489. Scientist Deaths & Disappearances: What We Know Now

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com

In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde examines the deaths and disappearances of American scientists and researchers tied to NASA, nuclear research, and classified defense programs since 2022. Are these tragic cases isolated incidents, or signs of something more coordinated? Could foreign intelligence services be targeting sensitive expertise, or do the answers lie closer to home within the defense-contractor world? And after President Trump's recent briefing, are real answers finally on the horizon?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:45

So the story I want to talk about today is about death, disappearance, and secrecy. It's about the danger of forcing a pattern before the evidence is there. So US President Donald Trump said he had just left a meeting on the matter, called it pretty serious stuff, and indicated there could be answers in the next week and a half. The FBI now says it is spearheading a multi-agency effort with the Department of Energy, the Pentagon, NASA, and local law enforcement, while the House Oversight Committee has formally demanded briefings. But the most important sentence in this entire story is this one. Federal officials and major news investigations say there is no confirmed link yet among the cases. So let's start with the NASA and Southern California side of the list. Michael David Hicks, a jet propulsion lab researcher who studied comets and asteroids, died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59 after working at JPL from 1998 to 2022. Frank Maywald, another longtime JPL engineer and project leader, died on July 4, 2024 at age 61. Monica Jacintorza, a JPL-linked scientist and aerospace engineer, disappeared on June 22nd, 2025 while hiking near Mount Waterman in the Angeles National Forest. And Carl Grillmare, the Caltech astronomer whose work was tied closely to NASA science, was shot to death at his YANO home on February 16, 2026. In Grilmere's case, authorities arrested Freddie Snyder and charged him with murder. Then there is the New Mexico cluster around nuclear and defense adjacent institutions. Anthony Chavez was reported missing from Los Alamos on May 8, 2025. Melissa Casayas was reported missing from Taos on June 26, 2025, after years working at Los Alamos. Stephen Garcia was reported missing from Albuquerque on August 28, 2025. CBS reported that he worked as a property custodian tied to the National Nuclear Security Administration's Kansas City National Security Campus. And retired Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland disappeared from his Albuquerque home on February 27, 2026. McCasland's resume included some of the most sensitive defense work in the U.S. military, the GPS program, the space-based LASA Project Office, Pentagon Special Programs, and Command of the Air Force Research Laboratory. A wider national list adds three more names, bringing the public count to 11. Nuno Lorero, MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center Director and a professor of nuclear science and engineering at physics died after being shot in December 2025. Jason Thomas, a scientist at Novartis, disappeared in December 2025. In March 2026, authorities said a body recovered from Lake Kwanapoit was believed to be his and that foul play was not suspected. And the 11th name on the broader public list is Amy Eskridge, a Huntsville researcher and co-founder of the Institute for Exotic Science, whose obituary records her death on June 11, 2022. Her family later said she had suffered from chronic pain and urged people not to make too much of this. Now, here is where the sensational version of this story starts to break down. Several of these cases already point in very different directions. Lorrero's killing was tied by authorities to the same suspect involved in the Brown University shooting. Grilmer's killing has a named defendant. Jason Thomas's case was publicly described with no foul play suspected. Bernalillo County officials have said they have uncovered no evidence of foul play in McCaslan's disappearance so far. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has said Monica Reza's case remains active, but that there are no clear indications of foul play at this time. Melissa Casayas' family says they have seen no evidence linking her disappearance to the others, and her niece stressed that Casayas was an administrative assistant, not a high clearance insider. NASA, for its part, has said that nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat. So all of this leads to a major question. Could foreign actors be involved? In the abstract, yes. The motive is real. US counterintelligence agencies have repeatedly warned that foreign intelligence services target American science, emerging technology, government labs, and defense-related industry. The National Counterintelligence and Security Center says foreign intelligence targeting of U.S. scientific research is a primary threat. It specifically says adversaries are focused on the economic and military benefits of emerging technologies, and it identifies China as the broadest, most active, and most persistent espionage threat, while noting Russia and others also target key technology sectors. The FBI likewise warns that foreign adversaries increasingly target U.S. quantum companies, universities, and government labs, and that economic espionage has historically focused on defense-related and high-tech industries. FBI director Kash Patel has said investigators will look for links involving classified access and foreign actors. But motive is not evidence. Right now, the public case for foreign attribution is very weak. Current and former Department of Energy officials told CBS that scientists and contractors at national labs can indeed become espionage targets in general. But one former official said they had seen no evidence of a link in these cases. CBS also reported that several energy security and law enforcement experts saw no obvious connection. And one nuclear threat initiative expert argued that a foreign adversary would gain little strategic value by killing 10 or 20 US scientists because the US has a deep bench and a robust research infrastructure. That does not rule out foreign involvement in a particular case. It does mean there is at least publicly no evidentiary bridge from foreign services target US research to foreign services carried out this cluster. So what about the defense contractor community? Here too, the ecosystem is real, but the proof is not. The Kansas City National Security Campus produces non-nuclear mechanical, electronic, and engineered components for U.S. national defense systems. And the Department of Energy says the site is operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies. That means some of the people on this public list do sit in a government contractor industrial environment. But there is no public evidence that any defense contractor community orchestrated these debts or disappearances. In fact, one reason officials are urging caution is that many people at these facilities work in administrative, custodial, support, and other non-classified roles. The existence of a defense contractor ecosystem is a fact. Attribution of these cases to that ecosystem is at this moment speculation. So the most defensible conclusion as of April 22nd, 2026 is this. We are looking at a politically charged, federally reviewed bundle of cases involving U.S. linked scientists, engineers, laboratory staff, and defense-connected personnel across aerospace, nuclear research, fusion science, and military programs. The official inquiry covers at least ten cases, and the broader media conversation now uses eleven. Some of those cases remain genuinely unresolved and deserve scrutiny. But the evidence in public view still does not support a single proven conspiracy, whether foreign, corporate or otherwise. President Trump may indeed get answers very soon, but those answers may be about commonalities, vulnerabilities, or the absence of a pattern, not necessarily about a solved plot. If you like this episode, please share it with a relative, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor, an acquaintance, and so on. And then please leave a rating andor a review on your favorite podcast app. My name is PDM Logunde, and this is the Big Picture Podcast. Thank you for listening.