Page:Amerithrax Investigative Summary.pdf/8

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Time Line of Offense

9/17-18/01 Letters to New York Post and Brokaw mailed sometime between 5 p.m. on 9/17 and noon the following day.
9/18/01 Letters to New York Post and Brokaw postmarked in Trenton, NJ.
10/3/01 Robert Stevens (AMI employee in Boca Raton, FL) diagnosed with pneumonia; rod-shaped bacteria consistent with anthrax noted in medical report.
10/4/01 Announcement made that Stevens had contracted anthrax.
10/5/01 Stevens died from inhalational anthrax in Boca Raton, FL.
10/6-9/01 Letters to Senators Daschle and Leahy mailed sometime between 3 p.m. on 10/6 and noon three days later.
10/9/01 Letters to Senators Daschle and Leahy postmarked in Trenton, NJ.
10/12/01 Letter to Brokaw recovered by FBI.
10/15/01 Letter to Senator Daschle opened in Hart Senate Office Building.
10/19/01 Letter to New York Post discovered and recovered.
10/21/01 Thomas Morris died (Brentwood Postal Facility employee in Washington, D.C.).
10/22/01 Joseph Curseen, Jr. died (Brentwood Postal Facility employee in Washington, D.C.).
10/31/01 Kathy Nguyen died (New York City, NY).
11/16/01 Letter to Senator Leahy discovered and recovered.
11/21/01 Ottilie Lundgren died in Connecticut (believed to be the result of cross-contaminated mail).

II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A. Overview of the Amerithrax Investigation

Once the first victim, Robert Stevens, was identified, and the letters were recovered from the New York and Washington crime scenes, the FBI began its investigation through its Miami, New York, Newark, New Haven, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. field offices. The Washington Field Office (“WFO”) became the lead office, and the “Amerithrax Task Force” was established, comprised of FBI Special Agents and United States Postal Inspectors, as well as various other law enforcement officers. The ensuing criminal investigation was extraordinarily complex, given the possible breadth and scope of this bioterrorism attack. In the seven years following the attack, the Amerithrax Task Force expended over 600,000 investigator work hours, involving in excess of 10,000 witness interviews conducted on six continents, the execution of 80 searches, and the recovery of over 6,000 items of potential evidence. The case involved the issuance of over 5,750 federal grand jury subpoenas and the collection of 5,730 environmental samples from 60 site locations. Several overseas site locations also were examined for relevant evidence with the cooperation of the respective host governments.

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