Luigi Mangione ‘went missing’ after back surgery, friends reveal
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It has been reported that the individual accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson disappeared and stopped communicating with relatives and friends last month following a back surgery.
On Monday, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was taken into custody at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He faces murder charges related to the deliberate shooting of a healthcare executive that occurred in Midtown Manhattan on December 4.
Although the reason behind the attack is still being looked into, more information is coming to light regarding Mangione's health problems and how they seem to have affected his life.
A friend informed The New York Times that the Ivy League graduate endured severe, ongoing back pain and had to undergo significant surgery for it in 2023.
RJ Martin, a friend of Mangione and a representative of Surfbreak, a co-living community in Honolulu where Mangione resided for around six months until April 2022, shared with the newspaper that Mangione relocated to Hawaii to focus on improving his health before the surgery.
"Martin mentioned that his spine was somewhat out of alignment. He mentioned that his lower vertebrae were nearly half an inch off, which likely caused a nerve to get pinched. There were moments when he felt fine, but then there were times when he didn't."
The injury affected Mangione's surfing skills and also had a negative impact on his love life, according to Martin.
Following his surf lesson, Martin told CNN that Mangione spent around a week in bed due to back pain.
Mangione once shared a photo of an X-ray of his back, and Martin remarked that it appeared "terrible, with huge screws implanted in his spine."
A picture that was posted on Mangione’s X account, now removed, displays an X-ray image of a spine featuring four pins. It's uncertain whether this X-ray belongs to the 26-year-old.
The Goodreads profile of the murder suspect features five books related to chronic back pain on his reading list. Among these are "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 Combat It."
The reading list featured numerous books about alternative medicine and psychedelics, along with a handwritten note outlining his exercise regimen and mentioning his struggle with spondylolisthesis, according to CNN.
Spondylolisthesis is a condition where one of the vertebrae in the spine moves out of its normal position and slides forward over the vertebra beneath it.
It frequently happens in the lower back, and individuals with a severe slip are at a greater risk of experiencing "intense pain" and "nerve damage," which may require surgery to ease their symptoms, as stated by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Reports indicate that Mangione had surgery in 2023.
According to police sources, friends, and social media updates, Mangione gradually drifted away from his friends and family over the course of several months.
Only two weeks prior to Thompson's murder, Kathleen Mangione, his mother, informed the San Francisco Police Department that he was missing on November 18, according to a source. Mangione, who grew up in Maryland, has connections to San Francisco and was last known to have lived in Honolulu, police noted.
Aaron Cranston, a former classmate from high school, shared with The New York Times that Mangione’s family had contacted several of his friends to inquire about his whereabouts. They mentioned that they hadn't seen or heard from him in months following his surgery.
In the time leading up to the shooting, multiple friends reached out to him on X, expressing their worries and attempting to get in touch.
"One person commented in October, 'We haven't heard from you in ages.'"
"I'm not sure if everything is alright with you or if you're just in a really remote area without any signal. It's been months since I last heard from you," said another message from July.
Mangione was taken into custody on Monday after a McDonald’s worker contacted the police upon recognizing him from photos of the suspect that had been shared by the NYPD the previous week.
According to the police, when the suspect was arrested, he had a ghost gun, a silencer, several fake identification cards, and a handwritten manifesto that reportedly criticized the healthcare system.
Mangione's family expressed their disbelief and heartache over the arrest, stating that they were "stunned and heartbroken." They also extended their thoughts and prayers to Brian Thompson's family.
