Video: Man who died in explosion may be connected to Seattle murder

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SEATTLE – The convicted sex offender who was killed in a house explosion where he was making bombs Tuesday may have worked at the same construction site where a body was found in Seattle on Monday.

However, a spokesperson for the Seattle Police Department says the connection involving Zane Dittman may be nothing more than a coincidence.

On Tuesday, Dittman, 25, was killed after the top floor of the Puyallup, Wash. home where he was living exploded, showering debris up to 100 yards away. Pierce County investigators say residents called 911 after they found Dittman making bombs.

The day before, a construction worker at an office building found a man's bloody body on the site at 7th and Madison in Seattle. Investigators ruled it a homicide. The King County Medical Examiner identifies the victim as 25-year-old Noel Richard Lopez. His injuries included subdural hemorrhaging, multiple rib fractures and blunt force injuries to the head and torso.

According to construction workers at Monday's murder scene in Seattle, Dittman used to work at the site, but they were told by their bosses not to speak with KING 5 News.

An employee at a nearby grocery store recognized Dittman when we showed her a picture.

"He seems like a normal guy. Pretty surprising to me. He never said anything that seemed out of the ordinary to me. Nothing that would give his personality away," said Jennifer Romanchuk.

A spokesperson for Opus Construction, which is working the site, says Dittman was not one of its employees, but may have been employed by a subcontractor.

Dittman, who was a registered sex offender, also had convictions for possessing stolen property, riot with a deadly weapon and unlawful imprisonment.

Pierce County investigators don't know why Dittman was building bombs, but they say they've learned he was having personal problems at work, with neighbors and even at his church.

"The probability is he was going to do something bad, to whom we don't know. We don't know where. There are a lot of different theories and people we've talked to. What he was going to do may have died with him in the fire," said Det. Ed Troyer, Pierce County Sheriff's spokesperson.