The Maine gunman who killed 18 people inside a bar and bowling alley was alive for most of the intense two-day manhunt that ended when he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, a doctor determined Friday. forensic.
Robert Card “probably” committed suicide eight to 12 hours before his body was discovered, according to Lindsey Chasteen, administrator of the medical examiner’s office in Augusta.
The 40-year-old killer suffered from a condition in which his heart emptied of blood after the gunshot wound, affecting the way blood settled in his body and potentially making the time of death less certain. Chasteen said.
His manner of death was ruled a suicide, but the full report will not be published for several months.
The Army reservist was found in an open trailer in an overflow parking lot at Maine Recycling Corporation at 7:45 p.m. on October 27.
It is still unclear how long he was inside the trailer before turning the gun on himself, meaning he may have been actively fleeing for a significant period of time as authorities frantically searched for the mentally ill shooter.
After shooting dead 18 unsuspecting victims and wounding 13 others, Card fled in a vehicle that was later found abandoned on the boardwalk of a nearby town, raising concerns that he had escaped by water.
Robert Card “probably” was alive 8 to 12 hours before his body was discovered.AP
Law enforcement agencies came under scrutiny for not finding Card’s body sooner under the assumption that he committed suicide in the hours after the shooting.
Police had searched and cleared the recycling plant twice before the property owner alerted them to a previously unknown overflow parking lot, where they eventually found Card with two firearms at his side.
Why Card fled to the plant (his former employer) and his motive for carrying out the massacre remain a mystery to police.
The trailer in which Card was found was part of the recycling plant that police had already evacuated twice in their search for the gunman.NYPJ
Officials are investigating Card’s history of mental health problems, including the deranged killer’s claims that he could hear voices in his head calling him a “pedophile.”
Authorities had known about Card for months, as family members and others became increasingly concerned about his mental state.
With publication wires
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Source: vtt.edu.vn