Positive Anthrax Test on Mailbox
U.S. postal inspectors investigating anthrax mailings linked to five deaths have discovered a mailbox that tested positive for traces of the bacteria, a postal spokesman said Monday.
The mailbox was found last week in Princeton, N.J., and has been sent to an Army facility in Aberdeen, Md., for forensic analysis, said Dan Mihalko a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.
He said the mailbox was discovered as investigators checked hundreds of boxes from which mail is funneled to a postal sorting center in Trenton, N.J., where four anthrax-laced letters were postmarked last year.
“We’ve been looking at all the mailboxes that feed into the Trenton facility,” Mihalko said. “One of them did test positive.”
The mailbox was sent to the Army laboratory for more conclusive tests, he said, adding, “We’ve seen in the past field tests that turn up false positives.”
Five people died and 13 were sickened last year as anthrax-tainted letters were sent to government officials and media outlets in Washington, Florida and New York. The letters were mailed in the weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The FBI launched an investigation in October to find out who was responsible for the anthrax attacks.
Authorities are offering a $2.5-million reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
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