CONGRESS will be looking into the eerie disappearances or deaths of 11 scientists with ties to US nuclear and space research programs as national security concerns grow.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer warned on Sunday that “something sinister could be happening” as details of the mysterious events continue to emerge.
Comer, a republican representative from Kentucky, told Fox & Friends Weekend that when he first heard about a potential link between the disappearances, it sounded like “some kind of crazy conspiracy theory.”
Eleven people who have worked close to US space programs have died or gone missing in recent years, with Amy Eskridge, 34, being the latest person to be connected to the possible link.
Eskridge allegedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head on June 11, 2022, in Huntsville, Alabama.
However, the lawmaker has since changed his mind and alerted several government agencies, demanding answers.
“We’ve put a notice out to the Department of War, to the FBI, to NASA, to the Department of Energy, that we want to know everything that they know about what happened with these scientists, because those four agencies were predominantly the agencies that those 11 individuals were affiliated with. And we want to try to piece this together,” he said.
Comer has plans to bring the leaders of the offices mentioned before Congress, but sent them letters in advance to ensure their testimony wouldn’t compromise any potential classified investigations.
“We know there are many countries around the world that would love to have our knowledge and nuclear capabilities. And these are the people that were at the forefront of it, and they’re either dead or missing,” he said.
Eskridge, despite only being identified recently as a possible link, appears to be the earliest death in the ongoing mystery.
Conspiracy theories surrounding her death came about after a 2020 interview resurfaced where she said, “My life is in danger.”
Eskridge co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science with her retired NASA engineer father.
Jason Thomas, 45, was most recently found floating dead in Lake Quannapowitt in Massachusetts on March 17, 2026, after he was reported missing on December 12, 2025.
Thomas was the assistant director of chemical biology at Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Novartis.
Authorities did not suspect any foul play at the time he was found.
Nine other figures have been tied to the potential case, including retired Air Force Major General William “Neil” McCasland, 68, who vanished on February 27 with nothing but a gun and a pair of boots in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
McCasland helped lead an infamous military site, which is known for its association with UFO sightings.
His wife, Susan Wilkerson, told a 911 dispatcher she believed he “had planned not to be found” after she found crucial items, including his phone, inside their home.
His disappearance came just months after his former colleague, Monica Reza, 60, disappeared on a hiking trip.
Reza, who went missing in June 2025, worked on a rocket project overseen by McCasland.
She was last seen hiking in a Californian forest with a colleague, but after months of searching, officials have yet to find her.
Nuno Loureiro, a 47-year-old MIT physics professor who was shot dead in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, was also named as one of the eleven mysterious cases.
He was assassinated on December 16, 2025 where officials blamed his death on a former classmate from Portugal, Claudio Neves Valente.
Valente, who died by suicide a day later, was accused of carrying out a school shooting at Brown University just two days prior to Loureiro’s death.
Loureiro began leading MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center in 2024, where he worked on advancements in clean energy technology.
He was previously a researcher in Lisbon where he studied nuclear fusion before moving to MIT.
Carl Grillmair, 67, a Caltech astrophysicist was similarly gunned down outside of his California home on February 16, 2026 in an unprovoked attack.
Grillmair notably discovered water on a planet outside of our solar system, with conditions potentially pointing to alien life.
Police arrested 29-year-old Freddy Snyder in connection with Grillmair’s death, charging him with murder.
Steven Garcia, 48, who was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico home in August 2025, has also been linked to the mysteriousness.
Surveillance footage captured the man on foot, carrying a handgun. He also left behind his wallet, phone, keys and cards.
The 48-year-old government contractor allegedly had ties to the Kansas City National Security Campus, which makes non-nuclear material components used for national defense systems.
Anthony Chavez, a 78-year-old who retired from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was reported missing in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in May 2025.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16249915/missing-dead-space-scientists-national-security-comer/
