US Scientist Linked to Anthrax Attacks Commits Suicide

The U.S. Justice Department is trying to address a lot of unanswered questions involving the case of a U.S. Army scientist who killed himself Tuesday. Federal prosecutors had prepared an indictment alleging he mailed letters traced with deadly anthrax in 2001 to congressional offices, newrooms and elsewhere, killing five people and injuring many more with anthrax poisoning. Since Ivins is now dead, FBI officials are debating on whether to close the case.

Bruce E. Ivins was one of the U.S. government's leading scientists researching vaccines and cures for exposure to anthrax. His work at the U.S. Army's biochemical laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland earned him the Pentagon's highest honor for civilian employees. The 62-year-old husband and father of two committed suicide on August 1 by taking an overdose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine at their home in Frederick, Maryland.

Prosecutors had been closing in on Ivins as the new prime suspect in the seven-year-old, unresolved anthrax case. The deadly mailings rattled the United States just weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, making many people afraid to open their mailboxes. Officials say they were preparing an indictment against Ivins and planned to seek the death penalty.

Media reports say U.S. prosecutors are working on the theory that Ivins may have sent off the anthrax-filled letters to test the cure he had developed for the toxin. He apparently stood to benefit from an anthrax panic by collecting patent royalties on an anthrax vaccine. Maryland court documents show that Ivins recently received psychiatric treatment and that he was ordered to stay away from a social worker he was accused of stalking and threatening to kill. Ivin's attorney has released a statement declaring his client's innocence, and blaming his suicide on what he termed the "relentless pressure of accusation" by government investigators.