UnitedHealthcare did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED. In a statement provided to other media outlets, a company spokesperson said: “Our hope is that today’s arrest will bring some comfort to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy.” We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask everyone to respect the family’s privacy as they mourn.”
A search for Mangione’s footprint online draws a typical picture of someone in their 20s, including accounts on Pinterest, Skype, Instagram and Facebook. On X, apparently His account He showed a photo of what appeared to be an X-ray after a major spinal surgery, one of the few explicit references to health care in the history of his online account.
The GoodReads account contains a photo of the suspect and also shares a username with an email address, and the GitHub account associated with Mangione includes several books related to back pain, including Twisted: Outpace the back pain industry and get started on the road to recovery. Other titles include Hillbilly Elegy“, written by United States Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, and “Industrial Society and Its Future,” the anti-technology diatribe known colloquially as the Unabomber Manifesto. The GoodReads account has since been set to private.
Mangione, who was Valedictorian From his private high school in the Baltimore area, he appears to have been an avid gamer, with dozens of gaming titles listed on Xbox Live account Who shares his name. In 2018, Mangione, a self-described enthusiast for making video games, helped found a game development club at Penn that was quickly joined by nearly 60 students, according to a since-deleted article on the university’s News Center.
On a GitHub page believed to be owned by Mangione, he shared code repositories that focused on machine learning and human-computer interaction. Among these projects is a project titled “Meccanoid-Imitate,” which apparently uses an Arduino — an open-source, easy-to-use electronics platform — and a programmable Mecanoid robot. The repository, which was last updated four years ago, includes animated GIFs showing Mangione in what appears to be a classroom, moving his arms while an automated robot behind him mimics his gestures.
Updated at 5:30 PM EST, December 9, 2024, to include additional information about Mangione’s employment history.