The anthrax fatality at American Media focused nationwide attention on three people who would otherwise have never drawn a second glance. First was Bob Stevens, a photo editor who died of anthrax inhalation. Second was Ernesto Blanco, a mailroom worker who survived exposure but remains on medication. Both of these men had defined roles in the company, and a clear route of exposure. The third victim was Stephanie Dailey, who apparently was exposed to the airborne bacteria, but who cannot explain her whereabouts and refuses to discuss anything about the incident. An office services associate, Ms. Dailey has consistently deflected meaningful questions on the details of the case and instead focused media attention on her attitude, her course of treatment, and the extent of her emotional trauma.

Stephanie's continued persistence on her own issues in the context of a greater tragedy leads to two possible conclusions:

1. Stephanie is an innocent victim whose sense of appropriateness is still skewed following the incident.
2. Stephanie is a classic self-mutilator who sensed a unique opportunity following the terrorist attacks, obtained a sample of the Ames anthrax virus, and willingly exposed herself and others to the bacteria in order to draw attention to herself.

Everyone who witnessed the events and subsequent media coverage of the World Trade Center and Pentagon suicide attacks found themselves enthralled by the constant attention given to the heroes of the time, the firefighters, the nurses, the doctors, and the policemen. Many found themselves later sickened by the inclusion of all victims of the attacks as "heroes." But surely at least one person realized that anyone, by that definition, can be a hero. Anyone can draw nationwide attention to himself or herself if he or she is willing to risk personal health and safety and create the right kind of tragedy, one that will play on the fears of a terrorized nation.

Self-mutilation, commonly called "cutting," is a set of behaviours characterized by focused injury to one's own body, often taking the form of self-inflicted razor or knife cuts to the arms, legs, and torso. Often unfairly classified as a teen practice akin to anorexia or overapplication of benzoyl peroxide, self-mutilation behaviour can occur in people of all ages. In most cases the self-mutilation is purely personal activity designed to counteract stress, anxiety, or personally unsettling social situations. However, in some extreme cases, the self-injury is designed to draw attention and indeed sympathy from those surrounding the afflicted person, which often backfires and causes resentment and anger on all sides. There is a statistical correlation between obesity and self-mutilation. Often fat people have a negative body image and wish to damage themselves as punishment. In other cases fat people feel they are ignored and want to draw attention to themselves. Self-mutilation is one common expression of this attention-seeking behavior.

Stephanie Dailey, as a fat person with a need for attention, clearly fits the profile of a potential self-mutilator. She therefore had the motive and the callous disregard for personal safety required to deliberately release anthrax bacteria in a desperate bid for national coverage. But did she have the means?

The Ames strain of anthrax, also known as B. anthracis V770-NP1-R, is a well-known variant first developed by the US Department of Agriculture in the 1950's as a gold standard for creating more efficacious human anthrax vaccines. It is widely used as a benchmark for testing various biowarfare strategies, as it primarily presents an airborne inhalation threat and is therefore a worst case scenario for widespread civilian disaster response. As a result of its standardization, the Ames strain has become a relatively available research tool, to the extent that samples can be obtained for research purposes by such insecure and unmonitored facilities as veterinary research laboratories. Anyone with access to one of these facilities, even someone relatively low in such an organization, for example a temporary office services assistant, would be able to obtain a sample of Ames strain anthrax bacteria with little effort. If the temporary office services assistant then moved on to another job, perhaps at a supermarket tabloid company in Florida, that temporary office services assistant could easily bring that anthrax along to the new job, just in case.

Motive. Means. Opportunity.

This time only one person lost his life, but statistics show that Stephanie is not alone. There are any number of temporary office services assistants in exactly the same situation, waiting to release deadly strains of Bacillus anthracis into the atmosphere, killing coworkers and halting the publication of supermarket tabloids for one reason and one reason only: to get their negative body image broadcast worldwide on CNN. We must stop these "heroes" before another Florida tragedy hits the morning news.