The discovery of the body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national who studied physics at Brown University, earlier this week in a New Hampshire storage facility brought closure to two alarming cases. Authorities say they believe Valente, a 48-year-old who recently arrived in Boston, was behind the December 13 mass shooting at Brown University, and the December 16 murder of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro.
The identification of Valente brings calm to communities worried about a mass killer on the loose. But it also puts the lie to theories floated by right-wing influencers, including Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire.
In recent days, Maguire, acting as a self-appointed digital detective, has shared posts suggesting that an entirely different man was behind the crimes—a Palestinian student at Brown University. On December 16, in a post on X that has subsequently been deleted, Maguire speculated that “it seems very likely” that the student was behind the shooting, pointing to the fact that “Brown is actively scrubbing his online presence.” In fact, the student’s digital footprints were being wiped as a protective measure against rampant, errant speculation about his link to the shootings.
“Accusations, speculation and conspiracies we’re seeing on social media and in some news reports are irresponsible, harmful, and in some cases dangerous for the safety of individuals in our community,” Brian Clark, vice president for news and strategic campus communications at Brown, told Fast Company in an emailed statement. “It is not unusual as a safety measure to take steps to protect an individual’s safety when this kind of activity happens, including in regard to their online presence.”
Clark adds: “It’s important to make clear that targeting individuals could do irrevocable harm.”
Neither Maguire, nor Sequoia, responded to interview requests for this story. Natalie Miyake, Sequoia Capital’s communications partner, was not available when Fast Company called the firm’s offices.
Still online is a subsequent post by Maguire speculating that MIT professor Loureiro was shot because he was Jewish. As evidence, Maguire points to a Google Gemini chatbot response and a Threads post criticizing Hamas. That Threads post is by a person sharing the same name as the slain man — but not actually the MIT professor.
The tenuous attempts to link an innocent man to a mass murder and a subsequent slaying follow months of inflammatory posts by the venture capitalist targeting Muslims and pro-Palestine activists. On July 4, Maguire made inflammatory comments calling New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani an “Islamist”, which resulted in an open letter calling for his firing that gained more than 1,000 signatures.
Maguire subsequently partially apologized for those comments in a video. “This tweet did not land the way I thought it would,” he said. Sequoia’s then-managing partner Roelof Botha said in late October that Sequoia is a company to “celebrate diversity of opinions”, saying the firm needed “spiky” people within it, while acknowledging it can “come with trade-offs”. Maguire has previously called DEI policies within companies “structural racism.”
