Expert flags ‘most significant clue’ yet in manhunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin

A flirty moment at a hotel counter could turn out to be the lucky break that led police to the man suspected of the brutal New York City execution of UnitedHealthCare’s CEO early Wednesday morning.

A fingerprint lifted from items the killer left behind while fleeing the crime scene gave investigators new evidence, but more substantial for the immediate investigation is surveillance video of a man police are hoping to identify, according to John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, who called the moment “the most significant clue” yet.

“He talks to the clerk at the desk, and you know, they are chatting back and forth and she's kind of having a flirty moment with him,” Miller told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday as the manhunt entered hour 37.

“And that's when the smile happens,” Burnett noted.

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Senate Dems consider whether Biden should ‘clear the slate’ and pardon Trump

“'Let me see your face, take down your mask,' and he lowers the mask and gives that big smile, Miller said. “That little flirtation between the two of them in some good-humored way actually yielded what is so far the most significant clue to identifying him.”

Miller also dropped new details about the suspect's route that led him to a Manhattan sidewalk where he gunned down 50-year-old insurance executive and father of two Brian Thompson outside a hotel. The suspect was reportedly on a bus that originated from Atlanta, Georgia, but investigators haven’t yet determined where in the path from Atlanta and New York he boarded, the CNN analyst said.

“So that's a factor that they're going to have to work backward on," Miller added. "They're going to have to figure out at what point he appears, you know getting on the bus for the first time, and that means working with other jurisdictions along that bus route to say, ‘Go dump this video go through it, this is what we're looking for.’ It will come together.”

Miller noted that the suspect appeared to have been in New York for 10 days before the brazen killing.

Watch the clip below or at this link.