Police twice cleared a recycling centre near where the body of a man suspected of killing 18 people in a mass shooting in Maine was discovered.
Mike Sauschuck, Maine’s public safety commissioner, said the body of 40-year-old Robert Card was found in the back of a trailer in the car park of the facility, near Lisbon Falls, on Friday.
He said a paper note addressed to a loved one – which he said was “not explicitly a suicide note” but had the “tone of someone who was not going to be around for much longer” – was discovered following the fatal shooting.
Asked about a possible motive for the deadly attack, Mr Sauschuck said there was “clearly 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.
It comes after Card was found dead on Friday following Wednesday’s attack – the deadliest shooting in the US this year and in the history of the state of Maine.
Among those killed, 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.
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Police said Card’s body was found near the Androscoggin River in the Lisbon Falls area, at a recycling facility where he recently worked.
Officers believe he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Officials said his mobile phone and a gun were also found in a white Subaru that was identified as belonging to him.
The search for the former army reservist spread across multiple locations in the state and involved at least 80 FBI agents and Coast Guard personnel.
