By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-12 23:22:23 | Updated at 2024-12-23 16:42:27
1 week ago
Accused killer Luigi Mangione vanished for several months after fleeing the US to “zen out” on a solo Asia trip before abruptly returning to allegedly gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the Big Apple, a new report says.
The 26-year-old dropped off the face of the earth soon after leaving his co-living space in Hawaii and setting off to Asia earlier this year — stopping in the likes of Japan and Thailand, the New York Times reported.
“I want some time to zen out,” the Ivy League grad said in an audio message sent to a friend on April 27 while hiking in Japan’s Nara region.
“There’s like these tiny little villages here, on the side of the cliffs — I’ll send a photo. It’s super lush, there’s this beautiful river that cuts through the gorge,” he continued.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the Big Apple on Dec. 4. REUTERS“I think I want to stay here for like a month, and just meditate and just hot spring, and do some writing.”
Weeks later, Mangione sent another message to a friend while he was on Mount Omine in Japan — describing the grueling terrain and how women weren’t allowed to climb it.
“This mountain is peak misogyny,” he wrote to the friend he’d met during his travels, adding “I needed to stop getting distracted by women lol.”
Mangione, pictured in Tokyo in February, set off on a solo Asia trip earlier this year. X / @128i256Soon after, though, he started losing touch with friends and family.
A friend had texted him in June asking “where in the world are you?” but received no reply, according to the outlet.
His family then started reaching out to friends late in the summer saying they hadn’t heard from him in months.
Then, Mangione — whose family reported him missing in California on Nov. 18 — re-surfaced in New York City weeks later where he is accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare boss on Dec. 4.
The details emerged as investigators have been scrambling to piece together Mangione’s whereabouts in the months leading up to the cold-blooded killing as they probe a possible motive.
It comes after the NYPD said they were looking at whether a back injury that Mangione suffered in July last year had fueled an alleged vendetta against the medical industry.
Cops are scrutinizing photos on Mangione’s social media that featured X-ray images of a person’s back, as well as a three-page manifesto-type document that included raging remarks about “parasitic” health insurance companies, an NYPD official said.
“He posted X-rays of numerous screws being inserted into his spine — and [in] some of the writings, he was discussing the difficulty of sustaining that injury,” the official said.
“As far as motive, it looks like he had animus toward the healthcare industry.”
Mangione, who was captured at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday after a five-day manhunt, remains jailed without bail on gun and forgery charges.
Manhattan prosecutors are working to bring him to New York to face a murder charge in the CEO’s death.
![[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis’ public heresy means he isn’t a member of the Catholic Church: Dr. Edmund Mazza](https://freerepublic.com/images/Freepathon_sarge2M.jpg)
