Eight Scientists and Military Figures With UAP Ties Have Died or Disappeared Since 2023. Congress Says It Has a Chilling Effect.

Between 2023 and the present, a series of deaths and disappearances involving researchers and military figures with documented connections to classified aerospace, defense, and UAP-adjacent programs has prompted two members of Congress to call the pattern “deeply concerning.” No law enforcement agency has officially connected any of these cases. Each has been investigated independently. But the cases continue to accumulate, the April 14 UAP disclosure deadline arrives tomorrow, and at least one sitting congressman has said on the record that the pattern has made sources afraid to speak. “This has had a real chilling effect,” Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee stated. “People don’t want to talk about this issue of Unidentified Flying Objects anymore, and it’s kind of difficult to get to people because they are afraid.”

The cases, in rough chronological order:

Michael David Hicks, a 24-year veteran of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59. Frank Maiwald, a JPL colleague who led a 2023 study improving the detection of biomarkers on other celestial bodies, died in July 2024 at the age of 61. Monica Reza, the director of JPL’s Materials Processing Group and a developer of “Mondaloy” — a high-performance nickel-based superalloy for advanced rocket engines funded by the US Air Force — disappeared on June 22, 2025, while hiking in the Angeles National Forest. She was reportedly walking just 30 steps behind another member of her group when she vanished. She has not been found.

Anthony Chavez, reported as an employee or affiliate of Los Alamos National Laboratory, disappeared in 2025. Melissa Casias, a Los Alamos administrative employee with reported security clearance, was last seen walking along a highway in New Mexico in 2025 under circumstances described as bizarre.

Nuno Loureiro, 47, the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a specialist in plasma physics research described as being close to a breakthrough in clean energy, was shot multiple times at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts on December 15, 2025, and died. The shooter was identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a former classmate from Portugal. Carl Grillmair, 67, a Caltech astrophysicist who worked on the NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor telescopes and published more than 80 scientific articles on galactic structure and asteroid behavior, was fatally shot on the porch of his home in Llano, California on February 16, 2026. A 29-year-old suspect was arrested.

Jason Thomas, an assistant director of chemical biology at Novartis, disappeared in late 2025. His body was recovered from a lake in Massachusetts in March 2026.

And then, on February 27, 2026 — four days after Trump’s Truth Social post directing the Pentagon to release all government files on UFOs and extraterrestrial life — retired Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland walked out of his Albuquerque, New Mexico home on foot and did not return. He left his phone, glasses, and wearable devices behind. He took his wallet and a firearm. He has not been found. McCasland commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and is named in the 2016 WikiLeaks Podesta emails as someone with firsthand knowledge of UAP crash retrieval programs. Reza co-invented the Mondaloy superalloy under research programs he oversaw.

What Congress Said

Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri, who serves on the House Oversight Subcommittee investigating UAPs, stated on April 7: “It’s remarkable that General McCasland apparently walked out of his home, left all of his devices and never came back. And Monica Reza, she was on a hike as well and mysteriously disappeared. And I’ve heard of others.” He publicly requested FBI involvement in the disappearances, describing them as “deeply concerning.”

Burchett had stated several weeks earlier: “Something dark is going on. I know these scientists and researchers. They have testified. We’ve got to get to the bottom of it.” He also confirmed, unprompted, that he was not suicidal.

A closed-door congressional briefing on UAPs was held in April. Former FBI official Chris Swecker said in a Fox News appearance that, based on past cases involving sensitive national security information, it was within the realm of possibility that researchers in these fields could be targeted for what they knew.

What Has Not Been Established

No law enforcement agency has publicly connected any of these cases to each other, to UAP research, or to any coordinated effort. The individual cases have all been investigated separately. Some have clear and documented explanations unrelated to UAPs: Grillmair’s murder appears to be a straightforward criminal case with an arrested suspect and no established national security dimension. Loureiro was killed by a former classmate. The cases involving Casias and Thomas have not been confirmed as connected to any defense program.

What has been established is that the cases exist, that they cluster within a specific professional network, and that sitting members of Congress with UAP subcommittee clearances have described the pattern as deeply alarming — and said it is making potential sources unwilling to come forward.

The April 14 deadline for 46 classified UAP videos is tomorrow.

Sources: Newsweek — Mystery Over 8 Missing or Dead Scientific Experts (April 9, 2026) — LA Magazine — Congress UAP Briefing Sparks Mystery Over Missing Scientists (April 2026) — USA Herald — Chilling Pattern Emerges As Scientists with Nuclear, Exoplanet and UFO Ties Vanish or Die (March 2026) — WION News — The Mondaloy Mystery: Two Aerospace Experts with Ties to Special Projects Go Missing (March 2026) — IBTimes UK — UFO Scientists Found Dead or Missing Post Congress Testimony (March 24, 2026) — HNGN — UFO Scientists Found Dead or Missing Post Congress Testimony, Rep. Tim Burchett Warns of Dark Trend (March 24, 2026) — Los Alamos Today — Mysterious Deaths and Disappearances Raise Concerns Over US Scientific Research (April 11, 2026)