Is Somebody Hunting America’s Aerospace Engineers And Scientists?

At first glance, the list of the missing and the dead makes for a terrifying read. The general who ran the Air Force’s most advanced, secretive aerospace laboratory. Another former Air Force officer who was about to enter whistleblower hearings. Three scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Two people from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the heir of the Manhattan Project where America still does its most sensitive nuclear weapons research. Plus a world leader in nuclear fusion, an astrophysicist, and a chemical expert. It’s enough to make one wonder if the nation’s engineering and scientific brainpower, particularly around national security, is being targeted. A hostile foreign power, quietly decapitating America’s dominance in these sectors?

Well, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform are, in fact, wondering. They have request a briefing on the disappearances and deaths, sending open letters to the leaders of the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, FBI, and NASA. They demand answers. In response, the FBI is “spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists,” per CNN.

But before you say there is a serious threat to the country, let’s dig a little deeper. Start at the top: the first occurrence on the list is the death of Michael David Hicks, which happened all the way back in 2023. That should be your first clue: we’re talking about ten incidents spread over the last three years. If this is some sort of assassin or broader operation, they are moving very slowly. And just who is Mr. Hicks? He was a JPL scientist who specialized in asteroids and comets. Noble work to be sure, but if you were a hostile power trying to hurt America’s defenses, is this the guy you’d target? You’d have to be thinking very, very long-range, like maybe without Hicks, we won’t detect a giant meteor headed for Earth.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory sure sounds like the highest-priority target in the world. The site of the development of the very first atomic bombs is still where nuclear weapons research is conducted. So the vanishing of two people who worked at that institution certainly sounds grim. But again, who exactly were they? One was Anthony Chavez, who, at 78 years old, was already long retired. And even when he was working, he was not wrestling with quantum mechanics or megatons. He was a construction foreman. The man dealt with concrete, not uranium (and even that was a long time ago).

The other missing person from Los Alamos is Melissa Casias. She was also not a scientist: according to the New York Post, she was “an administrative assistant who was responsible for purchasing routine office supplies.” Not exactly a high-value target.

It’s a similar story elsewhere. The most recent disappearance was that of Major General William Neil McCasland on February 27. He had once headed the Air Force Research Laboratory, where some of the most advanced aerospace technology in the world is developed. But, again, that was a long time ago. His wife told Scientific American that he retired 13 years prior. Not somebody an operation would be actively interested in. For what it’s worth, when he went for the walk on which he disappeared, he left his phone and glasses at home… but brought his .38 revolver.

Some of these deaths are known to be murders, but we already know who the murderers are. MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who led the university’s center for nuclear fusion in clean energy (not weapons), was shot in December 2025 by Claudio Neves Valente. Per CNN, Valente had been a fellow student with Loureiro back in their college days decades earlier. Tragically, as if murder wasn’t tragedy enough, Valente drove straight from killing Loureiro to Brown University, where he’d dropped out long ago. He committed a school shooting, then killed himself. That does not sound like it’s part of a larger plot.

Similarly, Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was shot on his own front porch on February 16. The perpetrator was his 29-year-old neighbor, Freddy Snyder, who had a habit of trespassing on other people’s property while armed, the Los Angeles Times reported. It should be mentioned that Grillmair studied distant stars, not rocket or defense technology.

Most of the remaining names on the list don’t necessarily sound like suspicious occurrences. Monica Reza, the head of JPL’s Materials Processing Group, vanished on a hike in the Angeles National Forest. That sort of thing does happen from time to time. Her JPL coworker Frank Maiwald died at the age of 61. The body of Jason Thomas, an assistant director of chemical biology at big pharma company Novartis, was found in March after his December disappearance with “no foul play suspected,” per NBC News.

The one death that might just have a whiff of conspiracy around it is that of Matthew James Sullivan, an ex-Air Force intelligence officer who was about to testify on a whistleblower case regarding UFOs. His death in 2024, just two weeks after being scheduled to appear, was deemed a suicide.

It’s hard to see how all of these cohere into some sort of grand design, or what the purpose of that design might be. If you wanted to cripple America’s strategic or scientific might, many of the names on this list don’t apply. Given that these incidents are all spread over three years, it’s at least plausible that these are simply everyday tragedies. On the other hand, Rep. Comer is saying that “it’s very unlikely that this is a coincidence,” and that “we view this as a national security threat.” Either way, the FBI is looking into it now. If there is something bigger going on, an investigation this big ought to take quite a while. But if there isn’t, expect a quiet announcement to that effect much sooner.