The Los Angeles Times is reporting that a scientist who helped the FBI investigate the 2001 anthrax attacks has committed suicide in Maryland, soon after learning he was about to be charged with the very attacks he had been helping to investigate.

Bruce Ivins, 62, who worked at the U.S. government’s biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md. for 18 years, had just been informed that he was about to be prosecuted by the Justice Department for the anthrax attacks, though the criminal charges had not yet been publicized.

Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The Times reports he had ingested a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine.

It’s been a long time since the anthrax attacks, which killed five people in 2001, have been in the news. Pinpointing Ivins as the main suspect and his subsequent suicide actually comes directly on the heels of the U.S. government finally paying in June a settlement valued at $5.82 million to former government scientist Steven Hatfill, the man the FBI targeted as their main suspect for a long time despite not having any direct evidence against him.

The Washington Post, which has to be pissed about getting scooped by the L.A. Times on this one, quotes Ivins’s lawyer maintaining his client’s innocence.