Episode 6: Adult Male Loner

Summary

Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer
Episode 6: Adult Male Loner
Release Date: April 23, 2025
Host/Author: Wolf Entertainment + CBC

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Introduction

In Episode 6 of "Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer," titled "Adult Male Loner," listeners delve deeper into one of the FBI's most perplexing investigations following the 2001 anthrax attacks. This episode unravels the intense scrutiny faced by Stephen Hatfill, a biomedical scientist, and explores the complexities and challenges of the FBI’s pursuit of the elusive anthrax killer.

Background of the Anthrax Attacks

The episode sets the stage in November 2001, amidst the national panic following the anthrax-laced letters sent to media outlets in New York City and government offices in Washington, D.C. The mysterious letters triggered one of the largest and most intricate investigations in FBI history, with authorities desperate to prevent further attacks.

Sam Mullins [03:14]:
"It's November 2001, and there's mass panic about the anthrax attacks. Four letters that appear to have been sent by the same person have arrived in the mail."

Introduction of Ted Hamm and His Bloodhounds

Ted Hamm, a veteran search and rescue worker from Southern California, becomes a pivotal figure when the FBI enlists his expertise with bloodhound dogs to trace the scent of the anthrax killer. Hamm's dogs, renowned for their impeccable tracking abilities, are brought into the investigation in hopes of uncovering crucial clues.

Dan Michalko [02:59]:
"It's a couple of dogs."

Ted's introduction to criminal investigations marks a significant shift from his usual search and rescue missions, bringing a unique dynamic to the case.

FBI Investigation and Profiling

The FBI, struggling to find leads, publicizes a profile of the anthrax mailer, aiming to gather tips from the public. This profile describes the suspect as an "adult male, loner, non-confrontational, quiet, and knowledgeable about microbiology," narrowing the search to potential domestic scientists.

Scott Decker [07:54]:
"The FBI made the profile of the mailer public."

The FBI's profiling leads them to target individuals like Stephen Hatfill, whose background in microbiology and proximity to key locations make him a prime suspect.

Stephen Hatfill as a Suspect

Stephen Hatfill, a former employee at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRID) and a biomedical scientist, becomes the FBI's person of interest. Despite his cooperation, including allowing his home to be searched, the investigation against him is marred by circumstantial evidence and public scrutiny.

Scott Decker [12:02]:
"He was domestic, he was born in the U.S. he wasn't foreign and the profile said it would be a domestic scientist."

The FBI uncovers several coincidences, such as Hatfill's receipt of the antibiotic Cipro shortly before the attacks and his unpublished novel about bioterrorism, which inadvertently ties him to the case.

Scott Decker [10:29]:
"He was just plain pissed off."

Use of Bloodhounds and Its Impact

Ted Hamm's bloodhounds play a critical role when they signal Hatfill’s apartment and his ex-girlfriend’s house. However, their findings lack concrete evidence, leading to increased skepticism within the FBI regarding the reliability of the dogs.

Dan Michalko [19:52]:
"His dog Knight marks a particular step with that pile of poop."

While the bloodhounds bolster the suspicion against Hatfill, the absence of physical evidence such as anthrax residues or matching handwriting raises questions about the validity of their findings.

Doubts and Shifts in Investigation

As the investigation stalls, Agent Scott Decker faces personal challenges, including a divorce and a prostate cancer diagnosis, adding to the pressure. The persistence in pursuing Hatfill despite mounting doubts reflects the FBI's determination, yet also highlights potential flaws in their investigative approach.

Scott Decker [27:25]:
"Each time we turned around and did a little more homework and investigation on this guy, it looked less and less."

The episode emphasizes the strain on both the investigators and Hatfill, culminating in Hatfill’s public denouncement of the FBI's actions and his subsequent lawsuit, which culminates in a $4.6 million settlement for wrongful accusation.

Stephen Hatfill [26:06]:
"I am not the Anthrax King Killer. I know nothing about the anthrax attacks. I had absolutely nothing to do with this terrible crime."

Conclusion and Impact

The episode concludes with the FBI grappling with the implications of potentially accusing the wrong individual. The relentless pursuit of Hatfill, despite the lack of concrete evidence, underscores the complexities and pitfalls of high-profile criminal investigations.

Scott Decker [42:14]:
"The danger is the investigation will be misled. You could work and work to investigate the person who was really innocent at the expense of ignoring the person that really is guilty."

Ultimately, Episode 6 highlights the human cost of the anthrax investigation, the challenges of forensic science in the digital age, and the lasting impact of wrongful accusations on individuals' lives.

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Notable Quotes:

• Sam Mullins [00:01]:
  "When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind blowing police investigation."

• Jeremiah Kroll [02:15]:
  "Which is why, in late 2002, the FBI got an idea. Could Ted and his dogs track ascent from a letter?"

• Scott Decker [12:11]:
  "That was a pretty good motive. He's just plain pissed off."

• Stephen Hatfill [26:06]:
  "I am not the Anthrax King Killer. I know nothing about the anthrax attacks."

• Scott Decker [42:14]:
  "The danger is the investigation will be misled."

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Key Takeaways:

1. Complexity of the Investigation: The anthrax attacks led to one of the most intricate FBI investigations, involving unconventional methods like bloodhound tracking.

2. Human Impact: The case against Stephen Hatfill illustrates the profound personal and professional ramifications of being wrongfully accused.

3. Investigative Challenges: The reliance on circumstantial evidence and profiling can lead to dead ends and wrongful suspicions, emphasizing the need for robust forensic practices.

4. Long-Term Consequences: The settlement with Hatfill reflects the potential for significant financial and reputational damage when investigations falter.

5. Evolving Techniques: The episode underscores the evolving nature of criminal investigations, balancing traditional methods with innovative tools in the digital era.

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Production Credits:

"The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer" is a collaborative production involving Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio, Dig Studios, and CBC Podcasts. Hosted by Jeremiah Kroll, the series benefits from the expertise of creators Scott Tiffany, Dick Warren Wolf, Elliot Wolf, Steven Michael, Josh Block, Jonielle Kastner, Kelly Kolf, Janiel Kastner, Evan Arnett, John O'Hara, and Tanya Springer, among others.

Listen to the full episode and subscribe to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts to binge the entire series ad-free. For more content, visit CBC.ca/Podcasts.

Transcript

[Sam Mullins]

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind blowing police investigation. There's a man living at this address.

[Scott Decker]

In the name of deceased.

[Sam Mullins]

He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening.

[Scott Decker]

Officers finding large sums of money.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

It's a tale of murder, skullduggery, and international intrigue.

[Ted Hamm]

So who really is he?

[Sam Mullins]

I'm Sam Mullins, and this is Sea of lies from CBC's Uncovered, available now. This is a CBC podcast. In the 1990s, Ted Hamm was a veteran search and rescue worker living in Southern California. Most of his work involved tracking down hikers or hunters who'd gone missing. Until one day, two strangers approached him and his team.

[Dan Michalko]

They introduced themselves, and they were both detectives from the sheriff's homicide bureau. And they said, hey, we'd like to talk to you guys for a few minutes. You got some time.

[Sam Mullins]

That moment led Ted down a career path he'd never imagined. Using an unusual and pretty special tool.

[Dan Michalko]

Basically, what they were pitching is they wanted to start trying to use the dogs to help solve murders.

[Sam Mullins]

Ted had gotten interested in bloodhound dogs a few years back. He was so impressed with their abilities, some experts say they can track ascent for nearly two weeks. So he began training them and using them in his search and rescue efforts. And since then, he's always had his dogs close. In fact, it's hard to talk to Ted without them making their presence known.

[Scott Decker]

Satoshi, knock it off.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

But until that moment with the detectives, he'd never considered using the dogs in criminal cases.

[Sam Mullins]

But the idea appealed to Ted, at least almost universally.

[Dan Michalko]

The people in the team said, no way. We don't want anything to do with that. We don't want to get shot at. Yada, yada, yada. Me, my brain's going, that sounds like fun. The first year I worked with them, we would have successes on these criminal cases. The word spread.

[Sam Mullins]

Ted and his dogs got a reputation for finding criminals who were long gone simply from the scent they'd left on items they touched.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Which is why, in late 2002, the FBI got an idea. Could Ted and his dogs track ascent from a letter? Specifically a letter sent by the anthrax killer.

[Dan Michalko]

It's just one of those times you're going, we're working the biggest case the FBI's got. Because what? Oh, yeah, because we got a couple dogs.

[Sam Mullins]

Those couple dogs were about to make headlines, and one of them would leave a mark on the case that's hard to forget.

[Dan Michalko]

We get to a set of stairs And Knight starts going up the stairs. He turns around and he comes down. And right on the bottom step, he takes a crap.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

This is the story of how that crap leads to the FBI's first person of interest.

[Sam Mullins]

I'm Jeremiah Kroll, and from Wolf Entertainment, this is the hunt for the anthrax killer.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Episode 6 Adult Male Loner.

[Sam Mullins]

It's November 2001, and there's mass panic about the anthrax attacks. Four letters that appear to have been sent by the same person have arrived in the mail. Two sent to media companies in New York City, and two mailed to the nation's capital. The handwriting and the contents of these letters are all similar, but investigators still have no idea how to stop them from coming.

[Bruce Ivins]

The reality of it was we didn't know what was out there and we didn't know how dangerous it was at this time.

[Sam Mullins]

Dan Michalko is part of a little known special division of America's mail system, the United States Postal Inspection Service. It's a law enforcement agency that investigates mail crimes.

[Bruce Ivins]

We trace our roots all the way back to the colonial times. And a lot of people don't realize that we've been around for such a long time. And like I always like to say, you know, in the days of Benjamin Franklin, ever since there was somebody mailing a letter to, there's been somebody trying to steal it.

[Sam Mullins]

And now this unit from the colonial times is facing its biggest, most public mail crime ever.

[Bruce Ivins]

The American public was afraid to go to their mailbox and open up their mailbox cause they thought there was something dangerous in it.

[Sam Mullins]

But Dan's unit, the Postal Inspection service, gets an important clue. It wasn't related to the content of the letters or the strain of anthrax. It was actually on the envelopes themselves.

[Bruce Ivins]

All the mail was postmarked with a Trenton postmark.

[Sam Mullins]

Now that they have a location, the postal inspectors and the FBI develop a theory about how the killer mailed the letters.

[Bruce Ivins]

It's very unlikely that they're going to go to the clerk and give it to them. So that meant that the mail was dropped off.

[Sam Mullins]

If you're going to drop off mail, you'll either do that at the post office itself or at one of those little blue mailboxes you see on street corners. It would make sense that the anthrax killer wouldn't want to be seen at a public post office.

[Bruce Ivins]

Our best guess was that it was probably put into one of the blue collection boxes. And there were several hundred blue collection boxes in the Trenton area.

[Sam Mullins]

625 blue collection boxes, to be exact. Postal inspectors and the FBI put the boxes under surveillance. They decide they need to check every single blue mailbox to see if they can find any anthrax spores. Specially trained FBI hazmat agents from Philadelphia, Boston, and as far away as San Francisco are brought in to help.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

But once again, they have to balance their need to test in public places with the risk of creating panic.

[Bruce Ivins]

You can imagine the concern to citizens if they see a group of people in hazmat suits showing, going up in their neighborhood and testing their local mailbox. You know, people were on edge as it was. We didn't need to make it any worse.

[Sam Mullins]

They decide to test all of those mailboxes under the COVID of night. Here's what that looks like. Teams of disease detectives, two each decked out in white Tyvek suits, purple nitrile gloves, rubber boots, and respirators, fanning out into the quiet suburbs around Trenton, New Jersey, in the dead of night, using Q tips to test the mailboxes for anthrax. Each team is then trailed by a New Jersey state trooper, all hoping to avoid detection.

[Bruce Ivins]

The scary part about this whole thing, we had four letters that came in, you know, a short period of time, but nobody knew if there were more out there.

[Sam Mullins]

But at the very least, if the postal inspection service could find spores in one of those blue mailboxes, they'd have pinpointed the exact spot the anthrax killer mailed those letters.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

And if they knew that, they could start to search for other clues.

[Sam Mullins]

There.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

There might be closed circuit cameras, fingerprints or eyewitnesses even, who saw something.

[Sam Mullins]

Scanning 625 blue collection boxes night by night might be the long way of getting there. But if it works, the payoff will be huge. While that painstaking search is underway, the FBI, in the hopes of finally getting some leads, makes a bold choice. Remember, weeks ago, the FBI had sent off copies of the anthrax letters to their forensic psychologists, and that team had come up with a profile of the killer. So far, agents had kept it to themselves to avoid tipping that person off, wherever they might be. But now, two weeks later, still without any real suspects, the FBI shows its hand.

[Scott Decker]

The FBI made the profile of the mailer public.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

That's agent Scott Decker.

[Scott Decker]

It was done with the hope that somebody would call and tell us who had done this.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

After sharing the profile, wide leaders in the FBI like assistant Director Van Harp push for somebody, anybody, to speak up.

[Sam Mullins]

We believe there's someone out in the country somewhere that may have information that may have mentored may be aware of.

[Bruce Ivins]

What this person is doing, may have.

[Sam Mullins]

A little piece of information that would help complete the puzzle for us. The first place they send this profile is to a spot where Decker knows a lot of folks personally.

[Scott Decker]

We sent it to the American Society of Microbiology.

[Sam Mullins]

They're looking for matches. It's like desperate FBI seeks adult male, loner, non confrontational, quiet, and knows a lot about microbiology.

[Scott Decker]

It was really the first place to go looking for. For somebody. You wouldn't go to a physics lab, you know, or a nuclear station. You'd go to a microbiology lab where they did this for a living.

[Sam Mullins]

Given the crowd, a lot of the guys there might fit that profile. But if it works, it would be a quick way to narrow down the field of suspects.

[Scott Decker]

Just hoping that it would trigger somebody to pick up the phone and call with information that may have not seemed important at the time.

[Sam Mullins]

But maybe it was important and it works. They get some hits. One of them comes from anthrax vaccine whiz Bruce Ivins at Usamrid, the army's biological weapons lab in Maryland.

[Scott Decker]

He tells them about a scientist at usamrid. He was an expert in anthrax. He knows how to make anthrax spores. And by the way, he now works at a company in central New Jersey near Princeton.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Princeton is just 11 miles from Trenton, New Jersey, where the anthrax letters were postmarked. It's a promising lead. And yet the FBI had just experienced a media frenzy when they questioned an innocent public health expert from Pakistan. The attention from being a potential suspect had nearly ruined his life, not to mention made the FBI look terrible. They've gotta be even more careful to make sure they're separating solid leads from racism or personal grievances. Those poison pen leads, the biggest risk.

[Scott Decker]

Is getting a tip about somebody, and it has no credibility. I mean, you always get the poison pen phone calls. You know, the guy across the street barks, his dog barks too much and I'm going to get him in trouble.

[Sam Mullins]

One microbiologist suggests that vaccine whiz Bruce Ivins himself may be guilty. A former colleague tells the FBI that he was overly friendly and asked personal questions about her college days, including her sorority and now her personal life.

[Scott Decker]

He made her little feel a little bit uncomfortable. He was just trying to be too close, too friendly, without a real good reason, really.

[Sam Mullins]

It's a bit of a leap from uncomfortably friendly scientist to anthrax killer, but all of a sudden there's a bunch of head turns and squinting at colleagues in the World of microbiology. Anthrax expert Paul Keim in Arizona, who'd helped the FBI identify this anthrax strain to begin with, says it became a strange time to be an anthrax scientist.

[Scott Decker]

I was certainly on the suspect list. I had that strain in my laboratory. And so on one hand we had scientists, FBI scientists in our laboratory working on identifying and processing evidence. On the other hand we would have investigative FBI agents come into the lab and question us about our whereabouts.

[Sam Mullins]

To be safe, the FBI subpoenas samples from Keim, Ivins and any scientist they can find who's known to have had access to anthrax. And agents give lie detector tests to key experts at usamrid. None of the scientists seem particularly suspicious until they get an anonymous tip about one particular anthrax scientist.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Stephen Hatfill, until recently worked at a major defense contractor. But three weeks before the anthrax attacks began, his top security clearance there had been suspended.

[Sam Mullins]

The reason why he lost that security clearance is debated, but at the time it's widely reported that he'd failed a polygraph test.

[Scott Decker]

That means he can't work on the contract. That means he's unemployable as far as the CIA is concerned. So it devastated him career wise. So we're looking for a motive. That was a pretty good motive. He's just plain pissed off.

[Sam Mullins]

Steven Hatfill lives in Frederick, Maryland, just three miles from Fort Detrick and the USAMRID lab where he'd been a research fellow until 1999.

[Scott Decker]

He was domestic, he was born in the U.S. he wasn't foreign and the profile said it would be a domestic scientist. And he wasn't part of any right wing, left wing group that we knew of. So he fit the lone wolf profile.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Also, the FBI begins months of research on Hatfill. A search warrant records what they find. That in the late 1970s, Hatfill worked as a mercenary for the Rhodesian military who it's believed during those years used toxic chemicals and biological agents against rebels in a civil war.

[Scott Decker]

One of the flashpoints in Africa tonight, the war against communist backed guerrillas. A struggle the United States is watching with mounting anxiety.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

The search warrant also records that during his time serving there, the rebel held areas of Rhodesia experienced the worst anthrax outbreak in world history. It killed 182 people and infected more than 10,000.

[Scott Decker]

It had been believed that that was an intentional biological attack by the SELA scouts. Long story short, Hatfill claimed to be part of that group.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

So the FBI questions hatfill in March 2002. And Decker says he's cool.

[Scott Decker]

Hatfield was not nervous, calm. He denied doing it. He said to do whatever he could to help with the investigation.

[Sam Mullins]

Hatfield wants to help with the investigation so much that he agrees to have the FBI search his house, his car, and a storage locker he rents.

[Scott Decker]

If he was guilty, he was not going to break. He stuck to his story, but his.

[Sam Mullins]

Story seems to have holes. Hatfill tells agents he'd taken the antibiotic Cipro in early 2001. Cipro is the drug you take before or after an anthrax exposure. It's what Congress took after the Daschle letter and what Johanna was clamoring for at the drug store with her fellow New Yorkers. Cipro works on other bacteria, too, so there are plenty of reasons Hatfill might have taken it. But he specifically says he hadn't taken any in the couple months leading up to 911 and the anthrax attacks. But when the FBI reviews his pharmacy records, they find a different story. Hatfill had filled prescriptions twice in those months, exactly two days before the New York letters were mailed and again two days before the Capitol Hill letters were mailed.

[Scott Decker]

All those things came together as a perfect picture of who we were looking for.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Perfect enough for the FBI to put Hatfill under surveillance. And remember, Hatfill had agreed already to let them search his apartment. In exchange for that, Hatfill says the FBI promised him something, too. That the process would be very discreet, which it is until the day of the search.

[Sam Mullins]

The FBI conducted a number of searches today, including this one we're showing you right here. The apartment belongs to a former employee at Fort Detrick, the Army's biowarfare laboratory. The man, someone potentially within the FBI, had leaked to the press that they were going to search Hatfill's apartment. So when agents show up, there were.

[Scott Decker]

Helicopters hovering over news helicopters, and news trucks showed up.

[Sam Mullins]

Media swarm Hatfield's suburban neighborhood. As he later told Matt Lauer on the Today show, this felt like a huge betrayal of what the FBI had promised him.

[Stephen Hatfill]

Well, we'd like to do some swaps. It'll be very discreet, quiet. The whole news thing was out there and the helicopters and all this. I'm watching this on television, and there's guys in hazmat suits. I mean, this is what a show.

[Sam Mullins]

For the investigators inside Hatfill's apartment, that show is all very real, and the pressure is mounting.

[Terry Kearns]

When you're in. In a search warrant, you have one chance.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Terry Kearns was one of The FBI agents in a Hazmat suit that day searching Hatfill's apartment.

[Terry Kearns]

Everybody is trying to be on their top game because this is high stakes. So it had to be a very extensive search. We didn't know if more attacks were going to occur. So everyone was on edge because of that.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

And the work they're doing testing for.

[Sam Mullins]

Anthrax spores is especially difficult with a biological agent.

[Terry Kearns]

It's a whole different level of what's going on because you can't see it, you can't taste it, you can't smell it.

[Sam Mullins]

Agents carefully swab everything in the apartment and then they've got to wait for results from the lab. But on Hatfill's computer, they find a clue that feels straight out of a bad movie.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

No hard evidence against Hatfill, but claims there are a number of coincidences that.

[Sam Mullins]

Make investigators interested in him. Hatfill wrote an unpublished novel about a.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Bioterrorism attack, a hard drive with a draft of an unpublished novel he'd co written called Emergence, about a terrorist who attacks Washington D.C. with a lethal bacteria.

[Scott Decker]

He invented a scientist who went to a prairie dog colony and actually got Yersinia pestis from the fleas in the prairie dog burrows and then had planned to disseminate it. That was the storyline written three years.

[Sam Mullins]

Before the anthrax attacks. The villain was a Middle Eastern terrorist. Through the eyes of that antagonist, Hatfill's novel states the U.S. was, quote, an incredibly easy target for biological terrorism. Suddenly, the FBI feels like they've got their man. The timing of the Cipro prescriptions, the fact that he lied about them, the security clearance and direct anthrax experience now coupled with this book concept, all have got the FBI's full attention and the media's too. A new development tonight in the anthrax investigation.

[Scott Decker]

Dr. Steven Hatfill's name became very public.

[Sam Mullins]

He was fired in 1999 for violating lab procedures. Every place he goes, 24 hours a.

[Stephen Hatfill]

Day, seven days a week, he is.

[Sam Mullins]

Followed by squads of FBI agents. So that that started the suspicion that this was a person who might have a motive.

[Joby Warrick]

He was man, everybody was suddenly talking about this scientist. Stephen Hatfield.

[Sam Mullins]

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post was deep into the ants react story at the time.

[Joby Warrick]

It was kind of a poorly kept secret that he was a major suspect and people in the scientific community were talking about him.

[Sam Mullins]

But despite all this momentum, there still isn't any hard evidence against him.

[Scott Decker]

The search of his apartment didn't get.

[Sam Mullins]

Much, if anything, no anthrax residue no handwriting that matched the letters. They were hoping for more. On the other hand, would one really expect a highly educated scientist to grow anthrax at his home or leave incriminating handwriting around his apartment? But there still might be some forensic clue waiting to be found in Hatfill's apartment. So the agents decide to take things to the next level. What was it exactly that brought FBI agents and US Postal inspectors to the Maryland department of a former bioweapons researcher last week for a second search. The answer, it turns out, is dogs.

[Scott Decker]

All of a sudden, there was a great deal of excitement in the squadroom because we were going to use three bloodhounds to track the envelopes and see if it led to Hatfield.

[Sam Mullins]

The FBI reached out to Ted Hamm and his team in Southern California. They're hoping his dogs can track a scent on the anthrax case that's now three months old.

[Dan Michalko]

So it was a little bit humbling, and, you know, millions and millions of dollars were being spent so that these dogs could get out and work.

[Sam Mullins]

Agents collect a human scent from the actual anthrax letters, and they go to Hatfield's apartment complex so the dogs can sniff for that scent. There are three bloodhound teams, and they all search at different times so the dogs don't give each other any spoilers. For his part, Ted isn't told where he's going or who the suspect is, and he's banned from using his cell phone. He arrives in the neighborhood he's told to go to, ready to sic his new dog, Knight, on the case.

[Dan Michalko]

He slobbered more than any bloodhound I've had. And this dog smelled so good, bad. He stunk, and he was. He didn't. He did not work at anything more than a slow walk, but he was methodical, and he was good. So I start my dog, and we kind of amble through a neighborhood, and then we. We get into an apartment complex.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

This is where Ted's dog marks a particular step with that pile of poop. And for Ted, standing there in that stairwell, thinking about his history with night, that poop means something.

[Dan Michalko]

He's not wanting to leave. I told the guys, I said, look, I think they're sent here. So assuming my dog is correct and my interpretation of what my dog is doing is correct, it's one of these four doors. And he said, well, let's not talk about it here.

[Sam Mullins]

To Ted, it's clear his dog smells some connection between the anthrax envelope and this landing.

[Dan Michalko]

We walked back to the street, and when we got back to our cars now, like, the whole team's there. And they said, well, now that you guys have all finished, you all did the same thing, but you approached it from three different directions. But they all ended up on that same landing.

[Sam Mullins]

All three dogs had clearly signaled outside Hatfill's apartment. The dogs also signal at Hatfill's ex girlfriend's house.

[Dan Michalko]

As a dog handler, what I see is rather damning evidence against Mr. Hatfield.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

The dog's findings don't look good for Hatfill, but the FBI still doesn't have anything solid enough to charge him or even officially name him as a suspect. But since his name is already out in the press, the FBI feels like they have to say something. So Attorney General John Ashkoff speaks to the press.

[Scott Decker]

Yes, sir.

[Sam Mullins]

Sir, is Stephen Hatfill still a suspect in the anthrax case?

[Scott Decker]

Mr. Hatfill is a person of interest to the Department of Justice, and we continue the investigation. And for me to comment further, it would be inappropriate.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Person of interest? Today. People throw around that term all the time. It's even the name of a TV series. But in 2001, Person of Interest is a highly unusual term, rarely if ever used. In fact, when John Ashcroft said that phrase, almost no one in the general public had heard it before.

[Scott Decker]

It is kind of a foolish term. I mean, it's used everywhere now, and nobody knows what it means.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Whatever it means, the FBI officially has one. A person of interest. That, and soon another break in the case. From Trenton, New Jersey.

[Joby Warrick]

I'm Sarah Trelevin.

[Sam Mullins]

And for over a year, I've been working on one of the most complex stories I've ever covered. There was somebody out there who was faking pregnancies.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

I started, like, warning everybody. Every doula that I know it was fake.

[Sam Mullins]

No pregnancy. And the deeper I digress, the more questions I unearth.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

How long has she been doing this?

[Sam Mullins]

What does she have to gain from this? From CBC and the BBC World Service, The Caitlyn's baby. It's a long story.

[Scott Decker]

Settle in.

[Sam Mullins]

Available now. Back in Trenton, New Jersey, the U.S. postal Inspectors and FBI hazmat teams had been dutifully swabbing mailboxes in the dead of night for weeks. They'd started to lose hope.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

But all of that changes. On a hot day in August 2002, three days after the FBI publicly named Steven Hatfill as a person of interest.

[Bruce Ivins]

We actually found a mailbox on Nassau street in Princeton, New Jersey, that did have some residue from anthrax. And we felt at that point, that was where the mail was deposited. Somebody in this area probably mailed it.

[Sam Mullins]

This mailbox is only steps away from Princeton University's campus, literally in front of one of its sororities and right on the college's main drag. And now, nearly a year after the anthrax letters were mailed, the blue box still has live spores inside it. FBI agents on Terry Kern's hazmat squad test its toxicity.

[Terry Kearns]

It wasn't dangerous levels because people weren't, you know, it wasn't getting up in the air and people weren't getting sick by it. But it was enough to let us know that of all of those mailboxes, only one had the anthrax in it.

[Sam Mullins]

And that one mailbox was only a few hours drive from Frederick, Maryland, where Stephen Hatfill lives. So the FBI tries to find any evidence that he'd been in Princeton.

[Scott Decker]

We go to the mailbox. We look for traffic parking tickets that may have been issued. We look for surveillance cameras on the stores around the mailbox.

[Sam Mullins]

They show pictures of Hatfill to store owners. Nobody recognizes him. And he's not in any security camera footage either.

[Scott Decker]

All that traditional detective work looked good, but ended up not giving us anything, unfortunately.

[Sam Mullins]

And the FBI doesn't find Hatfill's prints or DNA anywhere on the mailbox.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

After months of swabbing mailboxes all night and scouring their suspects home, they've basically got nothing but a lot of circumstantial evidence and dog poop.

[Sam Mullins]

So Hatfill seizes the moment and fights back.

[Stephen Hatfill]

My name is Steve Hatfill. I'm a medical doctor and a biomedical scientist. I am a loyal American. I want to look my fellow Americans directly in the eye and declare to them, I am not the Anthrax King Killer. I know nothing about the anthrax attacks. I had absolutely nothing to do with this terrible crime.

[Sam Mullins]

Of all the media attention this case gets over the years, the press conference Stephen Hatfield calls may be the moment people remember the most. Hatfield calls out the Attorney General for the FBI's new phrase.

[Stephen Hatfill]

My lawyers can find no legal definition for a person of interest. I, however, have a working definition. My life is being destroyed by arrogant government bureaucrats who are peddling groundless innuendo and hap information.

[Sam Mullins]

On the heels of Hatfill's press conference, and given the overwhelming lack of evidence, one of two things are clear. Either the FBI is chasing the wrong guy, or Hatfill is exceptionally good at hiding his tracks. At this point, Agent Decker starts to have doubts.

[Scott Decker]

Each Time we turned around and did a little more homework and investigation on this guy, it looked less and less.

[Sam Mullins]

Likely that he was responsible as a scientist. When Decker looks closely at Hatfill's background, he's not sure Hatfill has enough microbiology experience to properly grow the anthrax bacteria. But many agents disagree. They can't ignore his history, his proximity, the novel, the Cipro, and they refuse to fumble this lead. So they watch Hatfill's every move. In fact, the FBI and Hatfill are in such close contact that at one point, an agent even accidentally runs over Hatfill's foot with a surveillance car. And they interrogate his friends and his colleagues. And boss. Hatfill continues to push his perspective to the media.

[Stephen Hatfill]

What upsets me, I don't know of any law that permits the FBI to go by your closest friends and say, you're not to associate with Dr. Hatfill.

[Sam Mullins]

This is him on the Today show.

[Stephen Hatfill]

You're not to see him or talk. What they're trying to do is socially isolate you as part of this.

[Sam Mullins]

The stress, trying to make you snap.

[Stephen Hatfill]

Yeah, intentionally.

[Sam Mullins]

In many agents minds, there was no doubt that Hatfill was the guy. But they still don't have anything.

[Scott Decker]

We didn't have a good lead. You know, this investigation is gonna was trying everything under the sun.

[Sam Mullins]

Decker's personal life was taking a hit, too. Trouble had started even before he disappeared into this case. He and his wife had decided on a trial separation a few months before anthrax showed up in Florida. And now the anthrax case was taking its toll.

[Scott Decker]

So she wasn't happy. I was traveling a lot with the hazmat unit. We're probably 50% travel on the road at that time. And we just drifted apart.

[Sam Mullins]

He and his wife officially divorce. The anthrax case is unrelenting. It demands everything, and Decker gives it.

[Scott Decker]

That's the way this investigation went. No stone left unturned.

[Sam Mullins]

Then in turning over those stones, they uncover something.

[Scott Decker]

When we searched Hatfill's Camaro, the task force found maps of the Catankton Mountain area north of Frederick, Maryland. So north the task force got together and felt, well, maybe Hatfield had made these letters. Maybe he made the powders in his apartment and then took the powder up to the Catocton Mountains, camped up there, filled the envelopes up in a semi wilderness and drove to Princeton and mailed them. Not a likely scenario, but a possible scenario.

[Sam Mullins]

The FBI calls the bloodhounds back in. Decker and the FBI and Ted and his dogs. All head to the hills.

[Dan Michalko]

I think we spent three or four days just in those mountains. Every, literally every turnout, any place a person could park a car, even for just a few seconds.

[Sam Mullins]

Ted has three teams taking turns, each examining all these little trails and turnouts, scouring for a scent taken from the anthrax letters. Ted's dog, Knight, doesn't find much until.

[Dan Michalko]

I got taken to a. A turnout and I started the dog and he started off. It's a well defined trail. There's a branch. We take the branch and we're going across what is basically a little dam and there's a little pond behind it. And we go across that little dam and then we circle back around to where we started. What's it mean? What's it mean? What's it mean? I said, what do you mean, what's it mean? It means what it always means. My dog got sent here, but he just went in a circle. Through the course of those days, all three dogs did approximately the same thing.

[Sam Mullins]

This little pond is part of a reservoir with drainage ponds, little lakes, where all three of the dogs independently picked up the scent that was on the anthrax letter. Feels like a potentially significant break in the case. Could Hatfell have worked here or dumped evidence in these lakes? They don't know, but it's a lead. And they have so few of them that agents come up with a kind of crazy idea.

[Ted Hamm]

I was contacted by our Washington field office and asked to bring the dive team down to Virginia.

[Sam Mullins]

They decide to search the ponds underwater. They call in FBI crime divers. Agent Bobby Chacon created the bureau's first national crime diving team.

[Ted Hamm]

Believe me, even the most innocuous dive, there's danger. I wanted to know, you know, if there was anthrax in that water, could it be breathing? Or like, what happens because our masks cover our full face and we're in dry suits. But they're not 100%.

[Sam Mullins]

Bobby had dove on a bunch of high profile investigations, including the TWA Flight 800 crash. So now he goes to the lake to size it up.

[Ted Hamm]

The first thing I was told was that they had a person of interest and that person was a lab worker, and that they may have disposed of something they used at home. In the case, in a lake by their house. It was probably a dozen to 15 football fields or more. I mean, it was big.

[Sam Mullins]

But the size of the lake is only the start of Bobby's challenges.

[Ted Hamm]

This particular case was really shrouded in secrecy. They. They couldn't tell us what we were looking for. They Were just like any, you know, like anything. Bring anything you find up and we'll, we'll figure it out later. And the fact is, we were in the early part of the winter and I knew that the weather was going to start getting. Well, it was already cold, it was going to be getting colder, and the ice was going to start forming on that lake. So we were likely going to be diving under ICE.

[Sam Mullins]

The FBI puts a team of over 100 divers under Bobby's control. And that many divers creates a spectacle. This winter, investigators searched 10 ponds in the area. Sometimes with divers, the media is being kept at a distance, but they came anyway.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

I'm getting surrounded channel 25 and I don't know who this truck is.

[Ted Hamm]

You know, you can't keep that cat in the bag very long. And this was a very high profile case. The whole country was watching. The news media was reporting heavily on it. So I always had to tell our guys, you have to temper your reactions very well when the media is around because it can be very misperceived.

[Sam Mullins]

So with helicopters and news vans watching, Bobby and his team prep for the search. First, they divide the lake into dozens and dozens of 10 by 6 foot grids. Then he and his teams dive under the surface and begin to search, feeling their way along the bottom of the cold lake with guide ropes. And here's the crazy thing. It's pitch black down there.

[Ted Hamm]

You're working in the complete black. And when I say black, and we call it black water, it sucks the light right out of you. You can't see. And remember, you're on your belly, you're literally on the bottom and you're pulling yourself along that line and your hand is just sweeping out in front of you and to the side of you. Just whatever your hand bumps into and you feel it, it's just really dark and it's cold. And you just, everything is, your senses are like, what is this I have in my hand? What does this feel like? Because every other sense has now kind of been removed from you. You can't hear anything except your own breathing.

[Sam Mullins]

Bobby and his teams pull up every single item they find from the lake. It's grueling, unpleasant work.

[Ted Hamm]

I remember beer cans, I remember some fishing stuff, other stuff that I brought up, tools, screwdriver, things like that. We found paint cans, we found buckets, those five gallon compound buckets from Home Depot, those big orange buckets, you know, that you see in Home Depot. We found those. Which all is, by the way, most of this stuff is stuff that we would expect to find.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

While the underwater operation continues, Agent Scott Decker gets more personal bad news.

[Scott Decker]

I found out I had prostate cancer.

[Sam Mullins]

As if the pressure of both the anthrax case and his marriage falling apart aren't enough, Decker has to stop everything to do emergency surgery.

[Scott Decker]

It's pretty brutal. And I was on sick leave for six weeks at home recuperating. But I had had enough. I didn't want to be home anymore.

[Sam Mullins]

So Decker calls his boss and begs to be allowed to go back to work.

[Scott Decker]

He said, we'll put you on security duty because we're getting ready to dive in at the ponds right now, and we need people in security at each road going into the pond area in the mountains. So I sat in the car for two weeks and peed in my pants in December. But at least I was back working. And I slowly recuperated.

[Sam Mullins]

As Decker slowly heals. Alone in that patrol car, the dive team isn't coming up with anything significant. It's getting late in the year, so they take a break for the holidays of 2002. And when they come back in January, Bobby Chacon's fear has come true. The lake is now frozen over.

[Ted Hamm]

Ice is weird because it really doesn't affect your search on the bottom because ice is on top. What it does is create just an extra layer of concern about getting the diver in and out of the water in an emergency situation. It's dark and it's muddy and it's. It's sloppy. And, you know, towards the end, when I was under the ice, it was. Whenever you're under the ice, you're always like, well, this. This is not great.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

After several days of work, one of the divers finds something that at first seems about as mundane as can be.

[Ted Hamm]

We found a box that didn't mean anything to us. And we found what could be described almost as, like, not surgical equipment, but like rubber gloves. You always find gloves in a lake like that.

[Sam Mullins]

To Bobby and the divers, these are just pieces of plastic.

[Ted Hamm]

I found stuff, but I don't think anything I found was of value.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

But to a scientist like Decker, that unremarkable plastic looks like something that could be more important.

[Scott Decker]

It was a large plastic box made by the Sterilite company, and this one was maybe two feet by two feet by two and a half foot, something like that. But the COVID had two holes punched in it, and it looks suspiciously like a homemade glove box.

[Sam Mullins]

A glovebox is used in scientific labs. You've seen them in movies and TV shows. Basically, an airtight, clear box. With holes attached to a pair of gloves. Scientists use them to handle dangerous materials without being exposed.

[Scott Decker]

Somebody could have used it to assemble the anthrax letters in it and then tossed it into the ponds.

[Sam Mullins]

If this box is what the FBI thinks it is, this would be their first physical evidence in nearly a year and a half. Decker sends the box to be analyzed. He's hoping they could find something. Anthrax. Fingerprints of Stephen Hatfill. Some other clue. But they decide not to wait for the results. After all the work done by the FBI scouring the region, bringing in the bloodhounds, the hundred divers risking their lives under the frozen water, they make a bold decision.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Under orders from the FBI, engineers are draining a Maryland pond today.

[Sam Mullins]

Investigators are looking for evidence in connection.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

With the anthrax attacks of 2001.

[Sam Mullins]

The FBI decides to drain the entire one acre lake just in case there's residue or other evidence at the bottom.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

As the water level goes down, they haul in sump pumps and rusting pipes and lots of garbage.

[Sam Mullins]

It takes a couple of weeks to.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Finally reveal the mucky lake bed. And once they can see it all clearly, the only out of place items they find are one old gun, a bicycle, and some fishing lures.

[Sam Mullins]

And on top of that, once all the tests on the box they found in the pond come back, they're either negative or inconclusive for anthrax. It seems the glove box is just a regular plastic box, probably from Home Depot.

[Scott Decker]

It would require too much engineering and duct tape and stuff to make that thing into a glove box to make it airtight. I mean, it just, it would have been easier to buy one over the Internet. But, you know, it was that type of investigation where we were grasping it, whatever lead we could find, really.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

And it's here that Decker's doubts really skyrocket. He hears about another case where the very same bloodhounds they'd used had gotten it all wrong and the charges were dropped. What if that dog poop is just dog poop?

[Scott Decker]

They hadn't really worked these dogs out and validated what they were doing. Most of us became disillusioned. Little by little, our faith in the bloodhounds began to disintegrate. So now, if we can't believe the bloodhounds, what can we believe as far as Hatfill's concerned?

[Sam Mullins]

While Decker and the FBI doubt them, Ted Ham stands by his dogs.

[Dan Michalko]

If you just look at what the dogs did, and if you look at the total body of work for these dogs, it's not just anthrax. It's all the murders, it's all the bombings, all the rapes. It's all these cases we've worked, we prosecuted, we put people in jail. It's accepted, it's understood. But these guys, it's just everything you did was under the microscope.

[Sam Mullins]

Whether the dogs were right or not, there was just no evidence. No traces of anthrax, no witnesses, no evidence of any kind, besides a few suspicious actions to show that Hatfill had touched anthrax in years. Most agents working the case at this point moved on from Hatfill. And for Joby Warrick, the Washington Post reporter, his trust in the FBI took a major hit.

[Joby Warrick]

When that disappeared, when that suspect just suddenly and abruptly went away, it did make you doubt. Maybe it's a competency question, or maybe it's just that these things are just too difficult for us to solve. You know, investigators, like journalists, can be led astray, can be, you know, misinformed by their own sources. We went from being fairly sure that the case is going to be resolved soon to feeling that, holy cow, we've got nothing. There's nobody knows anything about this case more than they did in October 2001. So really are back to square one on this thing.

[Sam Mullins]

The very thing the FBI was trying to avoid had happened again. They had accused the wrong suspect in a very public way. They had told themselves a story.

[Scott Decker]

The danger is the investigation will be misled. You could work and work to investigate the person who was really innocent at the expense of ignoring the person that really is guilty. Because we haven't, as detectives, kept an open mind. We've convinced ourselves we know who it is, and we tried to find evidence to prove that. I knew we were just going to have to dig deeper, and we were in for the long haul. It wasn't going to be an easy solution. We were going to have to solve this case. We were going to have to do something as quick as we can. So it didn't happen again.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Stephen Hatfill eventually files a lawsuit accusing members of the FBI and the DOJ of violating his rights with a, quote, coordinated smear campaign. The Justice Department eventually settles with Hatfill for $4.6 million. The government didn't admit liability, but said that the settlement was in the best interest of the United States.

[Sam Mullins]

The FBI and the DOJ had now spent nearly two years on the anthrax.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Case and millions upon millions of dollars.

[Scott Decker]

It was really frustrating, and we needed to. We needed a good, solid lead to break the investigation open because it just wasn't going anywhere at that time.

[Sam Mullins]

They'd focused so much of that time on Steven Hatfill and now had so little to show for it. But not everything went down the drain in that lake. As ice divers scoured under the pond, Agent Decker was struck by an odd event that took place on the shore.

[Scott Decker]

A report came from an agent that they had an anthrax expert helping out in the Red Cross tent. He's handing out food and coffee in the tents.

[Sam Mullins]

That may not sound so strange to the average person. Anthrax expert at an anthrax investigation.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

But agents knew this expert. He worked at usamrid. So as a potential suspect, the FBI would never allow him at a possible crime scene. Yet this guy had found a way in.

[Scott Decker]

The command post answered, do you have a name for this individual? The radio came back. They said, it's Bruce Ivins. He's an expert on anthrax. And the agent also said, I think he's on the person of interest list back at the office.

[Sam Mullins]

Why did anthrax vaccine expert Bruce Ivins travel over ice and snow to serve coffee at a crime scene next time?

[Scott Decker]

We felt that there was somebody else out there who had done it.

[Terry Kearns]

I remember reading that and immediately having.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

A terrible sinking feeling, just a gut feeling.

[Scott Decker]

She felt he was a creep. And this is where the breakthrough happened.

[Sam Mullins]

The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer is a production of Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio and Digg Studios in collaboration with CBC Podcasts. The series is hosted by me, Jeremiah Kroll. It's created, written and executive produced by Scott Tiffany and me at Digg Studios. Aftermath is executive produced by Dick Warren Wolf, 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 Narani 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.