Suspect in CEO’s Killing Had Discussed His Health Struggles on Reddit

The man charged in the killing of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare reported in online writings over a period of years that he had been navigating a series of life-altering health problems.

In posts on a Reddit account, the man, Luigi Mangione, said back pain that had once been a minor issue in his life grew more extreme in 2022 after he went surfing, then grew worse again a few weeks later when he slipped on a piece of paper. He reported persistent problems, including pain when he sat down, twitching leg muscles, and numbness in his groin and bladder.

He shared details that friends have corroborated, writing that he had a spinal fusion surgery in July 2023. He wrote that within days he did not need pain meds and could sit, stand and walk just fine.

“The surgery wasn’t nearly as scary as I made it out to be in my head, and I knew it was the right decision within a week,” he wrote in one Reddit post. He went on to encourage others to consider such surgery, pointing to athletes who had done so. An X-ray that he posted on another social media account showed a spinal fusion.

The back pain was not his only struggle. He wrote at times about “brain fog” that had worsened during his college years, making studying more difficult. Doctors could not seem to figure out what was happening, he reported.

“It’s absolutely brutal to have such a life-halting issue,” he wrote.

He also posted on a page for people dealing with irritable bowel syndrome, saying that he had undergone some testing for the condition. He said the testing had been covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield — his only reference in the Reddit writings to insurance coverage.

After the back surgery, he returned to Hawaii, where he had previously been living, but by the spring of this year, he had ceased communications with most friends and family members. His family reached out to his friends in recent months in hopes of finding him.

The suspect’s comment history on Reddit gives other clues to his personal life and pursuits. He was an active commenter in the OneBag subreddit, a community that “promotes urban travel with the philosophy of carrying less” and focuses on different types of backpacks and travel gear. Photos released by the New York Police Department of the gunman in the UnitedHealthcare shooting showed what its maker identified as a backpack by Peak Design, a brand that was widely discussed in the OneBag subreddit.

The suspect also posted to the Magfest subreddit, a community dedicated to a gaming subculture and festival held annually in Maryland, where he grew up. Sarah Nehemiah, a friend during his time in Hawaii, described him as an avid gamer and Pokémon enthusiast. He posted enthusiastically to the Pokémon Go subreddit, a forum dedicated to the popular mobile augmented reality game where users catch virtual Pokémon using their mobile phones.

Gaming has long been a part of the suspect’s life. He spent much of his childhood creating games and later went into the tech and gaming industry, working as an intern at the company that created the enormously popular Civilization game franchise.

The Reddit account has since been deleted by the company, but archived versions of the posts were reviewed by The New York Times.

A Reddit spokeswoman said its policy was to suspend accounts that may potentially be related to suspects in high-profile criminal investigations.

Tech companies typically suspend accounts in such cases to avoid impersonation. On Monday, Meta suspended the suspect’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram. And GoodReads, a site dedicated to chronicling a person’s reading activities, suspended his account the same day.

Dionne Searcey contributed to this report.