Mangione suffered from chronic back pain that limited his daily life, according to several news accounts. His profile on X shows a background image of an x-ray with what appears to be screws and plates inserted in a lower back.
An employee at TrueCar said Mangione worked at the car buying website as a data engineer from 2022 to late 2023. In mid-2023, Mangione took about two months off for what the employee’s manager described as back-related issues.
The employee, who asked not to be named, described Mangione as “incredibly smart” and very friendly to his co-workers.
He said that the company offered employees health insurance through UnitedHealth as well as other choices, such as Aetna.
From January through June 2022, Mangione lived at the Surfbreak co-living community, similar to an adult dormitory, where he led a book club and surfed, hiked and rock-climbed, according to the Hawaiian online news site Civil Beat and other media.