WASHINGTON, Saturday (AFP) - A US government scientist has committed suicide just as he was about to be charged in the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks that sparked widespread panic in the United States, US media reported yesterday.
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| A newspaper sits in front of the house where Fort Detrick scientist Bruce Ivins, 62, lived in Frederick, Maryland. AFP |
Bruce Ivins, 62, had worked for 18 years at the US biodefense research laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland, where he prepared anthrax used in vaccine experiments, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Prosecutors were mulling whether to seek the death penalty against Ivins, who was never publicly named as a suspect in the seven-year-old case that left five people dead and spooked the country just weeks after the September 11 attacks, The Washington Post reported.
The Justice Department, the FBI, and the US Postal Inspection Service issued a joint statement announcing “significant developments” in the case, but giving few details.
“We are able to confirm that substantial progress has been made in the investigation by bringing to bear new and sophisticated scientific tools,” the statement read. |
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