The unrest was palpable in Maine. The lives of the citizens remained on hold due to the lack of results in the police hunt for the fugitive gunman.
Schools and businesses closed. Empty streets for the second day in cities like Lewiston, Auburn or Lisbon. “We work day and night. Nothing has changed and we ask for patience,” pleaded Lewiston Police Chief David St. Pierre.
The last time anyone saw Robert Card, a 40-year-old reservist, he was carrying an assault rifle, an AR-15. That happened Wednesday night precisely in Lewiston.
It left 18 dead, happy citizens who were enjoying a drink in a bar or a game of bowling with friends.
No one doubts that this man, with military training and a lover of outdoor activities, knows well the labyrinth of the forest in that area, which is also sparsely populated.
But it is shocking that it has evaporated. Does not eat? Don’t you sleep? From what it seems, no one has reported that he entered his farm or his house to take something or take shelter, or that his vehicle has been stolen.
He had not been seen nor is there any evidence of any trace that reveals his stay or his passage through any area.
Since that tragic day, and despite an unprecedented deployment of police (local, state and FBI), no one has heard from him again. I don’t know the first time that nature hides a fugitive, but at one time or another his shadow appears.
So it is understandable that many will wonder if the river has swallowed him after the press conference held on Friday morning by those responsible for the investigation.
Michael Sauschuck, Maine’s public safety commissioner, supported by photographs, announced that the investigation extended to the Androscoggin River. Specifically, to the area of ??the pier where they found the suspect’s Subaru. There was a firearm in that vehicle, although it has not yet been confirmed whether it is the rifle he used in the two scenes of his massacre, some media outlets pointed out that the model corresponded to the one used in the shooting.
“We are going to put divers in the water,” stressed the commissioner. The deployment also has aerial technology to detect if there is something at the bottom of the channel and personnel on foot to check the slopes.
Even the electric company that operates the two dams on that river is collaborating in this investigation. They have lowered the water that circulates through the cause to facilitate the work of divers.
The description of this operation raised a logical question. A reporter asked if investigators had any indication that Card may have taken his own life.
“It is more evident that we have not been able to locate him until now, we have not detained him,” Sauschuck responded.
“All options are on the table. We don’t want to wait because the river is there,” she insisted. “The car was at that point, which is a test located at Androscoggin, so we want to have guarantees that we check everything,” she said.
The commissioner also acknowledged that he had found a note from Card in one of the records in the properties linked to him. But he did not want to reveal the content.
As CNN reported after a while, it revealed that the fugitive indicated in that note that they did not expect to find him alive. Once this was known, the operation carried out on the river was better understood, an operation described by experts as complicated and tremendous.
The note, based on the aforementioned information, gave instructions to others about things they could find and dispose of, suggesting that, when they read it, Card would no longer be alive. It is also not ruled out that it is a trap to buy time for him to escape.
Investigators are trying to process all the leads, more than 500 received. This caused them to shout through a megaphone on Thursday “Robert, come out with your hands up” in front of his house or that this Friday he will enter a haystack.
