About This Series
Since June 2022, thirteen individuals with documented ties to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Air Force Research Laboratory, MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the Kansas City National Security Campus, and private anti-gravity propulsion research have died or gone missing under circumstances that have not been publicly explained.
Each case has been treated as a standalone matter by local authorities. No coordinated federal investigation was announced until April 2026, when Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy raised the cases at a White House briefing and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the administration would investigate. The White House subsequently stated it was working with federal agencies and the FBI to review all cases for potential commonalities.
The FBI has made no public comment on any connection between the cases. No cause of death has been released for three of the deceased. Five individuals remain missing. Two were shot in their homes, in different states, by different individuals, within the same calendar month.
Each article in this series examines one person: their background, their work, their institution, their location, and the documented circumstances of their death or disappearance. Every claim is drawn from verified sources — official law enforcement statements, institutional communications, congressional records, and verified reporting from major outlets. Nothing has been fabricated. All sources are verifiable.
Chronological Timeline — All 11 Cases
Documented Connections Between Cases
No law enforcement agency has officially connected any of these cases. What follows are the documented institutional, geographic and professional overlaps as reported by Fox News, Fortune, CNN, Newsweek and congressional sources — not theories, but verified facts in the public record.
Congressional letters from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Representative Eric Burlison to the FBI, DoD, DoE and NASA explicitly note that Monica Reza and General McCasland worked together on "an Air Force–funded research program in the early 2000s pertaining to advanced materials needed for reusable space vehicles and weapons." Fortune confirmed this directly. Reza patented a nickel super-alloy for rocket manufacturing that went into reusable rocket programs including New Glenn and Starship. McCasland commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory that funded her work. Both subsequently disappeared.
Three of the thirteen cases are directly linked to Huntsville, Alabama — home to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal. Amy Eskridge lived and died there (2022). Her father Richard Eskridge was a retired NASA Marshall plasma physicist (retired 2016). Joshua LeBlanc worked at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center when he died (2025). James "Tony" Moffatt was based in Huntsville, worked at UAH Research and Engineering Support Center, and died returning to Huntsville from North Carolina (2026). Newsweek confirmed the overlap between Richard Eskridge and LeBlanc at Marshall, though no direct professional connection between them has been established.
Anthony Chavez (disappeared 4 May 2025) and Melissa Casias (disappeared 26 June 2025) both worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Both disappeared from northern New Mexico within eight weeks of each other. Both left their personal items behind. Casias additionally had both phones factory-reset before her disappearance.
Michael David Hicks (died July 2023), Frank Maiwald (died July 2024), and Monica Reza (missing June 2025) all worked at or in close association with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. All three cases remain without publicly disclosed causes of death or confirmed locations. JPL issued no statement on any of the three deaths or disappearances. NASA has not commented beyond confirming it is "coordinating with relevant agencies."
Steven Garcia (disappeared 28 August 2025) and General McCasland (disappeared 27 February 2026) both vanished on foot from Albuquerque, New Mexico — both leaving personal items behind, both carrying a firearm. Garcia worked at the Kansas City National Security Campus manufacturing nuclear weapons components. McCasland commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson. No geographic or professional connection between them has been confirmed.
Nuno Loureiro was shot dead in Brookline on 15–16 December 2025. Jason Thomas vanished from Wakefield on 12 December 2025. Both are in Massachusetts. Both died or disappeared in the same calendar month. Loureiro directed MIT's fusion center; Thomas conducted cancer research under active DoD contracts. No connection between them has been established.
The FBI confirmed in April 2026 that it "is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists" and is working with the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and state and local law enforcement partners. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has demanded briefings from the FBI, DoD, DoE and NASA. House Oversight Chairman James Comer stated publicly there is "a high possibility that something sinister is taking place." NASA has confirmed it is coordinating with relevant agencies but stated "nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat."
The Question Being Asked
No authority has connected these cases. That must be stated plainly. Local police in each jurisdiction have treated each incident as isolated. The White House investigation was announced in April 2026 and has not reported findings. The FBI has not commented.
What can be documented is the institutional overlap. Multiple individuals connected to the facilities that detect what moves through near-Earth space, build the materials and engines to reach it, hold the classified knowledge surrounding what the US government formally calls Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, and manufacture the components of nuclear warheads — have died or vanished across a four-year window with no public explanation.
Fox News put the question directly: does law and order protect the public, or the patronage networks within the institutions meant to serve them? That question has not been answered. It is, however, now being asked — in the White House briefing room, in congressional offices, and in the public record.
Read each profile. Check the sources. Form your own view.