The individual suspected of the tragic shooting at Brown University and the murder of an MIT professor took his own life, authorities announced on Friday. The suspect was discovered deceased in a New Hampshire storage unit, and investigators are diligently working to uncover the motive behind these violent acts.
On Friday, New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella revealed that the state’s Department of Justice Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had conducted an autopsy on Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48. Neves Valente had been identified as the suspect in both the Brown University shooting and the subsequent killing of an MIT professor.
According to the autopsy, Neves Valente succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, with the death officially classified as a suicide.
Investigators, using forensic evidence and other information gathered so far, believe that Neves Valente died on Tuesday, December 16. His body was discovered two days later, on Thursday evening, within a storage facility in New Hampshire.
Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have released an image of the man linked to the fatal incidents at Brown University in Rhode Island and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Providence police had identified Neves Valente as the suspect in the December 13 shooting at Brown University. This horrific event, which occurred during a study session for finals week, resulted in the deaths of two students and left nine others injured at the Barus & Holley Engineering Building.
Authorities later confirmed he was also the suspect in the Dec. 15 fatal shooting of MIT nuclear science professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, who was found shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Federal investigators also recovered two 9 mm pistols in New Hampshire near Neves Valente’s body, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’s Boston office.
The ATF and FBI, working through the Connecticut State Police forensic laboratory, positively matched one of the guns to the weapon used in the Brown shooting. The second gun was matched to Loureiro’s killing, authorities said.
According to Brown University President Christina Paxson, Neves Valente was a Portuguese national and former Brown student who studied physics from the fall of 2000 through the spring of 2001 before withdrawing from the program in 2003. He had no recent affiliation with the university at the time of the shooting on campus.
“I think it’s safe to assume that this man, when he was a student, spent a great deal of time in that building for classes and other activities as a Ph.D. student in physics,” Paxson said. “He has no current active affiliation with the university or campus presence.”
A police vehicle at an intersection near crime scene tape at Brown University, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, Rhode Island, following a Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, shooting at the university. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Neves Valente was found dead Thursday evening after law enforcement officers breached a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, where he was believed to be hiding. Authorities said he acted alone in both attacks.
During the investigation, law enforcement canvassed neighborhood surveillance video, released images of a person of interest and initially questioned, but later ruled out, another individual before identifying Neves Valente as the suspect.
The two Brown students killed were Ella Cook of Alabama and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov of Virginia. Several surviving victims remained hospitalized in stable condition.
Split image showing Brown University victims Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, alongside MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was killed. (Instagram/elinacoutlakis/GoFundMe/Jake Belcher for MIT)
Sources tell Fox News that investigators are continuing to examine Neves Valente’s recent movements, including tracing credit card transactions in the days leading up to the attacks. FBI agents are also in Florida, where he reportedly last lived, according to sources.
Authorities have not found any writings or documents indicating a clear motive for the shootings.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
