Update (April 18): The FBI is now formally leading the investigation. Leavitt posted on X: “The White House is actively working with all relevant agencies and the FBI to holistically review all of the cases together and identify any potential commonalities that may exist. No stone will be unturned.” The DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration also confirmed it is “looking into the matter.” An eleventh case – antigravity researcher Amy Eskridge, who warned “my life is in danger” before dying at 34 – has emerged.
On Wednesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about reports that at least ten scientists and officials with ties to classified nuclear and aerospace programs had disappeared or died since 2023. She said she hadn’t spoken to the relevant agencies yet. “If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into,” she told reporters. “So let me do that for you.”
Twenty-four hours later, President Trump was standing outside the White House telling a different story entirely.
“I just left a meeting on that subject,” he said. “Pretty serious stuff.”
Asked whether he thought the cases were connected, Trump was careful but direct: “I hope it’s random, but we’re going to know in the next week and a half.” He added: “Some of them were very important people, and we’re going to look at it.”
The escalation from polite deflection to presidential meeting in under 48 hours tells you something about what the briefing contained.
Why It Took a Reporter’s Question
For months, the pattern sat in plain sight. Independent investigators – most notably the Sentinel Network – had been compiling a list of cases since late 2025. By March 2026, CNN, ABC News, Fox News, NewsNation, Newsweek, and the Daily Mail had all picked up the story. Members of Congress were publicly demanding answers.
And yet, until a reporter asked the question at a White House briefing on April 16, no one in the executive branch had acknowledged the pattern’s existence.
Rep. Tim Burchett has been vocal about the lack of institutional response. He told the Daily Mail that every attempt to get answers from intelligence agencies has gone nowhere: “I’ve been constantly ran down different rabbit holes with them, so I don’t have any need to talk to them at all.”
“The numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research,” Burchett said. “I think we’d better be paying attention, and I don’t think we should trust our government.”
Rep. Eric Burlison went further, formally requesting FBI involvement and citing the concentration of cases among personnel with ties to advanced classified research programs.
The public reaction to Leavitt’s initial response was blistering. “Does that infer that they’re not looking into it now?” one person wrote on social media. “For crying out loud, there was a general involved.”
The Pattern
Eleven people connected to U.S. defense, aerospace, and nuclear programs have died or vanished since mid-2023. They worked at the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Caltech, MIT, and the Kansas City National Security Campus. Four states. Nineteen months. One institutional ecosystem.
The Missing
Five people walked away from their homes on foot, leaving behind phones, wallets, keys, and cars. None have been found.
| Name | Connection | Disappeared | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Chavez | Los Alamos National Laboratory | May 4, 2025 | Los Alamos, NM |
| Monica Reza | NASA JPL / AFRL-funded research | June 22, 2025 | Angeles National Forest, CA |
| Melissa Casias | Los Alamos National Laboratory | June 26, 2025 | Taos County, NM |
| Steven Garcia | Kansas City National Security Campus | August 28, 2025 | Albuquerque, NM |
| William McCasland | AFRL / Wright-Patterson AFB | February 27, 2026 | Albuquerque, NM |
In at least four of these cases, the person left carrying a handgun and nothing else. In at least two, the person’s phone was either absent or factory-reset.
The Dead
Six people connected to the same institutional network have died – two by gunshot in their own homes, one found in a frozen lake months after disappearing, and three whose causes of death remain undisclosed or disputed.
| Name | Connection | Died | Circumstances |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael David Hicks | NASA JPL (DART Project) | July 2023 | Undisclosed cause, age 59 |
| Frank Maiwald | NASA JPL (biosignature detection) | July 4, 2024 | Undisclosed cause, age 61 |
| Nuno Loureiro | MIT Plasma Science & Fusion Center | December 2025 | Shot at home, Brookline, MA |
| Carl Grillmair | Caltech (Hubble, Spitzer, exoplanets) | February 16, 2026 | Shot outside home, CA |
| Jason Thomas | Novartis (pharmaceutical research) | Found March 17, 2026 | Body recovered from frozen lake, MA |
| Jacob Prichard | AFRL (Wright-Patterson) | 2024 | Circumstances not publicly detailed |
What “Looking Into It” Might Mean
Trump’s promise of answers “in the next week and a half” implies an active inquiry – not a vague commitment to future study. If taken at face value, it suggests:
An intelligence community review has already been ordered. The meeting Trump described leaving was not a casual conversation. The IC would need to assess whether the cases represent a foreign intelligence operation, a domestic threat, or – as some scientists and law enforcement officials have suggested – coincidence.
FBI involvement is likely. Burlison’s formal request for FBI engagement, combined with presidential attention, makes it difficult for the Bureau to stand aside. Several of these cases cross state lines and involve personnel with active or recent security clearances – squarely within federal jurisdiction.
The timeline is ambitious. Ten days to produce a coherent assessment of eleven cases across four states, multiple agencies, and at least three years of incidents would be fast for any bureaucracy. It’s possible Trump’s statement reflects confidence in preliminary findings already gathered, rather than a promise to start from scratch.
The Question Nobody Is Asking Out Loud
The White House acknowledged the pattern. The President has held a meeting. Congressional members are demanding FBI action. The media has been covering individual cases for months.
But no one in an official capacity has yet addressed the most uncomfortable question: why were these cases not connected sooner?
Every one of these individuals had ties to classified programs. Most held or recently held active security clearances. The missing persons cases share an identical signature – departed on foot, left behind all personal effects, no digital trail. And yet, until journalists and independent investigators started drawing lines between them, each case was treated as an isolated local matter.
Eleven people. Four states. One pattern. And the executive branch needed a press briefing question to notice.
The President says we’ll know more in a week and a half.
Sources: Fox 26 Houston · The Express · TRT World · RedState · Fox News clip
Related: The full 19-case pattern → · The 11-person cluster → · Track all cases →