The family of Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the 4 December murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, reported him missing in November after he withdrew from social contact following surgery on his back.
Mangione, 26, was reported missing on 18 November, police told the New York Post, after family members became worried that they had lost touch with him. A message from relatives had earlier been circulated to his circle of friends asking for help finding him after Mangione had undergone back surgery a few months previously.
Late on Monday, Mangione was charged with murder and other counts by New York prosecutors relating to the brazen killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO on a street in midtown Manhattan. After a manhunt lasting several days, he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, having been recognized by a local person from photographs released by police.
He is being held without bail in Pennsylvania ahead of extradition to New York which could come as early as Tuesday.
As detectives begin to piece together the suspect’s history, one line of inquiry is the chronic back problems that he appears to have suffered since childhood. According to CNN, Reddit posts that match the description of Mangione talked about wrestling with spondylolisthesis, a condition where a vertebra, often in the lower back, slips out of place.
The condition had become much more severe, the Reddit user said, after a surfing accident. “My back and hips locked up after the accident,” the user said, causing “intermittent numbness” which left him “terrified of the implications”.
The owner of Surfbreak, a housing community in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Mangione lived for a few months, told CNN that Mangione had struggled from the back pain that could force him to stay in bed for days. “It was really traumatic and difficult, you know, when you’re in your early 20s and you can’t, you know, do some basic things,” RJ Martin said.
After he went through surgery, Mangione sent a text showing X-ray images, Martin said. “It looked heinous, with just giant screws going into his spine,” he said.
Mangione had alluded to his ongoing health battles on his social media feeds. He posted an image of a person following spinal fusion surgery as the banner of his X account.
His reading list on Goodreads included five books on how to cope with chronic back pain, including Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery.
Mangione’s withdrawal from social connections appears to have started several months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported. A friend raised concerns on social media in July, saying: “I don’t know if you are ok or just in a super isolated place … but I haven’t heard from you in months.”
A post from another friend in October said: “Nobody has heard from you in months, and apparently your family is looking for you.”
The suspect comes from a wealthy family in Baltimore, Maryland, that owns a real estate portfolio, nursing homes and a local radio station. He attended top Baltimore schools and the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania.
So far his family has not commented on Mangione’s apparent disappearance or his back issues. In a statement issued following the shooting, they said: “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
Mangione made his first court appearance on Monday night to face charges relating to the slaying of Thompson outside the annual UnitedHealthcare investors meeting in New York. In addition to the murder charge, he faces counts over the criminal possession of a weapon and silencer.
Police said that they arrested him in possession of a so-called ghost gun – that could have been produced by a 3D printer – and a suppressor.
Mangione was largely silent during the court hearing, though he did speak out to dispute the account being presented by prosecutors. They had said he was carrying about $10,000 in cash, and asserted that the bag he was carrying had the ability to block cellphone signals which all pointed to his sophisticated criminal planning.
“I’d like to correct two things,” Mangione said, according to CNN. “First, I don’t know where any of that money came from – I’m not sure if it was planted. And also, that bag was waterproof, so I don’t know about criminal sophistication.”