Tag: new mexico

Cause of Death for Missing Scientist and Nuclear Lab Employee Reportedly Revealed

The cause of death for the missing scientist who was discovered dead in a New Mexico forest has been reportedly revealed, but it is simply raising more questions.

As The Gateway Pundit reported on Monday, New Mexico State Police announced that they identified the remains of 54-year-old Melissa Casias, a scientist and nuclear lab employee, who worked as an administrative assistant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Casias was last seen alive on June 26, 2025. Her body was found in the McGaffey Ridge area of the Carson National Forest.

This is about six miles from the last place Casias was seen walking before being declared missing.

Although the New Mexico State Police have yet to release an official cause of death, the Daily Mail has learned that her body had a gunshot wound to the skull, and a gun was found close by.

In addition, her body was found skeletonized and propped up in a seated position against a tree in a remote part of the National Forest.

While at first glance this may suggest suicide, Arizona-based investigator Thomas McNally does not agree. He has been working on the case of Casias’s disappearance on behalf of her parents, Joe and Joanne Mondragon.

He suspects that foul play was involved in her death.

“It’s great that the press is getting this story out there because of the Los Alamos stuff,” McNally said, “But it has nothing to do with LANL. If you want to tell the story, tell a real story.”

“I want to be emphatic on this point – this is in no way, shape, or form related to her job,” he added.

Adding to the mystery is that The Mail previously noted that she had left ALL RECORDS from her phones (she had more than one), and her identification behind.

Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told the Daily Mail in March that he thought Casias’s disappearance was part of a bigger pattern involving individuals who had access to top-secret government research.

Swecker theorized that Casias’s work at LANL made her a target for abduction. The reason is that an administrative assistant often has access to the same sensitive files as their superiors.

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

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Missing Scientist Melissa Casias Body Found ‘Skeletonized’

Missing government worker Melissa Casias has been found dead … with her body “skeletonized” and a gunshot wound to her skull, a report says.

According to New Mexico State Police, a hiker found “human remains” at McGaffey Ridge area of the Carson National Forest … who authorities have ID’ed as Melissa. They also said a gun was found “alongside the remains.”

NMSP hasn’t announced cause or manner of death, but investigator Thomas McNally — who’d been looking into the case for Melissa’s parents — told DailyMail that her body was “skeletonized,” sitting against a tree with a gunshot wound in her skull.

McNally claims Melissa was wearing “sun-bleached clothing” and her body didn’t show any signs of animal activity.

Melissa — who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory — disappeared about a year ago, after she dropped her husband off at the lab, where he also worked.

Her case has made headlines because she’s one of at least 10 government workers and scientists who have died or gone missing since 2023.

But McNally insists Melissa’s death has “nothing to do” with those other cases, telling DailyMail … “I want to be emphatic on this point — this is in no way, shape, or form related to her job.”

He does, however, believe there’s foul play involved and says her family is filing a civil suit against NMSP … because they believe they botched the case.

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Missing Scientist and Nuclear Lab Employee Found DEAD in New Mexico Forest as the Shocking Circumstances Surrounding Her Disappearance are Revealed

A missing scientist has been discovered dead in a New Mexico forest, but that is just the beginning of a more harrowing and stunning story.

As The Daily Mail reported on Monday, New Mexico State Police announced that they identified the remains of 54-year-old Melissa Casias, a scientist and nuclear lab employee, who worked as an administrative assistant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The Office of the Medical Investigator in New Mexico has not yet determined the cause of her death.

Casias was last seen alive on June 26, 2025. Her body was found in the McGaffey Ridge area of the Carson National Forest.

This is about six miles from the last place Casias was seen walking before being declared missing.

It’s unknown how long Casias’s body was in the forest before it was found. But it’s surprising it took this long because this is a part of a US Forest Service restoration project where crews have been working consistently since December 2025.

Casia’s disappearance and death are also quite alarming. The Mail notes that she previously left ALL RECORDS from her phones (she had more than one), left her identification behind, and vanished last June.

Sounds like something straight out of a spy thriller. What was going on?

From the Daily Mail:

Casias vanished after dropping off her husband, another LANL employee, at the facility that June morning, approximately 70 miles from their home. That was when Casias’s behavior allegedly became unusual, as she claimed she would need to return home after forgetting the badge needed to access the nuclear lab.

According to her husband, Mark, a superintendent at the lab, Casias had the security badge with her when she dropped him off that morning, as she would have needed the badge to get past the security checkpoints.

When Casias arrived in Ranchos de Taos, the couple’s daughter, Sierra, reportedly told investigators that her mother visited the teen’s place of work to drop off a sandwich and then said she planned to work from home after forgetting the badge needed to access the nuclear lab.

The wife and mother then wiped all records from her phones before leaving them and her identification behind and walking out of her home in Ranchos de Taos.

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Police confirm body is missing Taos woman, LANL worker

New Mexico State Police confirmed Saturday night that human remains discovered off Rio Chiquito Road southeast of Taos belong to Melissa Casias, the missing Ranchos de Taos woman and Los Alamos National Laboratory worker who disappeared last June.

The single lane dirt road — Forest Road 437 — is accessible from N.M. 518 in Talpa, where security camera footage captured the last known sighting of Casias on June 26 of last year. Rio Chiquito Road extends deep into the Carson National Forest and provides access to the Garcia Park recreation area and several trails.

The body was discovered by a hiker in the McGaffey Ridge area of the national forest.

The Office of the Medical Investigator positively identified the deceased individual as Casias, however the cause and manner of death have not yet been determined, according to a state police press release. Police said a handgun was found “alongside the remains.”

The remains will undergo “further anthropological examination” by the medical investigator, according to state police, who “extend their deepest condolences to the Casias and Mondragon families during this difficult time.”

Jazmin McMillen, Casias’ niece, posted an official statement from the family on a Facebook page dedicated to finding the missing wife and mother. 

“We confirm that the remains found in Rio Chiquito are Melissa,” the post states. “There will be more information to come but what we can tell you now is she was located in an area previously searched. This is a lot to process, our hearts are heavy and we fully intend to continue to pursue answers for justice.”  

An investigation into the circumstances of Casias’ disappearance and her death is ongoing.

Casias, who lived with her husband in Ranchos de Taos, was reported missing after her daughter, Sierra Casias, came home from work and discovered her mother’s keys, wallet, and work and personal cell phones — both wiped of data — inside the house. Her mother’s car was parked outside the home and the front door was locked. Melissa Casias was an administrative assistant at LANL, where her husband, Mark Casias, also worked.

Her disappearance drew national media attention and has been featured on the Crime Junkie podcast, which reported the discovery of the human remains in a social media post Friday evening (May 29).

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Former Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times Reporter Claims She Was Attacked with ‘Direct Energy Weapons’ at Her Home Over Epstein Reporting

A veteran journalist who has spent months covering Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling Zorro Ranch compound in New Mexico says she is permanently leaving the United States after suffering what she describes as two “direct energy weapon” attacks inside her home office in New Mexico.

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, a former Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times reporter turned bestselling novelist and independent investigator, announced her plan to flee the country in a post on her Substack last week.

The reporter claims the attacks left her with symptoms matching “Havana syndrome” and forced her to abandon her New Mexico residence immediately.

“Okay, folks. It appears my home has been located by, well, whomever is unhappy about my reporting about Zorro Ranch and the local cover up here and the military intelligence roots of the child sex trafficking operation Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were running here in New Mexico,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote.

The post continued, “This morning, I was hit in my home office by two episodes of what I later learned were likely Direct Energy Weapon attacks. Look up Havana Syndrome. My symptoms are consistent with such attacks, and entirely new. We wasted no time in leaving the house, for good. We will be staying in safe houses while we finish plans to permanently relocate abroad.”

“The hardest part will be transporting our pets. It is very expensive. I am going to set up a gofundme to help cover that expense and a security detail until we are out of the USA. Yes, it has come to this. We kind of figured it might,” the post concluded.

The U.S. Department of Defense defines DEWs as systems that use concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to “incapacitate, damage, disable, or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, or personnel.”

The U.S. has researched DEWs since the 1960s, with billions invested. The first operational U.S. DE weapon was a 30 kW laser installed on the USS Ponce in 2014.

Other nations, including China, Russia, and Israel, are also actively developing DEWs.

Valdes-Rodriguez wrote in a later post that the attacks may have involved a “backpack-sized” device placed on or near her roof by “private military contractors” and a second incident from “the back of a large semi truck that parked across from my house.”

“These are the most cowardly weapons ever created. They attack you at your most vulnerable and trusting, in your home, in bed, and do not kill right away,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote.

No police report or independent verification of the attacks has been made public.

Valdes-Rodriguez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and built a respected career in mainstream journalism before transitioning to fiction and, more recently, independent investigative work.

Earlier this year, after the Department of Justice released millions of pages of previously unseen Epstein files, Valdes-Rodriguez began systematically combing through the documents with a laser focus on Epstein’s 7,500-acre Zorro Ranch, now renamed Rancho de San Rafael, located roughly 30 miles outside Santa Fe.

Key elements of her Zorro Ranch investigations include claims that Epstein hired Bradbury Stamm Construction, New Mexico’s largest industrial contractor, known for building facilities at the state’s nuclear weapons labs to construct the remote ranch.

The firm’s phone number appeared in Epstein’s personal contacts.

Valdes-Rodriguez linked this to Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, and alleged Israeli intelligence penetration of U.S. nuclear programs in the 1980s.

Additionally, she reported on a still-active private microwave communications license at the property and its strategic location forming a near-perfect triangle with the two top-secret nuclear labs. She has alleged the ranch may have been used for surveillance operations.

Drawing on FBI tips and DOJ files, she has reported on allegations of buried victims, “two foreign girls,” young girls allegedly raped at the ranch, and possible disappearances of American scientists tied to the area.

Valdes-Rodriguez also reported that former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico John J. Kelly served as Epstein’s personal power of attorney for the 1993 purchase of the ranch from then-Governor Bruce King.

Kelly has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and called the insinuations “categorically false.”

She also highlighted the Zorro Trust’s $85 million Oklahoma Lottery win shortly after Epstein’s 2008 prison stint.

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Chilling bodycam reveals UFO-linked Air Force general met shadowy Pentagon unit before he vanished… and his perplexed wife’s reaction

Newly released bodycam footage has revealed a shocking meeting between a missing Air Force general and members of the Pentagon‘s shadowy space unit just hours before his disappearance. 

Police officers in New Mexico were recording as they spoke with a witness who allegedly had dinner with William Neil McCasland the night before he vanished without a trace on February 27.

McCasland is a retired Air Force Major General who has been linked to both US nuclear research and classified UFO-related programs during his career.

The bodycam footage, obtained by the Law&Crime Network, captured a phone call with an unidentified woman who said McCasland met with her and members of the US Space Force at a restaurant in Albuquerque around 6pm local time.

Officially, the Space Force equips the military for operations in space, protecting satellites and other assets from threats, but the newest branch of the armed forces also tracks unexplained space objects, such as UFOs, as part of national security.

The unnamed caller claimed she worked with McCasland, who was still a member of the Kirtland Partnership, a nonprofit working to protect and expand Kirtland Air Force Base, a major military research facility and nuclear weapons lab.

Previously, McCasland’s wife, Susan Wilkerson, had posted online that the retired general only had ‘very commonly held clearances’ since retiring from the Air Force 13 years ago, but the new witness revealed that the 68-year-old was still a key figure in secretive government circles.

‘He was the head of Air Force Research Lab to the point the man’s names are in the UFO documents that are fixed to be released,’ the witness claimed. ‘He’s in that depth, so he has a very high security clearance.’

However, the woman who met with McCasland said something seemed wrong during the meeting with Space Force and the retired general was not acting like himself that night.

‘I was shocked this morning when I saw the alert because what I noticed Thursday evening [February 26] is that he wasn’t his usual self. He was kind of spacey and quiet and you know that that happens with people.’

The newly obtained bodycam footage also revealed the conversation between officers from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and Wilkerson, revealing that McCasland’s disappearance caught her completely off guard.

However, she noted that the retired general was just prescribed a new medication hours before he vanished, which was supposed to help battle several symptoms he was having that may have been signaling cognitive decline.

‘Today he had taken a drug that the doctor prescribed last night that was supposed to help him sleep,’ she said in the bodycam recording obtained by Law&Crime Sidebar with Jesse Weber.

‘With weight gain, he’s lost about 20 pounds for no reason, and with anxiety, today he woke up and said, “Well, I have got better sleep, but it’s like the after effects of a bad hangover. I’m just foggy. I can’t get any motivation to do anything.”‘ 

McCasland was reportedly seeing doctors for his physical and mental difficulties. Before police arrived at the home, Wilkerson had told 911 dispatchers the military veteran feared his brain was ‘deteriorating.’

He was last seen leaving his home without his phone, wearable devices or any identification and his wife told authorities she believed McCasland ‘had planned not to be found.’

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State police: 3 dead, 18 first responders hospitalized in Mountainair substance exposure

An emergency medical response to a suspected drug overdose at a home in Mountainair on Wednesday morning ended with the deaths of three people and hospital treatment of at least 18 first responders.

New Mexico State Police, which took over the investigation from local law enforcement, said emergency medical responders found four unresponsive people at the home on Honlon Avenue in Mountainair, a Torrance County mountain town of fewer than 1,000 people about 65 miles southeast of Albuquerque.

One person was revived with Narcan, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, Torrance County Sheriff David Frazee noted, and then first responders who entered the residence began feeling ill.

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Human Remains Found Near Guthrie Home Create New Mystery, Fail to Solve Current One

A new find near the Arizona home of Nancy Guthrie did nothing to clarify the mystery of her disappearance, but instead added a new one.

Human remains were found about five miles from the Tucson home from which Guthrie disappeared on Feb. 1, according to the New York Post.

A bone was discovered by a livestreamer who was conducting a search of the area.

Tucson police acted quickly to tamp down any speculation the bone could belong to the 84-year-old mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie.

“This will be a prehistoric anthropological investigation,” Tucson Police Department said, according to KVOA-TV.

Police said the bone was at least 50 years old, and there is no criminal investigation forthcoming.

The University of Arizona’s Anthropology Department is assisting the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner in ascertaining details about the bone.

The Post noted that Native American artifacts have been found in the area where the bone was found.

This week, FBI Director Kash Patel criticized the way the Pima County Sheriff’s Office conducted the early stages of the investigation into Guthrie’s disappearance

“For four days we were kept out of the investigation,” Patel said on Sean Hannity’s podcast, according to ABC News.

“The first 48 hours of anyone’s disappearance are the most critical,” he said.

Patel criticized Pima County Chris Nanos for sending DNA samples to a private lab instead of the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.

“We have Quantico, best lab in the world,” Patel said.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Office pushed back on both criticisms.

“Sheriff Nanos responded to the scene the night of the incident, providing immediate local leadership and oversight. A member of the FBI Task Force was also notified and present at that scene working alongside our personnel. The FBI was promptly notified by both our department and the Guthrie family. While the FBI Director was not on scene, coordination with the Bureau began without delay,” it said in a statement.

Decisions about processing evidence “were made on scene based on operational needs,” the statement said.

“The laboratory utilized by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI Laboratory in Quantico have worked in close partnership from the outset and continue to collaborate in the analysis of evidence,” the statement said.

“We remain committed to a thorough, coordinated, and fact-based investigation and will continue working closely with our federal partners as the process moves forward,” the statement said.

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DOJ Sues New Mexico and Albuquerque Over Laws Blocking Federal Immigration Enforcement

The United States has filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction against the State of New Mexico, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, the City of Albuquerque, and Albuquerque Mayor Timothy Keller, alleging that the implementation of House Bill 9 (HB9), entitled the “Immigrant Safety Act,” and Albuquerque City Ordinance O-26-15, entitled the “Safer Community Places Ordinance (SCPO),” infringes on federal immigration enforcement authority.

Through HB9, the State of New Mexico is trying to abolish decades of long-standing, voluntary partnerships between local governments and federal authorities that are essential for enforcing immigration laws and keeping the federal immigration system running as Congress intended.

“New Mexico is attempting to regulate immigration policy, something the federal government is clearly and uniquely empowered by the Constitution to do,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Our filings seek to halt the state’s unconstitutional actions by preserving cooperation between federal, state, and local law enforcement and allowing federal immigration officials to enforce the law.”

Both HB9 and the SCPO seek to block federal agents from using any local government property to carry out their work. Additionally, by unlawfully requiring private businesses to tip off illegal aliens about immigration enforcement activities, the SCPO attempts to harbor and shield illegal aliens from detection by federal immigration authorities and poses an obstacle to the enforcement of federal immigration law.

“The State of New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque seek to intentionally obstruct federal law enforcement by preventing cooperation between local governments and the federal government,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison for the District of New Mexico. “HB9 and the SCPO unlawfully interfere with federal immigration enforcement, illegally discriminate against federal operations, and violate constitutional protections regarding contracts and federal supremacy. Additionally, by barring public entities from participating in federal immigration detention in New Mexico, HB9 jeopardizes nearly 300 jobs and the economy of Otero County. Our lawsuit asks the court to declare these laws invalid and issue an immediate injunction to stop them from being enforced.”

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New Mexico’s Meta Trial Opens with Judge Wary of State’s Broad Surveillance Demands

A New Mexico judge spent his first morning of the Meta remedies trial signaling that he doesn’t plan to become “a one-person legislator, judge and executive branch enforcer,” and the privacy stakes of that reluctance run deeper than the child safety framing suggests.

The bench trial opened Monday in Santa Fe before First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid, the second phase of a case that already produced a $375 million jury verdict against Meta in March.
State prosecutors now want the judge to rewrite how Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp operate inside New Mexico, with a remedy list that reaches well past algorithm tweaks into the architecture of identity verification and encrypted messaging itself.

Before opening statements, Biedscheid told both sides he held “some concerns” about the New Mexico Department of Justice’s proposals. “I’m probably not the easiest sell on an idea where I would become a one-person legislature, judge and executive branch enforcer of administrative code provisions,” he said.

The warning lands at a moment when several of the state’s requested fixes look like permanent surveillance infrastructure dressed up as protection. It start with age verification. The state wants Meta ordered to confirm the age of every New Mexico user, an obligation that cannot be met by asking people to type a birth year.

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