Missing scientists: The expanded list of 13 disappearances or deaths under scrutiny
Allegations of suspicious circumstances prompted a House of Representatives committee to start an investigation into the disappearances or deaths in the past three years of 10 people with access to sensitive scientific information.
After the announcement Tuesday by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, three more cases were added as possibly warranting scrutiny.
The 13 are described as "scientists and other personnel connected to U.S. nuclear secrets or rocket technology who have died or mysteriously vanished in recent years."
Missing
• Anthony Chavez, 78. Had worked as a construction foreman at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Disappeared on May 8, 2025, from his home in Los Alamos, N.M. A friend's Facebook post claimed Chavez left his home on foot; he left behind his wallet and keys and was not carrying a phone.
• Monica Reza, 60. Engineer at Aerojet Rocketdyne, director of materials processing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Disappeared on June 22, 2025, while hiking near Mount Waterman, in Southern California's Angeles National Forest. She had become separated from her two companions.
• Melissa Casias, 53. Worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Disappeared on June 26, 2025. She dropped her husband off that morning at the lab, where he also worked, and reportedly intended to work remotely because she had forgotten her employee badge. She was seen around 2:15 p.m. walking on a highway near Talpa, about 3 miles south of the family's Taos home. When her daughter came home around 3:30 p.m., she found Casias' car parked outside and her wallet, keys and phones (work and personal) inside the home. Both phones had been reset to their factory status.
• Steven Garcia, 48. Government contractor with security clearance. Disappeared on Aug. 28, 2025, after leaving his Albuquerque home on foot. He reportedly took a handgun and left behind his phone, keys, and wallet
• William Neil McCasland, 68. Retired Air Force general who had been involved in aerospace research. Disappeared on Feb. 27, 2026, from his Albuquerque home. He left behind his phone and prescription glasses but apparently took his wallet and a handgun.
DEAD
• Michael David Hicks, 59, of Sunland, Calif. Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Project until 2022; specialized in comets and asteroids. Died July 30, 2023. No cause of death made public.
• Frank Maiwald, 61. JPL researcher. Died July 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. No cause of death made public.
• Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47. Physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Fatally shot on Dec. 15, 2025, at his home near Boston. His killer is believed to have been a former classmate of his from their native Portugal. That man, Claudio Neves Valente, also is believed to have shot 11 people, two of them fatally, in a Brown University lecture hall on Dec. 13. Neves Valente's body was found in a New Hampshire storage unit.
• Jason Thomas, 45. Chemical biology researcher at biomedical company Novartis. Reported missing on Dec. 13, 2025, by his wife, who said he had walked away from their Wakefield, Mass., house the night before, leaving behind his phone, wallet and Apple Watch. His body was found in Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield on March 17, 2026.
• Carl Grillmair, 67. Astrophysicist at California Institute of Technology, collaborated with NASA. Fatally shot on Feb. 16, 2026, at his home in the Antelope Valley. The suspect, who is not believed to have known Grillmair, is a 29-year-old man who had been arrested in December for trespassing on Grillmair's property.
Other deaths
After the official report of the congressional inquiry, Rep. Eric Burlison, a member of the investigating House committee, came forward with two additional names that he said may warrant scrutiny:
• Matthew James Sullivan, 39. Former Air Force intelligence officer. Died on May 12, 2024, in Falls Church, Va. No cause of death made public. He had reportedly been expected to testify in a federal whistleblower case about UFOs.
• Ning Li. Physicist specializing in anti-gravity research. She was struck by a car on the University of Alabama campus in 2014 and suffered permanent brain damage. Died on July 27, 2021, at the age of 78.
Also reportedly under investigation by the FBI:
• Amy Eskridge, 34. Co-founder of the Institute for Exotic Science in Huntsville, Ala., whose work included antigravity research. Died on June 11, 2022, reportedly by suicide.
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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 12:13 PM.