I don’t understand why the justice department told Mr. Ivins what was about to happen. By warning him, they gave him time to hide/destroy evidence, to flee, or perhaps even commit suicide - which he did! Makes no sense, unless they didn’t really have enough evidence against him.

Report: Anthrax suspect kills self before filing of criminal charges

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a published report.

The scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who worked for the past 18 years at the government’s biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Maryland, had been told about the impending prosecution, the Los Angeles Times reported for Friday editions. The laboratory has been at the center of the FBI’s investigation of the anthrax attacks, which killed five people. [...]

Besides the five deaths, 17 people were sickened by anthrax that was mailed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of the news media in New York and Florida just weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The victims included postal workers and others who came into contact with the anthrax.