Several prominent scientists and researchers in the U.S. have reportedly died or gone missing over the past year, fueling speculation about whether some of the disappearances may have occurred under suspicious circumstances.
William Neil McCasland, a 68-year-old retired Air Force major general who had knowledge of UFOs, went missing in New Mexico on Feb. 27, NewsNation reported. Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett told the Daily Mail on Sunday that he believes there may be a pattern emerging of other researchers throughout the nation similarly disappearing “under suspicious circumstances.”
“There have been several others throughout the country that have disappeared under suspicious circumstances,” Burchett told the outlet. “I think we ought to be paying attention to it.”
The congressman also indicated that “the numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research,” adding “I think we’d better be paying attention, and I don’t think we should trust our government.” He went on to claim that researchers with knowledge about UFOs are usually “very secretive about what they know.”
“Everybody’s talking about the UFO stuff,” the Tennessee Republican told the Daily Mail. “Those folks are very secretive about what they know. So I suspect very much that [McCasland] was involved in some of that.”
Burchett’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
McCasland’s wife, Susan, asserted that no “foul play” was suspected in her husband’s disappearance, but added that he had left their house with just a pair of boots and his .38-caliber revolver on the day he disappeared, according to the Daily Mail.
Still, investigative journalist Ross Coulthart suggested during a Sunday appearance on “NewsNation Prime” that “foul play” may be a possibility in relation to McCasland’s disappearance.
“We have to ask, now, [about] the possibility of foul play — is there somebody who has interceded to take the general out of the picture?” Coulthart told NewsNation. “He was a man with some of the most sensitive U.S. military intelligence secrets in his head, especially particle beam technology.”
Additionally, Monica Reza went missing on June 22, 2025 while on a hike in the Angeles National Forest, per a Facebook page which describes its mission as aiming to “raising awareness and organizing volunteer efforts” to help find her. Reza previously served as a material scientist at Aerojet Rocketdyne, which notably was funded by NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory for several years, The New York Post (NY Post) reported.
McCasland had served as a material wing director at the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicle Directorate, and commander of Phillips Research Site in Kirtland Air Force Base from 2001 to 2004, which would directly relate to Reza’s area of research, according to the NY Post.
While it currently is unclear whether the McCasland’s disappearance and Reza’s disappearance are connected, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department told Newsweek on March 18 that “Detectives are looking into this to see if there is any connection at all.”
Moreover, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced on Dec. 16, 2025 that Nuno Loureiro, a former professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics at the university, had died at age 47 after sustaining gunshot wounds. MIT President Sally Kornbluth wrote in a letter that “in the face of this shocking loss, our hearts go out to his wife and their family and to his many devoted students, friends and colleagues.”
Loureiro was a “lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist,” who had been a part of MIT’s faculty since 2016, and his research focused on addressing “complex problems lurking at the center of fusion vacuum chambers and at the edges of the universe,” according to MIT’s statement. Authorities later identified Loureiro’s shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, who was also the suspect in the Dec. 13, 2025 mass shooting at Brown University, CBS News reported in February.
Carl Grillmair, 67, a prominent astrophysicist at California Institute of Technology’s IPAC Science and Data Center for Astronomy and Planetary Science, was killed at gunpoint on Feb. 16 at his home in Llano, California, The New York Post reported. Grillmair rose to prominence for his research on the “collisions of galaxies and the search for water on planets outside our solar system,” according to ABC7.
Grillmair was also the recipient of the 2011 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal and numerous NASA Group Achievement Awards, according to a Feb. 21 statement from Caltech.
A body recovered from Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts on March 17 is believed to belong to Jason Thomas, a 45-year-old scientist with multinational pharmaceutical corporation Novartis, who suddenly disappeared on Dec. 12, 2025, People reported. The Wakefield Police Department said in a March 17 statement posted to Facebook that no foul play is currently suspected in the incident.
Thomas’ wife, Kristen Bartoli, previously stated her husband had been struggling with both of his parents dying before he disappeared, according to People.
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