A Eustis community in Lake County can rest easier after the sheriff’s office arrested Marcus Fricke on several charges including threatening to make bombs, as well as possessing a destructive device.

What You Need To Know

  • Eustis man was making bombs in his home

  • LCSO & ATF now investigating
  • Aside from bomb-making materials; guns, ammunition, and nazi paraphernalia also inside the home

It’s easy for Anna Ramirez to describe what she would hear from her neighbor’s house about 100 yards away.

“I always hear boom, boom, boom, boom everywhere,” Eustis resident Anna Ramirez said Tuesday.

The booms and loud noises she would hear were coming from the home of Marcus Fricke, who the Lake County Sheriff’s office arrested Tuesday. A woman who was staying with him called the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

“She contacted the Sheriff’s Office to let us know he had a lot of explosive material and explosive devices,” LCSO point of contact LT. John Herrell explains. “He had built these in the home. She said he was paranoid and making suicidal comments, and was going to blow up the house.” 

With a search warrant, the sheriff’s office went in to Fricke’s home and found four functional destructive devices, all triggered by a trip wire, a fuel bomb, ammonium nitrate, other bomb-making materials, and large amounts of ammunition and firearms.

“I heard the other day, one night was boom!” Ramirez recalls. “I even looked and could see there was a fire up and it definitely was not a gun.”

Aside from neighbors recently reporting explosions coming from Fricke’s property, the 55-year-old was baker acted over the weekend. Law enforcement says they have known about some of his unusual behavior.

“Back in 2019 is when he really came on our radar. I think that is when he purchased his home,” Herrell says. “He called us shortly after of moving in to report there were people living in his attic and he had shot a couple of rounds through the attic.”

The sentiment of Fricke’s recent arrest is now what is being felt in the neighborhood.

“I feel great,” Ramirez says, smiling. I feel a lot safer, yes.”

The sheriff’s office and ATF are now working on this case.

Fricke is in jail with no bond. Also found inside his home were nazi paraphernalia and anti-Semitic materials.