The mystery surrounding the disappearance and death of 10 American scientists and experts sparks extensive investigations

An American nuclear physicist and professor at MIT was shot dead outside his home in Massachusetts.

A retired Air Force general is missing from his home in New Mexico; An aerospace engineer disappeared while hiking in Los Angeles.

These are among at least 10 scientists and experts linked to sensitive US nuclear and space research who have died or disappeared in recent years, raising concerns about a possible connection between them and sparking online speculation about possible suspicious activity.

The FBI says its leading efforts to find connections between the missing and deceased scientists, adding that they are working with the Energy Department, the War Department, and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers.

In a separate development, the Republican-majority House Oversight Committee announced that it would investigate reports concerning the deaths and disappearances of these individuals, who it said had access to sensitive scientific information.

The reports raised questions about a possible suspicious link between the deaths and disappearances, according to a statement from the committee, which requested briefings on the matter from the FBI, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and NASA.

The War Department simply stated that it would respond to the committee directly, while the Energy Department referred the inquiries to the White House.

In a post on X, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stated that its coordinating and cooperating with relevant parties regarding scientists.

NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said: “At this time, there is no indication of a national security threat to NASA.”

The circumstances of these cases vary considerably, as some involve unsolved murders, while others concern disappearances with no evidence of foul play.

In at least two instances, the victims’ families cited pre-existing medical conditions or personal difficulties as possible causes.

Authorities have been unable to establish any connection between these cases.

The White House stated last week that its cooperating with federal agencies to investigate any possible link between the deaths and disappearances, and President Donald Trump described the matter as very serious.

James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News Sunday: “It’s highly unlikely that this was a mere coincidence… Congress is very concerned about this… Our committee has made this a priority now because we consider it a threat to national security”.

Representative James Walkinshaw, a Democrat and member of the Oversight Committee, agrees that an investigation into the disappearances and deaths is necessary, but he expressed his lack of conviction that there was a coordinated motive behind these cases.

“The United States has thousands of scientists and nuclear experts,” Walkershaw told CNN.

He added that the US nuclear program isn’t the kind of program that a foreign adversary could affect by targeting just 10 individuals.

The series of mysterious deaths and disappearances began in 2023, according to members of Congress, with the death of Michael David Hicks, a scientist who worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for nearly 25 years.

Hicks died at the age of 59 on July 30, 2023; During his career at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he specialized in comets and asteroids, according to the American Astronomical Society; The cause of his death wasn’t disclosed.

His daughter, Julia Hicks, told CNN that her father had known health problems and that the recent speculation had deeply concerned her.

She added, “From what I know of my father, there is no logical connection between him and this potential federal investigation… I don’t understand the link between my father’s death and the disappearance of the other scientists”.

Hicks continued, “I can’t help but laugh at it, but at the same time, it’s become serious”.

She confirmed to CNN that as of Tuesday afternoon, no elected official or federal agency representative had contacted her to inquire about her father’s death.

In subsequent years, many people associated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory died or disappeared:

Frank Maywald, a specialist in space research, died in Los Angeles in 2024 at the age of 61.

Monica Reza, a 60-year-old aerospace engineer, disappeared while hiking in a Los Angeles forest in June 2025.

The House Oversight Committee stated that she was the director of the Materials Handling Group at NASA’s laboratory.

William Neale McCasland, a retired Air Force general, has been missing since leaving his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 27, leaving behind his phone, eyeglasses, and wearable devices, and the FBI is currently involved in the search for him.

McCasland was at the heart of some of the most advanced aerospace research at the Pentagon and had previously led the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Months after the 68-year-old disappeared, officials are still unable to determine his destination, the reason for his departure, or whether anyone else was involved.

His wife, Susan, denied at the time the speculation linking his disappearance to his work at the base, which has long been rumored to contain space debris connected to the alleged Roswell incident, despite denials from the Air Force.

“It’s true that Neil had a brief connection to the UFO community,” she wrote in a Facebook post.

“But that connection does not justify his abduction… Neil has no private information about alien bodies or debris from the Roswell crash and the Wright-Patterson storage… There have been no reported sightings of a UFO hovering over the Sandia Mountains,” She added.

Two other missing persons, Melissa Casillas and Anthony Chavez, work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a leading nuclear research facility in New Mexico.

Casillas, 53, was last seen walking on a highway near Talpa, New Mexico, in June 2025, according to the New Mexico State Police, where she left her belongings at home and a phone that had been reset to factory settings.

The New Mexico Department of Public Safety said that an investigation is open into Casillas’s disappearance, but added that no criminal suspicion is currently suspected.

Anthony Chavez, a 78-year-old retiree who worked as a construction supervisor at the site, also disappeared in May 2025, according to the Los Alamos Police Department.

An investigator told CNN that there was no evidence of foul play, but extensive searches had yielded no trace of his activity or any indication that he intended to leave.

His friend Carl Buckland told CNN he was pleased that authorities were investigating the case, adding, “It’s been a long time coming”.

In recent months, the deaths of a number of prominent scientists have sparked widespread speculation.

In December 2025, Professor Nuno F J Loureiro, a physics professor at MIT, was shot and killed in his home near Boston by a gunman who also opened fire on the campus of Brown University, killing two students.

Loureiro, 47, was the director of the Center for Plasma and Fusion Science at MIT, where he focused on developing clean energy technologies and another research.

In February, Carl Grillmayer, (67), was shot and killed at his home outside Los Angeles.

Authorities arrested a suspect who, according to KABC, isn’t believed to have known Grillmayer.

Grillmayer worked at the California Institute of Technology, collaborated with NASA, and was best known for his research on the search for water on exoplanets.

Former US Air Force intelligence officer Matthew James Sullivan, (39), died in 2024 before he could testify in a whistleblower case involving unidentified flying objects, according to Representative Eric Burleson of Missouri, who urged the FBI to investigate, and the obituary didn’t specify the cause of death.

However, Republican Representative Eric Burleson told Fox News that Sullivan had “committed suicide,” calling it “suspicious”.

Burleson said, “He was scheduled to appear for an interview… Within two weeks, he committed suicide under suspicious circumstances”.

In recent days, the death of Amy Escradge in 2022 has garnered widespread attention. Escradge, (34), co-founded the Institute of Strange Sciences in Huntsville, Alabama, according to her obituary.

The Escradge family said in a statement that “Amy was a very intelligent person, and had been suffering from chronic pain”.

They added, “People need to realize that scientists die too, and not make a big deal out of it”.

From his part, US president Donald Trump expressed hope that the disappearances and deaths were merely coincidences.

“I hope it’s random, but we’ll know the truth within the next week and a half,” Trump told reporters, adding that he had recently held a meeting on the subject.

The White House declined to provide further details about the meeting, as the White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “The White House is actively working with all relevant agencies and the FBI to thoroughly review all issues and identify any potential commonalities”.

She added that the investigation is being conducted in light of the legitimate questions that have been raised recently regarding the recent cases, and “we will spare no effort in this regard”.

FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News, “We’ll look for any connections… whether there are links to access to classified information, or to foreign entities… And if any connections are found that indicate suspicious behavior or conspiracy, the FBI will take appropriate action”.