11th person added to list of missing or dead govt. scientists and officials
(Facebook / Amy Eskridge)
OAN Staff Lillian Mann
UPDATE 1:18 PM – Friday, April 10, 2026: The list of potentially interconnected deaths and disappearances of top U.S. officials and scientists has now grown to eleven cases as of Thursday, following the alleged suicide of esteemed scientist and researcher, Amy Eskridge.
Before her death, Eskridge, 34, was reportedly involved in extensive research on anti-gravity technology, unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrial life, when she died in her home in Huntsville, Alabama, by alleged self- inflicted gun shot wound.
As of today, police and medical examiners have not released a public investigative report.
Eskridge was Chairwoman and President of the Institute for Exotic Science (IES) in Huntsville, which she co-founded with her father, retired NASA engineer Richard Eskridge, according to her online obituary. The pair allegedly established IES to serve as a “public-facing persona to disclose anti-gravity technology,” according to The New York Post.
During a 2019 interview, when Eskridge was asked whether she planned to publish her research, she said she felt pulled between two outside influences—one encouraging her to publish and another warning that she could be killed if she did. She also described purported years of harassment.
“I have to publish because it’s only going to get worse until I publish,” she said, adding that the situation was “getting more and more aggressive.”
“If you stick your neck out in public, at least someone notices if your head gets chopped off,” Eskridge said in a 2020 interview with Youtuber Jeremy Rys. “If you stick your neck out in private, they will bury you. They will burn down your house while you’re sleeping in your bed and it won’t even make the news.”
The most prominent voices questioning the official ruling of Eskridge’s death is former U.K. intelligence officer, Franc Milburn, who was a good friend of Eskridge.
In a 2024 interview with ExoMagazinTV, when asked whether Eskridge faced pushback over her efforts to publish her research, Milburn emphasized that, based on everything she had told him—including the harassment she described—he believed it was apparent that there were efforts to prevent her work from becoming public.
“She was being systematically harassed over a period of years,” Milburn said.
“It seemed very evident to me that somebody didn’t want her developing these technologies and researching them, and bringing them into the non-classified world,” he added.
According to the 2024 interview, Milburn recalled how Eskridge confided in him, detailing the harassment she endured—surveillance, death threats, rape threats, break-ins at her apartment, and being drugged—as well as incidents in which her friends and ex-boyfriend were allegedly kidnapped and drugged.
When Milburn asked why she was confiding in him, Eskridge explained that his background and his presence in the U.K. made him someone she felt she could trust. She said she needed someone like him to talk to, believing the police would dismiss her and consider her crazy.
Despite official confirmation from authorities, the pattern between the cases is beginning to stir public attention and speculation – particularly between the shared locations, personal relationships involved and general overlap – as the list continues to grow longer.
A statement from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) added, “NNSA is aware of reports related to employees of our labs, plants, and sites and is looking into the matter.” Fox News Digital reported that the agency is also investigating the deaths and disappearances.
6:30 PM – Thursday, April 16, 2026: On Thursday, President Donald Trump addressed questions regarding the unexplained disappearances and deaths of multiple U.S. scientists and government employees that have occurred over a three-year period.
The commander-in-Chief was asked whether or not he believes the cases are linked.
“I hope it’s random,” Trump told a group of reporters at the White House. “But we’re going to know in the next week and a half. I just left a meeting on that subject. Pretty serious stuff.”
“Hopefully, I don’t know, coincidence, or whatever you want to call it, some of them were very important people, and we’re going to look at it,” the president continued.
When a reporter questioned if there was potential foreign involvement, Trump replied, “Well, Biden had open borders; it wasn’t very hard to get here.”
Furthermore, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the issue for the first time during Wednesday’s White House briefing, when she was asked about the ten scientists and government officials involved in nuclear energy, aerospace, and fusion research who have either gone missing or died.
“I haven’t spoken to our relevant agencies about it, I will certainly do that, and will get you an answer,” Leavitt replied.
“If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and administration would deem ‘worth looking into’ so, let me do that for you,” the White House Secretary added.
As of Tuesday, the list of missing or deceased scientists and government officials linked to highly classified research and aerospace projects expanded further with the addition of a tenth name.
Steven Garcia, 48, has been missing since August 28th, 2025, after he was last seen walking from his home carrying a handgun, and leaving behind his phone and wallet. Garcia was a government contractor at Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was reportedly authorized with broad facility access.
Notably, four other individuals on the list, who are believed to have extensive lab access, had also vanished in New Mexico and in an extremely similar manner – leaving their homes on foot without their phones, keys, or wallets – with two of the New Mexico disappearances occurring only weeks apart.
4:40 PM – Thursday, April 9, 2026: A notable list of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists have mysteriously died or “vanished” without any cause of death recorded or autopsy performed, increasing speculation on the possible connections between the growing list of unexplained deaths and disappearances tied to those involved with U.S. space agency and its nuclear projects.
Michael Hicks, a NASA scientist who worked on several space science missions and projects for the agency — died back in 2023 at the age of 59. He had also worked at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1998 to 2022.
Why The Spotlight Now?
The recent surge in reporting regarding these incidents is primarily driven by the emergence of a broader pattern rather than a single new event. While cases such as Hicks stretch back to July 2023, they only began to be viewed as part of a larger pattern after investigative reporting and social media attention in early 2026.
The so-called “clustering effect” gained momentum after the high-profile disappearance of retired Air Force General William “Neil” McCasland in February 2026. His senior rank and professional ties to other missing or deceased scientists — including Monica Reza, a rocket materials expert who vanished during a hike in 2025 — linked what had previously been believed to be separate tragedies.
Meanwhile, limited transparency surrounding the cases has fueled renewed scrutiny. Reports from outlets like the Daily Mail and The Economic Times have highlighted that for scientists like Hicks and Frank Maiwald, who died in July 2024, no cause of death was ever publicly disclosed and no autopsies were reportedly performed.
Since these individuals were involved in sensitive fields, ranging from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) to advanced nuclear propulsion and life-detection technologies — the silence from official agencies like NASA and the Department of Energy has since created an information vacuum.
In the absence of “official” explanations, independent researchers and news agencies have reportedly spent months filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and cross-referencing professional networks, leading to the “sudden” influx of detailed reports currently surfacing as these separate threads of investigation converge.
Prior to his death, Hicks had published over 80 scientific papers and was involved in the DART project, the Dawn Mission and the Deep Space 1 Mission. Notably, a series of online obituaries dedicated to Hicks did not mention he had any health issues before his death.
While there has been no reported evidence of foul play, Hicks’ case marks the ninth individual with links to U.S. space and nuclear research who has died or vanished in the past 3 years, grabbing the attention of U.S. national security officials and Americans alike. Three of these scientists had close links with Hicks as well, as all of them worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab or participated in NASA missions there.
Reza’s work at the JPL had been overseen by McCasland, who went missing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 27th. The retired Air Force official reportedly “walked out of his home without his phone or glasses” and has not been seen since.
In June 2023, just 13 months before his death, Maiwald was the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future NASA missions detect clear signs of life on other planets and solar systems. However, there was no public comment from NASA, JPL, or authorities after the esteemed scientist’s death.
The second scientist, Carl Grillmair, an astrophysicist and California Institute of Technology researcher, was murdered on the front porch of his home on February 16, 2026, at the age of 67. The motive for the shooting has not been released, and officials believe that the shooter and Grillmair did not know each other.
The astrophysicist’s work was also heavily supported by NASA’s JPL, and he was personally involved with major space telescope missions led by the administration. Grillmair also contributed to the discovery of water on a distant planet, with research indicating signs of life within 160 light-years of Earth. His colleagues noted his work was “ingenious.”
Two other individuals, Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casias, both of whom worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and had ties to nuclear research, went missing just weeks apart.
Both LANL employees vanished from their homes in 2025 in nearly identical circumstances, as they both left their New Mexico homes on foot, leaving behind their phones, keys and wallets. Chavez, 79, worked at the nuclear research lab, while Casias, 54, was an active administrative assistant at the facility, and reportedly had top security clearance.
“You can say these are all suspicious, and these are scientists who have worked in critical technology,” Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker recently told the Daily Mail.
Swecker noted that for decades, both allied and adversarial foreign intelligence services have targeted Americans who hold the keys to the nation’s technological secrets.
“China, Russia, even some of our friends — Pakistan, India, Iran, North Korea — they target this type of technology,” he stated. “It’s been happening since the Cold War. Especially when nuclear technology and missile technology were first coming to the forefront.”
Neither the FBI nor NASA has confirmed an official link to these “connections,” at least as of Thursday.
Updated Timeline of Unexplained Scientist Deaths and Disappearances (2022–2026)
- June 11, 2022: Amy Eskridge, Chairwoman and President of The Institute for Exotic Science in Huntsville, Alabama. A prominent researcher in anti-gravity technology, she died by alleged suicide at age 34.
- July 30, 2023: Michael David Hicks, A 20-year veteran research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and key figure in the DART Project. Hicks passed away at age 59. No cause of death was publicly released, and no autopsy record was found.
- July 4, 2024: Frank Maiwald, Prominent NASA JPL researcher who died in Los Angeles at age 61. Despite his senior role in deep-space communications, no cause of death was disclosed, and no autopsy was performed.
- May 4, 2025: Anthony Chavez, Former Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) worker who disappeared without a trace in New Mexico.
- June 22, 2025: Monica Reza, NASA JPL scientist who vanished while hiking in the Angeles National Forest. Reports indicate she disappeared while only thirty feet away from her companions.
- June 26, 2025: Melissa Casias, an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She vanished from her home; investigators later discovered her personal phones had been factory-reset.
- December 12, 2025: Jason Thomas Novartis, researcher who disappeared in late 2025. Following a three-month search, his body was recovered from a lake on March 17, 2026.
- December 15, 2025: Nuno Loureiro, Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. He was killed at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.
- February 16, 2026: Carl Grillmair, Caltech/NASA astrophysicist known for discovering stellar streams. He was fatally shot on his front porch in the early morning hours.
- February 27, 2026: Maj. Gen. Neil McCasland, Retired Air Force official and former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). He walked out of his New Mexico home without his phone or glasses and remains missing.
- March 2026: Steven Garcia, Government contractor for the KCNSC in Albuquerque. His disappearance marked the 10th mission or deceased individual. He walked out of his New Mexico home without his phone or wallet and remains missing.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news alerts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
What do YOU think? Click here to jump to the comments!
Sponsored Content Below
Advertising by Adpathway
