Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The chief suspect in the 2001 anthrax postal attacks in the US has died from an apparent suicide just as the Justice Department was to file criminal charges against him.

Bruce Ivins, 62, one of America’s top biodefense researchers, had been told that he was going to be prosecuted for the attacks that killed five people and sent the country into panic in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. He died in hospital on Thursday after taking a huge dose of prescription Tylenol, a painkiller, mixed with codeine.

The scientist had worked at the the United States Army Medical Research Institute,(USAMRIID), the government’s elite biodefense research laboratories in Maryland for 18 years. He had played a pivotal role in research to improve anthrax vaccines, and during the attacks had helped the FBI analyse powdery material recovered from an envelope tainted with anthrax which had been sent to the Washington DC office of Tom Daschle, a US senator.

His imminent prosecution had not been made public but followed a government payout of $US5.82m (Pounds 2.9m) to a former government scientist, Steven Hatfill, who had been the FBI’s chief suspect for the anthrax attacks almost since the beginning. The payout to Hatfill, an unusual development that exonerated him of being the anthrax attacker was an essential step to clear the way for prosecuting Ivins, lawyers familiar with the case told the LA Times.

The focus was moved to Mr Ivins after the head of the anthrax investigation was moved. His replacement ordered agents to re-examine leads or potential suspects, and this led the FBI back to USAMRIID, where agents had first questioned scientists including Mr Ivins in December 2001, a few weeks after the fatal mailings.

An internal report in 2006 found that anthrax spores had escaped from biosafety containment labs at USAMRIID in 2001 and that Mr Ivins had carried out unauthorised testing of areas he believed might be contaminated.

Soon after the government’s settlement with Mr Hatfill was announced, Mr Ivins began showing signs of serious strain according to his colleagues. One of his workmates told the LA Times that Mr Ivins, who was being treated for depression, recently indicated to a therapist that he was considering suicide.

The scientist faced forced retirement, planned for September, said the colleague.

The FBI refused to comment on Mr Ivins’ death. However, FBI Director Mueller told CNN last week that, “in some sense, there have been breakthroughs” in the case.

“I’ll tell you we made great progress in the investigation,” Mueller added. “And it’s in no way dormant.”

The anthrax attacks in 2001 began in the weeks following 9/11 and panic soon spread in the US. The first victim was Robert Stevens, a tabloid newspaper editor in Florida who died of inhalation anthax and over the next few months another six people died, one of them a postal worker in the mailroom of the New York Post. Seventeen more became ill but recovered after treatment.