Episode 1: Isolated Incident

Summary

Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer
Episode 1: Isolated Incident
Release Date: April 2, 2025
Hosts: Wolf Entertainment + CBC

---

Introduction

In the chilling premiere of Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer, listeners are plunged into the harrowing events that unfolded in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This episode, titled "Isolated Incident," delves deep into the lesser-known anthrax attacks that compounded the nation's trauma and sparked one of the FBI's most complex investigations. Through firsthand accounts and declassified materials, the episode unravels the intricate web of fear, confusion, and relentless pursuit that defined this dark chapter in American history.

---

The Immediate Aftermath of 9/11

The episode opens with the catastrophic events of September 11, vividly described by FBI Special Agent Scott Decker:

Scott Decker [00:40]: "I mean, this was a huge crime scene. Most people don't think about it as a crime scene, but it was a crime scene... The World Trade Center, both towers gone. Thousands are dead and injured."

As the skyline of New York transformed into a scene of devastation, the psychological impact on the American populace was profound:

Scott Decker [00:57]: "The psyche of the American population has been forever changed."

---

Emergence of the Anthrax Attacks

Approximately 12 hours after the 9/11 attacks, the nation was blindsided by a new wave of terror: anthrax-laced letters began to circulate, leading to widespread fear and chaos. Scott Decker recounts the urgency with which the FBI responded:

Scott Decker [01:27]: "I was told to grab four of the guys, load up our Suburbans with evidence collection equipment, Hazmat gear... We loaded up the trucks that evening."

Navigating through a New York City that had effectively closed its borders, Decker and his team faced immediate logistical challenges:

Scott Decker [01:54]: "New York City closed even to the FBI. Bridges were shut down, landlines were out, and cell phones weren't working well."

Upon reaching Manhattan, Decker describes the bleakness of Ground Zero:

Scott Decker [02:33]: "As we flew over Manhattan and we flew over ground zero... it was just Ashes. Buildings were in ash. They were just big piles underground."

---

The Hidden Threat: Biological Warfare

While the nation grappled with the devastation of the towers, Decker was acutely aware of another looming threat—a potential secondary attack involving biotoxins. This was driven by intelligence suggesting Al Qaeda's intent to unleash a biological assault:

Scott Decker [03:30]: "We expected a secondary attack. There were rumors of a biological attack."

Decker's role in the FBI's new hazardous response team positioned him at the forefront of detecting signs of such attacks, although unbeknownst to the public, their focus was misdirected towards the wrong city.

---

Unraveling the Anthrax Mystery

The narrative shifts to Florida, where Robert Stevens, a 63-year-old newspaper photo editor, becomes the first known victim of inhalation anthrax in the United States in nearly 25 years. His sudden illness and subsequent diagnosis shocked medical professionals:

Dr. Larry Bush [10:53]: "They almost never, ever cause spinal fluid infection, meningitis, but one does. Anthrax."

Dr. Bush's realization that Stevens' infection was anthrax—a bacterium rarely encountered in such contexts—set off alarm bells for potential bioterrorism:

Dr. Larry Bush [11:03]: "I was convinced this is anthrax. I don't have 100% proof."

Despite initial skepticism from institutions like the CDC, local health officials Jean Malecki and Larry Bush persisted in their suspicions, leading to the confirmation of a laboratory strain of anthrax that suggested intentional dissemination.

---

FBI's Multi-Pronged Investigation

Agent Scott Decker's expertise in genetics made him a pivotal figure in the FBI's investigation. His collaboration with Dr. Paul Keim, an esteemed expert in pathogen identification, was crucial in tracing the anthrax strain back to its origins:

Colleen Rowley [26:07]: "For the last 30 years, I've been involved in trying to develop DNA methods for precisely identifying strains of dangerous pathogens..."

The investigation uncovered unsettling connections, including suspicious activities at flight schools and nearby airstrips linked to Al Qaeda operatives. Notably, an eerie coincidence emerged when the airfield frequented by some 9/11 terrorists was located within close proximity to Stevens' residence, intensifying the FBI's urgency to solve the case.

---

Escalating Tensions and Public Fear

As evidence pointed towards a bioterrorism event, the nation was gripped by fear. Press conferences became battlegrounds for conflicting narratives, with health officials striving to prevent panic while dealing with an unprecedented public health crisis:

Scott Decker [33:09]: "I want to stress two things. First of all, that this is an isolated case, and second, that this is not contagious."

Meanwhile, Dr. Larry Bush grappled with the moral dilemma of providing hope amidst grim medical realities:

Dr. Larry Bush [32:36]: "The difficult part for me in that press conference was Maureen Stevens was sitting in the front and they said to me, is Bob Stevens going to die?"

---

Intersecting Paths: Aviation and Anthrax

The investigation took a darker turn as patterns emerged linking crop dusters—planes used for agricultural spraying—to potential methods of anthrax dissemination. Willie Lee, a seasoned crop dusting pilot, recounted suspicious interactions with individuals who later were identified as key Al Qaeda operatives:

Scott Decker [21:23]: "You know, that would tip me off right off the bat."

These revelations suggested a chilling possibility of airborne bioterrorism, aligning the anthrax attacks with the modus operandi of the 9/11 hijackers.

---

Ongoing Mysteries and Unanswered Questions

Despite the convergence of evidence, the episode underscores the lingering uncertainties that plagued the investigation. Claims of false narratives, investigative missteps, and the elusive nature of the true perpetrator kept the case shrouded in mystery:

Colleen Rowley [07:56]: "I would not consider the case to be closed."

As the episode concludes, listeners are left with a sense of unresolved tension, setting the stage for deeper exploration in subsequent episodes.

---

Notable Quotes

• Scott Decker [00:40]: "This was a huge crime scene... the World Trade Center, both towers gone."
• Dr. Larry Bush [10:53]: "They almost never, ever cause spinal fluid infection, meningitis, but one does. Anthrax."
• Scott Decker [07:56]: "I would not consider the case to be closed."
• Colleen Rowley [26:07]: "For the last 30 years, I've been involved in trying to develop DNA methods for precisely identifying strains of dangerous pathogens..."
• Scott Decker [21:23]: "You know, that would tip me off right off the bat."

---

Conclusion

Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer Episode 1, "Isolated Incident," skillfully sets the foundation for a gripping exploration of bioterrorism, governmental response, and the quest for justice in a time of national vulnerability. By spotlighting the intersecting challenges faced by investigators and medical professionals, the episode not only sheds light on a forgotten chapter of post-9/11 America but also underscores the enduring quest to uncover the truth behind one of the most perplexing cases of modern history.

---

Tune in next week for the continuation of this compelling investigation or binge the entire series ad-free by subscribing to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts.

Transcript

[Advertiser]

Instacart is on a mission to have you not leave the couch this basketball season because between the pre game rituals and the post game interviews, it can be difficult to find time for everything else. So let Instacart take care of your game day snacks or weekly restocks and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes because we hear it's bad luck to be hungry on game day. So download the Instacart app today and enjoy. Zero dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees apply for three orders in 14 days. Excludes restaurants.

[Narrator]

This is a CBC podcast.

[Scott Decker]

I mean, this was a huge crime scene. Most people don't think about it as a crime scene, but it was a crime scene. Of seven blocks, the unthinkable happened today. The World Trade center, both towers gone. Thousands are dead and injured.

[Narrator]

The skyline of New York and the.

[Scott Decker]

Psyche of the American population has been forever changed.

[Colleen Rowley]

Now it's obvious.

[Scott Decker]

I think, I think we have a.

[Colleen Rowley]

Terrorist act of proportions that we cannot.

[Narrator]

Begin to imagine at this juncture. It was the evening of September 11, about 12 hours after the terrorist attacks. And Scott Decker, a special agent with the FBI, was already on the move. He packed his bags and said goodbye to his family in Virginia.

[Scott Decker]

I was told to grab four of the guys, load up our Suburbans with evidence collection equipment, Hazmat gear, Tyvek suits, masks, gloves. We loaded up the trucks that evening. Oh, dark 30, September 12th. We started heading up to New York, I think five black suburbans in a row.

[Narrator]

While everyone else was trying like hell to get out of New York City, Decker drove all night to get in.

[Scott Decker]

As we went through Maryland, we went through Delaware, Delaware on Route 95, the main corridor. We got to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the big alert sign above the traffic. And usually the letters are in yellow, but in my memory it was orange. I don't know why, but I remember orange. And it just said in bold letters, New York City closed.

[Narrator]

They arrived outside Manhattan near dawn. But those orange letters were right. New York City was closed even to the FBI. Bridges were shut down, landlines were out, and cell phones weren't working well. So Decker went to an FBI field office in New Jersey, just across the river.

[Scott Decker]

I saw a Black Hawk helicopter sitting on the grass between the office and the Passaic River. I said, yeah, I need a lift over to New York. So he said, jump in. And we flew over Manhattan and we flew over ground zero. Doors opened on the Black Hawk, and as we flew over through the smoke, we just looked down and it was just Ashes. Buildings were in ash. They were just big piles underground.

[Narrator]

He landed near ground zero and, like everyone there, struggled to make sense of what had just happened.

[Scott Decker]

The morning of 12th September, things were a little up in the air. I don't think any of us knew what to really expect.

[Narrator]

But Decker isn't looking at the scene the same way as most first responders. In fact, he's there for something else. What the public didn't know at the time is that there was another looming threat.

[Scott Decker]

We expected a secondary attack. There was rumors of a biological attack. The country took steps to get ready for it.

[Narrator]

Unbeknownst to the public, there was reliable intelligence from the weeks right before 9, 11 that Al Qaeda was planning a different kind of attack. In addition to September 11, one involving the release of biotoxins into the air.

[Scott Decker]

A second attack was going to be coming at any moment.

[Narrator]

Decker was part of the FBI's new hazardous response team. So while everyone else was looking at the wreckage, he was on high alert, searching for signs like unusual illnesses, that this second attack, this time biological, was already underway. What no one knew at the time is that they were looking in the wrong city.

[Scott Decker]

The Florida man has contracted a very rare and potentially deadly form of anthrax.

[Narrator]

As all Americans know, recent weeks have.

[Scott Decker]

Brought a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country. The deadly bacteria have now turned up in the American capital.

[Narrator]

Deadly anthrax spores sent through the U.S. mail. One of the most lethal weapons of all time comes from an almost indestructible bacteria called anthrax. And in the fall of 2001, envelopes laced with powdered anthrax started showing up in the mail. The latest letter to have been discovered is thought to contain literally billions of spores. Letters sent to NBC on the New.

[Scott Decker]

York Post were the same.

[Narrator]

There's a warning. Take penicillin.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

Take penicillin now. Do not stop us. We have this anthrax.

[Narrator]

You die now. Anthrax. Anthrax. Anthrax.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

Are you afraid?

[Narrator]

The anthrax attacks created chaos. The US Capitol and the Supreme Court were contaminated and shut down. Thousands of buildings across the country were evacuated and innocent people died just from opening their mail.

[Scott Decker]

The US House of Representatives is closing offices today until 2pm what is perhaps worrying Americans the most is that they still have no idea who is behind these attacks.

[Narrator]

What's weird is that almost 25 years later, most Americans still have no idea who is behind these attacks. Anthrax was on the nightly news for months, and then it's like the story just disappeared. I've talked to hundreds of people about it, and no one, it seems, remembers what happened with this case. Who mailed those letters, do you know? My name's Jeremiah Kroll. I'm a documentary filmmaker, and I was living and working in New York when all this happened. In those weeks right after 9 11. I remember the stillness of the streets and the collective sense of raw outrage and sadness in the city. And then anthrax. I felt the fear those letters created, the terrifying way they just kept coming one after another.

[Scott Decker]

Another day of germ warfare, and still no sign. The worst case of bioterrorism in this country is close to being solved.

[Narrator]

Almost two decades later, when the pandemic hit, I felt that same sense of unpredictable terror in the air. It reminded me of the anthrax story, and I wondered whatever happened with that. So my team and I started digging into it. We tracked down people who were involved, either affected by the attacks or part of the investigation. FBI agents, victims, wrongly accused suspects. And the stories they shared, many for the first time, surprised me. They painted a picture of these events and their aftermath that revealed how, at its core, this was all so personal. Like stories about investigative mistakes right from the start, about civil liberties trampled and about lives destroyed. They broke the front door and there.

[Scott Decker]

Are agents with Uzis and moon suits.

[Advertiser]

It's one of the most devastating things.

[Narrator]

That'S ever happened to me. It'll follow me forever.

[Scott Decker]

I want to look my fellow Americans directly in the eye and declare to them, I am not the anthrax killer.

[Narrator]

And even after all of that, after the seven year odyssey the FBI went on to try to solve this case, some people still wonder if the FBI got it right.

[Colleen Rowley]

I would not consider the case to be closed.

[Narrator]

In my mind, it certainly is not solved.

[Scott Decker]

I believe there are others who can be charged with murder.

[Narrator]

This is a story about people who have to look at chaos and try to make sense of it while it's still happening and how hard it is to get that right.

[Scott Decker]

The worst thing that can happen to an FBI agent working a criminal investigation is to solve it in your mind before you really have the evidence.

[Narrator]

It's about the stories we tell ourselves and the price we pay when we tell the wrong ones. We're going to go inside one of the largest FBI investigations in history to figure out why we all lost track of this case and to explore the aftershocks we still feel today. From Wolf Entertainment, this is Aftermath the Hunt for the Anthrax Killer. Episode one Isolated Incident. I want to go back to the beginning of this story, to a time when most Americans never gave much thought to face masks or deadly particles in the air. It's October 2, 2001, three weeks after the attacks of 9 11, and we're in suburban Florida. It's the middle of the night, and a man named Robert Stevens wakes up feeling sick. He has chills and a fever. Robert Stevens is 63. He's a newspaper photo editor who lives in Lantana, Florida. That's a coastal town about an hour north of Miami. He's raised a few kids and is getting close to retirement. But when he wakes up that night, he feels disoriented, dizzy, and things seem to be getting worse. His wife Maureen is worried.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

She found him awake in the bathroom, vomiting over the toilet bowl. Confused.

[Narrator]

Dr. Larry Bush was chairman of infectious diseases and chief of staff at the JFK Medical center in West Palm beach, the hospital closest to Robert and Maureen Stevens house.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

She drove him to the hospital. He walked into JFK emergency room at around 2 in the morning. And after they put him on a ventilator and got a chest radiograph, they sent him for a spinal fluid examination. Looking for bacteria.

[Narrator]

Robert's condition gets worse. He goes into a coma. Larry and his team suspect that he has meningitis, an infection that makes the brain swell. So he looks at Robert's spinal fluid.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

When I look at the microscope, I'm looking to see if I could see what type of bacteria this is, because that's important for how I'm going to treat him.

[Narrator]

In a healthy patient, Larry shouldn't see much of anything.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

You're lucky if you can see one or two bacteria that help you determine what type of bacterial process this may be. His was overwhelming. I saw an overwhelming amount of pus cells. That's a bad sign. That means there's havoc going on in your nervous system.

[Narrator]

These bacteria suggest a cause of infection that shocks Larry.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

They almost never, ever cause spinal fluid infection, meningitis, but one does. Anthrax.

[Narrator]

Larry can't get his head around this. Most of us are now familiar with anthrax, largely because of this case. But back then, in 2001, this was nuts. Most people didn't think about anthrax at all. And for doctors, it was something you read about in textbooks, not something you expected to see in a patient.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

There were a lot of things going through my mind. There's nothing else that explains it, but.

[Narrator]

It just doesn't make sense. Anthrax is a natural bacteria that usually only infects livestock. Cattle tend to catch it in dry rural areas, they eat or breathe in anthrax cells called spores while they're grazing. So it's not like a guy in suburban Florida is going to just accidentally breathe this stuff in while going about his life. And if he did, somehow he'd be the first person in the entire US in almost 25 years. And that person had gotten it from inhaling anthrax spores off of wool shipped over from Pakistan. Larry runs more tests.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

He had an overwhelming amount of bacteria. But what struck me was the shape and the color of these bacteria.

[Narrator]

He sees tiny blue stained bacterial rectangles all in a line. Imagine looking down on a train from high in the air.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

I'm an infectious disease person. I lecture, I write on infectious diseases. I look at bacteria under a microscope every day. I knew what I was looking at in retrospect.

[Narrator]

Now, knowing how everything would play out. This is the moment that it all began. Right here. For the first time in 25 years, it seems that someone in America has anthrax in their lungs.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

I'm convinced this is anthrax. I don't have 100% proof.

[Narrator]

Imagine you're him right now. You're the chief of staff for the whole hospital. And you're very sure that what you see is one thing, but that one thing is so rare and so deadly that when you tell people about it, they'll either not believe you or panic.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

My fear was creating chaos in the hospital.

[Narrator]

Chaos not just in his hospital, but also likely all of Florida and probably the nation. After 9 11, the whole country was bracing for another attack. Larry's afraid that this could be it.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

He can't be the only one exposed. That's my concern. My fear was missing bioterrorism. And being the person who could blow.

[Narrator]

The whistle, he has to risk creating that chaos. So he does. Larry calls Dr. Jean Malecki, a friend and colleague who's the health director for all of Palm Beach County. But she was busy at that moment.

[Dr. Jean Malecki]

I was giving an actual seminar on bioterrorism at the time the phone call came in. And so we were in the middle of that when my secretary rushed over to hand me a note from Dr. Bush. So I left the seminar and went to my office. And I got the call from Larry and he said, oh, Gene, I need to talk to you. He said, make sure your door's closed.

[Narrator]

Larry tells Gene he thinks Robert Stevens has anthrax. They both know more tests need to be done to prove it. So Gene calls up the Centers for Disease Control. But the CDC pushes back they refuse to believe anyone could catch anthrax in suburban Florida.

[Dr. Jean Malecki]

I was told by the state of Florida, the public health laboratory and the cdc, you don't have enough information. And I said, wait a minute. I have a potential anthrax event occurring in my backyard here. I am the chief health officer here, and you're telling me not to act on this. And that's exactly what they were telling me. And I said, well, too bad. You're getting specimens in the mail. You will have them within 12 hours.

[Narrator]

Despite the CDC's hesitancy and the testing that still needs to be done, Larry and Jean have little doubt that it's anthrax. The real worry on their minds is that this could be the beginning of another attack by Al Qaeda. And what they don't know is that the FBI is worried about another attack too.

[Scott Decker]

The underlying current among government and scientists was a second wave of attack is coming, and it very well likely be a biological or chemical bomb. Anthrax at the top of the list is a biological threat Agent number one.

[Narrator]

FBI Special Agent Scott Decker is one of only a few agents to have investigated nearly the entire case. And he's got skills few other FBI agents have. A PhD in genetics with a postdoc from Harvard. So that's why he's on the FBI's new hazmat team that was deployed at ground zero.

[Scott Decker]

We would be there ready to help in case there was a biological attack, a chemical attack, or even a radiological release.

[Narrator]

And one reason they even had Decker and his team on site is because of something odd that had happened earlier that summer. In August of 2001, weeks before the Twin Towers fell or anyone got sick in Florida, the FBI uncovered something in Minnesota. And that discovery would ultimately set the stage for the entire anthrax investigation. One of Decker's FBI colleagues was right in the middle of it.

[Dr. Paul Keim]

The two flight instructor whistleblowers from a suburban flight school had called our office to tell the duty agent that they were very concerned that there was the most suspicious flight student they had ever come across.

[Narrator]

Colleen Rowley was an FBI agent in Minnesota at the time.

[Dr. Paul Keim]

He was first of all asking questions that would never be asked by a normal flight student who was trying to actually learn how to fly. There were things about, you know, communications with the ground, things like that that had nothing to do with what he said was an ego boosting trip in order to learn how to fly a 747.

[Narrator]

The flight student's name was Zacharias Moussaoui. He was a Muslim, French national. When FBI agents interviewed him, they learned his visa had lapsed, so they had him detained on an immigration violation. Agents suspected he was up to something, but they couldn't prove it. And remember, this is all before 9 11. So he's just one strange guy asking strange questions at a flight school. They couldn't even get a search warrant for his computer. Then September 11th happened.

[Dr. Paul Keim]

The day of 911 we got word from the jail that he was kind of jumping up gleefully when the towers were coming down, looking at a television or something.

[Narrator]

Now they get the search warrant and search his computer.

[Dr. Paul Keim]

The only thing that was eventually found on his laptop was a lot of information about wind and wind directions and how to fly like a crop duster, things like that.

[Narrator]

A crop duster? A crop duster is a small plane used in agriculture to spray pesticides.

[Dr. Paul Keim]

He initially says, well, I was involved in other plots, but not the 911 one. So if he's not involved in the 911 one and he's in a second wave, he actually kind of admitted I was going to be a second wave.

[Narrator]

What he's saying is that he is a member of Al Qaeda and that they were planning a second attack. The FBI already know the 911 hijackers were studying at flight schools around the U.S. so now agents worry that Moussaoui was part of a bigger plot still to come, that he was studying wind direction and crop dusters because he and maybe the others were planning to spray some kind of poison from the air. With all of this info in mind, President Bush and the Department of Justice take action, hoping to prevent whatever that second wave might be.

[Scott Decker]

Yesterday, the FBI issued a nationwide alert based on information they received indicating the possibility of attacks using crop dusting aircraft.

[Narrator]

They ground all crop dusters across the country. That solves the immediate problem, but they still have a larger issue. Are there other extremist pilots out there waiting to launch an attack?

[Scott Decker]

Director Mueller and Attorney General Ashcroft gave press conferences announcing the names of all 19 hijackers. The director of the FBI and I.

[Colleen Rowley]

Just returned from a memorial service at the National Cathedral and wanted to take this time to give you a report.

[Narrator]

Announcing the names was a call for help to the public. If you'd seen something, say something.

[Colleen Rowley]

The FBI requests that anyone who may have information about these individuals immediately contact an FBI field office or call the toll free hotline.

[Narrator]

And someone did.

[Advertiser]

If you're a parent or share a fridge with someone. Instacart is about to make grocery shopping so much easier because with family carts you can share a cart with your partner and each add the items you want, since between the two of you, odds are you'll both remember everything you need. And this way you'll never have to eat milkless cereal again. So minimize the stress of the weekly shop with family carts, download the Instacart app and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first 3 orders. Service fees apply for 3 orders in 14 days. Excludes restaurants at 24 I lost my narrative. Or rather, it was stolen from me, and the Monica Lewinsky that my friends and family knew was usurped by false narratives, callous jokes, and politics. I would define reclaiming as to take back what was yours. Something you possess is lost or stolen, and ultimately you triumph in finding it again. Follow Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to Reclaiming early and ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple.

[Narrator]

Podcasts They Didn't Want to Learn how to Land. They Just Want to learn how to Fly Willie Lee is a crop dusting pilot who had an eerily similar story to the one in Minnesota. Suspicious acting men from the Middle east asking unusual questions about planes.

[Scott Decker]

You know, that would tip me off right off the bat.

[Narrator]

But Willie isn't in Minnesota. He's halfway across the country at a different crop dusting business. He'd been flying crop dusting planes for decades. On any given day during his regular job, he'd pack as much as 500 gallons of pesticides into his Air Tractor 502 crop plane. He'd fly incredibly low to the ground to avoid spraying homes and people.

[Scott Decker]

We'd fly two or three feet off.

[Narrator]

The ground whenever we're spraying.

[Scott Decker]

It takes some experience to do it.

[Narrator]

But these men didn't sound like they wanted that experience. They were asking about tank capacity and flight distances. It sounded off. So six weeks before September 11, Willie called the police.

[Scott Decker]

I told them, I said, these people, Something's up here. I said, these people asking questions that people don't ask.

[Narrator]

But the police didn't do anything about it. They couldn't really. No one had done anything illegal. After 9 11, when Willie saw the names and pictures of the hijackers on television, he knew he'd been right to be suspicious, because some of the men who'd visited him were the same men who flew the planes into the Twin Towers. In fact, one of them was Mohammad Atta, the chief US Operative who directed the attack. Willie and his team called the FBI. This time they took action. So now the FBI has a question to answer. Why were Al Qaeda members in at least two different places around the country trying to learn how to fly crop dusters? And meanwhile, there's another team with a question the FBI hasn't heard about yet. Dr. Bush and his colleagues who are trying to figure out how a man in suburban Florida has anthrax. And now those two mysteries are about to collide. Because the airfield that the 911 terrorists visited, Willie's Airfield. It's less than an hour away from the home of anthrax patient Robert Stevens. Back in that hospital, Robert Stevens health is deteriorating. And Dr. Bush still doesn't know for certain what he's dealing with.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

8:00 the next morning, I call Jacksonville Reference Lab and I say, what was the result? And he said to me, I shouldn't tell you that. I said, wow, that's a bold answer. I said, well, there's two things with that answer. I said, first of all, I'm the treating doctor. I'm taking care of this patient. I'm responsible for him. I sent the lab to you. I said, and by you telling me you shouldn't tell me that, you just told me that. He said, I gotta go. I said, where you going? He says, I have to call the people I work for. He hung up.

[Narrator]

The people he works for are high up on the chain. In an instant, the CDC calls the National Department of Health, who calls the White House, who calls the Department of Justice. And now, finally, the FBI learns anthrax is in Florida. Because of his background in science, Agent Scott Decker knows an anthrax infection shouldn't have happened in Florida. So for the FBI, who'd been worried for weeks about some kind of biological attack, likely from the air, maybe involving crop dusters, if this isn't the work of the same 911 terrorists who they now know took flight lessons at an airfield only an hour away. It's an awful lot of coincidences.

[Scott Decker]

We didn't know if it was an act of terrorism. So that was the first thing we had to do, is prove one way or t'other.

[Narrator]

And in order to do this, prove its terrorism. Decker and the FBI need to know what kind of anthrax this is. Because anthrax comes in strains like the flu. And if they can figure out the strain that might tell agents where or how Stevens got infected.

[Scott Decker]

He had been up in North Carolina when he got sick, visiting his daughter, and they had gone to a state park. There was a thought that he had got infected up there, one of the plants or the bad water or something.

[Narrator]

FBI agents head to the state park to look for any signs that Stevens could have been infected in nature. But the scarier scenario is that the anthrax came from a laboratory. Because if it's from a lab, there's a good chance somebody spread it on purpose. To figure this out, the FBI knows exactly who to turn to.

[Scott Decker]

We agreed to call up Dr. Paul Keim in Arizona, Northern Arizona University. He was the unquestioned expert in the country.

[Colleen Rowley]

Yeah. So I was doing my normal college professor stuff at the beginning of a fall semester here in Flagstaff, Arizona, and out of the blue, acquaintance of mine from the FBI called me up and said, hey, we have an unusual case of anthrax down in Florida.

[Narrator]

Dr. Paul Keim hoped to find the source of the anthrax in a biological database he'd been creating for decades.

[Colleen Rowley]

For the last 30 years, I've been involved in trying to develop DNA methods for precisely identifying strains of dangerous pathogens so that we can identify where they came from, link them together with outbreaks, and in particular, how they're related to biological weapons.

[Narrator]

So as Robert Stephens is lying in a coma, investigators put a sample of his spinal fluid on a private jet and fly it halfway across the country directly to Paul.

[Colleen Rowley]

And so it was like, wow, it felt like all the blood was leaving my body at that point, because it's like, this isn't an academic exercise anymore. This is the real thing. So after I hung up, I quickly went around and found all the anthrax DNA fingerprinting people. I told them I expected to have the anthrax back in the lab by about 8:00 in the evening. So I said, you know, take care of whatever you need, but be back here around 8 o'clock and be prepared to start doing the analysis.

[Narrator]

A few hours later, Paul gets in his truck and heads to the small local airport in Flagstaff. He doesn't know quite what to expect.

[Colleen Rowley]

The general aviation guy just went and opened up the gate and let me drive out on the tarmac, you know, and Gulfstream's a pretty impressive plane. And so it landed right around sunset. Then this woman, this blonde woman, came walking down the stairs with a box. And as she stepped onto the tarmac, you know, all I could think about was the movie Casablanca, where Humphrey Bogart is on the tarmac with Ingrid Bergman. And I thought that'd make me Humphrey Bogart. And then I kind of slapped my face and said, get your head back in the game.

[Narrator]

You know, Paul may not be in a Hollywood movie right now, but in a way he is a detective. And in this very moment, the fate of American biosecurity is quite literally in his hands. So he takes that package and drives it back to his lab. And there he goes into the biosafety suite and opens the box.

[Colleen Rowley]

And it's a box, you know, like I know, 18 inches by 18 inches by 18 inches, a cardboard box. And inside of it was a styrofoam pack and then a crush proof pack.

[Narrator]

And inside that is a vial with the spores found in Robert Stevens spinal fluid.

[Colleen Rowley]

When you're looking at it by eye on a culture, it's kind of this white, creamy stuff, kind of like mayonnaise smeared on top of jello. We knew for sure it was anthrax because it had a DNA fingerprint pattern that was very consistent with bacillus anthrasis.

[Narrator]

It's anthrax 100%. Once Paul knows that, he needs to figure out what strain it is.

[Colleen Rowley]

And my laboratory had been developing DNA fingerprinting methods to identify the different strains from around the world. And if it was a laboratory strain, this wasn't an accident. In the wake of 9 11, Paul.

[Narrator]

And his team work through the night. By morning they have an answer.

[Colleen Rowley]

It was a laboratory strain, you know, and so how does a laboratory strain end up infecting a gentleman in Florida?

[Narrator]

Think about this. Here's a college science professor, an expert in theoretical bioterrorism, and now he's seeing right up close anthrax from what appears to be an actual bioterrorist.

[Colleen Rowley]

Instantly we knew that this was a biological weapons event because it had to be an intentional act. And in the wake of 9 11, al Qaeda was the number one suspect.

[Narrator]

Paul's lab is the only place in the world that now knows the very threat. Weighing on Agent Scott Decker and the FBI is the real deal.

[Colleen Rowley]

At that point, if there were any doubts that this was a bioterrorism event, they were gone.

[Narrator]

For the moment. The story hasn't spread to the media. Paul Keim and the FBI have only a short window to try to get answers before the bad news spreads. And they're all wondering the same thing. Was it the 911 hijackers who deployed this anthrax gene? Malecki, the health director in Florida, worries about that too.

[Dr. Jean Malecki]

In Palm beach county, we use crop dusters all the time. They go up and down all the time, spraying our vegetables and our fruits.

[Narrator]

If there was an aerial attack, is it possible the 911 hijackers or people working with them had dropped anthrax in an area that included Robert Stevens backyard. Is that how it ended up in his system? Stevens home was less than a mile from an airstrip, so his house could have easily been in the path of travel.

[Dr. Jean Malecki]

My focus was to go to the home to speak to everybody there, to take samples, to investigate the entire outside of the home, inside the home to look at potential sources for anthrax.

[Narrator]

Jean takes a biohazard crew to scour the property from top to bottom.

[Dr. Jean Malecki]

The home itself was a three bedrooms, probably two baths, nice little kitchen and living room.

[Narrator]

The powder is so fine that if it was sprayed from the sky, it could be anywhere.

[Dr. Jean Malecki]

In the backyard they had lots of plants and lots of trees. We looked for any type of white powder substances that could have been in the trees or on the ground. I remember distinctly bending down and taking samples off of various bushes that were in the backyard.

[Narrator]

On the surface, nothing looked suspicious. There's no obvious white powder anywhere. But Jean sends samples, she's taken to her lab. She then heads back to the hospital to check on Robert Stevens and discovers a deadly disease putting a Lantana man in the hospital. The story was out. Mohamed Atta, who was the lead terrorist on board one of the flights that crashed into the World Trade center, apparently took flight lessons in Palm beach county at a flight school. Anthrax can enter the body in three ways. It can be swallowed, seeped through, cuts.

[Dr. Paul Keim]

In the skin, and the most deadly way, inhaled.

[Narrator]

State and federal health officials hurry to put together press conferences to address everyone's concerns. This individual is being cared for by a very well trained and expert team of physicians from within the hospital in Palm Beach. As one of those well trained physicians, Dr. Larry Bush is called upon to answer some tough questions.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

The difficult part for me in that press conference was Maureen Stevens was sitting in the front and they said to me, is Bob Stevens going to die?

[Narrator]

Larry knows that historically inhalation anthrax is likely fatal, but he's conflicted about sharing the worst case scenario.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

But I'm looking at Maureen Stevens and I said, well, you know, he's seriously ill, he's on the right medication and we have hope that he could survive.

[Narrator]

Meanwhile, the press keep on with their questions and the CDC seems entirely focused on hitting the same reassuring note over and over again.

[Scott Decker]

I want to stress two things. First of all, that this is an isolated case, and second, that this is not contagious.

[Narrator]

This is a very serious illness. But once again, it's an isolated case.

[Scott Decker]

But I do want to stress again.

[Narrator]

I want to reiterate, this is an isolated case.

[Scott Decker]

This is an isolated case.

[Narrator]

The disease is not contagious. If the hope was to keep people calm, to reassure the media that this situation was nothing to worry about, it didn't work.

[Scott Decker]

The Centers for Disease Control has just confirmed the diagnosis of anthrax in a patient in a Florida hospital.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

There's more media in the area because things are leaking out than you can imagine. The parking lot's full of every type of media.

[Narrator]

There is the chaos Dr. Larry Bush was afraid of is here.

[Scott Decker]

All this coming just a day after the FBI warned Americans that another terrorist attack could be imminent.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

The hospital is going crazy. People are calling the hospital and want their loved ones transferred because we have anthrax in the hospital.

[Scott Decker]

The Florida man has contracted a very rare and potentially deadly form of anthrax.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

The outside of the hospital was one of those things like you see when, you know, somebody's coming out of a courthouse and everybody's rushing in with a microphone to get some type of sound bite. It was, you know, really chaotic.

[Narrator]

Everyone is now watching Larry's team closely to understand what this one case of anthrax might mean for the rest of the world. And the news he has is not looking good.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

Bob Stevens is in the icu. He's not doing well.

[Narrator]

Robert Stevens health is failing quickly, and Larry fears the worst. With the story out in the world, panic is going to grow, and the public wouldn't be wrong to worry. It seems Robert Stevens may be patient zero of a colossal new attack. Agent Decker and the FBI now face what could be the largest bioterror threat in American history. So the question on their minds is, if Al Qaeda does have anthrax, what will they do with it next?

[Scott Decker]

The worst case is if somebody had succeeded in making a pound of powder that would float into the air and drift over a population. Hundreds, thousands of people would breathe this in and probably die.

[Narrator]

But it seems that agents are closing in on their suspects fast. The confirmation of a plan for a second wave attack, the pilots learning about crop dusters, the airstrip near Steven's house. It's all adding up. The FBI just needs a little hard evidence, a link that proves who did this, so they can stop more deaths.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

I get a call to come down and see this woman, and I said to the emergency room, doctor, you know, this is getting a little overwhelming. You're calling me for every cough that's walking in there. I said, why this one? They said, this woman's got an interesting.

[Narrator]

Story, but of course it's not going to be that easy. The information they're about to get will send the FBI down a rabbit hole of false suspects, shocking twists and damning revelations, including a liar in their midst. This season on the Hunt for the Anthrax Killer.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

No witnesses, no fingerprints or personal DNA.

[Colleen Rowley]

And then there's another case. And then another. And another.

[Narrator]

And another.

[Dr. Paul Keim]

There was such enthusiasm over a conspiracy.

[Narrator]

Theory that had no basis.

[Scott Decker]

I felt betrayed.

[Narrator]

It'll haunt me for the rest of my life. American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq. Saddam Hussein could have produced 25,000 liters.

[Dr. Larry Bush]

Of this deadly material. Do you think they're going to submit evidence that implicates them?

[Scott Decker]

This is United States.

[Narrator]

Half of the FBI field office from Washington is at your home.

[Scott Decker]

This is not a joke.

[Narrator]

What is everybody?

[Dr. Larry Bush]

A dead man walking.

[Narrator]

The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer is a production of Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio and Dig Studios in collaboration with CBC Podcasts. The series is hosted by me, Jeremiah Cross Kroll. It's created, written and executive produced by Scott, Tiffany and me at Digg Studios. Aftermath is executive produced by Dick Wolfe, Elliot Wolf and Steven Michael at Wolf Entertainment, Josh Block at USG Audio and Jonielle Kastner at Spoke Media. The series is produced by Kelly Kolf, story editing by Janiel Kastner, sound design and mix by Evan Arnett original Composition by John O'Hara Production by Spoke Media Production support for USG Audio by Josh Lalonghi Tanya Springer is the senior manager of CBC Podcasts. Arif Narrani is the director of CBC Podcasts. Thank you for listening. Tune in next week for an all new episode of the Hunt for the Anthrax Killer. Or you can binge the whole series ad free by subscribing to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts. For more CBC Podcasts, go to CBC CA Podcasts.