The family of the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson reported him missing last month after they lost contact with him following a recent back surgery, according to sources and reports.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested on Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a McDonald's employee recognized him as resembling the suspect wanted for last week's bold shooting outside a Manhattan hotel, putting an end to a five-day long manhunt. Mangione, an Ivy League graduate and a member of a well-known Maryland real estate family, was found with a ghost gun, masks, and rambling writings that authorities say link him to the deadly attack on Thompson on December.
Went Missing before Murder
As investigators work to determine a motive behind the cold-blooded murder, it has come to light that Mangione had been out of contact with his family in the weeks preceding the incident.
Law enforcement sources told The New York Post that Mangione's mother reported him missing on November 18, possibly from a home in San Francisco.
The suspect, a Maryland native, has connections to San Francisco and was last known to live in Honolulu, according to authorities.
Meanwhile, a former classmate from the Gilman School in Baltimore told The New York Times that earlier this year, Mangione's family sent a message to his classmates because he went missing and they were trying to find him.
Aaron Cranston, a classmate, shared that the message indicated Mangione had not been in contact with his family since having back surgery several months earlier, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, R.J. Martin, a friend and former roommate in Hawaii, told CNN that Mangione had often discussed his back problems in the past. "When I first interviewed him, before he moved in, I remember he said he had a back issue, and he was hoping to get stronger in Hawaii," Martin said.
Suffered with Chronic Back Pain
The roommate described Mangione's back problems as so "traumatic and difficult" that a single surfing lesson left him bedridden for a week. When Mangione had surgery, Martin said his friend shared X-ray images with him.
"It looked heinous, with just giant screws going into his spine," he said.
Sources suggest that Mangione may have held a personal vendetta against the UnitedHealthcare CEO due to his experiences with the medical industry. One clue supporting this theory is an X-ray image on his X account, which shows four pins in a spine.
Also, Mangione's Goodreads account revealed five books related to chronic back pain, including titles like Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery and Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease—And How to Fight It. The books were added to his virtual bookshelf between May 2022 and February 2023.
This came as Mangione was arraigned and denied bail during a short court session on Monday night.
He was charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, forgery, and giving false identification to law enforcement. Authorities indicated that they expected murder charges would be brought against him in New York in the near future.
Thompson, 50, was fatally shot last Wednesday while walking alone to a Midtown hotel, where UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, was hosting its annual investor conference, according to police.
