A senior US government scientist who helped investigate a series of deadly anthrax attacks in 2001 has died from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with carrying out the attacks, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.
The newspaper, quoting people familiar with the man, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation, identified him as Bruce Ivins, 62, and said he had worked for the last 18 years at government bio-defense research laboratories near Washington DC, in Maryland.
CNN said the Justice Department had been 鈥渟eriously considering鈥� filing charges against Ivins when he died. The Justice Department had no immediate comment.
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The LA Times said Ivins had been informed of his impending prosecution shortly before his death on Tuesday after swallowing a massive dose of painkillers. Maryland authorities have not yet officially declared the cause of death.
Bioterror attacks
The anthrax was sent through the mail to media organizations and politicians shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The symptoms of anthrax are similar to common respiratory infections like pneumonia, making attacks tricky to identify.
Five people were killed by the attacks and 17 others sickened, with vaccination being offered to those exposed. The attacks also crippled the national mail service, shut down a Senate office building and spread fear of further terrorism. They were the first bioterrorist attacks to use anthrax, which had long been feared.
Viewed as a skilled microbiologist, Ivins helped the FBI analyse materials recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a US senator鈥檚 office in Washington, the newspaper said.
The anthrax used was a strain common in North America, and was ultimately revealed to be identical to a strain used by the US military.
Suspicions
Earlier, suspicion centred around another government scientist, Steven Hatfill, who worked in the same laboratory as Ivins at Fort Detrick in Maryland.
In 2002, federal law enforcement officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, called Hatfill a 鈥�person of interest鈥� in the investigation. Hatfill then sued various Justice Department officials, including Ashcroft.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department agreed to pay Hatfill a settlement valued at $5.85 million to drop his lawsuit.
FBI director Robert Mueller recently said the agency was making 鈥済reat progress鈥� in the investigation and it was 鈥渋n no way dormant.鈥�
