Disappearances and Deaths of Individuals Tied to UFO Research and Advanced Science Projects Baffle Authorities

A series of mysterious deaths and disappearances of eleven individuals, including UFO researchers and a number of prominent scientists working in related fields such as antigravity, plasma physics, space research programs and nuclear engineering since 2022 has led to a coordinated investigation between the FBI and the Departments of Energy and Defense.  President Trump has been briefed on the situation, which he has called, “highly suspicious.”

General William Neil McCasland disappeared on February 27, 2026, and was last seen hiking in the Sandia Heights area near Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Items including his wallet, a .38-caliber revolver and a backpack were reported missing and were presumably in McCasland’s possession when he went on the hike.  A shirt and a pair of hiking boots were subsequently discovered at his second home in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.  Reports indicate that he may have been suffering from “mental fog” prior to his disappearance.

Prior to his retirement McCasland had been commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio where he oversaw various research and development projects.  Rumors abound in the UFO community that this was the site where alien technology recovered from the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico crash is warehoused.  He had previously served as director of Space Acquisition in the office of the Secretary of the Air Force and as Director of Special Programs for the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Technology and Logistics, roles that placed him at the center of national defense, space and technology research initiatives at the Pentagon.

After his retirement in 2013, McCasland was associated with Tom De Longe, former Blink-182 band member and founder of the To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science, a now defunct UFO investigative group.  In a series of emails between De Longe and John Podesta, Former White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton released by Wikileaks in 2016, De Longe indicated that McCasland was providing advice on how to proceed with his UFO disclosure program.  He further intimated that the general was helping him assemble and select individuals who would assist him with the disclosure process.  De Longe claimed that McCasland had previously been “in charge of the laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where the Roswell wreckage was shipped.”

McCasland never confirmed or denied his involvement with De Longe, and there are no official records of his connection with De Longe’s investigative group.  The general’s wife, Susan Wilkerson, stated that her husband “does not have any special knowledge” about UFOs.  She also joked that a UFO “mothership” had beamed her husband up and was responsible for his disappearance.  Investigators say they have not discovered any evidence of foul play in their missing person probe.

The general’s disappearance is just one example of a troubling pattern of unexplained disappearances or mysterious deaths of a number of prominent scientists linked to the American space program.  McCasland’s colleague, scientist Monica Reza, who had worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) inventing an advanced metal alloy for space rockets and hypersonic missiles, vanished without a trace on June 23, 2025 while hiking along Angel’s Crest Highway in Los Angeles County.  Another one of McCasland’s associates, Melissa Casias, who worked at the nuclear research facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, disappeared on June 26, 2025 while walking a few miles from her home in Rancho de Taos.  Casias left her vehicle containing her keys, work and personal cellphones, purse and money in her home, and both her phones were found to be reset to factory settings in the wake of her disappearance.    

Retired nuclear scientist Anthony Chavez, who also worked at Los Alamos vanished while taking a walk on May, 4, 2025.  He left his car locked in the driveway and left his wallet, keys and other personal items at home.  A senior scientist at JPL, Frank Maiwald, passed away from unknown causes on July 4, 2024.  Maiwald was involved in studies aimed at detecting extraterrestrial life on Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus.  California Institute of Technology astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was shot to death by an unknown assailant on the front porch of his home on February 16, 2026.  He contributed to infrared telescope projects at CIT that tracked asteroids.  

Michael David Hicks worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) Project, the Dawn Mission and the Deep Space 1 Mission.  Hicks died on July 30, 2023 of causes that have never been disclosed, although foul play is not suspected.  MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center was shot to death at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts on December 15, 2025 by a former colleague, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente.

Three other deaths have occurred under more bizarre and suspiciously mysterious circumstances.  Joshua Le Blanc was a 29 year-old engineer who worked on NASA’s Space Propulsion (SNP) Instrumentation and Control Program and the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) projects at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama that were related to future Mars missions.  On July 22, 2025 Le Blanc’s Tesla Model 3 was discovered on a rural backroad near Florence, Alabama engulfed in flames.  Le Blanc’s body was so badly burned it had to be identified using forensic means.  His phone and wallet had been left behind in his apartment.

Another mysterious death attributed to suicide was that of scientist Amy Eskridge, a Huntsville, Alabama based researcher who was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on June 11, 2022 at the age of 34.  She co-founded a research group called the Institute for Exotic Science and was reportedly working on developing antigravity technology.  Prior to her death, Eskridge claimed that she was being physically and psychologically attacked because of her work, possibly by a directed energy weapon similar to a device responsible for the “Havana Syndrome” which caused symptoms that reportedly plagued U.S. diplomats in Cuba.  In an interview, she insisted that, “If you see any report that I killed myself, I most definitely did not.  If you see any report that I overdosed myself, I most definitely did not.  If you see any report that I killed anyone else, I most definitely did not.”  There is speculation that Eskridge was targeted because the antigravity technology she was working on threatened the conventional rocketry industry and would render it obsolescent.

On the morning of April 20, 2026 Sheriffs deputies were called to the residence of David Wilcock in Boulder, Colorado regarding a possible mental health crisis.  When the deputies arrived, they encountered Wilcox, who was brandishing a weapon that he turned on himself and was pronounced dead on the scene.  Wilcock was a paranormal researcher, author, influencer and vocal advocate of UFO disclosure, who was the author of several books on paranormal subjects, including The Synchronicity Key and Awakening in the Dream.  He also appeared frequently on the popular show Ancient Aliens.  In a 2022 social media post, Wilcock stated that, “I plan on living.  Not suicidal at all.”  Two days before his death he reflected on the pattern of deaths and disappearances on YouTube, saying that, “I’m excited to be here, you know, every day I have on earth is a gift and a blessing, and I’m very grateful for that, because, frankly, people are disappearing.  Scientists are going missing.  It’s a little bit scary.”

In addition to the eleven missing or dead scientists, the suspicious deaths of two Air Force veterans connected to UFOs and space science have raised concerns.  Matthew James Sullivan, a former Air Force Intelligence Officer and Bronze Star recipient was found dead in his Falls Church, Virginia home on May 12, 2024.  An apparent suicide, Sullivan was found to have died from a mixture of alcohol, Xanax and two other drugs.  He was reportedly part of a legacy program involving the U.S. government’s crash-retrieval of UFOs, and was scheduled to testify as a whistleblower at a congressional hearing in November, 2024 before his untimely death.  

On April 17, 2026, James Moffatt and his two sons were killed in the crash of a small plane at a South Carolina airport being piloted by Moffatt.  Before his retirement in 2008, he had worked as a payload and flight crew support specialist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center Astronaut’s Office on Space Shuttle missions constructing the International Space Station.  He later worked in private defense and aerospace consulting jobs.

“Something dark is going on,” opined Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett, “I know these scientists and researchers.  They have testified.  We’ve got to get to the bottom of it.”  When asked why there aren’t more whistleblowers willing to come forward with information about UFOs, Burchett responded, “they’re afraid someone will disappear them,” meaning that they would be murdered.  FBI investigators fear that these deaths may be linked to assassinations being conducted by adversary foreign powers such as Russia or China, while UFO researchers speculate that aliens may be involved.  The strange deaths and disappearances are being investigated by the FBI, a congressional committee and the Energy Department

Sources:

Newsweek, 3/3/26    Fox News, 4/17/26

Yahoo.com, 4/6/26

Men’s Journal 4/4/26

New York Post 4/23/26