Investigation Centers on West Trenton

WEST TRENTON, NJ: October 19, 2001: Action News has learned that federal agents investigating the anthrax mailings are zeroing in on a West Trenton neighborhood. Authorities are concentrating heavily on the route of the female letter carrier who tested positive for anthrax. They believe that route may provide the best clues yet as to the person or persons responsible for mailing the tainted letters.

Investigators believe that the female postal employee could have been infected by a box containing anthrax that she unknowingly delivered to the suspect, who may be on her route. The suspect may have then put the anthrax in the envelopes and mailed them to NBC and Senator Tom Daschle.

Trenton Postmaster Joe Sautello held a closed-door meeting with postal employees Thursday night. As he emerged, he told reporters, "I really have no comment. Whatever the experts say, that's what we're going to do." FBI officials were saying little about where the investigation is leading. According to FBI spokesperson Kevin Donovan, "We are pursuing all logical leads with federal, state, local agencies to identify the source and to identify anybody who's responsible for this."

The people in question mailed the anthrax contaminated letters to Tom Brokaw at NBC and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Those letters were subsequently postmark at the mail handling facility in Hamilton, New Jersey, where a maintenance worker and a 35 year old mail sorter may have also come in contact with the disease when the letters went through mail sorting machinery.

The facility was shut down Thursday because it is a crime scene and a potential environmental hazard. But Frank Phillips, the president of the tri-state area Mail Handlers Union, was critical that the facility wasn't closed when they first became aware that the letters had originated here, and especially that they did not stop the use of air guns to clean the equipment. "When you use these air guns to blow out these machines, they just send that dust all over the place," he says.

Meanwhile, officials report that two of the workers now believed to have been exposed to anthrax initially tested negative. A biochemical expert told Action News that this may be because the initial screening tests intended to give immediate results are not as comprehensive as more time consuming culture studies.

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News