Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

No Anthrax Found in Connecticut Woman's Home

Aired November 24, 2001 - 08:15   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Investigators are coming up empty as they scour a Connecticut woman's mail and home for signs of anthrax. She died Wednesday of inhalation anthrax and today she's being laid to rest in Oxford, Connecticut.

That's where we find CNN's Brian Palmer this morning -- hi, Brian.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra.

94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren will be laid to rest at the Emanuel Lutheran Church in a few hours, which is just over my shoulder here. Her family has asked that the media maintain a respectful distance. Local and state authorities, led by the Centers for Disease Control and the FBI are conducting that investigation into the source of the anthrax that killed her. Preliminary results of her home from her mail, from her trash, as well as from area post offices have yielded no traces of anthrax, but authorities stress that this is an ongoing investigation.

Now, yesterday investigators collected samples. They took, including swab samples, from her hair salon, The New Look hair salon, as well as from the town hall. Again, they're trying to determine where the anthrax has come from. But if you'll look at the pictures, you'll see the investigators themselves weren't wearing masks. So they are, I guess, assuming that the level of threat at this point is very low. They're looking for trace samples.

Last night, authorities tried to essentially take their case to the public. They gave them an anthrax tutorial, essentially, at a town hall meeting and investigators are also trying to shed some light into the investigation itself for the residents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ERIC MANN, CDC: What we're doing is looking at interviewing her family and friends, and she had a multitude of family and friends. We're trying to identify all the things that she did in the past 60 days and looking at those events and then doing environmental sampling in any place that she's been in the past 60 days to try to identify if there's anthrax spores in those areas.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PALMER: Essentially, investigators are taking the same steps that they have taken in Florida, in Washington, in New York, to determine where the anthrax came from. This case obviously bears more similarity to the case of Kathy Nguyen, the 61-year-old hospital stock worker who died of anthrax in New York, because it hasn't been linked directly to contaminated mail -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Brian, thank you for that update.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com