The conspiracy theories are swirling as several high-profile names in the science and space industries are now missing or dead. As the total heads into double figures, the White House has finally been forced to break its silence on what exactly is going on.
Sounding like the plot of some Netflix thriller or season 4 of True Detective, the extensive list has now grown to 10 missing scientists, with various names from the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab to the Los Alamos National Laboratory causing a stir through their disappearances or deaths.
In particular, these largely unexplained incidents are raising questions among the already conspiracy-obsessed UFO community.
Fox News' Peter Doocy grilled White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on the string of missing scientists who've been making the news since Michael David Hicks died in 2023. Leavitt said she would look into what's going on and admitted that it's something the current administration would deem worthy of looking into. But just who are these key science figures, and what's happened to each of these 10 scientists?
Michael David Hicks
Advert
First on the list is Michael David Hicks, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab who passed away at the age of 59 in July 2023. Hicks’ cause of death was never made public, and as there's no record of an autopsy being performed, his unexplained death is what kicked the whole sorry saga off. Remembered for his work with NASA's DART Project to see if we can deflect dangerous asteroids away from Earth, Hicks also published over 80 scientific papers and had a key role in studying near-Earth asteroids.
Frank Maiwald
Frank Maiwald was a JPL researcher who died under unknown circumstances in July 2024. Just 13 months before his death, Maiwald worked on helping future space missions potentially detect life beyond our solar system. It's noted that the 61-year-old was a JPL Principal, meaning he was recognized for "making outstanding individual contributions" in his field, although there were no comments made about his passing. NASA and JPL have discussed either Hicks’ or Maiwald's deaths.
Anthony Chavez
Anthony Chavez worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) until he retired in 2017. Despite the 79-year-old's exact role at LANL being unclear, it's one of the USA's most important nuclear research sites. The Sentinel Briefing explains how Chavez's wallet, keys, and cigarettes were on the living room table, while there's no sign of forced entry, and cadaver dogs have returned negative.
Detective Ladislas Szabo was the lead investigator on the case and gave the following ominous description of the scene: "There was no evidence of a scuffle. There was no blood. There was nothing. It was just like he left."
Monica Reza
As a NASA scientist at JPL, Monica Reza was the director of the Materials Processing Group and had been looking at a space-age metal called Mondaloy. Hiking on the popular Mount Waterman Trail in June 2025, 60-year-old Reza vanished despite supposedly being just yards away from her companions. The biggest red flag here is her ties to retired Air Force Gen. William McCasland and the fact that she vanishes just eight months before him.
Melissa Casias
Working alongside her husband as an administrative assistant at LANL, Casias was last seen dropping off lunch for her daughter in New Mexico on June 26, 2025. This was just four days after Reza disappeared, with former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker telling the Daily Mail the 53-year-old could be part of an alarming pattern thanks to her work at LANL: "In a classified lab, or just a high clearance lab, they would basically be in the know on what’s going on. And it wouldn’t be the first time their administrative assistant has been targeted."
Steven Garcia
The Daily Mail recently reported that 48-year-old Steven Garcia vanished from his Albuquerque home on August 28, 2025. Carrying only a handgun, it's said that Garcia was a government contractor who worked for the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC). The Albuquerque facility plays an important part in America's national defense and is known for manufacturing over 80% of all the non-nuclear components that help build the military's nuclear weapons.
Jason Thomas
45-year-old Jason Thomas was reported missing after he was seen walking away from his home in Massachusetts back in December 2025. Thomas had worked as an assistant director of chemical biology at Novartis
Even though Thomas' wife told Dateline that he'd been struggling since the death of his parents and no foul play was reported when his remains were recovered, conspiracy theorists aren't convinced.
Nunoi Loureiro
Nunoi Loureiro was the director of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, with the nuclear science and engineering professor from Portugal being brutally attacked at home. It's said that 47-year-old Loureiro was shot multiple times in the foyer of his Massachusetts apartment building. Loureiro's death was especially shocking, with Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa calling it "an irreplaceable loss for science."
Carl Grillmair
Similar to Loureiro, Carl Grillmair was shot at home. The 67-year-old was a renowned Caltech scientist and astrophysicist who'd worked with JPL. More than contributing to hundreds of publications and abstracts, Grillmair was connected to missile tracking technology that's used by the U.S. Air Force. He received an exceptional scientific achievement medal from NASA, and even helped with the monumental discovery of signs of water on a distant planet.
William Neil McCasland
Bringing everything together, retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland vanished in similar circumstances to many of the rest on February 27, 2026. McCasland was a senior figure in the Air Force Research Laboratory and had apparent UFO ties due to covert programs at Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. In particular, his work with Reza, Mondaloy, and rocket engines has fueled the idea that this is part of a bigger conspiracy. Offering an update in April 2026, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office told Newsweek: "At this time, we have not developed evidence establishing that Mr. McCasland’s disappearance is connected to his classified work. This remains an active investigation, and we are not going to speculate or rule in or rule out possibilities without evidence."
Still, with so many of these high-profile figures being connected or vanishing in similar circumstances, their names continue to crop up as the general public and officials alike demand answers.