It is a series of enigmatic disappearances that worries the highest American authorities. In a press release published on Tuesday, April 21, the FBI confirmed the opening of an investigation into the deaths and disappearances of ten scientists over the past four years while they were working for the American administration, sometimes on sensitive subjects such as space or nuclear issues. “We are working with the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and NASA to find answers,” said the federal agency.
This decision to investigate the possible links between these disappearances and deaths comes after numerous conspiracy theories spread on social networks linking the incidents, the potential aim of which would be to harm American nuclear or space programs. The story caught the attention of President Donald Trump: “I hope it’s a coincidence… but some of them were very important people, and we will look into it.”
At the same time, the House Oversight Committee, led by Republicans, also announced on Monday its intention to investigate. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, initially thought of it as “a somewhat crazy conspiracy theory” before changing his tone in the face of information that had been transmitted to him: “Something sinister may be happening here. These people at the forefront of nuclear research are either dead or missing.”
Sensitive scientific information
In recent days, the American press has thus set out to unearth the different cases mentioned on social networks. Among the most recent cases and subject to much debate is that of William Neil McCasland, 68, a former high-ranking officer in the US Air Force in New Mexico. The sixty-eight-year-old, with occasional memory loss, disappeared on February 27 while his wife was away for a medical appointment. Leaving without his phone or prescription glasses, only a red backpack, a pair of hiking boots, and a .38 caliber gun were missing from the retired soldier’s home after his disappearance. A few hours later, a gray sweatshirt with the Air Force logo was found two kilometers from his home. And since then, there has been no trace of the man, reports the Albuquerque Journal. During his career, William Neil McCasland held some of the most sensitive positions in the Air Force, notably during his time as director of the research laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, famous, according to rumors, for “housing extraterrestrial debris.” William McCasland’s wife, however, stated that her husband had been retired for over 12 years and believed it “seems very unlikely that he was abducted to extract very old secrets from him.”
The fate of three NASA researchers is also the subject of much debate across the Atlantic. Michael David Hicks, 59, Frank Maiwald, 61, and Monica Jacinto Reza, 60, were all part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory program at the American space agency, dedicated to space exploration. In the span of two years, between July 2023 and June 2025, the first two died of “unspecified” causes while Monica Jacinto Reza went missing during a hike in a forest near Los Angeles.
Investigators and internet users are also interested in the death of Michael David Hicks, a scientist who worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for nearly 25 years. He is one of the first to disappear in this dark series that began in 2022. Declared missing in July 2023 for unknown reasons at the age of 59, the scientist specialized in comets and asteroids, according to CNN. “From what I know of my father, there is no logical connection that would involve my father in this potential federal investigation,” said his daughter Julia Hicks to the channel. “I don’t understand the link between my father’s death and the other missing scientists.”
Difficult to establish connections
The cases of two scientists shot in their homes have also raised suspicions. Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was indeed shot at his home near Boston in December 2025 by a armed man who also opened fire on the campus of Brown University, killing two students. The 47-year-old physicist and scientist had led the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT, where he was working to advance clean energy technology. Meanwhile, Carl Grillmair, a NASA collaborating astrophysicist, was shot at the age of 67 at his home in Los Angeles in February. In both cases, investigations indicate that the motives of the perpetrators are “strange.”
In a statement to CBS News, a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the Department of Energy said that the agency was attentive to fears that the cases could be linked. “People simply die. Strokes, illnesses, suicides, thefts, it happens,” said a U.S. Department of Energy official, pointing out that nearly 20,000 people are employed in the relevant departments, many of whom do not have access to sensitive information.
Other skeptical figures have begun to raise their voices against the most outrageous conspiracy theories. “The cases of deaths and missing persons are spread over several years in different organizations and only vaguely affiliated,” said Joseph Rodgers, deputy director of the nuclear issues project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies interviewed by CBS News. “If all the scientists had worked on a project or a weapons system, I would have been more suspicious.” Hoping that the FBI investigation will help calm fears and establish the facts about these deaths and disappearances of scientists.
