Missing US nuclear lab worker found dead

At least ten American experts linked to classified advanced research have died or gone missing in recent years

The remains of missing Los Alamos National Laboratory employee Melissa Casias have been found in Carson National Forest, New Mexico State Police has said. A handgun was located alongside the remains, but the exact cause and manner of death have yet to be determined.

A hiker discovered human remains in the McGaffey Ridge area and notified authorities on May 28. The Office of the Medical Investigator has since positively identified the remains as Casias.

Casias worked as an administrative assistant at the key US nuclear research facility. She was reported missing on June 26, 2025, after she failed to arrive at work and did not return home after visiting her daughter, while her purse, identification, and cell phones were found left behind.

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The disappearance was among almost a dozen cases in which individuals with ties to advanced research have died or vanished under puzzling circumstances in recent years, prompting a congressional probe.

Another LANL employee, Anthony Chavez, 78, went missing in May 2025 and has not yet been found. Steven Garcia, 48, a government contractor at the Kansas City National Security Campus, which produces more than 80% of non-nuclear components for US nuclear weapons, similarly vanished from his Albuquerque home in August 2025, leaving behind his phone, wallet, and keys and taking only a handgun.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory materials official Monica Reza was reported missing in 2023, while two other JPL workers, Frank Maiwald and Michael Hicks, have died since 2023, with no cause of death made public and no foul play alleged. Retired Air Force Major General William McCasland went missing this February.

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MIT physicist Nuno Loureiro was shot dead at his home in Massachusetts in December, while Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, 67, was gunned down on his porch in February. Novartis cancer researcher Jason Thomas disappeared in December and was found drowned in a Massachusetts lake three months later.

The House Oversight Committee requested briefings from the Department of Energy, the Department of War, the FBI, and NASA about scientists and other personnel connected to US nuclear secrets or rocket technology.

President Donald Trump called the matter “pretty serious stuff,” but the authorities have so far not established any confirmed link among the cases.