An autopsy found that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente shot himself in a Salem, New Hampshire, storage unit on Tuesday, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. That was two days after the Brown University mass shooting and one day after the murder of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, in his own home.
Neves Valente’s death leaves more questions than answers, especially regarding his motive, which authorities are still seeking to establish.
Since finding Neves Valente’s corpse, authorities have established that the killer and Loureiro studied physics at the same Portuguese university at the same time in the 1990s.
“My understanding is that they did know each other,” said Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
The shootings drew additional national attention because of the botched investigation around them. After initially announcing a suspect was in custody on Sunday, police soon revealed they had arrested the wrong person, and the suspect was still on the run. The inability of police to apprehend the mass shooter invited a barrage of criticism on local law enforcement, something acknowledged by Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar L. Perez Jr.
“There was a lot of criticism, too, as far as, like, how long has the investigation taken,” he said. “And sometimes, you know, it’s just that when you’re not a police officer, you don’t understand how this works,” he said, explaining that investigators have to evaluate all the leads and physical evidence, which can be a painstaking process.
MIT PROFESSOR KILLED IN SHOOTING AT MASSACHUSETTS HOME, POLICE SAY NO SUSPECT IN CUSTODY
“And so it takes work and…you can’t do that within minutes. Sometimes it takes days,” Perez added.
Police also initially dismissed a link between the Brown University shooting and Loureiro’s murder.
