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Deaths, disappearances of scientists seen as UFO-linked: Trump orders FBI probe, says 'hopefully, coincidence'
Social media speculation accelerated in recent weeks, particularly following the disappearance of retired US Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland.
US President Donald Trump has directed the FBI to investigate a series of deaths and disappearances involving government workers who were somehow linked to sensitive nuclear and space programmes, amid swirling public speculation about whether the cases are “connected to UFOs”.
Evidence-agnostic theories about "unidentified flying objects" and “space aliens” are now dominating online chatter in the US in particular, and Trump, currently facing a stalemate in his war on Iran, has sought to intervene in that area.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the inquiry on Friday, stating that the administration was “actively working with all relevant agencies and the FBI to holistically review all of the cases together and identify any potential commonalities that may exist”.
Leavitt framed the move as reflecting trump's “commitment to the truth".
Trump himself told reporters on Thursday that the matter was serious.
"I just left a meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff," he said, according to CBS News, "Hopefully, coincidence... but some of them were very important people, and we are going to look at it."
The cases in question involve approximately 10 individuals with ties to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other sensitive defence facilities.
They span roughly three years and include disappearances, murders, and deaths from apparently unrelated causes.
Who is USAF Maj Gen William Neil McCasland?
Social media speculation about foreign espionage or foul play has accelerated in recent weeks, particularly following the disappearance of retired US Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland.
Major General McCasland, 68, was last seen at his Albuquerque home in late February.
He is reported to have left without his watch, mobile phone, or prescription glasses, taking only a wallet, hiking boots, and a .38-caliber revolver.
A grey Air Force sweatshirt was recovered roughly a mile from his home in early March, but investigators have found no further trace of him. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office issued a Silver Alert due to an unspecified medical condition. Authorities have confirmed no evidence of foul play so far.
Before retiring in 2013, McCasland had led the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, overseeing a $2.2 billion science and technology programme, The Independent reported.
Online theories linked his disappearance to classified military programmes and UFO research.
His wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, addressed those claims directly in a Facebook post, writing that it “seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him”, given that her husband had been out of service for more than 12 years.
Others who are missing or dead
Three other people connected to nuclear facilities have also gone missing in New Mexico.
Steven Garcia, 48, a property custodian for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Kansas City National Security Campus, disappeared last August.
Melissa Casias, 53, an administrative assistant at Los Alamos with no high-level clearance, was last seen walking along a highway.
Anthony Chavez, 78, a former Los Alamos employee, vanished in May of last year.
In California, aerospace engineer Monica Reza, 60, who worked on rocket engines at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, disappeared while hiking in Los Angeles County in June 2025.
Among the deaths, CBS News reported that MIT fusion physics professor Nuno Lureiro was shot outside his home allegedly by a jealous former classmate who the following day carried out a mass shooting at Brown University.
Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was also shot dead outside his Los Angeles home.
The body of pharmaceutical researcher Jason Thomas was recovered from a Massachusetts lake months after his disappearance, with family indicating he had been deeply distressed following the deaths of both parents.
No credible link so far
Despite the wave of speculation, national security and law enforcement experts told CBS News they see no credible link between the cases.
Joseph Rodgers of the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted that the deaths and disappearances were “scattered across several years at different and only loosely affiliated organisations”.
A former US Department of Energy official was more blunt: "People do just die. Strokes, heart disease, suicide, mugging, it happens."
The FBI was not yet treating the cases as a suspicious pattern, with a bureau spokesman describing it as “a developing situation”. The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed separately that it was also examining the matter, CBS reported.
