The search ended Thursday evening with a grim discovery: Claudio Neves-Valente, the suspect in the Brown University shooting, was found dead inside a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
But the tragedy didn’t end there. Authorities swiftly confirmed a chilling connection to another recent death – the murder of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro.
Nuno Loureiro, 47, a renowned nuclear science and engineering professor, was shot multiple times at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, earlier this week. He succumbed to his injuries Tuesday morning at a Boston hospital.
Loureiro was a rising star in the scientific community, recently appointed director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, a massive research hub boasting over 250 researchers and sprawling facilities. His work promised breakthroughs in fusion energy.
The investigation revealed a startling link between the two men. Both Neves-Valente and Loureiro shared a past, having attended the same university in Lisbon, Portugal, years prior.
Neves-Valente, a Portuguese national and a student at Brown University, now stands as the confirmed perpetrator of both the Brown University attack and Loureiro’s murder. The motive behind these acts remains shrouded in mystery.
Loureiro’s colleagues remember him as a brilliant theoretical physicist and dedicated fusion scientist who joined MIT in 2016. He had quickly ascended to a leadership role, becoming deputy director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2022.
The connection to their shared academic history in Lisbon is now a central focus of the investigation, as authorities attempt to unravel the events that led to this devastating sequence of violence.
