The suspect in the shooting at Brown University and the murder of an MIT professor was a one-time physics student

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Thirty years ago, Claudio Neves Valente and Nuno FG Lorrero were classmates with bright futures. Both excelled in physics and moved to America from their home country of Portugal, settling on the campuses of prestigious East Coast universities.

But Neves Valente’s path took a darker turn than his old friend. Investigators say the 48-year-old shot two students last week at Brown University in Providence, where he was a graduate student in the early 2000s, and later killed Loureiro, who headed the largest laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Authorities have not offered a motive for the shooting or detailed what, if any, history there was between the two men.

Neves Valente was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday at a New Hampshire storage facility, ending a manhunt that began last Saturday in a shooting at Brown Lecture Hall, where nine others were wounded. Authorities believe that on Monday, two days after the Brown shooting, Neves Valente shot Lorrero at the professor’s home in a Boston suburb about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Providence. An autopsy found Neves Valente dead Tuesday.

In high school, Neves Valente was a promising physics student, but he dropped out of Portugal’s premier engineering school, Instituto Superior Técnico, in 2000 and withdrew from Brown University’s graduate program three years later without a degree.

Before his death, he was renting a room in a house in a working-class Miami neighborhood, the last two decades of his life a mystery. It was not clear what she was doing for the job. A witness to the Brown shooting noted that he was wearing the type of pants and shoes typical of restaurant workers.

Neves Valente and Loureiro were in the same academic program in Portugal

Neves Valente was born in Torres Novas, Portugal, about 75 miles (121 km) north of Lisbon. As a high school student, he competed in the National Physics Competition in 1994, coming in third place according to the Portuguese Physics Magazine. The best five players get a chance to participate in the international tournament in Australia next year.

From 1995 to 2000, he was in the same physics program with Loureiro in Lisbon, said federal prosecutor Leigh B. Foley. Loureiro graduated from the Instituto Superior Técnico in 2000, according to his MIT faculty page. A closing notice from the then president of the University of Lisbon shows that Neves Valente was removed from his position at the Instituto Superiore Technico that same year.

Neves Valente was a graduate student at Brown

Neves Valente came to Brown that fall as a graduate student on a student visa. Brown University President Christina Paxson said she took a leave of absence in 2001 and formally retired effective July 31, 2003.

At the time, he posted on the Brown Physics website that he had returned home to Portugal and had permanently withdrawn from the program, according to a webpage preserved by the Internet Archive. Then in Portuguese, he added: “And the moral of the story is this: the best liar is the one who deceives himself. These exist everywhere, but sometimes they spread to the most unexpected places.”

During his time at Brown, he enrolled only in physics classes. Paxson said it’s possible he took courses and spent time in the building where the shooting happened because that’s where most of the physics courses are held.

Paxson said Brown found no signs of public safety interactions or other concerns while Neves Valente was a student.

“At this time, we have not identified any employees who resemble Neves Valente, nor do we have any Brown records of recent contact between this individual and Brown,” Paxson said.

Brown classmate says Neves Valente was ‘really impressive’

Neves Valeant’s former classmate at Brown, Syracuse University professor Scott Watson, recalled being “essentially his only friend” in the graduate program in physics. Over dinner at a Portuguese restaurant near campus, Neves Valente shared his frustration.

“The classes he used to say were so easy—honestly, for him they were. He already knew a lot of the material and was really impressive,” Watson said.

When Neves Valente decided to leave, Watson encouraged him to stay but to no avail. He said he never saw or heard from Neves Valente.

Rent a room outside of Miami

In September 2017, Neves Valente obtained legal permanent residency status in the United States, Foley said. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking leave from school in 2001 and receiving his visa in 2017.

His last known address was about 10 miles (16 km) north of Miami. The yellow house with the red roof is in a working-class neighborhood with large houses.

Some neighbors who spoke to The Associated Press on Friday said they had never seen Neves Valente. The police were not even seen.

Edward Pole, a race car mechanic who lives across the street from the house, said the owner rents out some rooms to people. He said he had never spoken to Neves Valente but had seen him several times, most recently two or three months ago. He found out the man was suspicious when he saw his pictures on the news Friday morning.

A man who answered the door through an intercom at the home said he was the homeowner but declined to identify himself or comment.

Loureiro was excellent

While Neves Valente’s life remained a mystery, his former classmate Loureiro was outstanding. Loureiro joined MIT in 2016 and last year was named to lead the school’s Center for Plasma Science and Fusion, one of its largest laboratories. The 47-year-old scientist from Viseu, Portugal, was working to explain the physics behind astronomical events such as solar flares.

Portugal’s top diplomat said on Friday that the government was surprised by revelations that a Portuguese man was the prime suspect.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said there is still “a lot of unknowns” regarding the motive. “We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students and why this classroom.”

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Reported from Hollingsworth Mission, Kansas and Dale from Philadelphia. Associated Press reporters Gisela Salomon in Miami, Barry Hatton and Helena Alves in Portugal, Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Matt O’Brien in Providence contributed.