Washington: The deaths or disappearances of at least 10 top US scientists and researchers with access to information related to aerospace, defence and extra-terrestrial life have sparked alarm in Washington, prompting President Donald Trump to order a probe, PTI reported.
US President Donald Trump was briefed this week on the incidents, with further information anticipated over the next week and a half, according to American media reports.
Lawmaker Flags ‘Coincidental’ Ties To UFOs, Foreign Threats
The first reported death occurred on July 30, 2023, when Michael David Hicks, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory physicist focused on comets and asteroids, died under undisclosed circumstances.
Rep. Eric Burlison, a House Oversight Committee member, has repeatedly highlighted the disappearances as suspicious. “Too coincidental,” he deemed them, linking them “certainly” to classified aerospace, defense, and UFO data — possibly involving actors from China, Russia, or Iran.
“This is too coincidental, and so we have to investigate this. We need to have our nation’s top investigators, the FBI and every agency looking into this matter,” Burlison told Fox & Friends. He noted some scientists “literally just disappeared” without trace, including Air Force Maj. Gen. William McCasland, who vanished in February after twice reaching out about his Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) research.
Trump Calls Cases ‘Serious,’
Trump labeled the disappearances “pretty serious stuff” involving “very important people.” He added he would soon assess potential connections. “I hope it’s random,” Trump responded on Thursday when asked if he thought there was any link between the cases.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated 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. “No stone will be unturned in this effort, and the White House will provide updates when we have them,” her statement continued, previously adding in the post that the questions surrounding the cases are “legitimate.”
Key Incidents Involving Experts
A Novartis researcher, Jason Thomas, disappeared on December 12, 2025; his wife reported him missing, and his body was recovered from a Massachusetts lake on March 17, 2026.
Nuclear physicist and MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was shot dead at his home near Boston on Dec 15, 2025.
Former Los Alamos employee Anthony Chavez disappeared on May 4, 2025, last seen leaving his home on foot; Los Alamos houses America’s earliest nuclear facilities.
Melissa Casias, an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, disappeared from her home on June 26, 2025.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher Frank Maiwald died on July 4, 2024, at 61, in Los Angeles.
JPL employee Monica Jacinto Reza vanished on June 22, 2025, while on a hike.
Astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, a Caltech researcher who collaborated with NASA and detected water around exoplanets, was shot to death on his front porch on February 16, 2026.
Steven Garcia, a 48-year-old government contractor, was last seen leaving his Albuquerque home on foot with a handgun on August 28, 2025; he worked as a property custodian at the Kansas City National Security Campus, which manufactures non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons; police warned he may have been a danger to himself.
