Earlier this week, police arrested Luigi Mangione as the primary suspect in the mid-Manhattan assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson a week prior, and he now faces a slew of criminal charges as authorities continue to investigate the fatal shooting incident.

According to an attorney advising the Mangione family, however, the charged suspect's family has been kept out of the loop on the status of the murder investigation and only knows what limited information has been reported by the media, the U.S. Sun reported.

It is unclear if Mangione has had any contact with his family since his arrest, and reports indicate that his relationship with the family had been strained or even nonexistent in recent months.

Family kept "in the dark" about status of investigation

TMZ reported Friday that David Irwin, an attorney for the Mangione family, claimed in a statement that the arrested suspect's relatives are "in the dark about the case" and don't "know all the facts" about what Luigi is alleged to have done.

The lawyer further stated that the family is only aware of what they've "read in the papers" or seen on TV and are otherwise completely uninvolved in the suspected killer's legal troubles.

Irwin added that the family also wanted to let Luigi know that the family "loves" him still and that they "wish him the best" as he faces criminal charges that could land him in prison for the rest of his life.

Family was concerned by his disappearance, reported him missing

According to the Sun, Mangione hails from an exceptionally wealthy family based in Baltimore, Maryland, but is believed to have become estranged and fallen out of contact with them over the past six months to a year while he traveled abroad and lived for a time in Japan.

In fact, old messages on social media revealed several family members and friends unsuccessfully reaching out to Mangione to seek contact and express concerns over his well-being and lack of communication with them.

Indeed, The San Francisco Standard reported that the suspect's mother, Kathleen Mangione, who lives in the Bay Area, had filed a missing persons report with the San Francisco Police Department in mid-November and told officers at that time that she hadn't spoken with her son since July.

Ironically enough, that missing person report, which included a picture of Luigi, may have contributed to his subsequent arrest at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania, as the SFPD recognized the similarities between his photo on the bulletin and pictures released of the shooting suspect, which they passed along to the FBI and was then further distributed to other law enforcement agencies.

"Among multiple tips received by FBI New York from the public and law enforcement regarding the homicide in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024, a tip was received from the San Francisco Police Department regarding the possible identity of the suspect," the FBI confirmed in a statement. "Extensive sharing of the photos by law enforcement led to the identification by a citizen and subsequent arrest by the Altoona Police Department."

Mangione, attorney insist he is innocent

According to TMZ, Mangione faces felony firearms and forgery charges in Pennsylvania, due to his possession of a 3D-printed gun that was used as the murder weapon and multiple fake IDs, as well as a felony murder charge in New York.

Mangione's attorney has revealed that his client has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is fighting an effort to extradite him to New York.

In a recent CNN interview, that attorney also insisted that he'd seen "zero evidence" thus far that his client was the shooter and that authorities would "need to convince" him that they'd actually arrested the right suspect in the slaying.