By Joe Edwards
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Reports and online speculation have raised questions about a possible connection among a series of deaths and disappearances dating back several years, which some lawmakers have described as suspicious. No confirmed link between the cases has been established by authorities.
Included among those referenced are Michael David Hicks, who worked as a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1998 to 2022. Another former JPL employee, Monica Reza, who led the lab’s Materials Processing Group, went missing while hiking in California in June 2025 and has not been found. In February 2026, retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland was reported missing from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after apparently leaving with a .38-caliber revolver.
Reports have also referenced other individuals connected to NASA’s JPL, at least two workers affiliated with Los Alamos National Laboratory, an MIT nuclear fusion scientist, a pharmaceutical researcher, and a government contractor tied to a nuclear weapons component facility.
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While some of those referenced share professional or institutional links, in other cases, the connections are less clear, and authorities have not identified any verified link between the cases as of publication.
Public attention around the cases has increased in recent weeks, though some experts and individuals close to those who died or disappeared have rejected conspiracy-driven interpretations.
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Lawmakers Seek Answers
On Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced it was seeking information from the Department of Energy (DOE), Defense Department, FBI, and NASA regarding the cases.
It said that if reports speculating on a connection between the incidents were accurate, “these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets.”
Missouri Republican Representative Eric Burlison has previously suggested that the string of cases could be connected to a “foreign operation.” Kentucky Representative James Comer, the top House Oversight Committee Republican, told Fox News Congress is “very concerned.”
Letters from the committee, addressed to the heads of each agency, were issued this week, requesting briefings on the topic by April 27.
What Have Federal Authorities Said?
Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that the Trump administration would investigate, prompted by a reporter’s question regarding the cases.
“Multiple equities across the Trump administration are involved in this investigation, including the FBI, DOE, DOW [Department of War] and others,” a White House official later told Newsweek.
President Donald Trump himself has also commented on the situation, referring to it as “pretty serious stuff.” The president added that he hoped the incidents were a coincidence, but noted: “Some of them were very important people.”
Both the FBI and NASA have confirmed they are investigating, with a bureau spokesperson telling Newsweek it "is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists.”
"NASA is coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies in relation to the missing scientists. At this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat," NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said in a statement on Monday. "The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as able."
Offering an update, Trump told reporters there is “not much of a connection” between the cases.
“We have a lot of scientists so when you put together 10, it’s a lot but a very small number compared to—we have a lot of scientists… thousands, hundreds of thousands of scientists," he said.
“Some of them that we looked at are very sad cases, in some cases, some were sick, some left this earth self-inflicted. Some had other things.”
He added, “So far, we’re finding that there’s not much of a connection. We’ll let you know. We’re going to be doing a full report."
William Neil McCasland
As Newsweek reported previously, McCasland has held high-ranking roles in the U.S. Air Force spanning science, technology and space research, and was a commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base—an Ohio military installation long associated with UFO lore.
Police said the 68-year-old’s last known location was at or near his home in the Quail Run Court NE area of Albuquerque on February 27, 2026.
According to investigators, his phone, prescription glasses, and wearable devices were located at his residence. Missing items included his hiking boots and a .38-caliber revolver. They added that a Silver Alert had been issued “based on information available early in the investigation that indicated Mr. McCasland could be at some level of risk and that additional public assistance was needed to locate him.”
While some in UFO circles have speculated his disappearance could be connected to his work, McCasland’s wife has pushed back against some of the conspiracy claims, writing on social media shortly after he went missing: “Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt.”
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, which has been investigating McCasland’s disappearance, told Newsweek previously that it was aware of the speculation surrounding the case but remained focused on verified facts and credible leads.
Monica Reza
Reza once worked on a government-funded rocket materials project overseen by McCasland, as Newsweek reported previously.
Police said the 60-year-old—a Los Angeles County resident—was last seen hiking on the morning of June 22, 2025, in the Mt. Waterman area of the Angeles National Forest in California.
NewsNation reported she was seen smiling and waving some 30 feet behind her hiking companion before she vanished.
The aerospace engineer had worked on high-strength and burn-resistant alloys, with connections to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, according to the outlet.
Amy Eskridge
The scientist reportedly died in 2022 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She had been investigating and attempting to develop antigravity technology, a method of manipulating or offsetting the effects of gravity, according to the Daily Mail.
Additional questions surrounding the 2022 death of Amy Eskridge are being raised after footage and text messages resurfaced of the scientist claiming she was being targeted by a “direct energy weapon.”
Eskridge graduated from the University of Alabama in Huntsville with a double major in chemistry and biology, and she became an interdisciplinarian and proficient in electrical engineering, chemistry, physics and genetic engineering. She was also the chair and president of the Institute for Exotic Science in Huntsville, which she co-founded, according to obituaries posted online.
In a 2020 interview, Eskridge said she had co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science "as a public-facing persona to disclose antigravity technology," adding, "If you stick your neck out in public, at least someone notices if your head gets chopped off."
During the same interview, she alleged that threats against her had been escalating, saying, "I need to disclose soon man."
Despite online speculation linking Eskridge to a broader list of missing and deceased scientists, her father—a former NASA employee who reportedly worked closely with her—told NewsNation he did not believe her death was suspicious.
“Scientists die also, just like other people,” he said.
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Michael David Hicks
Hicks, 59, a longtime NASA JPL scientist involved in asteroid and comet research, died in July 2023. He was remembered in his obituary as an astronomer, artist and father.
His work included service on the science teams of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking Project, the Dawn Mission and NASA’s Deep Space 1 mission. He also authored more than 80 peer‑reviewed scientific papers.
He worked at the lab as a research scientist from 1998 until 2022, according to the American Astronomical Society.
Carl Grillmair
Grillmair was an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology’s (Caltech) IPAC Science and Data Center for Astronomy and Planetary Science. He passed away on February 16 at the age of 67 as a result of a shooting outside his home in the town of Llano.
“In 2007, in one of his most impactful findings, he was lead author on a publication that ‘captured for the first time enough light from planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to identify molecules in their atmospheres,’” Caltech said.
Over nearly three decades at IPAC, Grillmair played key roles on several NASA missions, including supporting instruments on the Spitzer Space Telescope and working at the NEOWISE Science Data Center.
He was awarded more than 400 hours of Hubble and Spitzer observing time as a principal investigator and over 2,700 hours as a co‑investigator, and published 147 peer‑reviewed papers during his career.
Grillmair received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 2011, along with multiple NASA Group Achievement Awards.
Joe Masiero, a scientist who has direct professional connections to Hicks and Grillmair, told Newsweek he didn’t think their deaths were connected by any coordinated or sinister plot.
“Sometimes, life is weird like that,” Masiero, who worked as a research scientist at NASA’s JPL, said. “It’s really unfortunate to see a tragedy played out over and over again."
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Jason Thomas
A 45-year-old investigator at Novartis, reportedly working on cancer treatments, Thomas was reported missing in December 2025. His body was recovered from Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts, in March.
"Jason was deeply compassionate and generous, believing strongly that his work could make a meaningful difference in people's lives," his obituary said. "He dedicated countless hours to his education, driven by a desire to learn all he could in order to better serve others."
Frank Maiwald
Maiwald served as a principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managing major Earth‑observing and space instrumentation projects and earning multiple NASA awards, Newsweek reported previously.
The longtime researcher died on July 4, 2024, in Los Angeles, at age 61.
Nuno Loureiro
Loureiro, 47, was the director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He was fatally shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, in December. Officials later identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the suspect in the Brown University shooting.
Newsweek reported previously that Valente and Loureiro studied in the same academic program at a Portuguese university for several years in the late 1990s.
Loureiro graduated in 2000 from the physics program at Instituto Superior Técnico—Portugal’s leading engineering school. Valente, meanwhile, was dismissed from a position at the Lisbon university that same year.
Loureiro joined MIT’s faculty in 2016 and received tenure a year later, holding joint appointments in nuclear science and engineering and physics. A theoretical physicist and fusion scientist, he later rose to lead roles at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, becoming deputy director in 2022 and director in 2024.
“It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems. Fusion is a hard problem, but it can be solved with resolve and ingenuity—characteristics that define MIT,” an MIT release issued after his death quoted Nuno as saying.
“Fusion energy will change the course of human history. It’s both humbling and exciting to be leading a research center that will play a key role in enabling that change.”
A friend and former colleague told Newsweek shortly after his death that Loureiro should be remembered as a devoted husband and father of three, as well as a gifted physicist.
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Melissa Casias
Casias worked in an administrative role at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where she held security clearance. She was last seen walking along a roadside, according to Fox News. Family members have disputed suggestions that she left of her own accord, the outlet reported.
She was 53 when she was reported missing from her home in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, in June 2025.
Anthony Chavez
According to reports, Chavez worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for decades before retiring in 2017.
The 79-year-old was last seen on May 8 in Los Alamos, authorities said. The Los Alamos Reporter said the retired research and development engineer was seen leaving his home on foot and left his keys and wallet behind.
Chavez spent most of his career at the Dual‑Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test facility, a site central to U.S. nuclear weapons research, according to the New York Post.
Steven Garcia
The 48-year-old was last seen on foot on August 28, 2025, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reportedly carrying a handgun.
NewsNation reported Garcia worked as a property custodian at the Kansas City National Security Campus with access inside the facility, which it noted manufactures more than 80 percent of the non-nuclear components for U.S. nuclear weapons.
According to the Daily Mail, citing an unnamed source, Garcia had a high-level oversight role at KCNSC’s New Mexico facility with access to potentially sensitive assets.
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