CNN
—

As the investigation into the fatal shooting of a Manhattan health care executive enters its fifth day, police are missing key pieces of evidence and are combing through what they’ve collected for more clues as the suspect remains on the run.

The New York Police Department is receiving help from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies across the country in finding the suspect, with rewards being offered to the public. Two new photos released by police show the hooded-masked suspect in the back seat of a vehicle and wearing a jacket, walking on the street.

While authorities say they believe the suspect has long since left New York City after fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday, officials are confident he will be captured.

“Let him continue to believe that he can hide behind a mask,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said of the suspect. “We will reveal who he is and we will bring him to justice.”

The authorities are still trying to find out the following:

And here is some of the key evidence they collected:

What was crucial, however, was that there was no weapon in the backpack.

That sent investigators back to the park. On Saturday, police divers searched a body of water called Lake in an area of ​​Terrace Drive near the park’s iconic boathouse and Bethesda Fountain, a law enforcement official said.

After police recovered the Peak Design backpack in Central Park on Friday, they examined it at a forensic lab in Queens. Inside they found Monopoly money, a law enforcement source told CNN. It also contained one It was not immediately clear whether there were other items in the backpack, officials said.

There is still no sign of the bike.

Meanwhile, photos of the suspect were shared with multiple law enforcement agencies, including airports and Border Patrol stations along the Mexican and Canadian borders, in hopes that he does not leave the country.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. The NYPD added another $10,000.

The search for the suspect and more physical evidence comes after Thompson, 50, was shot early on Dec. 4 on a busy Manhattan street as he approached the New York Hilton Midtown on West 54th Street According to New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, he planned to attend his company’s annual investor conference while the killer waited for him.

The shooter then crossed the Hilton street and fled north through an alley between 54th and 55th streets. He left on an electric bike on the 55th, investigators told CNN. From there, the suspect drove north on Sixth Avenue toward Central Park.

According to police, the man was spotted near the George Washington Bridge and the George Washington Port Authority bus terminal on 178th Street about 45 minutes after the shooting.

The killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has unsettled other health care companies concerned about the safety of their own leadership, prompting some of them to increase security and remove top executives’ photos from their websites.

The backpack, photos, surveillance video, abandoned ammunition, a burner phone, a water bottle and DNA evidence have so far helped investigators close in on the suspect, although they have hit dead ends with the use of facial recognition software and an unusable fingerprint, according to Joseph Kenny , the chief detective of the New York Police Department, the police had already confiscated the material.

Investigators continue to search for the electric bicycle the suspect was riding on the day of the shooting and are investigating whether the shooter used a veterinary pistol, a larger firearm used on farms and ranches to knock down animals without making a loud noise cause, Kenny said Friday.

The 9mm shell casings that were tested had the words “delay,” “denial” and “deposition” written on them, with one word written on each of the three bullets, Kenny told reporters.

Police are investigating whether the words, similar in wording to a common description of insurance company tactics – “delay, deny, defend” – could indicate a motive.

“This could be him sending a message explaining why he shot (Thompson), but at the same time it could be a distraction to try to distract from the real reason behind it,” said former FBI special agent Kenneth Gray told CNN on Saturday.

“Until he’s caught, we won’t know the true purpose of those words,” Gray said.

Authorities are asking the public for help identifying Thompson’s killer through surveillance images that show the unmasked suspect at an Upper West Side hostel, where he checked in with a fake New Jersey driver’s license.

But with some portraying the killer as a vigilante seeking justice against a health care system they believe profits are more important than lives, and other social media users mocking the CEO’s death, this could dampen motivation, sightings to report the murderer to the police.

Police are pursuing as many leads as possible as the manhunt expands and authorities try to figure out where the suspect might be.

NYPD officials said they believe the suspect left New York City on a long-distance bus, the same mode of transportation investigators believe he used to enter the city days earlier: He traveled to New York on a Greyhound bus York, who started his route in Atlanta, violated several laws law enforcement officials told CNN. Those sources added that authorities did not know whether the suspect boarded the ship in Atlanta or elsewhere.

The Atlanta Police Department said Friday, without providing further details, that it would assist in the investigation after being contacted by the NYPD. NYPD detectives arrived in Atlanta on Saturday as part of the investigation, two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told CNN.

In the meantime, the gun remains the key piece of evidence the police are looking for and will open a case against the shooter once he is found.