Maine mass murderer Robert Card’s body has been discovered in an industrial park just minutes away from the site of his crimes, with new drone footage revealing the site where he took his last breath.
As disturbing new details emerge in the Wednesday shooting that claimed 18 innocent souls, .com has retraced the killer’s final moments, giving an eerie picture into the bloody end of the man responsible for America’s deadliest gun massacre of the year.
Fired from his job, rejected by his lover, and plagued with mental health issues that caused him to seek help but failed to prevent him from owning guns, Card laid siege on sleepy Lewiston, Maine before taking his own life.
His final movements may have taken him along a secluded, disused railroad track which leads directly from his abandoned vehicle to the recycling plant where his body was found in a trailer on Friday night.
The scenic trail alongside the railroad track in Lisbon, Maine leads to the industrial site where cops Card, 40, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound about a mile away.
Police confirmed on Saturday morning that Card was found in a trailer which was parked in an overflow lot close to Maine Recycling Corporation, the killer’s former employer before he was reportedly fired recently.
Exclusive drone footage shows police officers stood guard around the overflow parking lot where Card’s body was found in a trailer.
News of the gunman’s death was met with widespread relief, bringing a days-long manhunt to a close after Card killed 18 people and injured 13 more after opening fire in a bowling alley and bar on Wednesday evening.
Card’s body was discovered in the back of an industrial tractor trailer near a recycling plant that he was recently fired from
The possible path that Robert Card took to the tractor trailers where he shot himself
Officials admitted they ‘cleared’ the area that the body was found twice before eventually finding him
The trail, which runs southeast along the bank of the Androscoggin River, is a direct path from where his vehicle was found to the large industrial complex where the recycling plant is located
Card was found in the back of an industrial tractor trailer after shooting himself
The area’s proximity to a river sparked fears that Card may have escaped by water after the shooting
Army reservist Robert card, 40, killed 18 people and injured 13 others in a horrific mass shooting on Wednesday evening
The area where Card’s body was discovered had been at the epicenter of the manhunt days before, when the gunman’s white Subaru Outback was discovered on Wednesday night, several hours after the shootings, near a boat launch nearby.
The walking trail, which runs southeast along the bank of the Androscoggin River, is a direct path from where his vehicle was found to the large industrial complex where the recycling plant is located.
The path runs adjacent to the disused railroad.
Police had closely guard the entrance to the trail on Friday night after Card’s body was found but .com was able to walk the route on Saturday morning.
One officer who was stationed inside the perimeter of the recycling complex said on Saturday that the path may have been Card’s ‘final footsteps’.
The officer pointed out the parking lot area where Card’s body was found.
The secluded trail is well-hidden from the nearby main road, Lisbon Street. There are several points which lead directly into the site where the recycling plant is located.
At one point, the path leads into a parking lot where a torn section of police tape was still in place on Saturday morning.
Card’s vehicle was discovered hours after the shooting, only a short walk from where his body was eventually found days later
Officials stand guard near the Maine Recycling Corporation plant, which Card was recently fired from
Police stationed on the possible path that Card took after the massacre
Law enforcement officers seen temporarily detaining people during the manhunt, which stretched on for over 48 hours until it came to a close Friday evening
Mike Sauschuck, Maine’s public safety commissioner, revealed in a Saturday morning press conference that Card’s body was found in an industrial tractor trailer inside an overflow parking lot
The gunman’s final moments were revealed in a press conference on Saturday morning, as Maine’s public safety commissioner Mike Sauschuck admitted the area Card was found in had already been ‘cleared’ twice beforehand.
The body was discovered by a Maine Recycling Corporation plant he was recently fired from, just a short walk from where the killer’s vehicle was first found roughly four hours after the shooting erupted.
Sauschuck said the plant had already been searched on two occasions by law enforcement, and only returned at the direction of the factory’s manager.
He said the location where the body was found was in an overflow parking lot containing roughly 60 trailers, which officials did not realize existed.
‘Nobody had any idea that across the street there was an overflow parking lot,’ he confessed to reporters.
The official said Card’s body was found alongside two firearms, and appeared to be wearing the ‘same sweatshirt’ he was seen wearing in surveillance images when the shooting took place.
Police have been criticized by some in the aftermath of Card’s body being found, which Sauschuick appeared to acknowledge as he said he will be questioning how the manhunt unfolded ‘for the rest of my life.’
Maine’s loose gun control laws have also come under scrutiny in recent days, with Sauschuck noting that Card had previously passed background checks.
He remarked that a suicide note had been found inside the gunman’s home during the search, which was not ‘explicitly’ about taking his own life but had the ‘tone’ of being read after Card was dead.
Maine Commissioner of Public Safety Michael Sauschuck, pictured alongside Maine Governor Janet Mills on Friday, said he will be questioning how the manhunt unfolded ‘for the rest of my life’
A law enforcement official mans a checkpoint next to the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley, one of two locations targeted by the gunman on Wednesday night
Addressed to his son, details of the note are yet to be released, however Sauschuck said it contained information often found in suicide notes such as bank account details and instructions for accessing his phone.
It is unclear if the note included a motive for the shooting, with much of the investigation centering around what triggered Card to carry out the mass shooting.
Card’s history of mental illness, which included him reporting hearing voices, has been cited by some as a potential cause.
But Sauschuck appeared to dismiss this as the prime reason, and argued that he knows many local police officers with mental health diagnoses that are not a danger to their community.
‘That’s something that is incredibly important to say and for me to say, and I find myself saying it on a regular basis, just because there appears to be a health nexus to this scenario,’ he continued.
‘The vast, vast, vast majority of people with a health diagnosis will never hurt anybody. They won’t hurt themselves. They are not a danger to the community.
‘Based on percentages alone, there’s a bunch of folks in here that have a health diagnosis, I know law enforcement officers that have a health diagnosis, that doesn’t mean they’re a danger to the community.’
Sauschuck confirmed that cops found a firearm in Card’s vehicle when it was discovered hours after the mass shooting, but declined to elaborate on the make of gun other than describing it as a ‘long gun.’
He added that the manhunt, which lasted for over 48 hours, received 821 tips from the public as residents were left terrified when he was at large.