Sex offender blows himself up inside home
Investigators believe the man who died in the blast is Zane Dittman, but they are waiting for the medical examiner to make a positive identification.
Pierce County Sheriff spokesman Ed Troyer said a couple called 911 after returning home Monday evening to find their 26-year-old roommate angry and handling explosives.
 Zane Dittman |
When deputies arrived at the house near the intersection of 160th Street and 70th Avenue East, the man ran upstairs with a duffle bag full of explosives and other bomb making materials. Troyer said the man began playing music loudly and deputies backed away from the house.
"The cops were supposed to call us and as far as I knew they were going to call us before they showed up. They just beat on the door and sent everybody in a panic," said home owner Sean Remlick.
Deputies evacuated Remlick and his fiance out of the home and exited around midnight. Just moments later, the top floor of the house exploded.
"He either accidentally or intentionally set the explosion off, which took the whole top floor off of the residence and engulfed the house in flames," Troyer said.
Firefighters arrived but were not able to enter the house to attack the fire because of the fear that there may be more explosives inside. The fire continued to smolder until about 8 a.m., and a body was found in the rubble after several hours of searching.
Dittman is a convicted sex offender who answered an ad on the Craigslist Web site seeking a roommate for the house.
Remlick said he had no idea Dittman was a sex offender.
"Never had an argument with him, never raised his voice, never yelled, never threatening," he said.
Dittman was the subject of a 2003 Amber Alert and was convicted of taking his then girlfriend's 10-year-old son from Spokane to Kirkland, where the boy was eventually found.
Then last year a Tacoma woman petitioned for a sexual assault protective order against Dittman, claiming he abused her son while renting a room in her house. Prosecutors never filed any charges.
A bomb robot was used to check the charred remains of the house and nearby vehicles for bombs, but no other explosives were found.
Troyer said the bombs the man used were wrapped with glass, marbles and nails.
It was not clear exactly what caused the man to become angry and detonate the explosives.
"He's had some issues with law enforcement over the years," Troyer said. "And actually, from what we're learning, had a rough week leading up to this... paranoid, changing locks and doing some strange stuff, according to witnesses." 
