Anthrax

Dr. Reid: member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. Blog dedicated to case 4.24

[anthraxcm]

Blog Entry 6

  It’s almost been two weeks from my last blog entry. I haven’t been able to blog as I contracted anthrax myself.

After the team gave the profile, we followed a lead to a man named Dr. Nicholas. The video we got our lead from was from 2002 and showed the professor arguing with other people and shouting at them. He kept going on about the government’s terrible response to the anthrax attacks of 2001 and about the dangers of anthrax.The United States government actually responded quite well to the 2001 bioterrorism attacks. The attacks were caused by a scientist with a failing anthrax vaccine program. After the five deaths he had caused, they spent billions of dollars in defending the country against biological attacks. You can read more about it here. Either way though, the professor fit our profile. 

 When we got to his house, I went into the home lab and found the professors body surrounded by broken vials of anthrax. Though we had all taken a preventative pill earlier – I couldn’t risk anyone getting infected so I locked myself in the lab and searched from within. I found out that the professor had been dead for three-four days and couldn’t have infected the people in the bookstore; let alone the people in the park. I also found out that the professor had a partner: Chad Brown.

At that point, Hotch ordered me to leave.  I was rushed to the hospital and the rest is sort of a daze. Apparently I took a turn for the worse but Dr. Kiruma found the cure for the Anthrax in the professor’s inhaler.

We don’t often deal with chemical and biological warfare cases in the BAU. While it is a military concern; it doesn’t affect many people’s everyday lives. What’s surprising to know is that the professors home lab isn’t a surprising find. After the FBI researched the 2001 Anthrax attacks, they came to the conclusion that anthrax powder can be made by someone who knows what they’re doing in a simple clandestine lab. (Shane, 2002). We can only hope that people don't know what they're doing.

I think this will be my last blog post. I sincerely hope this is the last time I have to deal with bio-terrorism attacks.

[anthraxcm]

Blog Entry 5

I was right. Garcia connected the people to a book store. The tests for anthrax in the book store were positive. We're going to investigate; I'll write about it when I'm back.

[anthraxcm]

Blog Entry 4

I stayed up all night looking over the files of people who had died in the hospital of infections. I found three people who apparently died from meningitis and I’m positive that it was caused by the same strain of anthrax that is causing the deaths of all those people from the park.

Hold your breath, release, leave the area. Seventeen people dead.  

I didn’t know what to look for at first but then it hit me. The pattern was two or more people who had severe cases of the same infection (and died) within the past few days. I called Hotch, he says that Garcia is looking for some connection between the three people.

[anthraxcm]

Blog Entry 3

Concentrated anthrax explains how everyone got infected, the suspect probably released the spores into the air - no one had a chance.  The concentrated spores (ref. Figure 1.2) made a powder like substance that flew through the air. It also explains how the suspect tested his anthrax so easily.

Figure 1.2. Anthrax spore from the 2001 Anthrax attacks Retrieved: "http://www.anthraxattacks.net/"

It doesn’t make any sense though. This strain of anthrax is very clearly being made in vitro. That means that someone has a lab and that someone had to have tested it. The person who had the anthrax tested on them must have been admitted to the hostpital but Dr Kimura insists that she would’ve known if there had been previous cases of anthrax. I think it would’ve been presented as something else; I'll write again once I know how they managed to test it with no on knowing.

[anthraxcm]

Blog Entry 2

The team talked to the patients, we’ve deduced that everyone there got infected in a park in the middle of the city.  We’re dealing with chemical warfare.Chemical and biological weapons were banned after World War I but it seems as if through the advances in biotechnology, these types of weapons stand as a threat again.

The BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) is now working side by side with the military and it’s an uncomfortable mix. Either way, we’re working together to go over a list of all the military scientists who were working with anthrax. All members of the military are vaccinated against anthrax since anthrax is most likely to be used is a biological weapon. Saying all that, the death toll reached seventeen today.

[anthraxcm]

Blog Entry 1

Hotch called us in on a case today, we met all together at the hospital where we talked to Dr. Linda Kimua; an expert on pathogens. Dr Linda Kimua reported that of the 25 people who had been hospitalized that day with similar symptoms to one another, twelve are dead.

Lab tests show that it’s anthrax (disease caused by Bacillus anthracis (Figure 1.1)) but anthrax doesn’t usually kill this fast. It tends to be a slower acting toxin which causes illness that can be treated. If it isn’t treated, the spores clump together and get trapped in the airways. Apparently this is a far more aggressive strain, manmade, which means we’re looking for a bioterrorist. Hotch ordered a media blackout until there’s a profile.

Figure 1.1  Bacillus anthracis Gram Stain x1500 Retrieved from "http://textbookofbacteriology.net/Anthrax.html"