Everyone in Maine is breathing easier to know that fugitive killer Robert Card has been found dead. Apparently the search crews combing the local recycling center missed him twice, before they got lucky on the third try.
Maine killer found dead
The body of Robert Card, the Army reserve firearms instructor responsible for two separate massacre scenes in the city of Lewiston, Maine, was found inside an unlocked trailer. They’re carefully explaining how they made the discovery Friday on the property of a recycling center which they had searched twice before.
After the 40-year-old killed 18 people, he abandoned his car near the Androscoggin River. They wasted time and effort searching the river, even though it seemed to everyone nothing but misdirection.
The manhunt was intensive as the entire region was forced into lock-down. After coming up empty for a couple days, Maine police got a call from the recycling center’s owner. He clued them in that Card was “familiar with the property.”
Maine mass shooter Robert Card's former wife and teenage son were in HIDING amid fears killer was hunting for an ex when he gunned down 18 – as bombshell divorce papers reveal he was ordered to keep weapons 'under lock and key'. (Via @DailyMail)#RobertCard #MaineMassacre pic.twitter.com/ZZw5LySo2H
— Green Lemon (@greenlemonme) October 28, 2023
He had a suspicion they might want to check “the trailers in an overflow parking lot across the street from the main facility.” There was a footpath along the river between his car and the facility.
Just before 8 p.m. Friday, a Maine State Police “tactical team discovered the body near the sliding door of an unlocked trailer full of scrap plastic and metal.” The killer killed himself the same way as his victims. “Card had died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Separately, they had already found “a letter addressed to a loved one.” It wasn’t a suicide note but everyone knew wasn’t expecting to be around. It contained “the passcode to Card’s phone and bank account numbers.”
A different property
The weapon he used in the massacre had been purchased legally. Both of the handguns found with his body had also been legally obtained.
When asked how they missed the body on two searches, the commissioner noted Maine police didn’t know it was part of the same property. They also aren’t real clear about his actual motive.
From what the Maine authorities have been able to put together, “Card had had mental health problems and paranoia” but who doesn’t, these days.
"Gun sales in the Lewiston, Maine, area spiked as much as 200% after Wednesday's mass shooting that claimed at least 18 lives and injured 13 more, one store owner said." https://t.co/maX5WJuquC
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) October 28, 2023
They “had found no records of Card’s being forcibly committed for mental health treatment and were seeking to confirm whether he received any voluntary treatment.” Commissioner Sauschuck has his own theories as to how the puzzle fits together.
“There’s paranoia, there’s some conspiracy theorist piece. The individual felt like people were talking about him. It may even appear that there were some voices in play here.” His unit commanders had been a little edgy.
Before he had the whole state of Maine terrified, “Card’s military reserve commanders became so concerned by statements he made targeting his own unit that he was sent to a hospital.” They allegedly gave him a two week stay in the happy hotel “It is not clear whether any other consequences followed.” Besides the double massacre.
