Tag: mysterious disappearances

Submarine finds unknown structures beneath Antarctica, then lost contact and disappeared

An unmanned submarine mapping West Antarctica’s Dotson Ice Shelf reported strange under-ice structures, then went silent ten miles beneath it.

The vehicle, called Ran, had spent weeks scanning an ice area roughly fifty square miles, revealing patterns that upend simple melt models.

Ran’s mission beneath Dotson ice shelf

The work was led by Anna Wåhlin, a professor of oceanographic physics at University of Gothenburg, coordinating the Ran missions in West Antarctica.

Her research focuses on how ocean currents erode ice shelves from below, changing glacier stability and future sea level.

Ran is an autonomous underwater vehicle, a robot submarine that navigates alone under ice for hours.

During a 2022 campaign, Ran spent 27 days weaving under Dotson’s floating ice, eventually reaching about eleven miles into the hidden cavity.

The mission aimed to explain the sharp contrast between Dotson’s thick, slow-melting eastern side and its thinner, faster-melting western side.

Ran saw strange things then vanished

Using sonar, Ran mapped 54 square miles of ice underside beneath Dotson Ice Shelf. The maps revealed flat plateaus, terraced steps, and teardrop-shaped pits, all carved by basal melt, melting that attacks the ice from below.

In the east and center, Ran saw icy terraces stacked like steps, while the west looked smoother, with channels and scooped depressions.

None of these terraces or teardrop pits show up on satellite images, so they had remained completely hidden until Ran’s mission.

Warm deep water, uneven melting

Around Antarctica, Circumpolar Deep Water, a warm salty current from the Southern Ocean, moves onto the shelf and melts ice shelves from below.

Satellite altimetry over Dotson shows that melt channels lose ice at about 40 feet per year, a thinning pattern linked to warm water.

Analysis of measurements under Dotson indicates that this ice shelf added 0.02 inches to sea level between 1979 and 2017.

The under-ice maps show that this warm inflow focuses erosion on Dotson’s western side, while colder water leaves the eastern flank protected.

Terraces, teardrops, and turbulence

Where currents move slowly, the base of the ice looks like stacked ledges, formed as melting eats away flats and leaves small steps.

In the fast outflow region, currents create smoother surfaces with grooves, where shear-driven turbulence, mixing caused by sliding water layers, drives rapid melting.

Some pits are teardrop shaped, 984 feet long and 164 feet deep, carved by currents near the ice base.

Elsewhere, the terraced plateaus probably record bursts of slightly warmer water entering the cavity, slowly peeling away layers of ice over many years.

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Disappearance of NASA rocket scientist takes chilling turn after critical national security patent comes to light

The disappearance of a rocket scientist has taken a chilling new turn after it emerged she holds a one-of-a-kind patent tied to advanced US launch systems.

Monica Jacinto Reza, 60, was last seen hiking in the rugged San Gabriel Wilderness area within the Angeles National Forest on the trail to Waterman Mountain summit on June 22, 2025, at about 9:10am local time.

Several 2025 reports in the forum EISPIRATEN indicated that a man hiking about 30 feet ahead of Reza turned around moments later and discovered she had vanished without a trace. According to those familiar with the hike, Reza was carrying a backpack believed to contain several liters of water at the time she disappeared.

New attention has focused on Reza’s work as public records highlight her role in developing advanced aerospace materials linked to high-performance propulsion systems.

Records show she is the only surviving co-creator of a patent filed in 2010 with Dallis Ann Hardwick, who died of cancer in 2014, for a specialized metal designed to resist burning while remaining incredibly strong under extreme heat.

She was also credited as a co-inventor of Mondaloy, a nickel-based superalloy later used in key components of advanced propulsion systems developed through US Air Force and NASA-backed research programs.

Reza spent decades working at Rocketdyne, later part of Aerojet Rocketdyne, a major aerospace contractor involved in government propulsion programs, while retired US Major General William Neil McCasland, who oversaw related Air Force research portfolios, also went missing in June 2025.

Reza and McCasland are among nine recent cases involving scientists with ties to aerospace, defense or nuclear research whose deaths or disappearances have drawn public attention.

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Ninth Scientist Linked to U.S. Secrets Confirmed Dead Under Highly Suspicious Circumstances — Disturbing Pattern of Deaths and Disappearances Among U.S. Space Program Experts Raises Alarming Questions

A troubling pattern is once again drawing renewed scrutiny after the death of yet another scientist tied to America’s most sensitive space and defense programs.

Michael David Hicks, a longtime research scientist at NASA’s prestigious Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), died on July 30, 2023, at just 59 years old, according to the Daily Mail.

Hicks was known in scientific circles for his work connected to advanced research initiatives, many of which intersect with highly classified aerospace and defense projects.

But nearly three years later, basic questions surrounding his death remain unanswered.

According to available records, the cause of Hicks’ death has never been publicly disclosed. Even more alarming, there appears to be no publicly available record indicating that an autopsy was ever conducted

The Daily Mail reported:

Hicks, who worked at JPL from 1998 to 2022, was credited with publishing over 80 scientific papers and was part of multiple teams helping NASA understand the physical properties of comets and asteroids.

Specifically, Hicks was involved with the DART Project, NASA’s test to see if humans could deflect dangerous asteroids away from Earth. He also worked on the Deep Space 1 Mission, which tested new spacecraft technology that flew by a comet in 2001.

While there have been no public allegations of foul play, Hicks’ case marks the ninth person with ties to America’s space or nuclear secrets who has died or mysteriously vanished in recent years, which has set off alarm bells among US national security experts.

Moreover, three of these scientists had close ties to Hicks, as all of them worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab or participated in NASA missions there. Monica Reza, JPL’s new Director of the Materials Processing Group, vanished without a trace in June 2025, just months after beginning her tenure at the NASA lab.

Two other men with deep ties to JPL died recently, including a long-time coworker of Hicks, Frank Maiwald, who died in July 2024 at age 61, with even less public acknowledgement of his untimely passing.

Meanwhile, astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, 67, was murdered on the front porch of his home on February 16, 2026. The California Institute of Technology researcher’s work was heavily supported by NASA’s JPL, and Grillmair was personally involved with major space telescope missions led by NASA.

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Mystery surrounds death of NINTH scientist tied to US secrets as disturbing pattern grows

Another scientist with ties to America’s space program has now joined the growing list of deaths and disappearances around the US. 

Michael David Hicks, a research scientist at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), passed away on July 30, 2023 at the age of 59, but the cause of death was never made public, and no record of an autopsy being performed could be found. 

Hicks, who worked at JPL from 1998 to 2022, was credited with publishing over 80 scientific papers and was part of multiple teams helping NASA understand the physical properties of comets and asteroids.

Specifically, Hicks was involved with the DART Project, NASA’s test to see if humans could deflect dangerous asteroids away from Earth. He also worked on the Deep Space 1 Mission, which tested new spacecraft technology that flew by a comet in 2001.

While there have been no public allegations of foul play, Hicks’ case marks the ninth person with ties to America’s space or nuclear secrets who has died or mysteriously vanished in recent years, which has set off alarm bells among US national security experts.

Moreover, three of these scientists had close ties to Hicks, as all of them worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab or participated in NASA missions there. Monica Reza, JPL’s new Director of the Materials Processing Group, vanished without a trace in June 2025, just months after beginning her tenure at the NASA lab.

Two other men with deep ties to JPL died recently, including a long-time coworker of Hicks, Frank Maiwald, who died in July 2024 at age 61, with even less public acknowledgement of his untimely passing.

Meanwhile, astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, 67, was murdered on the front porch of his home on February 16, 2026. The California Institute of Technology researcher’s work was heavily supported by NASA’s JPL, and Grillmair was personally involved with major space telescope missions led by NASA.

The Daily Mail has reached out to NASA, Hicks’ alma mater at the University of Arizona, and the scientist’s friends and colleagues for comment on the circumstances surrounding his death. 

Strangely, a series of online obituaries dedicated to Hicks did not mention any health issues before the 59-year-old’s death, which appeared to happen suddenly, roughly one year after leaving NASA JPL.

A similar situation unfolded after Maiwald’s death on July 4, 2024, when the prominent JPL researcher died in Los Angeles from unknown circumstances. 

Despite Maiwald being a JPL Principal – an award given to scientists ‘making outstanding individual contributions’ in their fields – there were no public comments from authorities after the esteemed scientist’s death, and the only public record marking his passing was a single obituary posted online.

NASA and JPL have not commented on the deaths of Maiwald or Hicks, and did not reply to Daily Mail’s inquiries into the nature of the scientists’ work before their deaths.

In June 2023, just 13 months before his death, Maiwald was the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future space missions detect clear signs of life on other worlds in the solar system and beyond.

As for the other JPL-connected scientist, Grillmair had contributed to the discovery of water on a distant planet, with colleagues calling his work ‘ingenious’ and adding that the research could point to signs of life less than 160 light-years from Earth.

According to his Caltech profile, he also worked on the NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor, infrared space telescopes that track asteroids. However, experts have also expressed concern that this technology has also been used in advanced missile designs.

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Rep. Eric Burlison calls for FBI probe into ‘deeply concerning’ scientist and military personnel disappearances and deaths

The list of U.S. scientists and military personnel who have gone missing has grown in recent months, beginning with the July 4, 2024 disappearance of Frank Maiwald, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher.

Following several more high-profile disappearances—including a senior aerospace engineer and a retired Air Force General, Representative Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) is demanding a federal investigation. Citing the
“deeply concerning” ties these individuals share with advanced research, Burlison revealed that he has asked for the involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to determine if these incidents are connected or represent a targeted threat to national security.

“The disappearance of multiple scientists and military personnel with ties to advanced research is deeply concerning. I’ve already requested FBI involvement, and we will keep pressing for answers,” Burlison said Monday on X.

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Why Are All These Scientists And Military Officials Missing/Dead?

A disturbing number of scientists and military officials connected to America’s most sensitive aerospace, nuclear, and space programs have gone missing or turned up dead recently.

The timing is prompting serious questions as to whether it is connected to President Trump ordering the full release of UFO and UAP files.

Fox News host Will Cain highlighted several of the cases:

“Carl Grillmair: Astrophysicist at Caltech. He worked on a NASA-supported space telescope project and infrared systems. Now, he was shot and killed at his home just two months ago.”

“Frank Maiwald: Senior Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. He died nearly two years ago but his cause of death has never been made public.”

“Monica Reza: Connected to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab Project. She went missing last summer while hiking in California.”

“William Neil McCasland: Retired Air Force General that oversaw advanced space and surveillance programs. He’s been missing since February. (Connected to Monica Reza)”

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Girl Who Went Missing in 1994 Found Alive

A cold case from another era finally reached its conclusion this week in Gila County, Arizona.

On Wednesday, the Gila County Sheriff’s Office announced via news release that Christina Marie Plante, who was 13 when she disappeared from Star Valley, Arizona, in 1994, has been found alive.

The Sheriff’s Office posted a copy of the news release to Facebook.

“Christina was reported missing after she vanished without a trace from her community,” the press release read. “At the time of her disappearance, extensive search efforts were conducted involving local law enforcement, volunteers, and regional resources. Despite exhaustive ground searches, interviews, and investigative follow-up, no viable leads were developed.”

The Sheriff’s office credited the subsequent formation of its own cold case unit, which led to “new leads” and eventually a “breakthrough.”

“Investigators have confirmed her identity,” the press release noted.

As for what happened to Plante nearly 32 years ago, authorities remained mum.

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Mystery of scientists dead or missing rises to EIGHT as two more men tied to America’s most coveted secrets join the list

The ominous web of US scientists and lab employees who have died or gone missing continues to grow as two more cases have been linked to the disturbing trend. 

NASA scientist Frank Maiwald reportedly died on July 4, 2024 in Los Angeles at the age of 61, but the cause of death has never been made public and officials confirmed that an autopsy was never performed.

Maiwald had been a prominent researcher at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) since 1999 and worked on multiple projects tied to advanced satellite technology that could scan Earth and other planets.

In June 2023, just 13 months before his death, he was the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future space missions detect clear signs of life on other worlds, including Jupiter’s moon Europa, Saturn’s moon Enceladus, or the dwarf planet Ceres.

Despite Maiwald being a JPL Principal – an award given to scientists ‘making outstanding individual contributions’ in their fields – NASA has never commented publicly on the scientist’s death, and the only public record marking his passing was an obituary posted online.

Meanwhile, another mysterious disappearance has come to light at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), one of America’s key nuclear research facilities, bringing the total number of unexplained incidents to eight since July 2024.

Anthony Chavez, a former employee at LANL until his retirement in 2017, vanished without a trace on May 4, 2025 – just seven weeks before a key assistant at the same lab disappeared.

The Los Alamos Police Department told the Daily Mail that the search for Chavez, 79, is still ongoing and no new information in the case has emerged, nearly one year later. 

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‘Something Dark Is Going On’: Nine Top-Level Scientists Die Or Go Missing In Past Year

In the span of nine months, nine top-level scientists in the United States have died or vanished without a trace.

Seven of them were connected to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) or the institutions it directly funds.

AFRL develops and transitions the most sensitive aerospace technologies in the United States’ defense arsenal.

1) Monica Jacinto Reza vanished June 22, 2025 while hiking with friends in the Angeles National Forest in California.

She was last seen waving to a hiking companion approximately 30 feet behind the group. Despite an extensive search involving helicopters, drones, and canine units, only a beanie and lip balm were recovered, and her body was never found.

Reza, 60, was an aerospace engineer and Technical Fellow at Aerojet Rocketdyne who later moved to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)and co-inventor of Mondaloy.

Mondaloy is a family of nickel-based superalloys developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne to withstand oxygen-rich environments and extreme heat in rocket engines. Its unique achievement is balancing high oxygen compatibility with structural strength, solving a critical challenge where traditional oxygen-resistant alloys were too weak for use in high-pressure components like preburners and turbine rotors.

She worked closely with Retired Major General William Neil McCasland, who commanded the AFRL from 2011 to 2013 and oversaw the government funding for her alloy program. McCasland disappeared in February.

Dallas Hardwick, Reza’s mentor and co-inventor of Mondaloy, died on January 5, 2014, apparently of natural causes.

2) Melissa Casias has been missing since June 26, 2025, in Taos County, New Mexico.

She was last seen walking alone on Highway 518 near Talpa around 2:15 p.m., wearing a light-colored shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes, with a backpack containing personal items.

Casias, 53, was an administrative assistant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a facility known for nuclear weapons research and national security science.

Her job at LANL links her to McCasland, who worked closely with LANL on national security projects at Kirtland Air Force Base, according to the Daily Mail. She vanished just four days after Reza mysteriously disappeared.

3, 4, 5) Jacob Prichard, Jaymee Prichard, and 1st Lt. Jaime Gustitus all died on October 25, 2025.

Jacob Prichard, 34, was the Acquisition Project Manager in the AFRL Sensors Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, specializing in technologies for air and space reconnaissance and surveillance.

Jacob’s wife, Jaymee Prichard, 33, was a finance specialist at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson. The couple had three children.

Gustitus, 25, was a U.S. Air Force Operations Analysis Officer who worked in a top secret capacity at the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson.

Jacob allegedly killed his wife Jaymee and placed her body in the trunk of their car, then drove to Sugarcreek Township, broke into Gustitus’s apartment and fatally shot her around 2 a.m.

He then drove to the West Milton Municipal Building, opened the trunk for police to discover Jaymee’s body, and at around 4:23 a.m., committed suicide by gunshot in the parking lot. The act was reportedly captured on security cameras.

6) Carl Grillmair, astrophysicist and astronomer at the Caltech Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), was shot dead on the front porch of his home in Llano, California on February 16, 2026.

Grillmair was celebrated for his groundbreaking research in astronomy, including the discovery of dozens of stellar streams (remnants of ancient galactic collisions) and the first detection of water signatures in the atmospheres of exoplanets. For over nearly 30 years at IPAC, he worked on numerous projects including the NEOWISE Science Data Center, where he validated data pipelines for detecting asteroids and comets that could impact Earth.

Grillmair’s role involved testing new instrumentation and ensuring the NEO Surveyor’s instruments performed to specification to identify dark, cold objects against the black of space.

7) William Neil McCasland, former AFRL Commander, former research commander at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, vanished from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 27, 2026.  A “Silver Alert” was issued after the 68-year-old disappeared.

He reportedly left his phone and glasses but took his wallet, boots, and a .38 revolver, with the FBI now assisting in his search.

McCasland held some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. military, including Director of Special Programs at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, giving him critical knowledge of the nation’s most classified programs.

He reportedly oversaw $4.4 billion in classified aerospace research and development, running the lab at Wright-Patterson and serving as the executive secretary of the Special Access Program Oversight Committee, the body with full purview of every SAP in the Department of Defense. His name appears in WikiLeaks emails coordinating a UAP disclosure meeting with the Clinton campaign and the head of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, according to the Sentinel Network.

McCasland’s association with UFO research and brief professional association with Tom DeLonge and the To The Stars Academy have drawn significant public and media attention to the case.

According to The Sentinel, these mysterious deaths and disappearances do not amount to  “a loose collection of people who happened to work in defense.”

This is one documented system, traceable through patent filings, congressional testimony, DTIC records, and federal contract databases.

Reza vanished in LA County. Grillmair was killed in LA County. Both in the shadow of the JPL/Caltech corridor where America’s planetary defense infrastructure is built. McCasland vanished in Albuquerque, home of Kirtland AFB and Sandia National Labs. The Wright-Patterson deaths were in Dayton. These are not random locations. They are the three geographic nodes of American defense aerospace research. Southern California. New Mexico. Ohio. The triangle where AFRL lives.

And at every node, the same institutional silence. JPL said nothing about Reza. NASA said nothing. The AIAA said nothing. Caltech’s statement about Grillmair said he “passed away suddenly” without using the word “shot.” Wright-Patterson offered counseling services. In every case, the institution that lost someone chose the minimum possible disclosure. The silence is its own pattern inside the pattern.

8) Nuno F. Gomes Loureiro, a prominent Portuguese plasma physicist, was fatally shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on December 15, 2025 and died from his injuries the following day.

Authorities connected his murder to Cláudio Manuel Neves Valente, who had committed a shooting at Brown University two days prior; both men were classmates at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal.

Loureiro, 47, held joint appointments as a professor in MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Department of Physics and director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

He joined MIT in 2016 and was known for his work on nonlinear plasma dynamics, including the development of the Viriato simulation code and his research on solar flares and fusion confinement.

9) Jason Thomas, a chemical biologist, was reported missing on December 13, 2025, after leaving his home on the night of December 12 without his phone, wallet, or identification. He was found dead in Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts, on March 17, 2026.

Thomas, 45, was the assistant director at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research with over 4,500 citations in chemical biology and chemoproteomics.  His work reportedly included active contracts with the Department of Defense.

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Possible X account of missing general William McCasland claimed fellow general was murdered over nuclear material

Online sleuths think they have uncovered missing retired Air Force general William Neil McCasland’s anonymous social media account — which claimed another general was murdered for his dealings with nuclear material.

McCasland, 68, went missing from his Albuquerque, NM, home on Feb. 27 — which is the same day that the person behind a conspicuously credentialed X account centered on spacecraft and advanced science made their last post.

The account @tmbspaceships claims to be run by a “retired 38-year active duty” United States Air Force with a PhD in engineering — listing the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), the Air Education Training Command (AETC), and Air Force Material Command (AETC) as places they’ve worked.

Both the AFIT and AFMC are located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which McCasland ran from 2011 to 2013. He attended the Air War College during his 34-year career, which is a subordinate to the AETC. McCasland attained a PhD in Astronautical Engineering from MIT in 1988.

The account shockingly claimed just months before McCasland’s disappearance that Maj. Gen. John Rossi, who allegedly committed suicide in 2016, was actually murdered because of refusal to hand over nuclear material to private contractors.

The 55-year-old two star general ended his life just two days before receiving a third star and taking the reins at US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Army Times reported.

Army investigators ruled his hanging death was due a severe lack of sleep and job anxiety, according to the outlet.

“Gen. Rossi was a good friend and it is my opinion he did not commit suicide,” the account wrote in a reply posted on Sept. 2, 2025.

“I believe Gen Rossi was killed because of a [sic] incident, reported to the pentagon IG [inspector general], that he would not transfer nuclear weapons to private hands, just months prior in an attempted Nuclear Weapons theft from Ft. Sill,” the post claimed.

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