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American Morning

No Clues in Anthrax Death

Aired November 23, 2001 - 08:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the front lines here at home, tracking the violent terrorist or terrorists who unleashed anthrax in the United States.

Michael Okwu is in Connecticut, where the FBI is still investigating the latest anthrax death there -- hello, Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.

You know, it is a very quiet morning here in small town, America, but that belies how the deep the level of concern is here. Residents of Oxford, Connecticut, are waking up with lots of questions and very few answers about the death of 94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren. Funeral services are scheduled for tomorrow.

Now, police blocked off access to Lundgren's remote house here in a wooded section of Oxford as investigators conducted a grid search, or an inch-by-inch inspection, of her home. Results of tests taken on samples from the house are expected possibly within the next 24 hours, and investigators are also taking a close look around the neighborhood, specifically at the beauty salon and the church that she frequented.

Results of an autopsy are not yet known. Examiners are taking special interest, of course, in her air passages. Investigators still believe that the victim, Ms. Lundgren, was the possible victim of cross-contamination in the mail. A mail distribution center in Wallingford, Connecticut, and a postal facility in Seymour, Connecticut, not too far from here, were tested Wednesday, and those results are expected today.

Now, in the meantime, postal officials have given some 1,200 workers at both of those facilities the option of taking or starting a 10-day course of Cipro, and we are told that a majority of them have.

And in the meantime, Leon, a very interesting note. On the answering machine of the postal carrier who specifically distributed mail to Ms. Lundgren there is a message, where he offers his condolence to Ms. Lundgren and her family, and says that he himself is feeling fine and has already started taking Cipro -- Leon.

HARRIS: Interesting. Thank you very much, Michael -- Michael Okwu, reporting live this morning from Oxford, Connecticut.

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