A nuclear physicist and MIT professor fatally shot exterior his Massachusetts residence. A retired Air Power common lacking from his New Mexico house. An aerospace engineer who disappeared throughout a hike in Los Angeles.
These are amongst not less than 10 people linked to delicate US nuclear and aerospace analysis who’ve died or disappeared in recent times, prompting issues whether or not they’re linked and fueling hypothesis on-line about the opportunity of nefarious exercise.
The FBI now says it “is spearheading the trouble to search for connections into the lacking and deceased scientists,” including that it “is working with the Division of Vitality, Division of Conflict, and with our state … and native legislation enforcement companions to seek out solutions.”
Individually, the Republican-led Home Oversight Committee announced Monday it’ll examine stories of the deaths and disappearances of the people, whom it mentioned had entry to delicate scientific data.
The stories “elevate questions on a potential sinister connection” between the deaths and disappearances, the committee mentioned in its assertion, in search of briefings on the matter from the FBI, the Protection Division, the Division of Vitality and NASA.
The Protection Division mentioned solely that it will reply to the committee instantly, and the Division of Vitality referred inquiries to the White Home.
In a post on X, NASA mentioned it’s “coordinating and cooperating with the related businesses” in relation to the scientists.
“At the moment, nothing associated to NASA signifies a nationwide safety risk,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens mentioned.
The instances fluctuate broadly in circumstance. Some contain unsolved homicides, whereas others are lacking individuals instances with no indicators of foul play. In not less than two situations, households have pointed to preexisting medical circumstances or private struggles as explanations. Authorities haven’t established any hyperlinks between the instances.
The White Home mentioned final week it is usually working with federal businesses to probe any potential hyperlinks between the deaths and disappearances, with President Donald Trump referring to the matter as “fairly severe stuff.”
“It’s not possible that it is a coincidence,” Home Oversight Chair James Comer, a Republican, advised “Fox Information Sunday.” “Congress could be very involved about this. Our committee is making this certainly one of our priorities now as a result of we view this as a nationwide safety risk.”
Rep. James Walkinshaw, a Democrat who additionally serves on the Oversight Committee, agrees an investigation into the disappearances and deaths is warranted, however he mentioned he isn’t satisfied there’s a coordinated motive behind the instances.
“The USA has 1000’s of nuclear scientists and nuclear specialists,” Walkinshaw advised CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday. “It’s not the form of nuclear program that probably a international adversary may considerably affect by focusing on 10 people.”
The string of mysterious deaths and disappearances started in 2023, lawmakers say, with the dying of Michael David Hicks, a scientist who labored at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for practically 25 years.
Hicks, 59, died July 30, 2023. Throughout his profession at JPL, he specialised in comets and asteroids, based on the American Astronomical Society. His explanation for dying was not disclosed.
His daughter, Julia Hicks, advised CNN her father had been combating recognized medical points and that the current hypothesis has her “shaken up.”
“From what I do know of my dad, there’s no prepare of logic to observe that will implicate him on this potential federal investigation,” she mentioned. “I don’t perceive the connection between my dad’s dying and the opposite lacking scientists.”
“I can’t assist however snigger about it, however on the similar time, it’s getting severe,” Hicks mentioned.
Hicks advised CNN nobody in elected workplace or at any federal company had reached out to her to inquire about her father’s dying as of Tuesday afternoon.
Within the years since, a number of others linked to JPL have additionally died or disappeared: Frank Maiwald, a specialist in area analysis, died in Los Angeles in 2024 at 61. Monica Reza, a 60-year-old aerospace engineer, disappeared whereas mountaineering in a Los Angeles forest in June 2025. She served because the director of the NASA Lab’s Supplies Processing Group, the Home Oversight Committee mentioned.
Additionally lacking is William Neil McCasland, a retired Air Power main common, who hasn’t been seen since he walked out of his Albuquerque, New Mexico, house on February 27, abandoning his telephone, prescription glasses and wearable units. The FBI is now concerned within the search.
McCasland was on the heart of among the Pentagon’s most superior aerospace analysis and as soon as commanded the Air Power Analysis Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Months after the 68-year-old went lacking, officers nonetheless can’t say the place he went, why he left or whether or not another person was concerned.
His spouse, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, disputed on the time hypothesis that his disappearance was tied to his work on the base — lengthy rumored to accommodate extraterrestrial particles linked to the alleged “Roswell incident,” regardless of Air Power denials.
“It’s true that Neil had a quick affiliation with the UFO group,” McCasland Wilkerson mentioned in a Facebook post. “This connection will not be a motive for somebody to abduct Neil. Neil doesn’t have any particular information in regards to the ET our bodies and particles from the Roswell crash saved at Wright-Patt.”
“No sightings of a mothership hovering above the Sandia Mountains have been reported,” she added.
McCasland Wilkerson didn’t reply this week to CNN’s request for touch upon this story.
Two others lacking, Melissa Casias and Anthony Chavez, labored on the Los Alamos Nationwide Laboratory, a number one nuclear analysis facility in New Mexico.
Casias, 53, was final seen strolling on a freeway close to Talpa, New Mexico, in June 2025, according to New Mexico State Police, leaving her belongings at house and a telephone that had been factory-reset, NBC News reported.
The New Mexico Division of Public Security advised CNN there’s an open lacking individual investigation into Casias’ disappearance however added no foul play is suspected.
Chavez, a 78-year-old retiree who labored as a foreman supervising development on the web site, additionally disappeared in Could 2025, based on Los Alamos police. A detective advised CNN there are not any indicators of foul play, however exhaustive searches have yielded no indicators of exercise or indications he was planning to go away.
His good friend Carl Buckland advised CNN he’s glad authorities are trying into the case: “It’s about time.”
In current months, the deaths of a number of acclaimed scientists have additionally fueled hypothesis.
A professor on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, Nuno F.G. Loureiro, was fatally shot at his home close to Boston in December 2025 by a gunman who additionally opened hearth on Brown University’s campus, killing two college students. The 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist had led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Heart, the place he aimed to advance clear power expertise and different analysis.
Carl Grillmair was fatally shot on the age of 67 at his house exterior Los Angeles in February. Authorities arrested a suspect who they don’t consider knew Grillmair, based on KABC. The astrophysicist labored on the California Institute of Know-how, collaborated with NASA and was famend for his research on the seek for water on planets exterior our photo voltaic system.
Former US Air Power intelligence officer Matthew James Sullivan, 39, additionally died in 2024 earlier than he may testify in a federal whistleblower case about UFOs, Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri mentioned, urging the FBI to analyze. His public obituary didn’t state how he died. CNN has reached out to his household.
Burlison, nevertheless, advised Fox Information that Sullivan died by suicide, calling it suspicious.
“He was scheduled to come back in for an interview. Inside two weeks, he had suspiciously dedicated suicide,” Burlison, a Republican, advised Fox Information.
In current days, the 2022 dying of Amy Eskridge has gained consideration. Eskridge, 34, co-founded the Institute for Unique Science in Huntsville, Alabama, based on her obituary.
Eskridge’s household mentioned in a press release to CNN she was a “marvelously clever individual” and suffered from “continual ache.”
“Folks ought to notice that scientists die additionally and never make an excessive amount of of this,” the household mentioned.
Trump mentioned he hopes the disappearances and deaths are only a coincidence.
“I hope it’s random, however we’re going to know within the subsequent week and a half,” Trump advised reporters Thursday, including he had a current assembly on the topic.
The White Home declined to elaborate on the assembly.
The White Home is “actively working with all related businesses and the FBI to holistically overview all the instances collectively and determine any potential commonalities that will exist,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned in a press release on X on Friday.
The investigation is being carried out “in mild of the current and bonafide questions” relating to the current instances and “no stone will probably be unturned,” she mentioned.
“We’re going to search for connections … on whether or not there are connections to categorized entry, entry to categorized data, and or international actors,” FBI Director Kash Patel advised Fox Information on Sunday. “If there’s any connections that result in nefarious conduct or conspiracy, this FBI will make the suitable arrest.”
Correction:
An earlier headline on this story mischaracterized the skilled background of not less than one of many people described. The headline has been up to date.
