Mystery Deepens After Explosives, Detonators Discovered In Dead 92-Year-Old's House

TURRET, Colo. (CBS4) - A house containing a large quantity of explosives and chemicals -- enough that would have surely destroyed the home, the county sheriff said -- is the focus of wide-ranging investigation after the homeowner was found dead.

"Why there were so many explosives in that house, that's the real mystery," Chaffee County Sheriff Pete Palmer said. "It's a real whodunnit, so we're still working on that."

The body of 92-year-old Edwin Bartheld was found inside the home's crawlspace on Monday. He had lived in the home, built in 1973, for decades. Turret is near Salida.

Along with Bartheld's body, investigators found a large quantity of explosives and chemicals inside.

On Tuesday, detectives discovered more -- two 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate in the crawl space.

"We knew they were there from yesterday, but the bomb squad left them there because it's a very stable material," Palmer said. "However, when we removed the tarp, we found two homemade detonators inside those bags."

The sheriff's office alerted the bomb squad to remove the bags and detonate them outside. The sheriff says the explosives found would have destroyed the home. Palmer said Bartheld is likely responsible.

"We think he's the one who put it in there and he's one that rigged it up and he's the one that created these detonators," he said.

Police say a projectile, likely a bullet, found inside Bartheld's skull likely caused his death. Despite what initially appears to be a suicide, the sheriff says a homicide hasn't been ruled out just yet.

"Some things just don't add up," Palmer said.

Property records show Bartheld sold the home to a couple from Florida in 2008. Detectives are talking to that couple as part of the investigation.