Trump sets deadline for investigation of 10 missing scientists

Donald Trump has been briefed on the mysterious string of missing and dead scientists, a growing list that has now reached ten cases.

The President addressed the alarming situation after landing at the White House on Thursday, where he was met by reporters and questioned by FOX News about whether the disappearances and deaths were random or potentially connected.

‘Well, I hope it is random, but we are going to know in the next week and a half,’ said Trump. ‘I just left a meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff. Hopefully, coincidence… but some of them were very important people, and we are going to look at it.’

These scientists, who had ties to NASA, nuclear research, aerospace programs and classified projects, have raised alarms since 2023. 

Many of the individuals, including researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, had access to sensitive information on space missions, nuclear technology or advanced defense systems, prompting speculation about possible connections. 

The President’s statements follow a Wednesday briefing at the White House, where press secretary Karoline Leavitt was also asked about the ten people linked to space or nuclear secrets who have mysteriously died or vanished without a trace.

‘I haven’t spoken to our relevant agencies about it. I will certainly do that and will get you an answer,’ said Leavitt.

‘If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into. So let me do that for you,’ Leavitt continued.

This disturbing pattern became apparent after retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland vanished on February 27.

He was last seen leaving his New Mexico home without his phone, wearable devices or glasses less than two months ago. He was only carrying a pistol and his wife told 911 dispatchers that it appeared he was trying ‘not to be found.’

The strange circumstances surrounding the general’s disappearance were almost identical to four other missing person cases taking place between May and August 2025 in the Southwest.

Concerningly, all four have been tied to McCasland through his work overseeing the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which has been rumored to study extraterrestrial technology since the 1947 Roswell UFO crash.

While at Wright-Patterson, McCasland oversaw and reportedly approved the funding for scientist Monica Jacinto Reza’s work on a space-age metal for rocket engines called Mondaloy.

Reza, 60, disappeared while hiking with friends in California on June 22 last year. She had just become the director of the Materials Processing Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The three other disappearances all involved workers at some of America’s most important nuclear facilities, and all three were last seen walking out of their homes without their phones or keys, just like McCasland.

Steven Garcia, 48, vanished without a trace on August 28 last year. He was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on foot, carrying only a handgun. 

An anonymous source told the Daily Mail that Garcia was a government contractor working for the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a major facility in Albuquerque that manufactures more than 80 percent of all the non-nuclear components that go into building the military’s nuclear weapons.

Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casias both worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), one of the nation’s most important nuclear research sites.

Chavez, 79, worked at the lab until his retirement in 2017, although his role there has not been made clear. Casias, 54, was an active administrative assistant at the facility and is believed to have had top security clearance.

All three were last seen leaving their homes in New Mexico on foot, leaving behind their cars, keys, wallets and phones before disappearing without a trace. Police have not had any updates in the cases since last year.

In addition to the string of disappearances, five scientists in key areas of research have died over the last three years, including two who were murdered in their own homes.

Nuclear physicist Nuno Loureiro and Astrophysicist Carl Grillmair were both shot to death in their homes in recent months. 

Independent investigators have noted that Loureiro’s revolutionary work in nuclear fusion may have made him a target of a greater conspiracy against US scientists, as his work may one day upend the energy industry. 

Last year, Claudio Neves Valente was identified by Boston authorities as a suspect in the shooting of Loureiro, as well as two Brown University students, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook. 

After eluding police for days, Valente, 48, died by suicide in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, on December 16.

Grillmair’s work with NASA’s NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor has also been linked to the Air Force, as the telescopes used the same systems the military relies on to track satellites and missiles.

Meanwhile, NASA scientists Michael David Hicks and Frank Maiwald, who also worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab, died from unknown circumstances at an early age.

Maiwald, 61, was the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future space missions detect clear signs of life on other worlds just 13 months before he died in 2024.

Hicks, whose death came just a year after leaving JPL at age 59, had been involved with the DART Project, NASA’s test to see if humans could deflect dangerous asteroids away from Earth.

NASA’s JPL has not commented on the deaths of Maiwald or Hicks, and did not reply to the Daily Mail’s inquiries into the nature of the scientists’ work before their deaths.

In another mysterious incident, Jason Thomas, a pharmaceutical researcher testing cancer treatments at Novartis, was found dead in a Massachusetts lake on March 17, after disappearing without a trace in December. Local police have claimed there was no foul play suspected.