He crept up behind him, pulled out a pistol with a silencer, shot his victim several times and, apparently it faded away. The hunting and capture of mysterious murderer of Brian ThompsonCEO of insurer UnitedHealthcare in manhattanis being developed with the little evidence that the New York police have since last Wednesday morning.
In addition to the video of the murder itself, recorded by a security camera, investigators are relying on the only image that they have been able to find of the face of the alleged assailant, filmed, also by a security camera, in the hostel where it is believed that he stayed the night before the murder.
The suspect, who has been filmed in other images, but always with his face covered with a panty, is required to show his face by the receptionist, to which he reacts by lowering the garment that covers his face, although keeping the hood of his coat up. , and throwing a seductive smile at the worker while they cordially exchange a few words.
“He lowers his mask and shows a big smile,” police investigator John Miller told CNN. “That brief good-natured flirtation between the two produced, in fact, the most significant evidence yet to identify him.”
Beyond that frame, the agents are viewing all the available videos from the cameras located in the area, through which thousands of people pass every day, trying to track the killer’s movements before and after he pulled the trigger.
Thanks to this initial work they have been able to locate the limited material evidence they have to date: a disposable phone and a plastic bottle of water, supposedly thrown to the ground by the assailant as he fled.
Words linked to insurance companies
At the crime scene itself where the body of the 50-year-old executive was located, two shell casings were also found. bullets with the words “depose” and “delay”“, which are being interpreted as a reference to words linked to the American health insurance sector such as the one headed by Thompson.
These words written on the casings, which would link the crime to Thompson’s business activity, have put the insurance company on alert, which has established safety plans for your employees and is actively collaborating with the police, according to US media reports.
Investigators have also been able to trace the first fleeing movements of the assailant from the entrance of the Hilton Midtown hotel early in the morning, when the murder occurred. The last image of the suspect would have been filmed at 6:48 a.m., riding a electric bike heading to Manhattan’s famous Central Park. Thompson died half an hour later.
Before the murder, the police were able to determine that the suspect arrived in the city on a long-distance bus originating in Atlanta, 1,400 km from New York, although it is not known at what point on the route he boarded it.
This trip occurred 10 days before the murder, days and nights that the assailant spent in the aforementioned hostel, also located in Manhattan, where he shared a room with two other guests, according to CNN. In those days, the agents have been able to locate him in various parts of the city, always with a mask that covered his face.
In search of the identity of the murderer
With so little material, the authorities are now focusing on searching elements that may help determine the identity of the murderer in the plastic bottle and the disposable phone that he is believed to have thrown on the ground after the assault.
Beyond that, neither the bicycle on which the suspect fled the crime scene nor, more importantly, the weapon with which he committed the crime have been found. The mysterious Manhattan murderer still has more unknowns than certainties surrounding him.