SALEM, NEW HAMPSHIRE – The massive manhunt for the gunman who turned prestigious Ivy League campuses into killing fields has come to a chilling end. Authorities confirmed Friday that Claudio Neves Valente, the PhD dropout who went on a terrifying shooting spree at Brown University and MIT, was found dead inside a storage unit. The autopsy reveals he had already been lying there lifeless for two days while police scoured the region.
Rotting in Silence
Police made the grisly discovery on Thursday night inside a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. Inside the unit, they found the 48-year-old Portuguese national dead, surrounded by a satchel and two firearms.
However, a new autopsy report released Friday revealed that Valente did not die when police arrived. He had killed himself with a gunshot wound to the head on Tuesday. This means his body sat undiscovered for 48 hours while the nation remained on edge, fearing he would strike again.
The Barking Massacre
The nightmare began the previous Saturday in Providence, Rhode Island. Valente, a former physics grad student who dropped out of Brown in 2003, returned to his old campus with lethal intent. Authorities say he walked into a lecture hall and unleashed hell, firing more than 40 rounds into a crowd of terrified students.
Witnesses reported a disturbing detail about the shooter’s mental state. He made bizarre barking noises as he opened fire. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha confirmed that some witnesses said he said nothing, while others heard him making animalistic sounds.
The attack claimed the lives of 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, leaving nine others wounded in the carnage.
The Second Target
While police scrambled to secure Brown University, Valente was already moving. He switched license plates on his rental car and traveled 50 miles north to Brookline, Massachusetts. On Monday, two days after the first massacre, he targeted Nuno Loureiro, a 47-year-old MIT professor.
Loureiro was shot dead in his $1.4 million townhouse. Unlike the random cruelty of the lecture hall, this murder appeared personal. Investigators discovered that Valente and Loureiro had been classmates years ago at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, suggesting a deep-seated grudge that had festered for decades.
A Mystery Taken to the Grave
The investigation revealed that Valente had been planning his violence for some time. He rented the New Hampshire storage unit in November and picked up a gray Nissan with Florida plates on December 1. The vehicle was spotted stalking the area around Brown’s campus for weeks before the shooting.
Despite the connections to his past, the specific trigger for the rampage remains unknown. Attorney General Neronha stated they do not have any idea why he chose that specific time or classroom. With Valente dead by his own hand, the answers to why may be buried with him.
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