Initial findings suggest Valente died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and police were unable to comment on how long he might have been inside the storage facility.
Authorities have not suggested a motive for either attack.
Brown University president Christina Paxson said that Valente was enrolled at the Ivy League school from the autumn of 2000 to the following spring, and was studying for a PhD in physics.
He had “no current active affiliation” to Brown, she said.
Officials said they believe Valente shot and killed MIT professor Nuno F Gomes Loureiro, 47, on Monday at his home in Brookline, which is about 50 miles (80km) from Providence.
Both the victim and the suspect had studied at the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s, police said.
The cases were linked when the suspect’s vehicle was identified via CCTV footage and a witness at Brown University.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said Valente was found dead with a satchel and two firearms. Evidence in a car nearby matched to the scene in Providence.
The same car was spotted near the scene of the professor’s shooting.
