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. Lawsuit 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." Context The anthrax mailings that killed five people and sickened seventeen others came right after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Because they came immediately following 9/11, investigators believed that Al Qaeda was also somehow responsible for the anthrax attacks — only this time, they were using biological weapons. However, it was soon discovered that the strain of anthrax used was connected to a military research laboratory in Maryland. Impact Robert Stevens was the first anthrax victim to be killed in 25 years. The type of anthrax with which he was killed was rare and lethal. During the investigation, the FBI shut down the offices in which Stevens was employed to collect evidence of anthrax. Another thing that makes the death of Robert Stevens important is that at the time it was very rare for anthrax to be in the form of white powder. At the time experts believed that Anthrax could be found in the soil, in sheep, in cattle,