The family of the first victim to die in the 2001 anthrax attacks will get $ 2.5 million from the U.S. government under a settlement reached last week , according to court documents . Bob Stevens , 63 , worked as a photo editor for American Media Inc. and was the first of five victims of the attacks . He died October 5 , 2001 , after inhaling anthrax that investigators believe was in a letter sent to American Media , the publisher of the Sun and National Enquirer tabloids , at its offices in Boca Raton , Florida . The FBI eventually blamed the attacks on a civilian scientist at the Army 's biological research laboratory at Fort Detrick , Maryland . The suspect , microbiologist Bruce Ivins , had a history of mental illness and killed himself in 2008 before investigators brought charges against him , federal prosecutors said . Stevens ' family sued the government for $ 50 million in 2003 , arguing that the military laboratory in Maryland that was identified as the source of the bacterium should have had tighter security . A settlement notice dated November 23 was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida . A separate stipulation of settlement document filed with the court said the government admitted no blame in the case . It also said attorneys fees owed by the Stevens family would come out of the settlement money , at no more than 25 % of the total . On October 31 , the lawyer for Stevens ' family said a settlement had been reached but that final details had to be worked out with the Justice Department . `` I think the family was vindicated that the government has agreed to settle the case with them in spite of the fact that they put up a lot of roadblocks , '' the lawyer , Richard Schuler , said in October . Stevens and his wife , Maureen , were married 27 years , and there is `` still a hole in her life as far as her husband is concerned , '' Schuler said then . `` It 's a horrible , painful death , that they had to witness their loved one go through , '' Schuler said . `` It 's something that they 'll never forget . '' A February report by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that it could not reach a `` definitive conclusion '' about the source of the anthrax , which federal agents said had been linked to a sample from Ivins ' laboratory . But the FBI and the Justice Department stand by their findings , saying that scientific testing gave agents `` valuable investigative leads '' that led them to Ivins . A CNN Presents investigation in early October revealed that the federal government has spent $ 19 billion to fight biological attacks . Multiple new labs have since opened to research potential treatments , and the government now counts nearly 15,000 workers handling germs such as Ebola , plague , and anthrax -- about twice as many as before . The FBI now checks potential workers for felonies and ties to terror groups . But proposed reforms like psychological screening or requiring two people in labs have gone nowhere , with scientists who have reviewed the issue calling those proposals intrusive , expensive and impractical .
The settlement will pay the victim 's family $ 2.5 million . The family of Bob Stevens had sued the government for $ 50 million . Comment: The FBI eventually blamed the attacks on a civilian scientist .