Robert Card ‘likely’ alive up to 12 hours before his body was found

The Maine gunman who slaughtered 18 people inside a bar and bowling alley was alive and possibly on the run for most of the intense two-day manhunt, the medical examiner determined Friday.

Robert Card, 40, died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head that “likely” happened eight to 12 hours before his body was discovered, according to Lindsey Chasteen, office administrator of the medical examiner’s office in Augusta.

The killer suffered from a condition in which his heart emptied of blood after the gunshot wound, affecting the way the blood settled in his body and potentially making the time of death less certain, Chasteen said.

His manner of death was ruled a suicide, but the full report won’t be released for several more months.

The Army reservist was found in an unlocked trailer in an overflow parking lot at the Maine Recycling Corporation at 7:45 p.m. Oct. 27.

How long he had been inside the trailer before turning the gun on himself is still unclear — meaning he may have been on the loose for a significant amount of time as authorities frantically searched for the mentally ill shooter.

After gunning down 18 unsuspecting victims and wounding 13 others, Card fled in a vehicle that was later found abandoned on a waterfront in a nearby town, sparking concerns he had escaped via water.

Law enforcement agencies came under scrutiny for not finding Card’s body earlier under the assumption that he killed himself in the hours after the shootings.

Police had searched and cleared the recycling plant twice before the owner of the property alerted them to a previously unknown overflow parking lot, where Card was ultimately found with two firearms at his side.

Why Card fled to the plant — his former employer — and his motive for carrying out the massacre are still mysteries to cops.

Officials are probing Card’s history of mental health issues, including the deranged killer’s claims he could hear voices in his head calling him a “pedophile.”

Card had been known to law enforcement for months as family members and others became increasingly worried about his mental state.

With Post wires