Reports: Luigi Mangione had been reported missing by family after back surgery

The suspect in the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO had been reported missing by his family after a recent back surgery.

According to a Monday evening report in the New York Post, Luigi Mangione’s social media accounts suggested the surgery went badly, providing a possible motive in last week’s shooting of Brian Thompson just before dawn near a hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Citing “law enforcement sources,” the Post reported that Mr. Mangione’s mother had reported him missing Nov. 18 after his family had lost touch with him for weeks.

Aaron Cranston, a high-school classmate of Mr. Mangione, told The New York Times that Mr. Mangione’s family hadn’t heard from him since his back surgery some months earlier and was trying to contact his peers for help.

The Post wrote that Mr. Mangione, who was arrested Monday in Pennsylvania, “may have held a grudge against the UnitedHealthcare executive because of his interactions with the medical industry.”

The Post’s sources cited an X-ray photo on his X account showing four pins in a spine.

His GoodReads account also had “five books involving chronic back pain on his reading list,” the Post wrote.

The titles included “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 Fight It.”