Washington (CNN) -- The FBI announced that it has concluded its investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings, saying Friday that a biodefense researcher carried out the attacks alone.
The anthrax letters killed five people and sickened 17 shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The letters, filled with bacterial spores, were sent to Senate Democratic leaders and news organizations.
"By 2007, investigators conclusively determined that a single spore-batch created and maintained by Dr. Bruce E. Ivins at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) was the parent material for the letter spores," said a report released Friday by the FBI.
"Evidence developed from that investigation established that Dr. Ivins, alone, mailed the anthrax letters."
In September and October 2001, at least five envelopes were mailed to Sen. Patrick Leahy and then-Sen. Tom Daschle, as well as to news organizations in New York and in Boca Raton, Florida.
Each envelope contained a photocopy of a handwritten note.
The five who died included two Washington postal workers, a New York hospital worker, a supermarket tabloid photo editor in Florida and a 94-year-old woman in Connecticut.
The investigation into the anthrax mailings, code-named "Amerithrax," was one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement, according to the FBI.
Ivins, 62, committed suicide in July 2008 as federal agents were closing in on him, police said.
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