A message which police have suggested had the “tone” of a suicide note was discovered in the search for the suspect in the Maine mass shooting, officials have said.
Mike Sauschuck, Maine’s public safety commissioner, said the body of suspect Robert Card was found in the back of a trailer near a recycling center in Lisbon Falls on Friday.
He said a paper-style note containing a phone password and banking details was also discovered following the fatal shooting – in which 18 people were killed.
Mr Sauschuck described the message, which was addressed to a loved one, as “not explicitly a suicide note” but one which had the “tone of an individual who was not going to be around”.
Asked about a possible motive for the deadly attack, Mr Sauschuck said there was “a mental health component”.
However, he said Card had never been forcibly committed for treatment for mental health – and therefore would not have shown up during background checks when buying a gun.
Card was found dead on Friday following Wednesday’s attack – the deadliest mass shooting in the US this year and in the history of the state of Maine.
Among those killed in the shooting, at the Just-In-Time bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston, were a father-of-four, described by his wife as the “world’s best father”, and a father and his 14-year-old son.
A further 13 people were injured, with three still in “critical care”, according to Mr Sauschuck.
