Disappearance of retired Air Force general tied to UFO community, killing of scientist spark questions
Former Assistant FBI Director Chris Swecker discusses the disappearance of a retired Air Force general with ties to UFOs, along with other cases of top scientists reported missing or dead, on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’
A series of suspicious deaths and disappearances of high-level scientists across the country over the past several years is reaching a fever pitch and catching the attention of online sleuths all the way to the White House.
Since 2023, at least eight people, mostly involved in researching space and nuclear science, have died or vanished, some under murky circumstances. Some have had connections to UFO research.
Asked Wednesday by Fox News' Peter Doocy about the trend, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration will likely look into the matter.
"I haven’t spoken to our relevant agencies about it. I will certainly do that, and we’ll get you an answer," Leavitt said. "If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and its administration would deem worth looking into. So let me do that for you."
1) Amy Eskridge
Date: June 11, 2022
Age: 34
Cause of Death: Suicide
Eskridge co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science and described her work as focused on experimental propulsion concepts, including what she referred to as "antigravity" research.
"We discovered antigravity, and our lives went to (expletive) and people started sabotaging us," she said in a 2020 interview with Youtuber Jeremy Rys. "It’s harassment, threats. It’s awful.
A photo of Amy Eskridge from Arab Heritage Memorial Chapel, taken on an unknown date. (Arab Heritage Memorial Chapel)
"If you stick your neck out in public, at least someone notices if your head gets chopped off," Eskridge added. "If you stick your neck out in private, they will bury you. They will burn down your house while you’re sleeping in your bed, and it won’t even make the news."
2) Michael David Hicks
Death: July 30, 2023
Age: 59
Cause of Death: Not released
Hicks was a scientist working at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1998 to 2022, according to the Daily Mail. He worked on the space program's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) project, which focused on understanding the physical properties of asteroids and comets, and whether they could be re-directed in outer space.
Michael David Hicks, 59, a scientist who worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1998 to 2022, died July 30, 2023, authorities said. (The University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Laboratory)
3) Frank Maiwald
Death: July 4, 2024
Age: 61
Cause of Death: Not released
Maiwald also worked in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He designed a critical instrument for a project called Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) – Visible to Shortwave Infrared (VSWIR), a future NASA mission to launch a satellite into space and map the "living color" of the Earth in far greater detail than can be observed by the human eye, according to his obituary.
Just over a year before he died, he was working on a program to help astronauts on space missions identify signs of life on other planets, including Jupiter's moon, Europa, Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, or the dwarf planet Ceres, the Daily Mail reported.
Frank Maiwald, 61, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died July 4, 2024, authorities said. The cause of death has not been released. (Obituary)
4) Monica Reza
Missing: June 22, 2025
Age: 60
Status: Unknown
Monica Reza went missing while hiking in Mount Waterman in the Angeles National Forest in California. A missing person's flyer from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office said there was concern for Reza's well-being, and asked tipsters to call 818-248-3464.
Reza also worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an aerospace engineer, reportedly overseeing the lab's Materials Processing Group, which "focuses on developing new materials and advanced manufacturing technologies for spacecraft, specializing in bulk metallic glass alloys and metal additive manufacturing," according to NASA.
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Monica Reza, 60, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was reported missing June 22, 2025, after disappearing while hiking in the Mount Waterman area of the Angeles National Forest in California. (Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)
5) Melissa Casias
Missing: June 26, 2025
Age: 53
Status: Unknown
Casias worked as an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which reportedly developed nuclear weapons for the Manhattan Project.
On the day she disappeared, she dropped off lunch for her daughter and was never seen again.
Melissa Casias, 53, an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was reported missing June 26, 2025, and her whereabouts remain unknown. (GoFundMe)
6) Anthony Chavez
Missing: May 8, 2025
Age: 79
Status: Unknown
Chavez also worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory until he retired in 2017, according to the Daily Mail. He was last seen leaving his house in Los Alamos on foot, with his car locked in his driveway. He did not bring his phone, wallet or keys on his walk.
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Anthony Chavez, 79, was reported missing May 8, 2025, after he was last seen leaving his home on foot in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Chavez, a retired employee of Los Alamos National Laboratory, left behind his car, phone, wallet and keys, and his whereabouts remain unknown. (New Mexico Department of Public Safety)
7) Joshua LeBlanc
Death: July 22, 2025.
Age: 29
Cause of Death: Car accident
Joshua LeBlanc, 29, died in a fiery crash in his Tesla in Florence, Alabama.
He and his vehicle were ound burned beyond recognition at about 2:45 in the afternoon, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency told Fox News Digital. The vehicle collided with a guardrail, then several trees, before the vehicle burst into flames.
At 4:32 a.m. on the same day, LeBlanc's family reported him missing, according to KLFY. He uncharacteristically failed to show up to his job as an aerospace technologies electrical engineer at NASA, where he worked on nuclear propulsion projects.
Joshua LeBlanc, a former NASA scientist who died in a car crash on July 22, 2025. Photo taken on an unknown date. (Joshua LeBlanc/LinkedIn)
At the time, his family told KLFY that they feared he had been abducted and that he had left his phone and wallet in his home at the time of the disappearance.
Police tracked LeBlanc down using the data from his Tesla Sentry Mode, and found that his vehicle sat at the airport in Huntsville for four hours on the morning of his death. His family said his trip west was not part of his plan for the day, and that uncharacteristically, he was not communicating with them.
8) Steven Garcia
Missing: Aug. 28, 2025
Age: 48
Status: Unknown
Garcia went missing in Albuquerque after leaving his home on foot carrying only a handgun, according to NewsNation. He worked at the Kansas City National Security Campus, which develops most of the nonnuclear components that go into building nuclear weapons.
He had a top secret security clearance.
Steven Garcia, 48, who worked at the Kansas City National Security Campus, was reported missing Aug. 28, 2025, after leaving his Albuquerque home on foot carrying only a handgun. (New Mexico Department of Public Safety)
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10) Nuno Loureiro
Death: Dec. 16, 2026
Age: 48
Manner of Death: Homicide
Loureiro, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) physicist and the director of the school's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was a renowned figure in fusion-energy research, a field that seeks to recreate the power of the sun inside fusion reactors on Earth. His theories and models helped guide major fusion experiments in the United States and Europe.
Undated file photo of Nuno Loureiro, a professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics at MIT. (Jake Belcher for MIT)
Claudio Manuel Neves Valente shot Loureiro to death shortly after opening fire inside a Brown University academic building, killing two and wounding nine. The motive for both attacks remains unclear
11) Carl Grillmair
Death: Feb. 16, 2026
Age: 47
Manner of Death: Homicide
Grillmair was a renowned research scientist at Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, which partners with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory providing "science operations, user support, archives and data services, and scientific vision to maximize discovery with observatories both in space and on the ground."
The Daily Mail reported that he was personally involved in space telescope projects with NASA.
He was shot and killed outside his home. A man named Freddy Snyder, 29, was charged with his murder.
Carl Grillmair, 47, a research scientist at Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, was fatally shot outside his home Feb. 16, 2026, in what authorities have ruled a homicide. (Caltech)
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12) Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland
Missing: Feb. 27, 2026
Age: 68
Status: Unknown
A split image showing missing retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland in the green, button-up shirt he was last seen wearing and in his military uniform. (Obtained)
McCasland was the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, and had connections with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, like Casias and Garcia. He reportedly possessed top secret information on UFOs.
He, too, disappeared in New Mexico. He left his home with only a part of boots and a handgun, leaving his phone, keys and glasses, the Daily Mail reported.
13) James "Tony" Moffatt
Moffatt, 60, a decorated veteran pilot, aerospace engineer and defense researcher was killed in a plane crash while flying with his wife Leasa, 61, and sons Andrew, 30, and William, 28. The plane crashed in a wooded area near the runway at Union County Airport in South Carolina.
The family from Huntsville, Alabama, was traveling from the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina to Huntsville, officials said, and had stopped in Union County, South Carolina to refuel.
James "Tony" Moffatt, 60, and his wife Leasa, 61, were aboard their Mooney M20 single-engine aircraft returning home to Huntsville when the aircraft went down around 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 17, 2026. (Facebook)
Moffatt earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech in 1988 and previously studied as an experimental test pilot in the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Following his 21-year military career, Moffatt worked as a payload and flight crew support specialist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center Astronaut Office, where he participated in 14 Space Shuttle ISS construction missions.
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