Tuesday, March 4, 2008 | 2:45 p.m.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed today that a white power found Saturday in vials in an off-Strip hotel room was indeed the deadly toxin ricin.
The CDC stepped into the investigation Saturday along with the Southern Nevada Health District's Environmental Protection Division, said Jennifer Sizemore, a spokeswoman with the local health district.
After emergency hazardous materials experts at the Extended Stay America motel on Valley View Boulevard and Flamingo Road detected ricin, and a Nevada National Guard unit's test also said it was ricin, the CDC took a sample to its laboratory, Sizemore said.
A 53-year-old man, Thomas Tholen of Riverton, Utah, discovered the ricin and some castor beans, which can be processed to form the deadly biological toxin, in his cousin's hotel room Thursday.
Roger Von Bergendorff, 57, who had previously spent months with Tholen and his wife, Ellen,
at their Utah home, remains in critical condition at Spring Valley Hospital.
The FBI and Metro Police have said that the incident is not related to terrorism.
Whether Bergendorff's respiratory illness is related to ricin is unknown at this time, Sizemore said. "We may never know what caused his illness," she said.
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