JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
We start today with two major murder cases in New England. They converged late last night with news that the suspect in both cases is dead. Police, at first, did not realize that the gunman behind Saturday's deadly campus shooting at Brown University also murdered an MIT professor two days later, but they're now convinced the shooter was a 48-year-old former graduate student at Brown. Joining us now is David Wright, senior reporter at Ocean State Media, who has been following the case. Hi there.
DAVID WRIGHT: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: So, David, just start by telling us - how did this all come together?
WRIGHT: Well, first of all, the suspect's name is Claudio Neves Valente, as you said, 48 years old from Portugal, a green card holder who was once a grad student at Brown long ago. In terms of the investigation, the turning point came after a witness came forward with a dramatic story to tell. The man identified in court papers only as John was somebody whose face had shown up in some of that doorbell camera footage that was taken before the shooting. Police released his picture Wednesday evening, saying they were eager to talk with him, and he walked through the door an hour later, according to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
PETER NERONHA: His testimony, had we needed it, would not only have been credible, it would have been persuasive. He was as outstanding a witness as I've seen.
WRIGHT: Before this guy showed up, police had noticed a Reddit post covering some of the same ground that he did, and they were intrigued by it. It turns out the witness was the Reddit poster.
SUMMERS: Interesting. OK. What did they learn from that witness?
WRIGHT: Well, he described having seen a middle-aged man in a mask loitering in the bathroom of Barus & Holley, that's the Brown engineering building. This was hours before the shooting took place in that same building. And something didn't sit right with him. The man ran off, and John followed him. He told police that it was like cat-and-mouse as he stalked him through the streets near the engineering building. At one point, the suspect approached a gray Nissan, and a car of the same make and model had also been spotted in Brookline, Mass., where that MIT professor was murdered Tuesday.
SUMMERS: What happened next, David?
WRIGHT: Alamo Rent a Car came up with a name - Claudio Valente - and clean images of his face. And armed with that name, authorities were also able to track down a storage unit he had rented in Salem, New Hampshire. That's where police say they found him dead, apparently of a self-inflicted wound.
SUMMERS: What can you tell us about the suspect?
WRIGHT: Well, as we say, he was born in Portugal, and so was that MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro. The two of them were roughly the same age. In fact, they both studied in the same science program in Portugal from 1995 to 2000, according to Massachusetts US attorney Leah Foley.
LEAH FOLEY: My understanding is that they did know each other.
WRIGHT: Beyond that, though, she wouldn't speculate about motive. Now, Loureiro went on to an illustrious career at MIT. He specialized in research about fusion energy. Valente, meanwhile, went on to the Ph.D. program at Brown, only to drop out after less than a year.
SUMMERS: David, briefly, the FBI did offer a $50,000 reward. That key witness that you were talking about, John, will he get that money?
WRIGHT: It's likely he will, at least a chunk of it. That, according to Ted Docks. He is the FBI's special agent in charge in Boston.
SUMMERS: David Wright is senior reporter at Ocean State Media. Thanks so much.
WRIGHT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.