By now, most of us have probably heard of the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder. The suspect has just been arrested.
Here’s everything you need to know about the murder and the suspect, summarised for you.
How the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Murder Unfolded
If you’ve yet to hear about the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder, we only have one thing to say to you — were you living under a rock?
Last Wednesday (4 December), the world was stunned when news of the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder broke.
Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit UnitedHealthcare, was on the way to his company’s annual investor conference that morning. Little did he know, there was a gunman lying in wait for him.
Around 6:45 am, the 50-year-old was shot in the back while walking past the Hilton Midtown hotel.
He was later rushed to a nearby hospital and subsequently pronounced dead.
At about 9 am later in the day, which was an hour after the UnitedHealth investor conference started, the conference was cancelled.
It was cancelled because of a “very serious medical situation” — but now, we know that it was cancelled because of Thompson’s murder.
UnitedHealthcare is the largest US health insurer. Thompson had been its CEO for just about three and a half years — he had been UnitedHealthcare’s CEO since April 2021.
How was the Suspect for Brian Thompson’s Murder Found?
For days, there didn’t seem to be an answer as to who killed Brian Thompson. All that was known about the suspect was that he was wearing a mask and carried a grey backpack, and that he fled on foot before riding an electric bike into Central Park after shooting the CEO.
Some time later, a now-infamous photo of the suspect made its rounds on social media. In the photo, the suspect could be seen flashing a “heartbreaker smile”.
Looks a bit like the smile your mother would flash at you when she comes home and sees that you haven’t cooked the rice for dinner.
Anyway, police finally found the “smiling assassin” seen in the photo a few days later. On Tuesday (10 December), he was found at a McDonald’s in Altoona, a city in Pennsylvania.
The authorities found the suspect sitting at a table looking at a laptop. Officers asked the suspect to pull down his mask, and “immediately recognised him as the suspect”.
When officers asked the suspect for his ID, he handed a fake New Jersey ID to the officers. He was also found with a gun.
The suspect was ultimately arrested then and there at the McDonald’s. He is currently in custody in Pennsylvania.
Who is the Suspect Arrested for Brian Thompson’s Murder?
So, who is the suspect? For starters, his name is Luigi Mangione.
The 26-year-old had apparently attended Gilmore School, a private all-boys high school in Baltimore. There, he managed to become the valedictorian — an accolade usually given to the student with the highest academic achievements.
Mangione went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania. If you’re wondering why the university sounds familiar, it’s because it is an Ivy League college.
At the University of Pennsylvania, Mangione got a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science. He even founded a video game development club.
Wah… Quite stacked leh, actually.
Later, he joined the workforce as a data engineer for TrueCar, a digital retailing website for new and used cars. However, the company has since shared that Mangione stopped working at TrueCar since 2023.
What are Luigi Mangione’s Potential Motives?
But the million-dollar question is this — what were Mangione’s motives for the murder of Brian Thompson, if any?
While his motives are still unclear, there are some clues as to what it could be. And it all starts with back pain.
You see, according to news reports, Mangione seemed to have a history of back pain. This could potentially be linked to motives such as personal distress and trouble with obtaining insurance coverage for his treatment.
If you take a look at Mangione’s X profile, you’ll notice that there’s a rather peculiar photo used in his profile banner.
No, we don’t mean the picture of the Pokemon lah.
Aside from a photo of the Pokemon and a photo of him hiking, there’s also a photo of an x-ray for a spinal surgery on his profile banner.
The X-ray shows what appears to be an L5-S1 operation, where two vertebra are surgically fused together.
In a handwritten document which was allegedly uploaded to Mangione’s Google Drive account in 2021, Mangione also states that he had a back injury known as L5-S1 isthmic spondylolisthesis. This injury involves one of the bones in the spine slipping forward, and pressing on the vertebra below it.
A colleague who Mangione worked with at TrueCar shared that the 26-year-old had taken leave in the middle of 2023 for about two months. According to the colleague’s manager, Mangione had taken leave for back-related issues.
Mangione apparently also told the manager of Surfbreak, a co-living residence in Hawaii, that he had a back issue. He allegedly sent the manager pictures of a back surgery as well.
Netizens have also found a review Mangione left on Goodreads, a book cataloging website, about a book titled: “Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery”.
But of course, it’s not exactly confirmed whether the 26-year-old was actually diagnosed with a back condition, or whether he underwent treatment for any back conditions lah.
Perhaps the murder of Brian Thompson stemmed from one man’s back pain. We don’t know for sure whether that’s true for now, but one thing’s for certain — those currently working on Mangione’s case confirm plus chop head pain.
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