Luigi Mangione ‘went missing’ after back surgery as friends reveal UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect’s health issues
Luigi Mangione apparently went missing after undergoing back surgery months before Brian Thompson was murdered in Manhattan, according to his friend.
The 26-year-old was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and charged with murder on Monday in connection to the UnitedHealth CEO being gunned down in Manhattan on December 4.
One of the suspect’s former classmates, Aaron Cranston, said that Mangione hadn’t been in touch with relatives since allegedly undergoing back surgery several months ago, according to The New York Times.
The family were said to have reached out to the suspect’s friends as they attempted to track him down, the former Gilman School student in Baltimore told the outlet.
On November 18, weeks before Thompson’s death, Mangione was allegedly reported missing by his mother on November 18, possibly in San Francisco, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.
He was born and raised in Maryland and has ties to San Francisco and a last known address in Honolulu, police say.
Mangione was arrested after being spotted by a patron at a McDonald’s who alerted the Altoona Police Department after recognizing him from the images of the suspect’s face circulated by the NYPD last week.
He allegedly possessed a ghost gun, a suppressor, “multiple fraudulent IDs,” and a handwritten manifesto that allegedly slammed the health care system, authorities said.
While the motive remains unclear, new details have emerged about his potential health issues.
The Ivy League college graduate allegedly lived in debilitating back pain which he is said to have also undergone surgery for last year, another friend said.
His back pain was chronic and an ongoing issue for the defendant, RJ Martin, a friend of Mangione and spokesperson of Surfbreak, a co-living space in Honolulu, where Mangione lived for about six months, told The Times.
Martin told the newspaper that Mangione moved to Hawaii hoping to get as healthy as possible in advance of a major back operation.
The injury inhibited Mangione from surfing and hindered his romantic life, the spokesman said.
“His spine was kind of misaligned,” Martin said. “He said his lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and I think it pinched a nerve. Sometimes he’d be doing well and other times not.”
