Aug 1, 2008 12:01 am US/Eastern
Anthrax Suspect Reportedly Commits Suicide
Top Biodefense Researcher Knew Justice Department Was About To File Charges
WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
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Hazmat crews inspect a container for anthrax at the Port of Long Beach on April 2, 2008.
CBS
A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a published report.
The scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., had been told about the impending prosecution, the Los Angeles Times reported for Friday editions. The laboratory has been at the center of the FBI's investigation of the anthrax attacks, which killed five people.
Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick (Md.) Memorial Hospital. The Times, quoting an unidentified colleague, said the scientist had taken a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine.
Tom Ivins, a brother of the scientist, told The Associated Press that another of his brothers, Charles, told him Bruce had committed suicide.
A woman who answered the phone at Charles Ivins' home in Etowah, N.C., refused to wake him and declined to comment on his death. "This is a grieving time," she said.
A woman who answered the phone at Bruce Ivins' home in Frederick declined to comment.
Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr and FBI Assistant Director John Miller declined to comment on the report.
Henry S. Heine, a scientist who had worked with Ivins on inhalation anthrax research at Fort Detrick, said he and others on their team have testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that has been investigating the anthrax mailings for more than a year.
Heine declined to comment on Ivins' death.
Norman Covert, a retired Fort Detrick spokesman who served with Ivins on an animal-care and protocol committee, said Ivins was "a very intent guy" at their meetings.
Ivins was the co-author of numerous anthrax studies, including one on a treatment for inhalation anthrax published in the July 7 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Less than a year after the mailings that killed five people and sickened 17 others, Attorney General John Ashcroft pointed an accusing finger at former Army scientist Steven Hatfill. But, reported CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, he was never arrested, never charged.
Last Friday, the Justice Department agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle a lawsuit with Hatfill, who was named as a person of interest in the 2001 attacks. Hatfill claimed the Justice Department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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