Commissioner Michael Sauschuck at the Press Conference This Morning in Lewiston.  Behind the Commissioner is a Map of the Dock Area in Lisbon to be Searched Today.

A Map of the Area in Lisbon,  on the Androscoggin River to be Searched Today for the Body of Card Who May Have Comitted Suicide. It’s at the Paper Mills Trail and Miller Park boat Launch on Frost Hill.

Divers will search the Androscoggin River in Lisbon for the body of Robert Card today or evidence of him said Michael Sauschuck, Commissioner of Maine’s Department of Public Safety at a 35 minute press conference this morning at Lewiston City Hall.

This information came as part of a  briefing du jour that Commissioner Sauschuck announced will take place until further notice.  He will announce the investigation plan for the day at this event until the investigation is concluded..

Card, 40, of Bowdoin,  has been charged with 8 counts of murder because that number of deceased have been identified and their families notified.  There are ten others deceased yet to be identified.  When that is done, the number of counts of murder against Card will rise significantly.

At a press conference in Lewiston this morning, the Commissioner said that 531 tips from the public have been pursued.  However, he did not state that any sightings of Card have been reported since the mass shooting in Lewiston on Wednesday of this week.

Last night  a search of a Card property in Bowdoin was conducdted by law enforcement officials..  The searach was covered on local and national television.  A report followed that a note to his son and cell phone had been found during the search.  While carefully not divulging the content of the note, there is widespread speculation that it was a suicide note – perhaps explaining the search today in the Androcoggin River where Card’s abandoned car was located.  The search will focus on the Paper Mills Trail and Miller Park Boat Launch on Frost HIll.

The Commissioner said that the shelter-in-place orders for Lewiston, Auburn, Lisbon and Bowdoin “have not been changed.:  They remain in place.  He said he is aware that these restrictions can have negative impacts on schools and businesses.  “We are actively thinking about those factors,” he assured the press..

The search of the River is a big piece of the investigation.  But it is by no means the only focus of law enforcement’s investigation the Commissioner emphasized this morning.