Officials Investigating Suspicious Powder at Connecticut Postal Facility

February 3, 2004
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Postal inspectors were investigating the discovery of an unidentified powder in an envelope addressed to the Republican National Committee.

An employee found the gray, sandy powder leaking out of an envelope in a Wallingford postal facility late Monday night, police and postal officials said.

The discovery of the powder came at about the same time that a white power that tested positive for ricin was found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office in Washington.

Preliminary test results on the Wallingford sample were inconclusive and officials took the powder to the state Department of Public Health laboratory in Hartford for further testing. The results were expected late Tuesday morning.

"It could potentially be a hoax. There's really no explanation I can think of for a grayish powder to be in that kind of an envelope," said Hal Stephens, a supervisor for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Connecticut.

Investigators believe the letter, a business reply envelope that did not require postage, was mailed from somewhere in Connecticut.

The powder in Frist's office apparently was delivered through the mail system. More definitive tests were expected later Tuesday.

The Wallingford facility is the same postal center at which investigators found anthrax spores in 2001. A 94-year-old Oxford woman, Ottilie Lundgren, died in 2001 after inhaling the bacteria. Investigators believe she got anthrax through mail that passed through the Wallingford sorting center.

The worker who found the powder Monday was wearing gloves, officials said.

"All the employees are fine," said Carl Walton, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Connecticut. "Nobody needed medical treatment. They washed up and went home."

Matt Fritz, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said there was no apparent environmental risk at the facility. DEP officials cleared the scene at about 4 a.m.
The facility remained open Tuesday morning, police said.

Postal inspectors, FBI agents, local police and the state hazardous materials team reported to the scene late Monday night.

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