Family has identified the man found dead in the wreckage of last week’s house explosion in South St. Paul as the homeowner’s 42-year-old son.

Nhu Richards wrote on a fundraising page that firefighters pulled the body of her brother Ryan James Richards from the “heartbreaking aftermath” of Thursday morning’s explosion and fire that leveled their mother’s home on the city’s south end, just south of Interstate 494.

Fire officials have not said what they believe caused the explosion — only that it remains under investigation — and the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office has not released a cause or manner of the man’s death.

Nhu Richards wrote on GoFundMe last week that donations will go toward paying for her brother’s funeral and care for their 77-year-old mother, Ester Richards, who is a paraplegic. She was not home at the time of the explosion.

“As we grapple with the pain and loss, we’re left with uncertainty about the full extent of the tragedy and the cost that will befall on my mom,” Nhu Richards wrote on the GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $10,000.

In 2013, Ryan Richards was arrested for shooting and critically wounding his mother in a St. Paul home where two years later he attacked his friend with a samurai sword. The slashing left the victim with severe lacerations to her shoulder and wrist.

Richards was not charged in the 2013 shooting. A police investigation determined “he shot his mother accidentally, thinking she was an intruder,” Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman, said in 2015.

Reports of explosion

A call came in at 6:18 a.m. on Thursday with reports of an explosion and a fire at the home in the 1200 block of South Ninth Avenue. Firefighters extinguished the fire quickly, then found the deceased man in the home’s attached garage, officials said.

Neighbor Mike Schuno said Thursday that he heard a “massive boom,” which knocked glasses out of his cupboard, and then two more explosions. Ester Richards had lived at the home with her son, Schuno said, adding he’d never met them.

Dakota County public records show Richards bought the one-story, four-bedroom home in July 2018; it was built in 2012.

“In the wake of losing everything in the house,” Nhu Richards wrote on GoFundMe, “these funds will play a substantial role in helping my mother rebuild what was lost, allowing her to regain somewhat a sense of comfort and stability.”

Neighboring homes were damaged from both the explosion and the heat of the fire.

Earlier arrest

Ryan Richards was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault in the May 1, 2013, shooting of his then 66-year-old mother at her home in the 400 block of East Robie Street on St. Paul’s West Side. Richards told police he’d been asleep in bed when he thought there was an intruder and he fired a gun, accidentally shooting his mother, Ernster said. His mother backed up Richards’ account, and after an investigation, police closed the case, Ernster said.

A case was not presented to the Ramsey County attorney’s office for possible charges, spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein said Monday.

Two and a half years after the shooting, Richards slashed his 43-year-old friend with a sword after the two had been drinking vodka at the West Side home. Richards pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and was given a seven-year prison sentence in June 2016.

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