Robert Card's body found, ending manhunt for Maine mass shooting suspect
Lisbon, Maine - Robert Card, the suspect in Wednesday’s mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, was found dead in nearby Lisbon after an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
He was located on Friday night in the woods about 8 miles from where the massacre of 18 people took place, CNN reported.
The body was found near a recycling center where the suspect used to work – wearing the same clothes he had on Wednesday – according to Michael Shepherd of the local Bangor Daily News, who cited Maine Senator Angus King.
A huge manhunt had failed to uncover Card in the days after the shooting, in which 13 people were wounded inside a bowling alley and at a bar.
While the 40-year-old was believed to be still at large, residents across Lewiston hunkered down in their homes while officers spanning multiple law enforcement agencies – among them agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Fear sparked by the mass killing touched residents in cities far beyond the Lewiston area. In Portland, officials opted to close down its public buildings, while Canada’s Border Services Agency issued an "armed and dangerous" alert to agents stationed along the US border.
In New York, every officer received a photo of Card and some were tasked with checking vehicles at bridges and tunnels leading into the city.
Robert Card "heard voices" at mass shooting locations
Card was a US Army reservist who had a mental health evaluation over the summer after he began acting erratically during training, according to a US official.
He was released from the mental health facility after two weeks, according to the Maine Information and Analysis Center.
According to his sister-in-law, Katie Card, the suspect reportedly told his family he specifically heard voices at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Just-in-Time Recreation, the two locations he allegedly attacked.
"He truly believed he was hearing people say things," including disparaging things being said about him at the bowling alley and the bar, she told the Daily Beast.
Investigators also learned from Card’s sister that he may have been looking for an ex-girlfriend at those locations.
Cover photo: REUTERS