Photo: A screenshot of the Fox News coverage on White House vowing to investigate recent cases of missing and died scientists

More than ten US scientists deeply involved in sensitive military, nuclear, and aerospace research have either died under suspicious circumstances or simply vanished without a trace. These cases, unfolding like scenes from a high-stakes thriller, have sparked intense speculation across US media.

Though no official findings have yet confirmed any connection, Fox News, and New York Post repeatedly highlight these overlapping connections to classified work and, in several cases, explicit links to UFO/UAP research or "antigravity" concepts. Trump administration has now finally broken its silence. The White House announced it is working with the FBI and other federal agencies to conduct a comprehensive review of the cases and determine whether they share hidden links, media reported over the weekend.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on US local time Friday the Trump administration is working with the FBI and other federal agencies to review a growing number of cases involving US scientists who have gone missing or died and to determine whether any of the cases may be connected, the Fox News reported, as an 11th scientist, Amy Eskridge, has been added to the list of deaths and disappearances tied to advanced research. 

"In light of the recent and legitimate questions about these troubling cases, and President Trump's commitment to the truth, the White House is 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," Leavitt said in the Friday post on X. "No stone will be unturned in this effort, and the White House will provide updates when we have them."

Leavitt's statement came after an exchange Wednesday with Fox News' Peter Doocy, who asked whether federal authorities were investigating reports that scientists with access to sensitive US research had gone missing or died. 

According to the Fox News, "there are now 10 American scientists who have either gone missing or died since mid-2024," Doocy said. "They all reportedly had access to classified nuclear or aerospace material. Is anybody investigating this to see if these things are connected?" Leavitt said at the time that she had seen the reports but had not yet spoken with the relevant agencies.

The list has since grown to 11 with the inclusion of Amy Eskridge, a 34-year-old researcher based in Huntsville, Alabama, who died in 2022. Fox News Digital reported that her case is now being linked to the broader pattern of deaths and disappearances in advanced research fields. Eskridge co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science and worked on experimental propulsion concepts — including what she called "antigravity" research. Her death was officially ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound, though few details have been released publicly. Online communities and alternative technology circles have since raised questions about the circumstances, but these claims remain unverified.

Social media has recently lit up with theories about the disappearances and deaths, which occurred over three years and involved several researchers and other staff with ties to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Speculation has swirled about whether there's some kind of plot to harm US nuclear or space programs, CBS News reported on Saturday.

US President Donald Trump, according to the Fox News report, said Thursday he had "just left a meeting" on the issue and vowed answers within days, calling the situation "pretty serious." "I hope it's random, but we're going to know in the next week and a half," Trump said, according to the report. 

The US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration "is aware of reports related to employees of our labs, plants and sites and is looking into the matter," the agency said in a statement, which was cited in the Fox News report. 

 Officials have not confirmed any connection between the cases. But the timing of the deaths and disappearances and the individuals' ties to advanced research fields have drawn public attention and speculation. There is no publicly available evidence linking Eskridge's death to the other cases, and authorities have not indicated any ties between her work and the circumstances of her death, the report stated. 

 Retired Air Force major general William McCasland, 68, has not been seen since February 26, according to the ABC News in March. The case has drawn parallels to other similar incidents involving personnel with connections with McCasland's work, sparking widespread — though unverified — speculation and even UFO-related conspiracy theories among US media reports.

The ABC News reported on March 16 that McCasland held a number of "space research, acquisition and operations roles within the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office" while enlisted, according to the Air Force. The roles included director-level positions at the Pentagon, as well as commanding the Phillips Research Site of Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, according to the Air Force.

McCasland's disappearance has sparked significant online speculation about potential connections to classified military programs and UFOs because of his past role as the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He's one of four current or former employees at sensitive sites who've gone missing in New Mexico over roughly the last year, per the CBS News.

New York Post, in its report later on March 21, said that US rocket scientist named Monica Reza, vanished without a trace on the morning of June 22, 2025, during an Angeles National Forest hike, and claimed that McCasland disappeared under eerily similar circumstances — and the two had a close professional connection.

Reza used name of known as Monica Jacinto in her wildly successful professional career as a material scientist at Aerojet Rocketdyne, which was funded for years by NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, according to SpaceNews, the New York Post reported. Her patented nickel-based "super-alloy," Mondaloy, brought her into the orbit of McCasland — who oversaw the Air Force group that funded research in the early 2000s into advanced materials needed for reusable space vehicles and weapons, per the report. 

McCasland was material wing director at the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicle Directorate, and commander of Phillips Research Site in Kirtland Air Force Base from 2001 to 2004, which would directly pertain to Reza's research, according to his official Air Force biography.

 Also according to Hill, Steven Garcia, a 48-year-old government contractor, was last seen leaving his home in Albuquerque on Aug. 28, 2025. He was on foot and carrying a handgun, with police reportedly warning he may have been a danger to himself. Garcia worked as a property custodian at the Kansas City National Security Campus, which manufactures nonnuclear components for nuclear weapons. He had a top security clearance at the facility, which would allow him wide access.

Other missing or dead scientists include Novartis biologist Jason Thomas and Los Alamos National Laboratory employees Melissa Caslas and Anthony Chavez, Michael Hicks, who worked on a myriad of NASA space science missions, NASA's Frank Maiwald, MIT's Nuno Loureiro and Caltech's Carl Grillmair.

Some members of Congress have already called for investigations into the disappearances. "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," Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican who has pushed for more government transparency surrounding space intelligence and UFOs, told the Daily Mail in March,the US People's Magazine wrote on Thursday. 

Burchett told the outlet that he suspected McCasland's disappearance was connected to his aerospace research and former command of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in western Ohio.

Global Times