A surge in disappearances and deaths of former military personnel, workers, and specialists in facilities linked to nuclear technology and space has put federal agencies in
the United States on alert. The
FBI assumed official coordination of the investigation due to the fear of possible links between the cases, although specialists have so far ruled out criminal or espionage patterns.
The phenomenon sparked public debate and led to theories about safety in strategic laboratories, while officials and family members argued that the causes are individual and in many cases explainable.
In the last three years, 10 deaths and disappearances were recorded under analysis, from high-profile nuclear experts to administrative employees. Four recent disappearances occurred in
New Mexico, especially around laboratories such as
Los Alamos and other facilities supervised by the
Department of Energy.
Recent disappearances include cases in New Mexico, around Los Alamos and other facilities overseen by the Department of Energy.
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Other victims were linked to centers such as the laboratory of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to the investigation by CBS News, these events motivated the intervention of state and federal bodies, as well as an official communication maintained between the FBI and the Department of Energy.
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He mentioned that his assessment would change only if all the victims worked on the same project or weapons system, a situation that does not occur. For his part, Scott Roecker, vice president of the organization
Nuclear Threat Initiative, downplayed the fear of a possible foreign operation when he warned:
“The United States has thousands of scientists and a robust infrastructure. There would be no clear strategic benefit for an adversary in eliminating ten or twenty experts”.
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The most notorious case was the disappearance of
retired Major General William Neil McCasland, 68, last seen in February at his home in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. Local authorities, in conjunction with the Bureau and canine teams, searched the area after finding, just over two kilometers from his home, a gray Air Force sweatshirt, part of his belongings.
His wife,
Susan McCasland Wilkerson, rejected any motivation linked to military espionage and emphasized, in Facebook posts, that her link to UFO investigations was minimal and had no current secret relevance. Albuquerque area authorities are also looking for Steven Garcia, 48, who disappeared last August (New Mexico Department of Public Safety)
Three other disappearances in
New Mexico correspond to
Steven Garcia, warehouse manager of the National Nuclear Security Agency in Albuquerque, missing since last August, and two Los Alamos employees:
Melissa Casias, administrative assistant, missing after being seen alone walking along a road, and
Anthony Chavez, 78 years old, wanted by the police since May 2025.
In California, the disappearance of
Monica Jacinton Reza, a 60-year-old aerospace engineer who collaborated on rocket technologies, also received media attention. According to the tracking of
CBS News, the last clue about Reza was her trail on a hiking trail in Los Angeles County, on June 22, 2025.
Deaths in laboratories: various violent, natural, and work-related causes
Five deaths in the investigation occurred in different circumstances. Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Nuno Lureiro, specialist in fusion and plasma physics, died after being the victim of a shooting in Boston perpetrated by a former university colleague, an event that happened one day after another armed attack at Brown University.
In Los Angeles, astrophysicist
Carl Grillmair, awarded the NASA Scientific Achievement Medal in 2011, died from a gunshot in front of his residence; the alleged perpetrator, 29 years old, had been released from prison five months earlier by court decision.
Other deaths include the case of Novartis researcher Jason Thomas, found dead in a Massachusetts lake three months after being reported missing; Frank Maiwald, of NASA, who died on July 4, 2024 in Los Angeles; and physicist Michael David Hicks, of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who died in July 2023.
According to
CBS News, authorities consulted obituaries, family statements, and court records without identifying ties or criminal patterns between the cases. A former Department of Energy official pointed out to the media that the group of deaths was due to
personal causes: stroke, heart disease, suicide, attacks, and circumstances of daily life in a workforce that exceeds 20,000 employees.
Exhaustive Searches and Federal Participation in the Face of Growing Public Scrutiny
The search for the missing person involved teams from the
Bernalillo County Sheriff, state and federal support, the use of drones, and patrols through rugged areas. The investigation into
McCasland continues; so far,
“there are no signs of foul play,” a local police source told
CBS News.
The federal agency, represented by its head
Kash Patel, informed on
Fox News and reiterated on
CBS News the institutional commitment to lead the investigation together with the Departments of Energy and War when requested by local authorities. Cooperation with laboratories and security agencies remains active.
In the last three years,
10 cases of deaths and disappearances of specialists and employees linked to nuclear and space laboratories in the United States were reported. The FBI is leading the investigations, but neither the authorities nor the experts consulted found evidence of criminal or conspiratorial links between the victims.
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