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Brown University Shooting Suspect Found Dead After Six-Day Manhunt; Today, DOJ Faces Deadline for Releasing Epstein Documents; Sources Says, HHS Planning Fewer Shots in Childhood Vaccine Schedule. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 19, 2025 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A stunning series of developments overnight. The suspect in the Brown University shooting is dead, now linked to the killing of an MIT professor. All the new information just coming in about how he tried to evade capture and the key break in the case

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And it's deadline day. DOJ must release the Epstein files today by law. What's going on behind the scenes and the scramble at Justice to figure out what's going to release, what's going to be redacted, and what happens next?

And a reunion more than 40 years in the making. Florida police cracked the cold case of a little girl missing since 1983. She's alive and well. Her mother is now behind bars.

Sara Sidner working the night shift, I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, a stunning end to the manhunt in not one but two deadly university-linked shootings. The six-day manhunt is over. Officials say the suspect in the deadly shooting at Brown University was found dead in New Hampshire. And while he was on the run, police now say he also fatally shot an MIT professor outside Boston.

The suspect has been identified as 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente, a Portuguese National, who was a Brown University grad student for a very short time, more than 20 years ago. Police say he was found dead at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire. That's about a 35 or 40-minute drive from Boston. They found him after they say he took his own life. According to authorities, he was sophisticated in hiding his track, swapping his license plate, using an untraceable phone and credit cards that were not in his name.

Now, the break in the case came from a man, police, say, encountered the shooter multiple times on the day of the attack at Brown, even confronting him once.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NERONHA, RHODE ISLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL: He blew this case right open.

And that person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence that matched the satchel that we see here in Providence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Investigators say two days after the attack at Brown, Neves Valente also shot and killed an MIT professor at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, adding that the two men once attended the same university in Portugal during a stretch between '95 and 2000, not exactly clear how much they crossed paths there.

CNN's Michael Yoshida is live in Salem, New Hampshire, this morning. That is where the suspect's body was found. And, Michael, you made the drive about an hour-and-a-half, I imagine, from Providence up to Salem. That's almost the entire stretch of where this man was believed to have been all this time.

MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John. You're right, about an hour and a half's drive as this manhunt has finally ended this investigation spanning from Rhode Island through Massachusetts, and finally ending here in Salem, New Hampshire. You can see the police tape still up surrounding this storage facility where that suspect was found deceased.

Now, you talked about the investigation, that tip that came in. We heard from the attorney general talking about how that really blew this case open. So, let's dive into that a little bit more. Investigators saying that tip allowed them to identify a vehicle and a license plate in the Providence and Brown University area linked to that person of interest.

We're told that then led them across state lines into Boston, Massachusetts, to a rental car company. There, they were able to identify that suspect as the person who had rented that car. And once they started diving into that person's history, financial records, that led them here to a storage unit connected to that individual.

It was late last night when we found out that individual 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente was found deceased inside. And also investigators pointing out that you mentioned that MIT connection, this individual also seen on surveillance video within a half mile of that MIT professor's residence, then also on video in the hours after that murder at that MIT professor's home.

[07:05:03]

Investigators saying they believe pretty much with 100 percent certainty, they found the person responsible and are crediting the information from the Brown University community, the Providence community. Here's what the police chief had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHIEF OSCAR PEREZ, PROVIDENCE POLICE DEPARTMENT: We observing two individuals interacting with each other. We didn't know if they knew each other. We knew we had a person of interest. And then we have this second individual that's sort of like having an interaction, at one point even chasing that person. When he came forward and actually verifying, corroborating, what we were thinking that he didn't know the person, that the only reason he chased after him was we. He was trying to learn more about him because he had seen him inside Brown, that they had a disagreement inside Brown. And then he provided us with a description of a vehicle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOSHIDA: And investigators say Claudio Neves Valente had been in the Massachusetts, this area for at least in November and December. And as you laid out as well, investigators say he was very sophisticated in trying to avoid detection using untraceable phones, credit cards, not linked to his name, also having several license plates. We're told there was a Florida plate on that vehicle. When they found the car here, there was a Maine plate on top of that. The investigation into the motive of these two killings, these two shootings, that remains ongoing as investigators continue to call this a very active investigation. John?

BERMAN: Yes, still so much to learn here, but a huge sigh of relief from Providence to Boston all the way up to Salem, New Hampshire.

Michael Yoshida, you've been traveling around New England, great work on this. Thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. Joining us right now is CNN's Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.

So, Juliette, after all of the big twists and alternative events and all the information that's come out since late last night, what stands out to you in what we've now learned in how this case was cracked, what all has been uncovered?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. There are so many pieces, as you said. I mean, of course we're all looking at the sort of disparate pieces of this. We tend not to get cases like this where you have one kind of action, a school shooting, and then essentially an assassination. I was skeptical that these two things were related at the beginning because killers tend to have the same method of how they kill.

The second is, of course, then what motivated him. These are such lagging, you know, sort of annoyances or hatred that he has, decades- long. He had left Brown a couple of decades ago, didn't succeed there. He overlaps with the MIT professor in ways that aren't even clear how much they overlapped over a five-year period. The joining factor right now seems to be, honestly, physics. It seems to be some idea he has about what he lost at Brown, what this colleague that he knew 20 years ago was able to achieve, and they're going to look at that simply to understand the motive. The second is the sophistication is probably not the best word, but this was clearly planned in a way in which he had a motive that kept him going. He rents the main storage container in November. He's staking out various places. He has a change of licenses. He has a phone that that can't be traced. He was sort of hell bent, I would say, on doing this. We don't know what more he had planned. Those are my questions.

I guess I want to add a third, which is, of course, the role of social media in this. I was describing to someone this is the best and worst of social media, both the Reddit post, which basically unleashes this investigation by this guy, John, who gives them all the information, but also the essentially doxxing and trolling of people who had nothing to do with this but fit a political narrative that people wanted this to be about. And how -- you know, I was very glad that law enforcement went after those people and said, you know, that kind of doxxing is not helpful.

BERMAN: You're always big in the aftermath of a big event and a tragedy like something like this on lessons learned. Do you see lessons that should be learned so far?

KAYYEM: Yes. I mean, and I want to be clear here, sometimes really horrible things happen and we cannot find sort of that connective explanation. If only we had done, this wouldn't have happened. It reminds me of the Las Vegas terror attack where a couple dozen people were killed. We still don't know the motive there.

But I have three areas I would focus on. One, of course, is defense. The Brown -- Brown has to figure out its vulnerabilities, close them up, get the university back open again in a way that is both welcoming. because universities have to be welcoming but secure.

[07:10:00]

The second is the lesson learned about the sort of breakdown in local, state, and federal unity of effort. We can't deny it happened. Why did it happen? And what can we essentially learn from that?

The third is let's not learn the wrong lessons. I was -- you know, already the White House is out on the immigration issue. You know, it can be a lesson that you want to learn from this. It's not the right lesson. 25 years ago, he comes in on a student visa. It's hard to say -- with no criminal record since then. Sometimes these things are just inexplicable, but we can still learn lessons.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Juliette, thank you so much for getting up early. I mean, you've been kind of living through this as well as. You were down there with John on the ground there in Providence. It's good to see you. Thank you so much.

Coming up still for us, it is deadline day for the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. When could we see them? How much will be redacted is a big question. And there's now new reporting exclusive to CNN about frustrations coming from inside the Justice Department as it is racing to redact and prepare these files ahead of what is now a law required release deadline.

And a CNN exclusive, the Department of Health and Human Services is planning a major overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule. What is recommended for your children? Why they now plan to recommend fewer shots for kids in the United States?

And caught on camera, a hero police officer stepping in to save a one- year-old boy who was choking and had stopped breathing.

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BERMAN: We are standing by for what could be a huge day in the Jeffrey Epstein case or not. Today is the deadline for the Justice Department by law to release its trove of documents and files, but there are significant exceptions and lawyers have been racing to redact thousands of pages. A source tells CNN each attorney evolved was tasked with making redactions to more than 1,000 documents since Thanksgiving week with not a lot of guidance.

Separately, yesterday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released more than 60 images from Epstein's estate.

With us now, former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and a very influential man, Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. Good to see you this morning.

Let's just be clear on what this law that was passed by both Houses of Congress last month and signed into, you know, law by President Trump, what it says needs to be done by midnight.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. So, the law is actually quite clear, that by 11:59 P.M. tonight, DOJ must release and make public in a searchable, downloadable format, all of the Epstein files, with some exceptions, which we'll talk about in a minute. But this is not the beginning of a rolling production. This is not some. This is by law supposed to be all of those documents in a way where you or I or anybody at home can go on the internet, look at it, enter any word they want searched and get results like that. That's what the law commands.

BERMAN: But?

HONIG: But, yes, there are three big exceptions. One, which is fairly uncontroversial, DOJ must redact out victim identifying information. Two, DOJ can withhold information relating to ongoing criminal investigations. Now, what criminal investigations are out there? We don't know. DOJ knows they're going to be able to redact out information relating to that. And, third, any information that might undermine or impact national security or foreign policy. A lot of play there, a lot of wiggle room, a lot of discretion in Pam Bondi's hands.

BERMAN: So, how will we know if we're getting everything? How will we know if anything's being withheld? HONIG: We won't know, nor will Congress. The law does require the A.G. to provide written notification to Congress of anything they withheld. But that's sort of vague. That's subject to interpretation. I mean, it could be enough under the law for Pam Bondi to say, dear Congress, dear world, be advised, I have withheld certain materials because they relate to criminal investigations, because they relate to national security, period. And then there's not a heck of a lot we can do to get underneath that.

BERMAN: You can see there being a new controversy starting at 11L59 tonight, which is to say what was left behind? When will we know what was left behind?

HONIG: Exactly.

BERMAN: So, Counsel, what are you looking for here? After everything that's been said about this, where -- what's your first search term going to be?

HONIG: Well, that's a good one, right. I may just enter a couple names. I mean, we all know what the names are. But, look, again, if this works the way it's supposed to work, you can take any of the names and just type them in and see what pops up.

Everyone has a different goal here, right? I think it's a good question to ask any member of Congress. Why did you pass this? What I'm looking for is, are there people who have not been charged criminally, and the only people who've been charged criminally are Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, are there others where the FBI or DOJ has evidence that could have led to criminal charges? I'm not so interested in sort of just all the atmospherics, but are there people who evaded meaningful criminal liability here?

BERMAN: All right. People are going to be busy on their computers tonight. We'll see.

Elie Honig, great to see you.

HONIG: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: All right. New reporting coming in on what caused a plane carrying a beloved NASCAR driver and his family to crash in North Carolina.

And the suspect in a kidnapping case that goes back more than 40 years now under arrest. What she told police when they found her in her, you know, own driveway.

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BOLDUAN: New this morning, the Department of Health and Human Services is planning a major overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule in the United States. CNN has learned this from a person familiar with the plans. The plan, though, not final, which would, of course, also means it could still change, but it could very well mean fewer shots recommended for kids across the country.

CNN's Meg Tirrell has this exclusive reporting. She's here for this now. What are you learning? Tell us more about what you've learned.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So over the past couple weeks, you know, we heard from that CDC meeting, that big vaccine meeting, at the beginning of this month there were a lot of comparisons with European countries vaccine schedules, and particularly Denmark's. And so what we've learned, and this is reporting really driven by our Washington colleague, Adam Cancryn, is that the Department of Health and Human Services is looking at suggesting that our vaccine schedule should be really pared down and in fact, maybe more similar to a country like Denmark's.

As you noted, this isn't final. But we learned that they had been planning to announce this afternoon and pushed back these plans --

BOLDUAN: That sounds final-ish.

TIRRELL: It sure does, and pushed back these plans because we also know that there are several drug pricing announcements planned today under the president's most favored nation drug pricing plans. And so in order not to conflict, they pushed that back a few weeks, basically into the New Year.

But this comes after that meeting where, of course, they pared back the hepatitis B birth dose recommendation for universally for newborns. The president then put out this White House memo essentially calling the United States an outlier among peer nations when it comes to the number of vaccines that we recommend here in the United States. And he directed the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the acting director of the CDC, essentially to evaluate our vaccine schedule compared with our peer nations and to come up with a recommendation. This is two weeks later and we're hearing they're already coming back with a plan.

BOLDUAN: So, there is a lot of talk, as you mentioned, about Denmark and that this came up in the hepatitis B conversations in those meetings.

[07:25:04]

What would it look like if the United States -- if this vaccine recommendations in the United States were, let's just say, adopted what Denmark recommends?

TIRRELL: Well, so we recommend vaccination against 18 -- 17 to 18, if you include COVID-19, diseases for children up to the age of 18. Denmark recommends vaccinations against 11 diseases in youth. And so we'd be losing vaccinations against a number of different diseases, including RSV, which, of course, is the leading cause of hospitalization among infants, rotavirus, flu, chickenpox, hepatitis A, and meningococcal disease.

So, of course, this would be a dramatic change. And experts point out we don't vaccinate the way Denmark does because we don't live in Denmark. Denmark is a country with 6 million people.

BOLDUAN: New York City has more people than that.

TIRRELL: Precisely. It also has free universal healthcare. They have a lot of differences in their society than we do here in the United States.

Our schedule experts say was put together based on the U.S. population, based on the diseases that we face and the best way to protect our children. So, a lot of folks are pretty alarmed that we might just sort of writ large, adopt a smaller countries with a lot of different properties, vaccine schedule.

BOLDUAN: All right. I mean, there's a lot -- a lot could be coming and sounds like it may very well be coming.

Meg, thank you very much for your reporting, the team did a great work on this one.

A name change getting a lot of people talking today, the backlash this morning over the decision to change the name of the story, the iconic Kennedy Center in Washington, to the Trump-Kennedy Center, and questions on whether that move is even legal.

And great news for anyone who works for CNN News Central, a brand new study why swearing actually makes you stronger.

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