In the five days between the killing of UnitedHeathcare CEO Brian Thompson and the arrest of suspect Luigi Mangione, it seemed impossible that no one came forward with information about the 26-year-old's identity, even as images of his face were plastered everywhere. And as it turns out, Mangione was indeed apparently identified by authorities in San Fransisco, but it's unclear whether the FBI ever got the information.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that two sources familiar with the matter say police recognized Mangione and contacted the FBI on Dec. 5, a full four days before he was eventually arrested in an Altoona, PA McDonald's, after a customer called police. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to discuss the matter, say that an officer in the city's Special Victims Unit sounded the alarm after seeing the surveillance images released in New York.
The reason he was identified on the opposite side of the country was because Mangione's mother, Kathleen Mangione, had reported her son missing to authorities in San Francisco on Nov. 18 and said that she hadn't heard from him since July.
His last known whereabouts, as far as she knew, was that he had been working at a car listings website called TrueCar that had an office in San Francisco. However, the location was listed as permanently closed and the phone number disconnected. A spokesperson for the company likewise said that Mangione hadn't worked for the company since 2023.
It's unknown whether the FBI ever got the tip, responded to San Francisco police, or acted on the information. It's also unclear how the information was relayed to the federal agency. Officials for both the San Francisco Police Department and the FBI declined to comment to the Chronicle.
Yet, in an interview with NBC's Today show on Tuesday, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch claimed that Mangione's identity was unknown to authorities before his arrest. "This was not a name that was called in to us," she said.
Many questions remain, but it's also quite shocking that Mangione was identified by a police officer across the country and none of his family members, friends, former classmates, or co-workers recognized him and contacted authorities. Particularly, as he's being heralded as a sort of folk hero on the internet, with no shortage of support from so-called fans.
