FBI Launches Investigation into Unresolved Cases of Missing and Deceased Scientists

The White House is determined to exhaust all avenues in its quest to unravel the mystery surrounding a wave of missing scientists. On Friday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on the social media platform X that President Donald Trump has enlisted the FBI to assist in the investigation. “Given the legitimate concerns about these unsettling incidents and President Trump’s unwavering dedication to uncovering the truth, the White House is actively collaborating with all pertinent agencies, including the FBI, to thoroughly examine each case and detect any possible connections,” Leavitt stated. Numerous scientists, linked to NASA, nuclear research, aerospace ventures, and classified projects, have either disappeared or met untimely deaths in recent times. Many of these experts, such as those from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, had access to confidential data on space missions, nuclear technologies, or advanced defense systems, fueling speculation about potential links.

On Thursday, President Trump disclosed that he had been briefed on these baffling cases, now totaling eleven. He addressed the concerning situation after arriving at the White House, where reporters, including those from FOX News, queried him about whether these disappearances and deaths were merely coincidental or possibly related. “I hope it is coincidental, but we will find out within the next ten days,” Trump remarked. “I just came from a meeting on this topic, so it’s quite serious. Hopefully, it’s just a coincidence… but some of these individuals were quite significant, and we are going to investigate it.” His comments came after a Wednesday briefing at the White House, where Leavitt also faced questions about the ten individuals tied to space or nuclear secrets who have mysteriously vanished or passed away.

“I haven’t yet discussed this with our relevant agencies, but I certainly will and will provide you with an update,” Leavitt assured. “If these allegations are true, it’s undeniably something that this administration would consider worth investigating. So, I’ll look into this for you,” she added. The pattern of disappearances surfaced following the disappearance of retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland on February 28. He was last seen leaving his home in New Mexico without his phone, wearable devices, or glasses, carrying only a pistol. His wife informed emergency services that he seemed intent on “not being found.” The eerie circumstances surrounding the general’s disappearance closely resemble four other missing person cases that occurred between May and August 2025 in the Southwest.

Concerningly, all four have been tied to McCasland (pictured) through his work overseeing the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which has been rumored to study extraterrestrial technology since the 1947 Roswell UFO crash. While at Wright-Patterson, McCasland oversaw and reportedly approved the funding for scientist Monica Jacinto Reza’s work on a space-age metal for rocket engines called Mondaloy. Reza, 60, disappeared while hiking with friends in California on June 22 last year. She had just become the director of the Materials Processing Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The three other disappearances all involved workers at some of America’s most important nuclear facilities, and all three were last seen walking out of their homes without their phones or keys, just like McCasland.

Steven Garcia (pictured), 48, vanished without a trace on August 28 last year. He was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on foot, carrying only a handgun. An anonymous source told the Daily Mail that Garcia was a government contractor working for the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a major facility in Albuquerque that manufactures more than 80 percent of all the non-nuclear components that go into building the military’s nuclear weapons. Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casias both worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), one of the nation’s most important nuclear research sites. Chavez, 79, worked at the lab until his retirement in 2017, although his role there has not been made clear. Casias, 54, was an active administrative assistant at the facility and is believed to have had top security clearance. All three were last seen leaving their homes in New Mexico on foot, leaving behind their cars, keys, wallets and phones before disappearing without a trace. Police have not had any updates in the cases since last year.

In addition to the string of disappearances, five scientists in key areas of research have died over the last few years. Amy Eskridge (pictured) was just 34 years old when she allegedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head in Huntsville, Alabama on June 11, 2022. However, neither the police nor the medical examiners have publicly released any details of an investigation ever taking place. Before her death, she was openly researching and trying to develop anti-gravity technology , a way to control or cancel out gravity, which could revolutionize space travel and energy production. Nuclear physicist Nuno Loureiro and astrophysicist Carl Grillmair were both shot to death in their homes in recent months. Independent investigators have noted that Loureiro’s revolutionary work in nuclear fusion may have made him a target of a greater conspiracy against US scientists, as his work may one day upend the energy industry.

Last year, Claudio Neves Valente was identified by Boston authorities as a suspect in the shooting of Loureiro (pictured), as well as two Brown University students, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook. After eluding police for days, Valente, 48, died by suicide in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, on December 16. Grillmair’s work with NASA’s NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor has also been linked to the Air Force, as the telescopes used the same systems the military relies on to track satellites and missiles. Meanwhile, NASA scientists Michael David Hicks and Frank Maiwald, who also worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab, died from unknown circumstances at an early age. Maiwald, 61, was the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future space missions detect clear signs of life on other worlds just 13 months before he died in 2024.

Hicks, whose death came just a year after leaving JPL at age 59, had been involved with the DART Project, NASA’s test to see if humans could deflect dangerous asteroids away from Earth. NASA’s JPL has not commented on the deaths of Maiwald or Hicks, and did not reply to the Daily Mail’s inquiries into the nature of the scientists’ work before their deaths. In another mysterious incident, Jason Thomas (pictured), a pharmaceutical researcher testing cancer treatments at Novartis, was found dead in a Massachusetts lake on March 17, after disappearing without a trace in December. Local police have claimed there was no foul play suspected.