Scientist In Anthrax Case Dead Of Apparent Suicide
Q&A;: Behind The Anthrax Investigations Who was Bruce Ivins, and why was he a target in the FBI's investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks? Here, a look at the questions surrounding the case.
Timeline: Anthrax Attacks Read a chronology of who was infected in the anthrax attacks and the FBI's pursuit of the culprit.
Peace Order Mental health counselor Jean C. Duley requested that the court in Frederick County, Md., issue a type of restraining order against Ivins. Ivins' address has been blacked out to protect his family's privacy.
Read The Request Filed Against Ivins In July 2008
A senior government scientist who helped investigate the deadly anthrax attacks in 2001 died this week of an apparent suicide amid reports that the Justice Department probe had shifted to him.
Bruce E. Ivins, 62, died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland, according to an obituary in Ivins' hometown newspaper, The Frederick News-Post. The scientist died after taking a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, according to an unidentified colleague of Ivins' quoted in the Los Angeles Times' Friday editions.
Ivins, who had worked for 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., apparently had been notified that he was to be prosecuted for the deaths connected to the anthrax attacks. Court documents filed in Frederick County, Md., indicated prosecutors may have planned to seek the death penalty.
Ivins' attorney, Paul F. Kemp, said in a statement that his firm had represented the scientist for more than a year.
Kemp maintained that Ivins was innocent and said the pressure of the government investigation led to his client's suicide.
"We assert his innocence in these killings, and would have established that at trial. The relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo takes its toll in different ways on different people, as has already been seen in this investigation. In Dr. Ivins' case, it led to his untimely death," Kemp said in a statement.
But there were indications that Ivins was psychologically unstable. Mental health counselor Jean C. Duley requested that the court in Frederick County, Md., issue a "peace order" — a type of restraining order — against Ivins earlier this month.
The Justice Department, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service issued a statement saying sophisticated scientific tools have resulted in "significant developments" in the investigation of the anthrax attacks. However, the release said no details could be provided because of obligations to the victims and a court seal preventing disclosure of some information.
Court documents submitted by Duley indicate Ivins had a long history of "homicidal actions, threats and plans."
Notes attributed to Duley on a copy of the peace order obtained by NPR indicated she had been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1 and that the FBI was going to charge Ivins with five capital murders.
The anthrax was sent through the mail to media organizations and politicians shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, crippling mail service, shutting down a Senate office building and spreading fear of further terrorism. Five people were killed and 17 were sickened by anthrax that was mailed to lawmakers' Capitol Hill offices, television networks in New York and a newspaper office in Florida.
Two postal workers in a Washington mail facility, a New York hospital worker, a Florida photo editor and an elderly Connecticut woman were killed.
Kemp's statement said Ivins had cooperated with the probe for more than six years, using his expertise as a scientist to help the government.
A renowned microbiologist, Ivins had published numerous scholarly works on anthrax. He helped the FBI analyze materials recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senator's office in Washington, the newspaper said.
Earlier, suspicion centered on another government scientist, Steven Hatfill, who worked in the same Fort Detrick laboratory as Ivins.
In 2002, federal law enforcement officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, called Hatfill a "person of interest" in the investigation. A year later, Hatfill sued various Justice Department officials, including Ashcroft. Earlier this year, the Justice Department agreed to pay Hatfill a multimillion-dollar settlement.
Federal investigators began to suspect Ivins in late 2006 after a change in leadership at the FBI prompted a re-examination of the evidence, according to the Times report.
Ivins was facing forced retirement in September, a longtime colleague told the Times. The colleague said Ivins was emotionally fractured by the federal scrutiny.
On July 24, Ivins was released from a facility operated by Sheppard Pratt Health System where he was reportedly being treated for depression.
He is survived by his wife of 33 years and two children.
NBC anthrax letter sent to Tom Brokaw.A man about to be indicted by the United States Department of Justice died Tuesday. His lawyer has called the death a suicide.

Bruce Edwards Ivins, 62, was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital in Frederick, Maryland, where he died of an overdose of Tylenol and codeine, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported Friday.

Ivins, who worked at the biodefense laboratories in Fort Detrick, Maryland for 18 years, was about to be charged by the Justice Department in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and infected 17 others.

Ivin's lawyer, Paul Kemp, insisted that his client had no role in the attacks, which targeted politicians in Washington DC, and members of the media in New York City and Florida.

"For six years, Dr. Ivins fully cooperated with that investigation, assisting the government in every way that was asked of him," Mr. Kemp told the ''New York Times''. "The relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo takes its toll in different ways on different people, as has already been seen in this investigation. In Dr. Ivins’ case, it led to his untimely death."

Both the ''New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times'' report that Ivins assisted the FBI and other agencies in the investigation after the 2001 attacks.

The ''Los Angeles Times'' reports that Ivins was reinvestigated beginning in 2006 after FBI Director Robert Mueller changed the case's leadership. Before then, the only labeled "person of interest" was Steven J. Hatfill. He has since been cleared and paid between $4.6 and $5.82 million by the U.S. Government as part of a settlement stemming for 2003 law suits filed against the Justice Department and government officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The ''New York Times'' also reported that a spokesman for Hatfill said that rushing to judgment in the case is a mistake.

“Everybody is jumping to the conclusion that because this guy committed suicide, he must be the anthrax killer,” Mr. Clawson told the ''New York Times''. “That is a lousy premise. The pressure of these F.B.I. investigations on individuals is phenomenal, and it is quite likely that this guy cracked under that pressure but had nothing to do with the killings.”

The ''New York Times'' reports that Ivins had been undergoing psychiatric treatment within the last month and had a restraining order placed on him by a woman he was allegedly stalking and threatening.

According to National Public Radio (NPR), mental health professional Jean C. Duley requested that Frederick County court issue a "peace order", a type of restraining order, against Ivins in July. Duley submitted documents to the court which show a history of "homicidal actions, threats and plans."

The ''New York Times'' also reports that Ivins was a religious man. Members of his congregation gathered early Friday to pray for him at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Frederick.

The Associated Press cites one of Ivins' colleagues who said he had been removed from his work area as he was thought to be a potential threat to others. According to NPR, one colleague said he was "emotionally fractured by the federal scrutiny."