Mutant Anthrax Cells Led, Slowly, to Ivins

FBI probe required inventing new type of forensic science

By Katherine Thompson, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 27, 2008 8:56 AM CDT

(Newser) – The anthrax poisoning case against Bruce Ivins won't be made in court, but it is compelling, the FBI says. Although the late Army scientist's lawyer dismisses the case as “heaps of innuendo,” federal records reveal a far-reaching, exhaustive investigation that required newly invented technology and depended on mutant bacteria, reports the Washington Post.

It took the experienced eye of a career scientist to notice that the strain of anthrax used in the 2001 attacks had strange properties. While most batches have one mutation or none, this one had five, indicating someone had painstakingly cultivated it. Though dozens had access to Ivins' secret stash of that strain, only he had the skills to prepare it, investigators say.

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (1)]

This image sent Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001 by Bruce Ivins shows Ivins handling "cultures of the now infamous 'Ames' strain of Bacillus anthracis" at his lab according to the text of his message. (AP Photo)

Court documents show suspected anthrax attacker Ivins claimed to know who the killer was. Ivins congratulated himself for piecing together information that had eluded the government for years. (AP Photo)

The Hamilton, NJ, Post Office is shown March 9, 2005, just before reopening for the first time since October 2001, when the sort facility was found to be contaminated with anthrax spores. (AP Photo/Brian Branch-Price, File)

Ivins, the scientist who was developing a vaccine to combat anthrax, died July 29, 2008, in an apparent suicide in a hospital in Frederick, Md. (AP Photo)

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When you go to the true experts and ask them how many people can develop [anthrax spores] into something with this purity and this concentration, they shake their heads. Some will say there are perhaps six.
- Ed Montooth, the head FBI investigator

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Mutant Anthrax Cells Led, Slowly, to Ivins