We're sure the tin foil hat conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this one, as another high-ranking American with apparent ties to unidentified flying objects has seemingly vanished without a trace. Is this some sort of government cover-up, are little green dudes responsible, or is it all a coincidence? Either way, it sounds like the perfect plot for Ryan Coogler's upcoming reboot of The X-Files.
Even when our every move on and offline is tracked in 2026, it's amazing how little we know about extraterrestrial life (or the lack of it). There are various theories why we haven't made contact with aliens yet, although we're apparently edging closer than ever to E.T. phoning home.
There's been a recent flurry of interest in aliens, fuelled by the bizarre notion that former President Barack Obama believes in extraterrestrials.
This led to the similarly random headline that President Donald Trump would release everything the government has on alien life, meaning we could finally find out what's really going on in Area 51.
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Despite the POTUS' promises, some think there's a government conspiracy afoot after retired General William Neil McCasland has vanished from his Albuquerque home.
As reported by the Daily Mail, the 68-year-old veteran was a major figure in the Air Force Research Laboratory, boasting supposed UFO ties due to secretive programs at Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The real mystery comes from the fact that McCasland's disappearance comes just months after a former colleague also vanished while out on a hike.
McCasland oversaw the work of NASA aerospace engineer Monica Jacinto Reza, with Reza working on a futuristic metal on Mondaloy, used for rocket engines.
With no clear explanation for what's happened to the pair, some fear they’ve fled from, or were silenced, by people wanting to know more about their work.
The conspiracy theories have even caught on in Congress, with Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett claiming there's a pattern involving deaths and disappearances of high-ranking figures like McCasland and Reza: "There have been several others throughout the country that have disappeared under suspicious circumstances. I think we ought to be paying attention to it."
Slamming 'alphabet agencies' like the FBI, Burchett continued: "The numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research. I think we'd better be paying attention, and I don't think we should trust our government."
McCasland's wife noted that her husband only left home with a pair of boots and a .38-caliber revolver.
His disappearance is of concern to Burchett due to his possessing nuclear secrets and having worked with recovered UFO tech from 1947's infamous Roswell crash.
2016's WikiLeaks emails included mentions of McCasland between Blink-182 founder Tom DeLonge and the UFO-centric To The Stars Academy (TTSA). DeLonge said McCasland had advised him on disclosure matters and helped him assemble an advisory team.
Burchett warned: "Everybody's talking about the UFO stuff. Those folks are very secretive about what they know. So I suspect very much that [McCasland] was involved in some of that."
As for Reza, Burchett claims that the special metals she'd been working with might've been from UFOs. It's important to note that the congressman has spoken with others in the intelligence community who maintain they do not know about UFOs or the idea that the U.S. military is working to reverse engineer that kind of tech.
All of this comes after Nuno Loureiro was assassinated at his home after reportedly being on the cusp of a breakthrough in the energy sector and potentially ending our reliance on fossil fuels. Astrophysicist Carl Grillmai was also killed at home in February 2026, while the remains of Jason Thomas, assistant director of chemical biology at Novartis, were found on March 17.
When grilled on whether the public is taking all of these seriously enough, Burchett concluded: "I'm thinking it is now."