Luigi Mangione: Five Unanswered Questions

A portrait has emerged of the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson since his arrest on Monday, but much also remains unknown.

Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland family, remained in jail without bail on Friday in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested in a McDonald’s and charged with gun and forgery offenses.

Prosecutors are working to bring him to New York to face second-degree murder and other charges in connection with Thompson’s killing. Mangione’s lawyer has urged people not to “rush to judgment in this case” and said his client would contest his extradition to New York.

Thompson, 50, was shot dead by a masked gunman as he walked alone to his company’s annual investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown at around 6:45 a.m. on December 4.

As authorities continue to scrutinize the evidence and investigate the suspect’s background, Newsweek looks at some unanswered questions about the case.

What was Mangione doing in the past six months?

Investigators are likely to focus on Mangione’s activity over the past six months as they seek to gather evidence about his connection to Thompson’s killing.

Mangione had been in regular contact with his family and friends, but he suddenly stopped communicating with them about six months ago, The New York Times reported.

He also stopped posting on his social media account, prompting concerned posts from friends.

“Nobody has heard from you in months, and apparently your family is looking for you,” one user posted on X, formerly Twitter, in October, tagging an account belonging to Mangione.

Mangione’s mother Kathleen Mangione reported him missing to police in San Francisco in November, and told them her son hadn’t been heard from since July, according to reports.

She told police she believed her son may be in the city working for TrueCar, a car-buying website, though a spokesperson for the company said Mangione had not worked there since 2023.

Why did Mangione cut contact with family?

It’s not clear why he stopped communicating with his family.

Mangione hails from a wealthy and prominent family from Maryland and had the upbringing that this afforded—he was the valedictorian of a prestigious prep school in Baltimore and later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

His family issued a brief statement after his arrest, saying they were “shocked and devastated.”

“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media,” the family said in the statement, which was posted on social media by his cousin, Maryland lawmaker Nino Mangione.

“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. We are devastated by this news,” the statement said.

Where was Mangione living in the days before his arrest?

Authorities said the suspect in Thompson’s killing fled the scene of the shooting on foot before entering Central Park on a bike. They later said the suspect was believed to have left New York City on a bus.

Mangione was arrested just after 9 a.m. in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9 after an employee called 911 to report a man matching the description of the suspect in the shooting.

It was not immediately clear where he had been staying in the days leading up to his arrest. He had reportedly sought a room at the Horseshoe Curve Lodge just hours before his arrest. The hotel is located about a 20-minute walk from the McDonald’s where he was arrested.

John Kuklis, the hotel’s clerk, told ABC News that he had told Mangione that no rooms were available so early in the day and to return later.

“He basically just walked in kind of cagey, just looking around, making sure he wasn’t being watched, asked if he could get a room here,” Kuklis said. “I told him that he wouldn’t be able to get one right now, that our housekeeper hadn’t cleaned the rooms yet, that he had to come back at 1 o’clock.”

Did his spinal surgery change him?

Friends have said that Mangione suffered from chronic back pain that affected many aspects of his life.

He repeatedly posted about the spinal surgery that changed his life for the better on Reddit and offered encouragement to those with similar conditions, The Associated Press reported.

Mangione’s Reddit posts suggested he was pleased with how the surgery went and relieved of the chronic pain, according to the AP.

However, a handwritten note that was found after Mangione was detained on Monday referred to “parasites” in the healthcare industry. The note also condemned major corporations that “continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.”

Did Mangione want to get caught?

Mangione was sitting in the McDonald’s in Altoona wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop computer when an employee called 911 about him, according to court documents.

Altoona police officer Tyler Frye said he and his partner asked Mangione to pull down his mask and recognized him immediately.

“We knew that was our guy,” he said.

Mangione initially gave officers a false name and provided a fake driver’s license, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Newsweek. He “became quiet and started to shake” when one of the officers asked him if he had been to New York recently, the complaint said.

Terry Rankhorn, a former FBI agent, said it’s unlikely Mangione wanted to be apprehended.

“I believe that if he had wanted to be caught, he would have published his manifesto online and engaged with online followers as soon as possible after the murder,” he told Newsweek. “He also undertook significant measures to evade the police.”

Rankhorn added: “In any event, we didn’t see a scenario unfold where he simply gave up and surrendered to the police or took his own life. All indications are that he fully intended to escape the event.”