Forensics Journal - Stevenson University 2014 | Page 7

STEVENSON UNIVERSITY

Due to this mandate, the FBI was able to access the database that
held every transfer of Anthrax across the country to determine which
laboratories had access to the Anthrax strain in question. From this
database, a list of institutions with Anthrax in their possession was
generated. This reduced the potential laboratory sources to 16 located
in the United States and 4 located internationally that possessed the
Ames strain of Anthrax. Obtaining the samples from laboratories
located within the United States was relatively easy since we were
able to use the court system to subpoena the laboratories. However
obtaining the samples from laboratories overseas was a more arduous
task. We could not use the legal system and had to rely on diplomatic
means, which took much longer. We eventually were able to collect
samples from Canada, United Kingdom, and Sweden.

Senator Leahy with identical handwriting, return address, and postage
as the letter sent to Senator Daschle. This unopened letter contained
nearly 1 gram of Anthrax powder which allowed us the freedom to
conduct testing that previously was not available because of the small
samples we recovered from the opened letters. It opened the door for
Carbon-14 dating, which was very helpful in determining the age of
the Anthrax spores.
In this case, two laboratories were able to conduct Carbon-14 dating and they both came to the same conclusion: the Anthrax spores
were modern and dated from 1998-2001. This was especially important because the government had forbidden the use of Anthrax as a
weapon in 1969, at which point, there were hundreds of pounds of
classified dried Anthrax powder in the country’s arsenal. The Carbon
dating analysis showed that the samples used in this attack did not
come from the government supply.

Once we obtained these Ames samples, we compared them against
the Ames that was found in the mailed letters. We used DNA fingerprinting to identify a unique genetic signature in the mailed spores.
From this information, we were able to determine that the attack
Ames originated from the United States Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases located in Frederick, Maryland
(USAMRIID).

HOW DID THE CASE RESOLVE?
The samples were all shown to have originated from USAMRIID and
were traced back to one scientist located there who was an Anthrax
vaccine expert. Nine of the samples came from one flask which
originally contained 1000 ml of Ames strain spores. The scientist
named Bruce Ivins had contracted production of the spores for use in
vaccine challenge studies, for which he was responsible in his duties
at USAMRIID. The samples from the flask matched genetically with
the samples taken from the mailed letters. At this time, an investigation ensued which included investigating his emails, computers,
purchase history which showed some very incriminating evidence.
Once it became clear that he was close to being indicted on terrorism
charges that might include the death sentence, he committed suicide
in July 2008.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS THE BIGGEST BREAKTHROUGH IN THE CASE?
There were two important breakthroughs during this case. First and
foremost, the genetics used in this case was groundbreaking. Using
newly available procedures in the field of microbiology, we were
able to find unique mutations in ten of the 1000 plus samples we
had collected. We were able to match the unique mutations in the
samples collected from the letters with the samples in our collections
of known exemplars of Anthrax. All ten matches came from the same
location. This was the first breakthrough, which determined that the
Anthrax came from USAMRIID.

IN THE TERMS OF BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM ATTACKS,
HOW WERE THE INVESTIGATORY TECHNIQUES USED IN
THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS DIFFERENT FROM THOSE USED
IN THE PAST?

The second important breakthrough was finding the Senator Patrick
Leahy letter in a batch of quarantined mail. After the letter sent to
Senator Thomas Daschle was found on Capitol Hill, the Sargent in
Arms of the House of Re