In just three weeks, three people are dead, tens of thousands exposed, and the FBI has no solid leads. Then, intel points to a Pakistani scientist—only for the White House to push a completely different suspect.
Chapter 1: What sparked the initial police investigation in 'One Hundred Miles'?
When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world.
This isn't really happening.
Officers finding large sums of money.
It's a tale of murder, skullduggery, and international intrigue.
So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins, and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncover. Available now. This is a CBC Podcast.
What is a New Yorker? I'll tell you this much. Knock us down, not only do we get up, but we'll fight back twice as tough.
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Chapter 2: How did New York City respond to the anthrax threat during the 2001 World Series?
These were fighting words for a city that was down and out. The date was October 30th, 2001. It had been less than two months since 9-11, and New York City and the country were mourning. But like a scene right out of a movie, the New York Yankees had climbed their way into the World Series. And this is the ad that played just before Game 3.
New York is still standing strong.
The World Series had been delayed over fears of another terrorist attack. And when the games did begin, New York played the Diamondbacks in Arizona for the first two matchups and got beat badly, losing both 9-1 and then 4-0. It wasn't great. So in Game 3, back in New York, the Yankees are up against it.
It's going to be deafening tonight. Down two games to none. The fans are definitely going to be an advantage for the New York Yankees right here.
Certainly tonight our attention is diverted to the Bronx, but our focus remains on lower Manhattan where it should be since the terrible acts of September 11th.
Of course, New York is also dealing with the terror of the anthrax letters. They've been sent to top media stations in the city, infecting about a dozen people. In Washington, D.C., thousands have been exposed. But tonight, in Yankee Stadium, it seems NYC has hope. While the fans forget their worries, officials can't. They're concerned there might be more than hope in the air.
So they've put in place a top-secret technology that's working in the stadium unseen, behind the crowds.
And that was, at the time, not public. That was close-hold information. This program was working on a biosensor, air sniffer.
It's a brand new biohazard detection system that, according to FBI agent Scott Decker, had been rushed to the city for the series. The operation was so classified that, as far as we can tell, it's never even been reported in the press.
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Chapter 3: What were the challenges in identifying Kathy Nguyen's anthrax exposure?
Marcy needs to speak with Kathy to figure out where this exposure could have come from. But when she arrives at the hospital, Kathy's already unconscious. The little information Marcy does have scares her.
She wasn't a postal worker. She wasn't anyone that anyone would have directly targeted.
So where did Kathy come into contact with anthrax? Was it somehow loose in the city?
Unfortunately, we had very little information on where she had spent time during the 21 days before she got ill. So to try and figure out where she'd been, we went to her apartment looking for clues of things that she did, where she went to church, where she may have shopped recently. We were basically trying to put a timeline together of everywhere she was.
Marcy learns Kathy immigrated from Vietnam in 1977 and that she lives alone now and doesn't go out that much. When she does, it's mostly just to work and back or to the market to buy food she cooks for herself and her neighbors.
You know, I think what was really hard about her case is that, you know, I was in her apartment. Like, you sort of got to know her in this very personal way.
Getting to know Kathy makes it harder when Marcy hears the news.
61-year-old Kathy Nguyen's death from inhalation anthrax is baffling investigators and complicating the entire anthrax investigation.
Three days after she checked into the hospital, Kathy Nguyen is the fourth anthrax fatality.
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Chapter 4: How did the FBI narrow down the location and profile of the anthrax mailer?
It was the same strain of anthrax.
Considering all they're up against, for Decker, finally getting some information is a big win. And even though it's a small sample, this trace amount of anthrax tells the FBI a lot.
Under an electron microscope, the morphology of the spores was very, very similar. Crude, clumpy. So it appeared that the same person or persons had mailed both envelopes, New York Post and Brokaw.
And the letters themselves reveal clues about that person. First, the white six-and-a-half-inch envelopes look identical. And more telling are the markings on the outside of the envelopes. The letters were postmarked in New Jersey. If you haven't mailed anything in a while, a postmark is that official ink stamp the post office puts on the outside of envelopes.
And both of the New York anthrax envelopes are stamped with the same one. September 18th, Trenton, New Jersey.
I.e., they were mailed at the same time. Definitely picked up by the letter carrier at the same time.
Decker and the FBI also find that in addition to the New York letters, the D.C. letter addressed to Senator Daschle passed through that same processing center. It's postmarked Trenton, New Jersey, October 9th, three weeks after the letters that went to New York.
All of this tells agents that the Trenton, New Jersey area is likely the location of the mailer, or at least a place the mailer has relatively easy access to. To Decker, that means the mailer probably drove to Trenton.
You have a weekend to do it. You know, you have to do it and get back to work the next morning before somebody notices you're missing. So it's based on drive time, what would be considered a reasonable drive time.
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Chapter 5: What evidence pointed the FBI toward a suspected scientist in southern New Jersey?
They know he also works for the government and is close friends with a disease scientist. The two men live in Chester, Pennsylvania, a small historic city that's only 50 miles from the mail center outside Trenton, New Jersey.
It's not far from where the letter was mailed. You know, he was in that 100-mile radius. What's a reasonable driving time to leave Chester, drop a letter, and get back to Chester?
It's about a two-hour round trip. Certainly seems possible. So agents spring into action. On an early morning in November 2001, about 30 FBI agents with guns and battering rams and a hazmat team and gas masks jump out of black SUVs and rush the scientist's house.
I'm Sarah Trelevan, and for over a year, I've been working on one of the most complex stories I've ever covered. There was somebody out there who's faking pregnancies.
I started, like, warning everybody. Every doula that I know. It was fake.
No pregnancy. And the deeper I dig, the more questions I unearth. How long has she been doing this?
What does she have to gain from this?
From CBC and the BBC World Service, The Con, Caitlin's Baby. It's a long story. Settle in. Available now.
It's early in the morning, and Farah Shaikh is asleep. Suddenly, the sounds of her front door being kicked in jolt her awake.
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Chapter 6: What happened during the FBI raid on Dr. Irshad Shaikh's home and office?
Chapter 7: How does the case of the anthrax mailer reveal complexities in bioterrorism investigations?
When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world.
This isn't really happening.
Officers finding large sums of money.
It's a tale of murder, skullduggery, and international intrigue.
So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins, and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncover. Available now. This is a CBC Podcast.
What is a New Yorker? I'll tell you this much. Knock us down, not only do we get up, but we'll fight back twice as tough.
These were fighting words for a city that was down and out. The date was October 30th, 2001. It had been less than two months since 9-11, and New York City and the country were mourning. But like a scene right out of a movie, the New York Yankees had climbed their way into the World Series. And this is the ad that played just before Game 3.
New York is still standing strong.
The World Series had been delayed over fears of another terrorist attack. And when the games did begin, New York played the Diamondbacks in Arizona for the first two matchups and got beat badly, losing both 9-1 and then 4-0. It wasn't great. So in Game 3, back in New York, the Yankees are up against it.
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