Tag: mysterious disappearances

Married mom who vanished last year could be tied to missing and dead US scientists: report

A married mom who vanished last year may be tied to a string of mysterious deaths and disappearances of US scientists and military officials with access to potentially sensitive information, according to a report.

Melissa Casias, who worked with her husband as an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory [LANL] — famous for developing nuclear weapons during the Manhattan Project — has not been seen since she dropped lunch off for her daughter in New Mexico last summer.

She is one of four high-clearance people who have died or gone missing since June 2025 with connections to UFO-linked retired Air Force Gen. William McCasland, who vanished last month, according to the Daily Mail.

Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told the Mail he is now worried that she is part of an alarming pattern, as her work as an assistant at LANL may have made her a target for kidnapping.

“In a classified lab, or just a high clearance lab, they would basically be in the know on what’s going on,” Swecker, who spent 24 years with the agency, said. “And it wouldn’t be the first time their administrative assistant has been targeted.”

The FBI “can’t have these examined in isolation and compartmentalize them as individual missing person cases,” he added.

Casias and her husband both worked at LANL in New Mexico. She was last seen on camera on June 25, 2025 walking alone on a highway without her wallet, phone or keys, after telling family members she would be working from home, Dateline reported.

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Mystery of five missing scientists sends chill across America. Three are dead. And one troubling link is now under scrutiny in DC

A chilling pattern has emerged after a string of US scientists died or went missing in recent months. 

Retired General William Neil McCasland, 68, and NASA aerospace engineer Monica Jacinto Reza, 60, were both major figures in the Air Force Research Laboratory. The general oversaw Reza’s work on creating a futuristic metal for rocket engines.

Within the span of eight months, both have mysteriously vanished without a trace while allegedly hiking in the Southwest United States.

McCasland’s reported ties to secret UFO programs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and Reza’s work with space-age technology used for advanced propulsion, have led many to claim without evidence that the pair are fleeing from parties that wish to silence them because of what they know.

Independent researchers and even a member of Congress fear the pattern has grown even darker after three scientists in the fields of chemical biology, nuclear fusion and astrophysics were murdered or found dead in just the last three months.

One of those renowned scientists was working on a breakthrough that could one day revolutionize science, creating an unlimited energy source that may end fossil fuel use as we know it.

Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett told the Daily Mail he saw a clear pattern in these seemingly unrelated deaths and disappearances, noting that the work several of them were doing has been linked to theories about extraterrestrial spacecraft. 

‘There have been several others throughout the country that have disappeared under suspicious circumstances,’ Burchett said. ‘I think we ought to be paying attention to it.’

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UFO ‘Gatekeeper’ General VANISHES Days After Trump’s Full Disclosure Order

President Trump’s order to release every UAP and UFO file appears to have triggered a wave of vanishings and deaths among the very insiders who guarded those secrets — and now Congress is being actively blocked from investigating.

The general is retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He walked out of his Albuquerque home on February 27 with only hiking boots, a wallet, and a revolver. No phone. No glasses. No trace since.

In addition, a rocket scientist tied to the General has also reportedly disappeared under similar circumstances.

Monica Jacinto Reza, 60, vanished while hiking in California’s Angeles National Forest. She co-developed Mondaloy, a patented nickel-based super-alloy for high-performance rocket engines, on a project funded and overseen by programs under McCasland’s command.

Newsmax reported Rep. Tim Burchett directly accusing intelligence agencies of obstruction: some intelligence agencies have thwarted his attempts at finding out what happened to the several prominent scientists and researchers in the U.S. who have reportedly died or gone missing over the past year.

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High-Profile Scientists Keep Winding Up Dead or Missing — GOP Rep Suggests There May Be a Conspiracy at Play

Several prominent scientists and researchers in the U.S. have reportedly died or gone missing over the past year, fueling speculation about whether some of the disappearances may have occurred under suspicious circumstances.

William Neil McCasland, a 68-year-old retired Air Force major general who had knowledge of UFOs, went missing in New Mexico on Feb. 27, NewsNation reported. Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett told the Daily Mail on Sunday that he believes there may be a pattern emerging of other researchers throughout the nation similarly disappearing “under suspicious circumstances.”

“There have been several others throughout the country that have disappeared under suspicious circumstances,” Burchett told the outlet. “I think we ought to be paying attention to it.”

The congressman also indicated that “the numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research,” adding “I think we’d better be paying attention, and I don’t think we should trust our government.” He went on to claim that researchers with knowledge about UFOs are usually “very secretive about what they know.”

“Everybody’s talking about the UFO stuff,” the Tennessee Republican told the Daily Mail. “Those folks are very secretive about what they know. So I suspect very much that [McCasland] was involved in some of that.”

Burchett’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

McCasland’s wife, Susan, asserted that no “foul play” was suspected in her husband’s disappearance, but added that he had left their house with just a pair of boots and his .38-caliber revolver on the day he disappeared, according to the Daily Mail.

Still, investigative journalist Ross Coulthart suggested during a Sunday appearance on “NewsNation Prime” that “foul play” may be a possibility in relation to McCasland’s disappearance.

“We have to ask, now, [about] the possibility of foul play — is there somebody who has interceded to take the general out of the picture?” Coulthart told NewsNation. “He was a man with some of the most sensitive U.S. military intelligence secrets in his head, especially particle beam technology.”

Additionally, Monica Reza went missing on June 22, 2025 while on a hike in the Angeles National Forest, per a Facebook page which describes its mission as aiming to “raising awareness and organizing volunteer efforts” to help find her. Reza previously served as a material scientist at Aerojet Rocketdyne, which notably was funded by NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory for several years, The New York Post (NY Post) reported.

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Rocket scientist and Air Force general linked to UFOs vanish under similar strange circumstances five months apart

A retired Air Force general known in UFO circles has gone missing during a hike in New Mexico, just months after a former colleague disappeared in a nearly identical case. 

US Major General William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen on the morning of February 27 as he left his Albuquerque home with only a backpack, wallet and .38-caliber revolver for a trail run, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.

Sources previously told The New York Post that McCasland was a ‘gatekeeper’ and ‘participant’ in the UFO community.

His disappearance has only fueled speculation around the disappearance of 60-year-old Monica Reza, who had worked on a rocket project overseen by McCasland, who also went missing in June 2025. 

In a chillingly similar case, Reza was last seen hiking in a California forest with a colleague, smiling and waving moments before she ‘vanished off the face of the earth,’ according to NewsNation. 

For months, authorities and volunteers have combed the area using every resource at their disposal, but the aerospace engineer remains missing without a trace. 

At a recent press conference, Sheriff John Allen said a Silver Alert was issued for McCasland after reports of a ‘mental fog’ in the months before his disappearance, adding that he had no other known health problems. 

Yet despite an intensive search involving drones, helicopters, ground crews and K-9 units, the avid outdoorsman – and any trace of his belongings – also remains missing. 

‘Let me be straight. We’ve had a lot of tips, and we will go through every tip. But there are some tips with some outlandish theories, conspiracy theories,’ the sheriff said.

‘We will look into everything, but we are trying as a law enforcement agency and entity,’ he added.

The general’s wife, Susan McCasland, posted on Facebook to set the record straight amid what she described as ‘misinformation’ about her husband’s disappearance. 

‘It is true that Neil had a brief association with the UFO community,’ she wrote. ‘This connection is not a reason for someone to abduct Neil.

‘Though at this point with absolutely no sign of him, maybe the best hypothesis is that aliens beamed him up to the mothership. However, no sightings of a mothership hovering above the Sandia Mountains have been reported.’

Just nine months ago, Reza – known professionally as Monica Jacinto at Aerojet Rocketdyne as a material scientist – was last seen hiking on the popular Mount Waterman Trail in the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles. 

Like McCasland, she loved hiking. She was just 30ft behind the man she was with when she vanished on what was described as a ‘normal day,’ according to NewsNation.

‘He turned around, next thing you know, she was just completely gone,’ the outlet reported.

‘Rescue teams spent days looking for her, but actually never recovered her body.’

Reza worked for Aerojet Rocketdyne, a high-profile company funded for years by NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, according to SpaceNews.

In the 1990s, she engineered a nickel-based superalloy that could survive extreme oxygen environments without added weight – technology that helped create the AR1 engine, set to replace Russian RD-180 engines on United Launch Alliance rockets. 

Her patented invention brought her into McCasland’s sphere, as he oversaw the Air Force group that funded early-2000s research on advanced materials for reusable spacecraft and weapons systems. 

McCasland’s Air Force biography reveals he oversaw advanced materials as director of the Space Vehicle Directorate’s materials wing and commanded the Phillips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base from 2001 to 2004.

His roles ultimately had a direct connection to Reza’s highly successful research. 

The general had also led research at Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which Marik Von Rennenkampff, a former Obama-era national security analyst, described as ‘where all the super-secret research happens,’ CNN reported. 

On the day he vanished, McCasland spoke with a repair person at his home at 10am, while his wife left around an hour later for a medical appointment, the sheriff’s office said. 

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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.

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Missing retired US Air Force general has ‘UFO community’ ties, his wife says amid kidnapping speculation

Missing retired US Air Force General William “Neil” McCasland had a “brief association with the UFO community” – but doesn’t have inside intel on “ET bodies” that would be worth kidnapping him over, his wife has said.

Susan McCasland Wilkerson attempted to clear up what she called “misinformation” around her husband’s nearly two-week disappearance after he was last spotted in Albuquerque on Feb. 27.

McCasland, 68, led the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson base in Ohio, which is long rumored to hold extraterrestrial debris tied to the 1947 Roswell crash.

“Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt,” Wilkerson wrote on Facebook on March 6.

However, Wilkerson revealed that McCasland had a “brief association” after his retirement with former Blink-182 front man Tom DeLonge, who co-founded a company that studies information about unidentified aerial phenomena, according to CNN.

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Former General Linked to Top-Secret UFO Lab Goes Missing

The FBI is searching for the former head of an infamous and classified research laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. William Neil McCasland, a retired US general, disappeared on Friday in Albuquerque after leaving home without his watch or phone. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Silver Alert for the 68-year-old man, whom one Facebook user claimed to have spotted on the Whitewash trailhead in Piedra Lisa Canyon. McCasland is also reported to have an unspecified medical condition. “Our priority is finding Mr. McCasland safely,” Sheriff John Allen said in a press release. “Our investigators and search teams are working continuously, and we’re coordinating closely with our local, state, and federal partners.”

UFO experts speculate that Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has access to extraterrestrial materials and technology, as it houses the lab that analyzed debris from the 1947 Roswell Incident. McCasland took command of the laboratory from 2011 until his retirement in 2013. After WikiLeaks released thousands of documents in 2016, his name appeared in yet another UFO context among emails sent to John Podesta, manager of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The author of those emails, Blink-182 guitarist and frontman Tom DeLonge, told Podesta that McCasland provided advice on how to handle disclosure in relation to DeLonge’s company, To The Stars, Inc.

The FBI and local sheriff’s department are urging Albuquerque residents to review security camera footage and contact them immediately upon discovering any clues.

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FBI Joins Search for Missing Retired Air Force General Who Led U.S. Military Research Lab That Develops Directed-Energy Technology

The FBI has now joined the search for retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, who was reported missing in New Mexico.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, retired Maj. Gen. McCasland, who previously commanded the Phillips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, has been reported missing since Friday.

McCasland served three years as the commander of the Phillips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, which is notable for its directed-energy weapons and advanced space technologies.

The investigation into McCasland’s disappearance is being led by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, and on Tuesday afternoon, the office announced it has partnered with the FBI Albuquerque Field Office.

In a post on X, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office stated, “Due to his background and established partnerships, BCSO is coordinating closely with multiple agencies, including the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, which is assisting as standard practice when it has a tool, tactic, or technique that may benefit the investigation. BCSO remains the lead agency.”

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Retired Air Force General Who Led U.S. Military Research Lab That Develops Directed Energy Technology Goes Missing in New Mexico

A retired U.S. Air Force general was reported missing in New Mexico on Friday.

Retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, who previously commanded the Phillips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, has been reported missing after being last seen on Friday at 11 a.m.

The Phillips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base is notable for its research into advanced space and directed-energy weapons technology.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the search for McCasland, has issued a Silver Alert for his disappearance.

Per The New York Post:

A retired U.S. Air Force general was reported missing in New Mexico, with authorities warning that medical concerns have heightened fears for his safety.

Retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen around 11 a.m. Friday near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said.

Officials said they do not know what McCasland was wearing or in which direction he may have traveled. The sheriff’s office has issued a Silver Alert. “Due to his medical issues, law enforcement is concerned for his safety,” the sheriff’s office said.

McCasland was a longtime leader at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and previously commanded Kirtland’s Phillips Research Site and Air Force Research Laboratory.

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