Death of Robert Stevens

During their investigation, the FBI concluded that Bruce Edwards Ivins, a microbiologist for the United States Army, had mailed the deadly letters. The FBI obtained some of the anthrax spores and analyzed them. After analyzing the spores, the FBI traced the spores to a military lab located at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Ivins quickly became a suspect in the investigation. The FBI began to suspect Ivins when they noticed he had logged in many late-night hours right before the attacks. He was questioned in March 2005 about the attacks, but he could not provide a valid reason why he had worked late those nights. In addition to this, Ivins had sent out several emails in which he discussed his mental state and treatment. In 2008 Ivins killed himself just as the FBI was preparing to arrest him. Leading up to his death, Ivins had been hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation after threatening to kill people he worked with, investigators of the anthrax attacks, and many other people who had supposedly wronged him.

Maureen Stevens, wife of Robert Stevens, filed a US $50 million lawsuit in 2003 against the government of the United States. In the lawsuit, Maureen Stevens claimed "that the government was negligent in failing to stop someone from working at an Army infectious disease lab from creating weapons-grade anthrax used in letters that killed five people and sickened 17 others." Ten years after filing the lawsuit, Maureen Stevens settled with the United States government for US$2.5 million. After Maureen and her lawyer settled with the government, Maureen's lawyer said, "Justice has been served."

Robert Stevens was a newspaper photo editor for Sun, owned by American Media, until he was hospitalized on October 2, 2001. American Media published many different tabloids including the National Enquirer and the Sun. Many of the publications that Stevens worked on made claims that Elvis was not dead or that celebrities were pregnant with martians.

In early October 2001, letters which contained anthrax were mailed to multiple locations across the United States. After a recent visit to North Carolina, Robert Stevens reported having symptoms similar to the flu. When he was first hospitalized, doctors believed he had developed meningitis. After the doctors completed further testing, it was discovered that he had developed pulmonary anthrax. This had also already been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Stevens died on October 5, 2001, making his death the first death from anthrax in 25 years. After an investigation was conducted by the FBI, it was revealed that Stevens had come into contact with anthrax through the letter that was mailed to him at American Media in Boca Raton, Florida.

Robert K. "Bob" Stevens (June 20, 1938 – October 5, 2001) was a British-born American photojournalist for the Sun, a subsidiary of American Media, located in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. He was the first journalist killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks when letters containing anthrax were mailed to multiple media outlets in the United States. The anthrax attacks also killed four others in the United States and sickened seventeen others.