BOSTON — Investigators say they have no doubt that it was Claudio Neves Valente who was responsible for both the Brown University mass shooting and the murder of MIT Nuclear Science Professor Nuno Loureiro two days later at his Brookline, Massachusetts home.
But there is still the burning question: what unleashed this level of violence?
Naves Valente was found dead in a Salem, New Hampshire, storage unit Thursday night. Authorities believe he killed himself within hours of the MIT professor’s murder.
On Friday, Boston 25’s Bob Ward sat down for a 1 on 1 interview with Boston US Attorney Leah Foley.
Ward asked, “Do we have a motive or an understanding of what was behind all this?”
“At this time, no,” Foley answered. “There was no manifesto left or list left, or anything like that.”
FBI Agents are now focusing on Naves Valente’s devices: his cell phones, computers, and even his rented Nissan, searching for a motive.
That investigative work is being done now in Boston and in Quantico.
“Investigators will continue to comb through all of the evidence they have collected so far and try to see if there’s anything else that could lead to information,” Foley said.
In 2000, Neves Valente and MIT professor Louriero graduated from the same prestigious school in Lisbon, Portugal, where they both studied high-level physics.
Neves Valente attended Brown but ultimately dropped out of a physics graduate program.
Former Boston Police Chief Dan Linskey says that information on Neves Valente’s own devices might tell a story that he never bothered to write down.
“We’d like to see everything that’s in his digital technology that he was carrying around with him, his laptop, his phones, and see what was going on in his life the last 18 months that may have caused him to come up this way,” Linskey said.
The FBI is also seeking to talk to anyone who interacted with Neves-Valente in Boston or in Miami, Florida, where he was most recently living.
It is hoped that someday soon, investigators will have answers for the families of the victims.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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