Fifteen people tied to NASA, nuclear weapons research, anti-gravity propulsion and classified defence programs — dead or missing across five years. Melissa Casias found dead. McCasland's last photograph surfaces via FOIA. Anthony Chavez's police report goes public. The FBI is still looking. No official connection has been established between any of them. Here is the full record — every case, every profile, and what the documented facts do and do not show.
§ 00 — The Fifteen Cases
Every case in this series has a dedicated profile page: the full documented record for each individual — timeline, role, institutional links, official statements, and sources. Case numbers match the Connections Map. Select any case to open its file.
§ 01 — Case 06 · Melissa Casias
On May 28, 2026, a hiker found human remains in the McGaffey Ridge area of Carson National Forest, northern New Mexico. They were identified on June 1 as Melissa Casias — the Los Alamos National Laboratory administrative employee who had vanished on June 26, 2025, after dropping lunch off for her daughter in Taos. She had been missing for 336 days.
Casias was the first of the fifteen documented cases in this series to be found dead. Her remains were skeletonised. A handgun was found alongside them. She was found at approximately 8,600 feet elevation in the McGaffey Ridge area — roughly 6 miles from where she was last seen on State Road 518 near Talpa, and approximately 15 miles from her home in Taos. The area had already been searched by canine and search-and-rescue teams during the original missing person response.
Her family confirmed she did not own a gun.
Cause and manner of death: Not yet determined. New Mexico State Police confirmed the investigation remains "active and ongoing." The Office of the Medical Investigator conducted anthropological examination. An initial CT scan of the skull did not reveal any projectiles. Forensic anthropologists were tasked with reconstructing the skull to determine whether fractures were present and to "possibly determine the cause of death," per an NMSP spokesperson.
A private investigator retained by Casias's parents, Thomas McNally, told the Daily Mail that her body was seated against a tree, wearing sun-bleached clothing, and showed no signs of animal disturbance. NMSP has not confirmed these details.
The FBI had previously told the Washington Times it was working alongside the Departments of Energy and Defense and local law enforcement to find answers in her case.
At the time of her disappearance, both of Casias's mobile phones had been factory-reset and were left at home alongside her purse and car. Surveillance footage recorded her walking alone on State Road 518 wearing a backpack. Her bank account went silent. No note was found. No motive has been established publicly.
Former FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told NewsNation that the circumstances were "not inconsistent with someone wanting to make a clean break." She characterised it as more consistent with a mental health crisis than foul play — citing the abandoned belongings, the gun found at the scene, and the distance from her last known location. Her family's position is different. Their statement following the discovery of remains: "Our hearts are heavy and we fully intend to continue to pursue answers for justice."
That detail has not been publicly explained. A body found seated against a tree in an area previously covered by trained dogs, at high elevation, with a gun that her family says she did not own — the cause of death has not been determined. The investigation is ongoing.
§ 02 — Case 04 · Anthony Chavez
In the first week of July 2026, the police report on the Anthony Chavez disappearance was made public — obtained by investigative journalist Lauren Conlin (the same journalist whose FOIA work produced McCasland's last photograph) and reported by Los Angeles Magazine, then amplified by the Daily Mail, NewsNation, and a wave of aggregators. It contained one strange detail nobody knew before — and a series of mundane ones most of the coverage left out.
Chavez, 78, was last seen May 4, 2025. He worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory until retirement in 2017 — as an HVAC technician. Officers attended his locked home on May 8, finding his car, keys, wallet, ID, cigarettes, bicycle and a handwritten journal; he never owned a mobile phone. His bank account went silent the next day.
A friend told police Chavez had been working with an unnamed Los Alamos scientist on quantum physics — "being in two places at once" — believed to be at the local public library. The report names no scientist and shows no evidence of what, if anything, the pair produced. The same friend urged a homicide investigation over a "pushy man" pressuring Chavez to sell his sister's home below market value. Los Alamos PD closed the case inactive on October 6, 2025 — "no new information, witnesses, or evidence." LANL did not respond to repeated media requests to confirm Chavez's duties.
The headlines escalated the story at every step: a retired HVAC technician discussing an idea at a library became a "missing scientist" working on a "secret teleportation project." The physics is real but the opposite of the framing — in quantum teleportation no matter moves; only information is transferred. Los Alamos genuinely performed the first complete quantum teleportation in 1998, of information, not of people. The full breakdown of the case and the headline drift is in the companion file.
§ 03 — Case 11 · Maj. Gen. McCasland
Retired Major General William Neil McCasland has been missing since February 27, 2026. As of July 5, 2026, he has been missing for 128 days. No remains have been found. No confirmed sighting has been reported since the morning of his disappearance.
A photograph obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by journalist Lauren Conlin and subsequently published by Los Angeles Magazine is the last verified image of McCasland before his disappearance. It was obtained from the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and shows McCasland at what appears to be an REI sporting goods store in New Mexico on February 26, 2026 — the day before he vanished.
In the image, he is carrying a large white bag, a small boxed item, and what appears to be a yellow first-aid kit. Conlin noted the bag may have been a store pick-up order rather than a retail purchase. The exact store location has not been confirmed. Online commentary has focused on what the smaller item may be; authorities have not commented.
The photograph narrows the confirmed timeline to less than 24 hours before his disappearance from his Quail Run Court NE home at approximately 11:10 a.m. on February 27.
Body camera footage released in early June 2026 captured the reaction of a woman who had met with McCasland the day before his disappearance, describing her surprise upon hearing he was gone. NewsNation reported separately on personal disclosures McCasland had made to those close to him in the period before February 27 — including fears about mental and physical decline, unexplained weight loss, and a recurring nightmare about being abandoned by friends.
Body camera audio from the 911 call made by McCasland's wife, Susan Wilkerson, to emergency services on the day of his disappearance, had previously revealed her telling dispatchers: "I have some indication that he must have planned not to be found." She also cited ongoing medical problems. McCasland had reportedly been experiencing unexplained weight loss of approximately 20 pounds, fatigue, and "mental fog" that she described as similar to "the after effects of a bad hangover." He had stepped back from several organisations he was involved with, citing this fog as the reason.
A repairman at the home at 10 a.m. on February 27 interacted with McCasland normally. His wife left for a medical appointment at 11:10 a.m. She returned at 12:04 p.m. and he was gone. He had changed clothes before leaving, discarding what he had been wearing. His phone, Garmin watch, prescription glasses, pocket knife, utility tool, and comb were left behind. Missing: his wallet, a .38 calibre revolver, a leather holster, a red backpack, and his hiking boots. A light green long-sleeve shirt and hiking boots were subsequently recovered approximately 1.25 miles from the residence.
A claim surfaced in June 2026 from a witness suggesting McCasland's name had been set to be named in upcoming classified UAP disclosures under the PURSUE program. IBTimes UK reported on this claim. Authorities have not confirmed or commented on it, and no such naming has appeared in the Batch 1 PURSUE release.
An anonymous X account under the handle TMBSpaceShips — titled "Electric Propulsive Spacecraft Systems" — had posted almost daily for over two years. Its last post was February 27, 2026 — the same day McCasland disappeared. No connection between the account and McCasland has been officially established.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and FBI continue to investigate. The case remains classified as a missing-person and Silver Alert investigation. No evidence of criminal involvement has been publicly confirmed.
§ 04 — The PURSUE Portal
On May 8, 2026, the Trump administration fulfilled a February directive with the launch of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — PURSUE — hosted at war.gov/ufo. (The Department of Defense was renamed the Department of War by the Trump administration in early 2026.) The portal logged 340 million hits within its first 12 hours of operation.
The first release comprised 162 files from a coordination effort spanning at least seven agencies: the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Energy, the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, NASA, the FBI, and the State Department. The material included military pilot reports, photographs, infrared videos, Apollo and Skylab mission transcripts, historical documents, and 28 short classified video clips from CENTCOM covering the period 2020–2026, documenting unresolved UAP encounters involving metallic spheres, flying discs, and glowing orbs.
What it contains: Decades of military pilot encounter reports. Infrared footage of objects exhibiting unexplained flight characteristics. Internal agency policy debates about UAP detection. Apollo-era crew debriefs referencing anomalous objects. FBI domestic UAP investigation files spanning several decades. State Department cables on international sightings — described by analysts as potentially the most underreported element of Batch 1.
What it does not contain: Any document confirming extraterrestrial origin. Any confirmed record of recovered craft. Any reference to non-human intelligence. Redactions were applied solely to protect witness identities and the locations of sensitive military facilities, per official confirmation.
The assessment of the UAP research community: Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, described the release as "a historic — yet incomplete — step towards government transparency." The broader community position: "Data alone is not disclosure." A second tranche was projected for June 2026. No batch 2 has yet been confirmed as of the date of this update.
The timing matters for this series. McCasland disappeared on February 27, 2026 — within days of Trump ordering the UAP files released. The PURSUE directive was signed in February. Whether these events are connected has not been established.
§ 05 — The Three Still Missing
Anthony Chavez and Steven Garcia have been missing for over fourteen months and ten months respectively. Chavez's case saw its first significant documented development in over a year when the police report became public in July 2026; Garcia's has seen none since disappearance. Los Alamos police confirmed early on that there are no signs of foul play in the Chavez case, and exhaustive searches of known locations and local trails returned nothing. Garcia left his home in Albuquerque carrying only a handgun. Both cases remain open.
§ 06 — The Pattern Since April 2026
Before April 2026, each of these cases was being handled as an isolated missing person or death investigation by the relevant local jurisdiction. There was no coordinated federal response. The first time these cases were placed in the same official frame was when Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy raised them at a White House briefing in April 2026 and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the administration would investigate.
What followed:
§ 07 — What the Record Still Cannot Answer
No authority has connected these cases. That must still be stated plainly. The FBI is looking. The House Oversight Committee has been briefed. The White House said it was investigating. No public findings have been reported from any of those efforts.
What the record now adds, as at July 2026:
Melissa Casias — whose phones were factory-reset before she disappeared, who was found in a previously searched area with a gun her family says was not hers — is dead. Her cause of death has not been determined. The investigation is ongoing.
Maj. Gen. McCasland — whose wife said he planned not to be found, who was photographed buying what may have been a first-aid kit the day before he vanished — has been missing for 128 days. No remains. No confirmed leads. The FBI Homicide Bureau remains involved.
Anthony Chavez — a retired HVAC technician whose disappearance was recast by headlines as a secret teleportation project, but whose actual police file describes a library, an unnamed collaborator, a silent bank account, and a homicide theory nobody has resolved — has been missing 427 days. His case is closed inactive. Nobody has named the scientist, and the contents of his journal have never surfaced.
The PURSUE portal released 162 files. No smoking gun. A second batch is projected. The McCasland disappearance preceded the PURSUE launch by approximately ten weeks — a timeline that has drawn comment but no official acknowledgement.
Steven Garcia. Monica Reza. Still unaccounted for. No confirmed developments in either case since this series was first compiled.
Read the full profiles above. Check the primary sources. The documents, law enforcement statements, congressional records, and PURSUE files are all publicly available. Form your own view.
Sources for this record: New Mexico State Police statements (May 30 – June 2, 2026) · Washington Times · CBS News · TMZ · PEOPLE Magazine · NewsNation · Los Angeles Magazine (Lauren Conlin / FOIA investigation) · Daily Mail (Science & Tech, July 2, 2026) · Futurism · IBTimes UK · DefenseScoop · PolitiFact · CNN · Newsweek · Wikipedia — United States UFO Files / Missing Scientists Conspiracy Theory articles · Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office · war.gov/ufo (PURSUE portal) · Los Alamos Reporter · Los Alamos Police Department report · House Oversight Committee press releases (April 20, 2026) · White House press briefings (April 2026) · Nielsen, Knill & Laflamme, Los Alamos National Laboratory (1998) · IBM Quantum Learning · Huntsville Business Journal · Berryhill Funeral Home · Liberation Times · New York Post · Northern Virginia Chief Medical Examiner.
No official connections have been established between these cases. This record documents verified facts and identifies claims as claims. What you do with it is your choice.