Lewiston shootings: Autopsy suggests alleged gunman was alive for most of 2-day manhunt

LEWISTON, Maine — The gunman who shot and killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, last week likely died the same day his body was found, according to officials.

>> Read more trending news

The Maine Chief Medical Examiner determined that Robert Card, 40, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to WFXT. His death was ruled a suicide.

“The postmortem interval based on rigor mortis and other physical signs indicate Mr. Card was deceased likely 8-12 hours before being located,” a spokesperson with the Medical Examiner’s Office told the news station.

The medical examiner’s conclusion came a week after Card’s body was found, The Associated Press reported. Maine’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark Flomenbaum suggested that Card was alive and possibly on the move for over 24 hours after the shootings.

The medical examiner’s office also noted that Card had a condition where the heart emptied of blood after the gunshot wound. The way the blood settled in his body was affected by the condition and possibly made the time of death even less certain, Lindsey Chasteen, office administrator of the medical examiner’s office in Augusta said, according to the AP.

Card allegedly opened fire in a bowling alley and bar on Oct. 25. 18 people were killed and over a dozen were injured. According to the AP, thousands of residents in the area were ordered to shelter in place and schools were closed as law enforcement searched for Card. He fled the area in a car that was later found abandoned in a town nearby.

His body was eventually located on Oct. 27 inside a trailer at the Maine Recycling Corporation where he worked previously at. WFXT reported that authorities had searched the search twice before they found the body because they did not search the trailers located in the overflow parking lot.