“One thing is up,” Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna warned her social media followers on X.
“Who killed the scientists?” requested South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace.
The Republicans are a rising variety of lawmakers sounding the alarm concerning the 12 U.S. scientists who have either died or disappeared since 2022—and all of them appeared to have ties to nuclear or area applications and, in some instances, labeled tasks.
“In case you are feeling uneasy concerning the quantity of scientists that have gone missing, died, and up to date suicides ref these scientists and others you might be appropriate in your instinct,” Luna’s put up added.
Suspects have been recognized in a few the instances, however the thriller surrounding the unknown has fueled conspiracy theories as sleuths have tried to make connections between them. Each Congress and the FBI have launched investigations as there’s nonetheless little data launched about potential connection of the instances.
Lawmakers on the Home Oversight Committee at the moment are investigating 10 of the instances, writing to the FBI, Pentagon and Division of Vitality this week to warn how “these deaths and disappearances might symbolize a grave risk to U.S. nationwide safety and to U.S. personnel with entry to scientific secrets and techniques.”
“We all know there are numerous international locations world wide that might like to have our information and nuclear capabilities,” Home Oversight Committee chairman James Comer advised Fox & Buddies. “And these are the folks that have been on the forefront of it, they usually’re both lifeless or lacking.”
The rumor mill went into overdrive Thursday following the death of famed UFO researcher David Wilcock, who died by suicide on April 20, the Workplace of the Boulder County Coroner confirmed. Wilcock’s dying brings the whole variety of mysterious instances to 12.
Police have dominated out foul play in a few of them, and NASA has stated there isn’t a indication of a safety risk, whereas households have dismissed conspiracies about their family members. President Donald Trump stated that “hopefully” it is all just a coincidence.”
The Unbiased delves into the instances
3 lacking or lifeless California NASA researchers and a Caltech astrophysicist shot on his doorstep
Frank Maiwald, Michael Hicks and Monica Reza labored for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whereas astrophysicist Carl Grillmair labored for Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Evaluation Middle. All 4 have been within the Pasadena space, simply exterior of Los Angeles; three of them are lifeless and one is lacking.
Hicks, whose specialism was comets and asteroids, labored as a analysis scientist on the lab till 2022. He died July 30, 2023 and the 59-year-old’s reason for dying was by no means publicly disclosed.
His daughter Julia Hicks advised CNN that her father had struggled with “recognized medical points” and stated she didn’t perceive the connection between her dad’s dying and the opposite lacking scientists. She added that neither elected officers nor federal businesses had contacted her about her father’s dying as of Tuesday.
The reason for dying of Maiwald, a 61-year-old German-born researcher on the Pasadena-based lab, was additionally by no means disclosed. He died July 4, 2024.
Reza, 60, a celebrated materials scientist, disappeared on June 22, 2025, after going for a hike within the Angeles Nationwide Forest. She was the director of the NASA lab’s Supplies Processing Group, and in the course of the 90s, co-invented a steel utilized in rocket engines. Within the letter to the FBI, the Home In a single day committee cited a report that linked her work to a different lacking scientist—retired Air Drive Common William McCasland—who disappeared from his residence in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in February.
“Stories have even alleged a direct hyperlink between Ms. Reza and Common McCasland characterizing them as having a ‘shut skilled connection’ by means of an Air Drive-funded analysis program within the early 2000s pertaining to ‘superior supplies wanted for reusable area autos and weapons,’” GOP committee chairman Comer and Rep. Eric Burlison wrote within the letter to FBI Director Kash Patel.
On February 16, famend astrophysicist and astronomer Grillmair, 67, was shot and killed on his doorstep within the small rural city of Llano. One of many scientist’s notable discoveries embody discovering water on a distant planet.
Freddy Snyder, 29, was charged with Grillmair’s homicide, and was not believed to know his sufferer, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Workplace stated.
4 lacking New Mexico scientists, together with retired Air Drive normal who labored at Roswell website
Retired Air Drive Common William “Neil” McCasland went for a hike on February 27 and by no means got here again.
McCasland is certainly one of 4 scientists who disappeared from New Mexico previously 12 months.
The 68-year-old lived within the Albuquerque foothills and left residence with a .38-caliber revolver in a leather-based holster, his climbing boots and a pockets, leaving his cellphone and glasses behind.
Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Workplace dominated out foul play, however conspiracy theories have exploded around McCasland’s case as a result of he beforehand led the Air Drive Analysis Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Drive Base in Greene County, Ohio—a website which conspiracy theorists have lengthy linked to the 1947 Roswell alien crash landing tale.
His spouse, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, stated that connection has brought about misinformation to unfold and denied that he had labeled or specialist information about extraterrestrials or UFO applications. “Neil doesn’t have any particular information concerning the ET our bodies and particles from the Roswell crash saved at Wright-Patt,” she wrote in a Facebook put up final month.
New Mexico scientists Melissa Casias and Anthony Chavez, who each labored on the Los Alamos Nationwide Laboratory, are nonetheless lacking. Los Alamos was the location of the U.S. authorities’s top-secret Manhattan Project in World War II to make a nuclear weapon earlier than the Nazis.
Casias disappeared June 26, 2025, from her hometown of Ranchos de Taos, roughly 65 miles from Santa Fe. The 53-year-old had dropped her husband off on the lab that morning, the place he additionally works, earlier than she returned residence to work remotely after forgetting her worker badge, in response to Taos News. When her daughter returned residence that day, her mom’s automotive was there however she had vanished. Her cellphone, purse and pockets have been at residence. New Mexico State Police stated there was no suspected foul play.
Chavez, 79, has been lacking since early Could, 2025, with a buddy calling his disappearance “extraordinarily uncommon.” Chavez retired from the lab in 2017, the place he labored as a foreman supervising development on the website, in response to CNN. A detective advised the community that there have been no indications of foul play, but additionally no indicators that he was planning to depart.
“His automotive was locked and parked in his driveway. His pockets, automotive keys and private objects have been in his residence, so it seems that he left his residence with the intention of not being gone for quite a lot of minutes,” Carl Buckland, who described Chavez as his “greatest buddy,” wrote in a Fb put up final 12 months. “His disappearance is extraordinarily uncommon.”
Elsewhere, Steven Garcia, who labored as a authorities contractor at Kansas Metropolis Nationwide Safety Campus in Albuquerque, has been lacking since August 28. He left residence with only a handgun, and with out his keys or cellphone. His work concerned the manufacturing of non-nuclear elements for nuclear weapons, and the location makes “an array of nationwide safety merchandise” for the Division of Vitality. Police advised native media that there are not any new developments within the case.
Homicide of celebrated MIT nuclear scientist, ‘genius’ researcher’s suicide and the dying of a pharmaceutical biologist
Three main scientists died in tragic and violent incidents previously three years, although there isn’t a proof linking them to any of the opposite instances.
The dying of a “genius” antigravity researcher Amy Eskridge in June 2022, was dominated a suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound by a coroner. A buddy of the 34-year-old scientist, Franc Milburn, advised NewsNation that Eskridge, who lived in Huntsville, Alabama, believed she was being focused for her work.
Milburn claimed that Eskridge advised him in a textual content message: “When you see any report that I killed myself, I most positively didn’t. When you see any report that I overdosed myself, I most positively didn’t. When you see any report that I killed anybody else, I most positively didn’t.”
Her father, Richard Eskridge, a former NASA worker, dismissed the conspiracy theories round his daughter’s dying. “Scientists die additionally, similar to different folks,” he advised NewsNation.
In December, Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist and MIT professor, was fatally shot at his house in Brookline, Massachusetts.
His killer was later recognized as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who was additionally discovered liable for the Brown College mass taking pictures, which passed off two days earlier than Loureiro’s homicide. Valente and Loureiro attended the identical college program in Portugal between 1995 and 2000. Valente was discovered lifeless in a New Hampshire storage facility on December 19.
His motive for killing Loureiro was by no means established.
The married father led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Middle. A police report launched in February cited a colleague who advised investigators that Loureiro had contacts on the Division of Vitality. “She wasn’t conscious if Loureiro had a High Secret Clearance or if he was doing any work with the Division of Protection,” the report stated, in response to CBS News.
In March, the physique of Jason Thomas, a biologist for pharmaceutical firm Novartis, was pulled from a lake in Massachusetts. Thomas had been lacking for 3 months earlier than he was present in Lake Quannapowitt by police, and his spouse stated he had been struggling to deal with the current deaths of his mother and father.
Thomas was not talked about by identify within the lawmakers’ letter to the FBI, however they did cite a “pharmaceutical researcher.”
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