The threat of harm is over, but law enforcement in two states continues to investigate the saga of fugitive Steve Stephens, that began with a murder posted on Facebook and ended with Stephens suicide in Erie.

Here's the new official information on the case. Pennsylvania State Police say they recovered the weapon Stephens used to take his life inside his white Ford Fusion after a short police pursuit on Tuesday.  A pistol was found beneath his body by investigators processing the vehicle for evidence at the state police barracks in Lawrence Park.

Lt. Wayne Kline, crime section commander said it appears to be the very same weapon used to take Mr. Godwin's life in Cleveland on Easter Sunday.  Confirming that officially, will come after the weapon is processed in the state police ballistics lab here. Trooper Cindy Owens, State Police Community Service Officer said, "The weapon we recovered was a Glock 30-S .45 caliber and after we process that for information here in our lab, it will be returned to Cleveland PD, and they'll take it from there, so they can do their comparisons."

State police are making arrangements to share with Cleveland authorities any evidence pertinent to their murder investigation.

An autopsy was completed at the Erie County Coroner's office on the body removed from the car. Coroner Lyell Cook confirmed the cause and manner of death. "The autopsy took about four hours, performed by (forensic pathologist) Dr. Eric Vey, we determined that it was a suicide, he died of a single contact gunshot wound to the the head, which means the muzzle of the gun was placed tight against the head."

Coroner Cook says he can't and won't say it's Steve Stephens, until he has a positive identification, using things like tattoo descriptions or fingerprint evidence.

Erie News Now reached out to the FBI Cleveland Division on that nagging discrepancy about whether cellphone data tracked Steve Stephens to the Erie area Sunday afternoon.  PA State Police denied having knowledge of that. While Cleveland authorities have said only that "investigative tactics" showed at 4:30 Sunday afternoon, Stephens may be in the Erie area.

Cleveland Special Agent Vicki Anderson told us "It was an ongoing active investigation, information was released by some individual or agency that we would have preferred not get out."  She declined to say which agency might have caused the leak, but assured us that investigators acted quickly to determine if the momentary cell data would prove productive.  "Investigators found nothing else, not a sighting of Stephens, his car, or a credit card until Stephens surfaced at the McDonald's restaurant in Harborcreek on Tuesday morning," she added.