Alert – Maine mass shooter Robert Card is FOUND DEAD in the woods with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head

Maine mass shooter Robert Card has been found dead in the woods with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head – ending a 48-hour manhunt involving over 300 members of law enforcement.

Androscoggin sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook: ‘The suspect in Wednesday nights shootings has been located and is deceased.’

Card, 40, was found at 7:45pm near Lisbon Falls, where his car was abandoned shortly after Wednesday’s massacre. His body was reportedly located near a recycling plant from where he was recently fired.

It was unclear how long he had been dead, and Mike Sauschuck, the commander of Maine’s department of public safety, would not say whether he had died as police closed in or been dead for days. 

‘There continues to be a lot of work that needs to be done here at the scene, and a lot to follow up on,’ said Sauschuck.  

Sauschuck confirmed that he is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

He added that a hunting ban in the area has now been lifted. Saturday marks the start of the deer hunting season, and is a key date in Maine’s calendar.

The shelter-in-place order was lifted on Friday, before the discovery of Card’s body was announced. 

Janet Mills, governor of Maine, said on Friday night she was ‘breathing a sigh of relief knowing Card is no longer a threat to anyone.’

She added: ‘Tonight the city of Lewiston and the people of Maine begin to move forward on a long process of healing – but we will heal, together.’ 

Eighteen people died when Card, an army reservist who had suffered a recent mental breakdown, opened fire at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston.

Card went on the run, leaving his car and cell phone behind and sparking a 48-hour manhunt. 

‘So happy this nightmare is over,’ said John Riordan, who lives near the scene.

He told the Sun Journal: ‘Hopefully the families can get some closure. It will be nice to get back to some state of normalcy.’ 

Last year there were 29 murders in the entire state, and the shooting shocked the rural community. 

Susan Collins, a senator for Maine, said she was informed by Joe Biden that Card was dead.

‘When President Biden called me this evening to tell me the perpetrator of the heinous attacks in Lewiston had been found, we both expressed our profound appreciation for the courage and determination of these brave men and women.’ 

Sauschuck said that he called the Card family first, thanking them for their cooperation.

Search teams on Friday had been focusing their efforts on a river near Lisbon, where Card was known to moor his boat and jet ski.

On Thursday, there were multiple raids at homes in the town of Bowdoin belonging to Card’s parents, and his brother.

Police on Thursday confirmed that a suicide note, addressed to his son, had been found at his home. 

Card spent 20 years in the Army reserves, and was a keen hunter and fisherman.

His marksmanship and survival skills made him a formidable foe for those trying to track him down, and local residents were ordered to stay indoors from Wednesday night until Friday evening.

A picture of Card’s disturbed mental state quickly emerged.

He had been fired from his job at a recycling plant, Maine Recycling, and had split from a recent partner.

A colleague at a recycling plant told The Daily Beast he had behaved ‘violently and oddly’ towards co-workers in the last year.

‘When I saw it was him, I was not surprised,’ Jeremy Bowen, who was Card’s driver-helper at Maine Recycling, told The Daily Beast on Thursday. 

‘A lot of the other helpers he was working with were starting to say he was acting violently and oddly. 

‘I heard about [the shootings] on the news, and like I said, I really wasn’t surprised.’ 

In July he was sectioned for two weeks after he said he was hearing voices, and threatened to open fire at his Army base. 

His sister-in-law, Katie Card, said he had been fitted with hearing aids and became convinced that he could hear people talking about him at the bowling alley and bar he would later attack. 

‘He truly believed he was hearing people say things,’ she told The Daily Beast. 

‘This all just happened within the last few months.’ 

She said he would ‘get mad’ when they told him the voices he ‘overheard’ at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grill were only in his head. 

‘Things have kind of gone downhill recently,’ Card told the Beast.

‘We tried to listen to him and tell him that nobody was talking about him. 

‘Yesterday, as the story was unfolding, we prayed that Rob had nothing to do with this. But when we heard the two places where the shooting happened, my husband rushed home.’

All 18 Maine mass shooting victims are identified – including bowling-obsessed grandparents who died protecting kids from gunman

All 18 victims of the Maine mass shooting have been identified – and they include a couple of beloved grandparents who shared a love for bowling and died while protecting children at the Lewiston bowling alley.

Bob, 76, and Lucy Violette were gunned down at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, where he taught a youth league and they played in a couple’s league every Wednesday night.

The grandfather’s death was one of the first reported on Thursday, and Lucy’s identity was confirmed on Friday. It’s unclear if she was one of victims in critical condition or died at the scene.  

The couple married nearly 50 years ago after meeting at work; during their first date, Lucy made Bob spaghetti, which he would later describe as the ‘worst he’d ever had.’

Still, Lucy proposed to Bob shortly after their first date, and re remained a devoted husband, by all accounts, until their final moments.

Bob was a retired Sears mechanic born and raised in Lewiston and spent his time running a a youth bowling league at the venue. He was recently inducted into the Maine Bowling Hall of Fame.

He and Lucy leave behind their three sons, Andrew, Tom and John, as well as their beloved six grandchildren, who were often pictured on their social media.

‘He wouldn’t let you walk out the door without giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He was just there for everything,’ his daughter-in-law Cassandra Violette told the Portland Press Herald. 

Cassandra added that Bob was so smitten with his wife that he would set timers on his phone so she would not miss her medication. 

Bob and Lucy were seen as mentors in the community, and their loved ones have been posting tributes for them online.

Friend Keisha Pearl wrote: RIP Lucy Violette. This just breaks my heart. The only comfort we can find in this awful situation is knowing that you and Bob are together again. Lucy would always ask how our kids were and if we have kept in contact with the family in Oklahoma. She was a very kind soul and their presence around the alley will forever be missed.’

Bob’s cousin Lou Ann Levesque said: ‘Bob was known as a mentor to the many children he coached. He was a beloved husband, father and grandfather. Bob and Lucy leave behind three sons and their families. Also surviving Bob’s death are his two brothers, John and Ron. Preceding Bob’s death a year-and-a-half ago was their sister, Jane Violette Minor. Truly a sad day.’

Shooting suspect Robert Card, 40, was on the run for days after the rampage on Wednesday.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers searched for Card- a petroleum supply specialist who received psychiatric treatment this summer after he reported hearing voices and having thoughts about hurting other soldiers. 

According to Maine State Police, seven people died Wednesday night at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley. Six were male and one was female. Eight more people, all male, died at Schemengees Bar and Grille. Three others died after being taken to hospitals.

Auburn City Councilor Leroy Walker told news outlets that his son, Joe, a manager at the bar and grill, died going after the shooter with a butcher knife. 

Bill Young and his 14-year-old son Aaron were shot and killed at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, Bill’s brother Rob Young said. Before learning of their deaths, Rob had flown from Baltimore to Lewiston on Thursday to help his sister-in-law in her frantic search for information after the pair had not been heard from since Wednesday when they went bowling.

Tricia Asselin, 53, who worked at the bowling alley but was there on Wednesday just having fun, was also confirmed in the harrowing hours after the senseless massacre. The manager of the bowling alley, 34-year-old Tommy Conrad, was also confirmed dead. He leaves a nine-year-old daughter behind.

Michael Deslauriers II was killed trying to charge at the shooter at the bowling venue, according to his father. His father, who shares the same name, said his son and a friend both were killed as they charged at the shooter after making sure their wives and several children were safe.

Bryan MacFarlane, 40, Arthur Strout, 41, and Bill Bracket were also confirmed dead by family and friends. They were at the bar participating in a cornhole tournament for deaf adults. 

American Sign Language interpreter Joshua Seal was also gunned down.

His wife, Elizabeth Seal, said in a Facebook post that he was ‘a wonderful husband, my best friend, and my soulmate. He was also a wonderful boss, an incredible interpreter, a great friend, a loving son, brother, uncle, and grandson.’

Peyton Brewer-Ross, 39, Maxx Hathaway, and Ron Morin and Steve Vozzella, 45, were also identified as victims from Schemengees Bar and Grille by their family, friends, and colleagues. Vozella had recently gotten married. He was a postal worker and member of the New England Deaf Cornhole community.

Police asked residents to continue to stay home in Lewiston and surrounding communities Friday. Schools, public buildings and many businesses remained closed. Bates College in Lewiston canceled classes Friday and postponed the inauguration of the school’s first Black president. 

The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the country’s lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022. 

Police sorted through at least 530 tips since the shootings. Crime scene technicians were still gathering evidence at the bar and bowling alley. Dozens of officers spent Thursday at Card family land. After several hours they left with state police saying it was unclear whether the suspect had ever been at the location. 

The shootings mark the 36th mass killing in the United States this year.