Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the man suspected in a pair of killings spanning from Brown University to MIT, fatally shot himself before authorities even found him.

According to law enforcement officials, Valente ended his life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, just two days after two Brown University students were murdered and one day after MIT Professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro was found dead, as the Washington Examiner reports.

The timeline raises disturbing questions about missed opportunities, lapses in investigative speed, and a puzzling motive that still hasn’t been brought into focus.

Investigation Faces Early Missteps

Authorities first dealt with backlash after they wrongly announced a suspect was in custody the day of the first killings. By the time they realized they had apprehended the wrong man, critical time had already slipped away.

“There was a lot of criticism, too, as far as, like, how long has the investigation taken,” said Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar L. Perez Jr., in what may be the understatement of the year.

He added that investigations “take work” and “sometimes it takes days” -- an explanation unlikely to satisfy the public when lives are on the line, and false arrests are being made.

Timeline of the Murders Builds Mystery

On the first day, two students at Brown University were shot and killed, launching what would become an alarming multi-state manhunt. A day later, police discovered the body of Professor Loureiro at his home in Massachusetts.

While authorities initially denied any connection between the crimes, the pieces began to fall into place when it was revealed that Valente and Loureiro both studied physics at a Portuguese university back in the 1990s.

That shared academic background now stands as one of the few known links in a case otherwise still clouded in mystery, particularly surrounding motive.

Authorities Confirm Death Was Suicide

Valente’s body was discovered in a rented storage unit in Salem. An autopsy confirmed he had died by suicide with a gunshot wound on Tuesday, the day after the professor’s body was found.

That places Valente’s death two days after the initial shooting at Brown, suggesting he was on the run and possibly aware of the manhunt closing in.

Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, confirmed the connection between Valente and Loureiro, stating plainly, “My understanding is that they did know each other.”

Case Left with Unanswered Motive

While investigators have identified the killer, most of their questions remain unanswered. The motive for the killings has not been established, leaving families and communities in grief without a clear understanding of why these crimes occurred.

Law enforcement continues to examine physical evidence and communication records in hopes of finding answers, but the chance to hear directly from the suspect has vanished alongside him.

Perez defended the pace and direction of the investigation, claiming that “when you’re not a police officer, you don’t understand how this works.” That's not the most comforting message to a public that was misled early and left in limbo.

Public Confidence Sways After Errors

The botched early arrest did little to help confidence in the system. In high-stakes cases like this, clarity and accountability are not optional -- they’re the bare minimum.

While no one expects perfection from law enforcement, the expectation for decisive, accurate communication was badly missed in this case. Communities deserve better than apologies dressed as explanations.

Now, as authorities comb through what’s left of Valente’s personal and academic history, the public waits -- again -- for answers they were told would come, but haven’t yet arrived.