US probes reports of missing scientists linked to nuclear, aerospace programmes

The White House said on Wednesday it was looking into reports of the disappearances and deaths of at least 10 Americans linked to sensitive nuclear or aerospace work, as concerns grow over a concentration of cases involving personnel connected to advanced research institutions.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing that, while she had not yet conferred with the relevant agencies, the administration viewed the pattern as serious enough to warrant a formal investigation.

Those named in the reports include: Monica Jacinto Reza, a senior aerospace engineer and director of materials processing at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who vanished in June 2025 while hiking in California; Steven Garcia, a government contractor at the Kansas City National Security Campus in Albuquerque, who was reported missing on August 28, 2025; Anthony Chavez, a former staffer at Los Alamos National Laboratory who disappeared in May 2025; and retired Air Force Major General William “Neil” McCasland, a former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, who vanished in February 2026.

The reports also cite the deaths of Frank Maiwald, a Nasa JPL scientist involved in advanced space instrumentation, who died in 2024 without a publicly disclosed cause, and Michael David Hicks, a research scientist at the same laboratory who worked on the DART Project and the Deep Space 1 Mission, and who passed away in July 2023 with no public cause of death released.

The reports have raised national security concerns and surfaced as the White House has issued new orders for Nasa and the Pentagon to accelerate the development of nuclear space reactors. 

Legislative pressure for a coordinated probe is also mounting, with Representative Eric Burlison formally requesting FBI involvement and describing the concentration of cases among personnel tied to advanced research as deeply concerning.

Additional details reported by the Daily Mail focused on Garcia, saying he was last seen leaving his Albuquerque home on foot carrying a handgun. The publication, citing an anonymous source, said Garcia worked at the Kansas City National Security Campus, a facility that manufactures more than 80% of the non-nuclear components used in US nuclear weapons. Police said Garcia may be a danger to himself, while the source disputed suggestions that he had been suicidal or facing mental health issues.

The same report said Garcia’s disappearance resembled those of McCasland, Chavez and Melissa Casias, a 54-year-old administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory who was believed to have held top security clearance. 

According to the report, all left their homes on foot and abandoned essential belongings such as phones, wallets, keys or vehicles.

It also linked several of the cases to institutions including Kirtland Air Force Base, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Kansas City National Security Campus and Nasas JPL, and cited other deaths including those of nuclear fusion researcher Nuno Loureiro, astrophysicist Carl Grillmair and pharmaceutical researcher Jason Thomas.