Suspect in killing of insurance CEO: From top student to loner

Investigators scramble to trace his movements before Dec 4 incident

ALTOONA, Pennsylvania - After a hike through one of Japan's lush mountain ranges earlier in 2024, Luigi Mangione, a computer engineer in his mid-20s who had set off on a long solo trip to Asia, paused to record a voice message to a friend.

Making his way that day along a river gorge in the Nara region, Mangione had fled his day-to-day life in Hawaii to soak in hot springs, meditate, catch up on books and do some writing of his own.

"I want some time to Zen out," Mangione said in the recorded message on April 27.

It would be one of his last communications before he abruptly cut ties with a wide range of friends and family, who eventually set out on a desperate hunt to track him down. Seven months later, Mangione emerged from his isolation as the suspect in the brazen assassination of Mr. Brian Thompson, chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, on a sidewalk in Manhattan.

Police investigators have been scrambling to trace Mangione's movements not only in the days before the Dec. 4 shooting, but also in the months that preceded it.

Friends and family members have been left bewildered by the jarring transformation of a young man who had seemed destined for a life of achievement. He was the valedictorian at his elite prep school in Maryland and a computer science graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's acclaimed engineering programme.

But his writings and messages also traced a darker journey in "unbearable pain".

He expressed alarm over the world's increasing reliance on smartphones and social media.

During his trip to Asia, he lashed out at the "modern Japanese urban environment", claiming that a lack of "natural human interaction" was responsible for falling birth rates and a dearth of human connection.

More and more, he expressed frustration that society seemed incapable of addressing these problems, and he expressed interest in those who said violence might be a necessary next step.