Ottilie Lundgren was 94 and lived a quiet, mostly homebound life in Oxford, Connecticut. In mid-November 2001 she developed respiratory problems and was taken to a hospital on November 16. Doctors initially suspected pneumonia but tests later confirmed inhalation anthrax; she died on November 21, 2001. Her death was the fifth and final fatality in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Investigators found no link between Lundgren and the known targets of the letters. FBI investigators focused on her mail and concluded she was likely a victim of cross-contamination: a harmless piece of mail that had contacted a contaminated envelope during processing at a New Jersey postal facility.

The larger Amerithrax probe later centered on Dr Bruce Edwards Ivins, a Fort Detrick researcher whose laboratory strain matched the attack material. Ivins died by suicide on July 29, 2008; prosecutors subsequently named him as the sole perpetrator and the FBI closed the investigation in February 2010. Did anyone in Oxford or the surrounding area notice unusual mail handling or deliveries around November 2001?