Saturday, September 15 8:05 p.m. - 11:59 p.m. 2 hours, 15 minutes
Sunday, September 16 6:38 p.m. - 9:52 p.m. 2 hours, 37 minutes
17
After Sunday night, September 16, 2001, Dr. Ivins did not again enter Suite B3 in the
evening hours until September 25, 2001, nine days later. However, he took annual leave for four
hours on September 17, 2001 – the first day of the mailing window – returning to his office (not
the hot suites) at 7:00 p.m. that evening, for only 13 minutes, and then left for the evening. He
was back at USAMRIID by 7:02 a.m. on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, and traveled with his lab
technicians to Covance in Denver, Pennsylvania, to deliver vaccine. Dr. Ivins had no alibi for
this first window of opportunity.
18
With respect to the window of opportunity for the letters to Senators Daschle and Leahy
to be mailed – beginning at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 6, 2001, through noon on Tuesday,
October 9, 2001 – Dr. Ivins worked eight consecutive nights:
Date Time in Building 1425 Total Time in B3
Friday, September 28 7:16 p.m. - 10:59 p.m. 1 hour, 42 minutes
Saturday, September 29 8:02 p.m. - 11:18 p.m. 1 hour, 20 minutes
Sunday, September 30 9:53 p.m. - 12:04 a.m. 1 hour, 18 minutes
Monday, October 1 9:14 p.m. - 10:43 p.m. 20 minutes
Tuesday, October 2 7:24 p.m. - 9:39 p.m. 23 minutes
Wednesday, October 3 7:25 p.m. - 10:55 p.m. 2 hours, 59 minutes
Thursday, October 4 6:10 p.m. - 10:12 p.m. 3 hours, 33 minutes
Friday, October 5 7:40 p.m. - 12:43 a.m. (Oct. 6) 3 hours, 42 minutes
Sunday, October 7 2:34 p.m. - 3:26 p.m. 21 minutes
After he left on the afternoon of Sunday, October 7, 2001, Dr. Ivins did not enter B3
again until the evening of October 9, for just 15 minutes, and then again on October 14, for one
hour and 26 minutes. The scientists who evaluated the material in the letters to Senators Daschle
and Leahy (i.e., the second round) found it to be far cleaner and more refined than the material in
the earlier letters, which according to these experts would have required additional lab hours to
create. In the 69-hour window in which the second mailings could have been made, Dr. Ivins
could account for only a few hours that weekend. He had no alibi for the remaining time.
19
17
Numerous microbiologists have concurred that two hours and 15 minutes would be
enough time to dry Ba spores, depending on factors such as the quantity of starting material, the
volume of liquid in which it was suspended, and whether a centrifuge was used to eliminate most
of the water, leaving behind a pellet, or paste, capable of being dried in well under two hours.
18
Dr. Ivins’s own statements to investigators precluded any possibility that his wife could
have provided him an alibi. For example, on February 18, 2008, Dr. Ivins stated that his wife
never knew where he was, nor did she ever question him about his nocturnal wanderings.
19
In addition, during these same few weeks, Dr. Ivins exhibited an unusual pattern of
access to the USAMRIID Library, where there was a photocopying machine. On Sunday,
31