2024 to life in prison plus 30 years.¹²

Who Ildiko Krajnyak Was

Ildiko Krajnyak was a skin care specialist in her 40s and a mother. She owned Magyar Kozmetika, a day spa in Aliso Viejo, California. She met Stephen Beal through a dating app in the summer of 2016. They became a couple and then business partners, opening the spa together, with Beal paying the $1,500 monthly rent and half of operating costs.³

The romance fell apart over money and exclusivity, but the business partnership continued. Text messages from early 2018 showed Beal growing anxious about losing her, and he reportedly threatened suicide when she asked for space. Friends later testified they had warned Krajnyak that Beal was “controlling and possessive.”³ Prosecutors would later argue the bombing was a crime of passion driven by jealousy after Krajnyak began dating someone else.⁴

What Happened at the Spa on May 15, 2018

Prosecutors said Beal slipped a cardboard box containing a homemade bomb into the spa while Krajnyak was visiting family in Hungary. She returned, and when she opened the box behind her desk around 1:05 p.m., it detonated. The 48-year-old was killed. Two clients, a mother and daughter, were critically injured and left with lasting physical and emotional harm. A nearby preschool was also endangered by the blast.⁵⁶⁷

The Evidence Against Beal

A search of Beal’s Long Beach home the day after the bombing turned up more than 130 pounds of explosive precursor chemicals and completed explosive mixtures, along with electric matches and wires.⁸⁹¹⁰

FBI laboratory testing tied the bomb to the house. The explosive mixture used in the package matched chemicals found at Beal’s home, and wires recovered from the blast-site ceiling were of the same unique type as wires at his residence. Store security footage from six days before the bombing showed Beal paying cash for a single 9-volt battery, consistent with battery fragments at the scene, and three cardboard boxes matching the one Krajnyak had opened. Testimony also established that Beal had previously built a bomb to kill a neighborhood gopher.⁸¹⁰

The Long Road Through Court

Beal was first arrested shortly after the bombing on a single count of possessing an unregistered destructive device. Prosecutors then asked a judge to drop the charge, questioning whether the materials at his home legally qualified as a destructive device. The dismissal was approved on May 26, 2018, and Beal walked out of jail the next day.¹¹

He remained free for nearly ten months. Then, on March 3, 2019, he was arrested again, and on March 13 a federal grand jury in the Central District of California returned a four-count indictment: use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, malicious destruction of a building resulting in death, use of a destructive device in relation to a crime of violence, and possession of an unregistered destructive device. He was held without bail.⁶¹²¹³

His first trial ended in a mistrial on August 22, 2022, after more than seven days of deliberation. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton declared the jury “hopelessly deadlocked.” The split was 9-3 in favor of conviction on the most serious charges. One juror who voted to acquit later said she believed federal investigators had shown “tunnel vision” by focusing solely on Beal.¹⁴

The retrial was shorter, and the outcome different. On July 19, 2023, after a three-week trial, a second jury found Beal guilty on all four counts.⁴¹⁰

The Sentence

On January 19, 2024, Judge Staton imposed two concurrent life sentences for use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and malicious destruction of a building resulting in death, a consecutive 30-year term for use of a destructive device during a crime of violence, and a concurrent 10-year term for possession of an unregistered destructive device. She called the crimes “calculated” and “chilling.”⁵¹⁵

Beal maintained his innocence at sentencing. Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said he “could not think of anything more insulting” than that continued denial.¹⁶

The Unresolved Death of Beal’s First Wife

Dateline gives significant time to an earlier death in Beal’s life, and prosecutors raised it too. In 2008, his wife Christine Beal, 48, died a few weeks after falling down a flight of stairs at their Long Beach home while the couple carried a heavy piece of furniture, which landed on her hip and pelvis.¹⁷

The Los Angeles County coroner ruled the manner of death “undetermined.” The autopsy listed causes as pancreatitis, electrolyte imbalance, and chronic lead intoxication. Christine’s blood lead level was 24 times the limit set by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and roughly 100 times the average for U.S. adults. Benzodiazepine was also in her system. Medical examiners called it a “mysterious case” and could not conclusively say whether the fall contributed to her death. A coroner’s investigator noted that Stephen Beal had been uncooperative with hospital staff.¹⁸¹⁷

No criminal charges were ever filed. Federal prosecutors in the bombing case noted in a court filing that Beal had purchased lead tetraoxide in the months before Christine died and had obtained an accidental death insurance policy through his employer weeks before her fatal fall. The insurer denied his claim; Beal sued and won $550,000. At sentencing for the bombing, Judge Staton said she would not take Christine’s death into account.¹⁵¹⁷ Beal’s daughter, Charlene Brown, has maintained her father’s innocence and described her mother’s death as a tragic accident from the fall.

A Separate Federal Fraud Case

In November 2023, while already convicted of the bombing, Beal pleaded guilty in a separate federal case to wire fraud, Social Security fraud, and concealment of bankruptcy assets. He admitted concealing $350,000 he had received from Christine’s accidental death policy during a 2009 bankruptcy filing, fraudulently collecting about $1 million in disability insurance payments by lying about his ability to work and pursue hobbies, and receiving more than $350,000 in Social Security benefits by falsely claiming aphasia, memory loss, and an inability to read.¹⁹

On February 28, 2024, a federal judge added three years and one month to his sentence for the fraud, to be served on top of the life term for the bombing.²⁰

Where Stephen Beal Is Now

Beal is serving his life-plus-30-year sentence in federal prison. He continues to maintain his innocence and is appealing his bombing conviction.¹⁵

1
Yahoo Entertainment. Dateline NBC: Where Stephen Beal Is Now
2
NBC News. Watch Dateline Episode Death at the Spa Now
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People. Inside Ildiko Krajnyak Bomb Murder
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ABC7. Aliso Viejo Spa Bombing: Stephen Beal Found Guilty
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NY1/AP. Man Sentenced to Life Plus 30 Years in California Spa Bombing
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ATF. Long Beach Man Arrested on Federal Charges for Bombing Aliso Viejo Spa
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ABC7. Aliso Viejo Bombing: Spa Sentenced
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U.S. Department of Justice. Long Beach Man Found Guilty on Federal Charges for Bombing Aliso Viejo Spa
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ABC News. Man Arrested on Allegedly Unregistered Destructive Device
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Los Angeles Times. Hobbyist Convicted of Murder by Bomb
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Washington Post. Prosecutors Tossing Charge Tied to Fatal California Blast
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NBC News. Man Charged in Deadly California Spa Bombing Indicted on Four Counts
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Long Beach Post. Grand Jury Indicts Long Beach Man on 4 Federal Counts
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Orange County Register. Jury Deadlocks in Fatal Aliso Viejo Spa Bombing Trial
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NBC News. California Bomber’s Wife Dies: New Details Before Blast
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Spectrum News. Long Beach Man Sentenced to Life Plus 30 Years in Federal Prison
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NBC Los Angeles. Aliso Viejo Explosion Suspect Wife Death
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CBS News Los Angeles. Wife of Man in Aliso Viejo Explosion
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Orange County Register. Long Beach Man Who Planted Bomb at Aliso Viejo Spa to Plead Guilty to Fraud
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Mercury News. Aliso Viejo Bomber Gets 3 Years in Separate Fraud Case