'Tiny amount' of anthrax found in Connecticut

SEYMOUR, Connecticut (CNN) -- An envelope sent to a home in Seymour, Connecticut -- near a community where a 94-year-old widow died of inhalation anthrax under mysterious circumstances -- has tested positive for anthrax, Gov. John Rowland said Friday.

"The trace amount of anthrax was tiny," he said, stressing there is no health danger. Authorities believe the letter may have come in contact with one of two anthrax-laced letters sent to Senate offices.

It was not clear, however, how Friday's development related to the death in Oxford, Connecticut, of Ottilie Lundgren, 94. "Supposition on my part is that Mrs. Lundgren, at age 94, had an immune system far less than yours or mine, and that you and I could have handled her same piece of mail and not gotten sick," Rowland said.

Complete coverage

Lundgren was the nation's fifth anthrax fatality. Her case puzzled investigators because she had no known connection to government offices, postal facilities or news outlets, which have been tied to 16 of the 17 anthrax cases.

The FBI launched a criminal investigation trying to track Lundgren's movements during the month preceding her death to determine how she may have come in contact with the deadly bacteria. Rowland said Lundgren was almost homebound. During the weeks before her death, she had visited the post office and perhaps the beauty salon, he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the anthrax strain that infected Lundgren was indistinguishable from the strain detected in all the other recent cases of infection in the United States.

Based on her symptoms when she arrived at the hospital with an upper respiratory infection and the rapid deterioration in her condition, doctors suspected anthrax within hours.