What on earth is going on with the missing and dead US scientists?

A bunch of top US scientists, engineers, military personnel, and even, dare I say it, UFO researchers, have gone missing or died recently. I think we’re up to 13 now, but the number keeps rising, and it’s entirely possible that one or two might have slipped under the radar.

The names are Michael David Hicks, Frank Maiwald, Amy Eskridge, David Wilcock, Carl Grillmair, Nuno Loureiro, Matthew James Sullivan, Monica Jacinto Reza, William Neil McCasland, Anthony Chavez, Steven Garcia, Jason Thomas, and Melissa Casias.

So what is going on here? Are these deaths and disappearances just a tragic coincidence? Is a foreign power targeting US scientists the way Israel targets Iranian nuclear scientists? Could elements of the CIA or a rogue private contractor be silencing their own people? Or is something even stranger at play?

The first thing to note is that 10-11 of these cases have prompted a congressional inquiry from the House Oversight Committee because they were tied to sensitive aerospace, nuclear, and space research programs. We are told there is an FBI investigation into the matter, but whether that is a credible investigation, or an Epstein-style cover up remains unclear.

Officially, the FBI is calling this a “national security issue” and President Trump has demanded answers so it doesn’t sound like they’re playing it down. All I know is that members of congress seem concerned about what they have been told and they are not mincing their words.

Rep Anna Paulina Luna posted on Twitter, following UFO researcher David Wilcock’s death: “If you are feeling uneasy about the amount of scientists that have gone missing, died, and recent suicides ref those scientists and others you are correct in your intuition. Something is up.”

Rep Eric Burlison demanded a full FBI probe and warned: “I would not be surprised if our adversaries, China, Russia, Iran… saw an opportunity to take out some of our nation’s top scientists.” He noted these researchers are “not hardened. They don’t have a security detail… so they would be a very easy target.”

House Oversight Chairman James Comer has said the pattern “doesn’t pass the smell test” and that the odds they are unrelated are “very slim.”

One of the most alarming threads involves NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories. JPL develops spacecraft, instruments, and planetary defence technologies which, as you can imagine, is driving UFO enthusiasts nuts!

Let’s just look at what we know about the missing JPL scientists:

Michael David Hicks was a planetary physicist who worked at JPL for 25 years and published over 80 scientific papers. He worked on NASA missions, including Deep Space 1 and the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. His job was basically to protect the earth from asteroids! He died two years ago and the cause of death was never disclosed, but his family does not suspect foul play.

Frank Maiwald was a principal researcher and senior radio frequency engineer who served at JPL for more than 25 years. He managed development of advanced instruments and contributed to the development of Earth-observing satellites, and other space projects. Maiwald died last year, and as with Hicks, no cause of death was disclosed.

Monica Jacinto Reza is a metallurgist and aerospace materials engineer. She worked as a Technical Fellow at Aerojet Rocketdyne where she co-invented “Mondaloy,” a nickel-based superalloy used in rocket engines. She has professional ties to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base projects which, some will tell you, is where the aliens are kept!

Reza was working as Director of the Materials Processing Group at JPL when she went missing while hiking in Angeles National Forest. What is weird is she was walking with friends and trailing behind, smiling and waving. They looked away and when they looked back, she was gone. No trace has ever been found, apart from a beanie in a ravine.

Maj Gen William Neil McCasland is a colleague of Monica Reza who commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson. He has a BS in Astronautical Engineering, and a PhD in Aerospace Engineering. He oversaw multi-billion dollar classified aerospace programs, including Mondaloy-related projects.

Interestingly, McCasland had brief involvement with To the Stars Academy—a UFO group headed by Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 fame. Investigative journalists have noted McCasland’s role in earlier military UFO investigations. They have also linked him to work at Los Alamos where two other scientists—Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casias—have gone missing. In the case of Casias, her devices were reportedly wiped.

McCasland went missing in the outdoors and his story is suspicious to say the least. He was an experienced hiker who left home without his phone or prescription glasses, but took his hiking boots, wallet, and a 38-caliber revolver (another scientist called Steven Garcia went missing in similar circumstances).

McCasland has not been seen since, and at the time of his disappearance, members of congress were actively reaching out to him. I understand many were eager to know what he knew and this made them immediately suspicious of his disappearance.

McCasland’s ties to Wright-Patterson make me suspect he knew something about alternative energy, but obviously I cannot prove this. One thing I can prove is that another scientist was vocal about her research in this field.

Amy Eskridge was a 34-year-old scientist who died three years ago from a gunshot wound that was officially ruled a suicide. Her father Richard is a retired NASA engineer who worked at Marshall Space Flight Center. I’ve seen some dismiss Amy as a crank, but she collaborated with her father—a plasma physics and fusion specialist—on experimental propulsion concepts. Richard Eskridge has authored 49 publications and numerous NASA Technical Reports.

Amy and Richard co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science that focused on quantum gravity, metamaterials, and propulsion systems. Amy said she set up the Institute “as a public-facing persona to disclose antigravity technology,” stating that going public was a form of protection: “If you stick your neck out in public, at least someone notices if your head gets chopped off.”

One of the Institute’s employees was Government Affairs Director Sam Reid, suggesting it was possibly seeking official approval, funding, or declassification. Eskridge needed NASA sign-off for some of her presentations so I think it’s safe to dismiss the “crank” theory.

Eskridge publicly discussed her work in presentations and videos, and in one presentation, her father hinted that the TR-3B (a rumoured triangular aircraft) could have come from secret gravity-modification research.

Amy collaborated with figures like Dr Ning Li—a deceased physicist whose anti-gravity research ended after a 2014 hit-and-run left her with brain damage. Dr Li’s research, involving rotating superconductors, grabbed media attention in the 90s, but she “went dark” in the 2000s and died in 2021.

Amy recorded videos expressing fears that she and others were going to be killed and insisted she was not suicidal. She seemed highly stressed in a 2020 interview, stating: “I need to disclose soon, man. I need to publish soon because it’s escalating. It’s getting more and more aggressive… This has been going on for four or five years, and over the past 12 months, it’s been escalating.”

Retired UK intelligence officer Franc Milburn says Amy was preparing to expose the intimidation and planned to release her findings. He says he spoke with Amy hours before her “suicide” and nothing seemed unusual. Journalist Michael Shellenberger highlighted this to congress in 2024, alleging Amy was targeted for her UFO-related work.

Even if you are sceptical about the UFO links (and you should be), these individuals worked in areas with significant national security implications. We have no autopsies for some deaths, and in some cases, no dead body.

Politicians such as Rep Eric Burlison have suggested China could be behind the deaths and disappearances. I understand that at least nine Chinese scientists have gone missing or mysteriously died in recent years. They were working in sensitive defence-related fields, such as military AI, hypersonics, space technology, microelectronics, and nuclear power.

The cases include military AI expert Feng Yanghe who died in an unexplained car crash, space expert Zhang Xiaoxin who also died in a car crash, drone specialist Zhang Daibing and hypersonics researchers Fang Daining and Yan Hong, who died from sudden medical episodes. The deaths have been described in Chinese media as “mysterious,” often with minimal official details released.

Media outlets like Newsweek are drawing parallels to the US deaths, asking whether a “silent scientist war” is underway. Another theory is that the same shady operators are behind the deaths in both countries. Both theories seem plausible, but I think it’s more likely the US deaths are the work of a rogue private contractor.

Let’s take a closer look at Amy Eskridge: one month before her death, she texted a friend: “If you see any report that I killed myself, I most definitely did not.” She said any suggestion that she had overdosed or harmed others should be treated with suspicion.

In interviews and videos, Eskridge described death threats, surveillance, stalking, and phone hacking. She even discussed attacks with “energy weapons” that left visible burns and symptoms resembling Havana Syndrome (a brain condition which has been attributed to microwave weapons). She claimed this stemmed from private aerospace contractors opposed to her disclosures.

Amy Eskridge reveals her hands which she claims were burnt by an energy weapon

Here is another death which was apparently suicide, but perhaps there was more at play. David Wilcock, the prominent UFO researcher (who Rep Luna mentioned in a quote near the start of this piece) shot himself in the head after a stand off with police. Like Maj Gen William Neil McCasland, Wilcock was linked to UFO group To The Stars Academy. Incidentally, Wilcock’s biographer died just a few days before him and he found out while on a live stream.

Wilcock was interested in advanced propulsion technologies and had publicly warned just days ago about the growing list of missing and dead scientists, calling it “a little bit scary” and expressing relief that he was “still alive.” Could he have been told something sensitive by a whistle-blower that made him a target?

In a Twitter post, Wilcock stated: “I plan on LIVING. Not suicidal at all. Just concerned about what happens when you prove God is real.” I don’t know what to make of that, but when someone tells you they’re not suicidal, expresses concerns about others dying, and then takes their own life, that makes me suspicious!

If you think we’re done here, we’re not even close.

Let’s take a look at Carl Grillmair. He was a world-renowned astrophysicist at Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, which works closely with NASA JPL on missions including the NEO Surveyor for near-Earth object detection. Grillmair researched galactic structure, dark matter, and planetary systems.

In February, Grillmair was shot in the torso while on the front porch of his rural home in Llano, a desert community in LA County’s Antelope Valley. This first appeared to be a random murder from a local nut job, but the evidence suggests possible targeting.

Court documents revealed the suspect had trespassed on Grillmair’s remote property approximately two months earlier. When confronted, he claimed to be coyote hunting and the matter was reported to police. Online researchers and even congressional staff have pointed to the isolation of the home and the prior trespass to suggest there is more at play.

One killing that looked like an execution was that of Nuno Loureiro—a theoretical physicist, professor in MIT’s departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, and director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

Loureiro’s work earned international acclaim, including the Presidential Early Career Award, and helped guide major fusion experiments in the US and Europe. Now you understand why my leading theory is that this mystery revolves around alternative energy.

In December last year, Loureiro was gunned down in the foyer of his apartment building. He was killed by a former colleague who also killed two of his students and injured nine in a separate shooting, but no motive has been established.

It is impossible for me to say that all of these deaths are linked. Perhaps some are linked and others are coincidences. Perhaps none are linked, but I’m sure you can understand why the story is being taken seriously. There is clearly enough to warrant that FBI investigation that will officially lead nowhere…

While some deaths appear to be suicide, there could be more than meets the eye. People linked to alternative energy have been dying in mysterious circumstances and apparent suicides going back decades. Among them are Stefan Marinov and Stanley Meyer. Other researchers have described harassment and intimidation, such as John Searl, David Ladair, Paul Hill, and John Hutchinson.

If a new energy source could finish the fossil fuel industry, that would be a powerful motive to kill these people. One alarming possibility is that we are dealing with incredibly dangerous technology. Imagine harnessing more power than a nuke or travelling at extreme speeds—the potential for weaponisation could be huge. Perhaps keeping such technology under wraps is considered an existential issue.

Some have suggested the scientists were part of a loosely connected network, and while it sounds plausible, there is no suggestion they worked on a single breakthrough project. It could have been that they were coincidentally looking into related things that alarmed powerful people. Rep Burlison has highlighted that many worked on “cutting-edge nuclear, hypersonic missile, plasma, and UAP-related projects.”

One interesting point is that Frank Maiwald, Michael Hicks, Monica Reza, and Carl Grillmair were all located in Pasadena, just outside Los Angeles. Melissa Casias, Anthony Chavez, Steven Garcia, and William McCasland were all located in New Mexico.

Reps Comer and Burlison, along with the House Oversight Committee, are investigating potential connections to sensitive programs. The White House says it is reviewing “all of the cases together”, but I doubt we will ever be told the truth. What do you think is going on?

NOTE: Since publishing this article two hours ago, another story has come to light that I want to briefly cover. A NASA nuclear engineer called Joshua LeBlanc has been found dead so that's now 14 and rising.

LeBlanc didn’t turn up at his job and was reported missing by his family after his last contact with them on Tuesday. His Tesla Model 3 was tracked stopping for four hours at Huntsville International Airport, 12 minutes from his apartment. The car then drove west along backroads and crashed in Florence, Alabama.

LeBlanc’s body was found inside the vehicle, burned beyond recognition, however, his phone and other belongings were left in his apartment (a familiar story). His family says the route didn’t match anything he had planned and believe he might have been abducted.

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