The bigger "10 (now 11–13) dead or missing" list

Alright, I pulled the whole thing apart — the KTLA story, the federal investigation, the case-by-case details, and

where each person actually is now. Here's the full picture, and the honest answer about "the thread."

The story you linked

Melissa Casias, 53, an administrative assistant (not a scientist) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, vanished June 26,

2025 after failing to show up for work. She left her purse, ID, and cellphones at her home in Taos and was last seen

walking along a highway near Talpa with a backpack. On May 28, 2026, a hiker found human remains in the McGaffey Ridge

area of Carson National Forest, ~15 miles from her home. On May 30, NM State Police confirmed it was her (https://los

alamosreporter.com/2026/05/30/new-mexico-state-police-identifies-remains-as-missing-taos-woman-melissa-casias/). A

handgun was found alongside the remains. Cause and manner of death are still pending with the Office of the Medical

Investigator (CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/us/melissa-casias-body-found-new-mexico), CBS

(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lab-worker-melissa-casias-dead-new-mexico-national-forest/), NBC

(https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/remains-new-mexico-melissa-casias-vanished-rcna347794)). Her family has said she left voluntarily under financial stress, and her niece — who reviewed the case file — said she's "not seen any evidence linking her to any of the other cases."

The bigger "10 (now 11–13) dead or missing" list

This blew up in spring 2026 after a string of cases got stitched together online. The full roster (CBS explainer

(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deaths-disappearances-scientists-staff-government-labs/), Wikipedia's running tally

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_scientists_conspiracy_theory)):

Person: Wm. Neil McCasland, 68

Role: Ret. AF Maj. Gen., ex-commander of Air Force Research Lab

What happened: Walked out of his Albuquerque home Feb 27, 2026 with hiking boots, wallet, and a .38 — left phone, glasses, wearables. Sweatshirt found a mile away

Status: Still missing; no foul play evidence

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Melissa Casias, 53

Role: LANL admin assistant (no high-level clearance)

What happened: Above

Status: Found deceased May 2026

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Steven Garcia, 47

Role: Property custodian, NNSA Kansas City facility (Albuquerque)

What happened: Vanished Aug 28, 2025

Status: Still missing

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Anthony Chavez, 78

Role: Retired construction foreman at Los Alamos

What happened: Missing since May 8, 2025

Status: Still missing

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Monica Reza, 60

Role: JPL materials engineer

What happened: Disappeared hiking in LA County, June 22, 2025

Status: Still missing; treated as hiking accident

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Frank Maiwald, 61

Role: JPL engineer

What happened: Died July 4, 2024

Status: Deceased

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Michael Hicks, 59

Role: JPL planetary scientist

What happened: Died July 2023 — documented heart disease; his daughter finds the theory amusing

Status: Deceased, natural causes

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Nuno Loureiro, 47

Role: MIT plasma/fusion physicist

What happened: Shot at home Dec 2025

Status: Solved: FBI confirmed April 29, 2026 a jealous former classmate (who also killed two Brown students) acted alone — "no nexus to terrorism"

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Carl Grillmair, 67

Role: Caltech astrophysicist

What happened: Shot on his porch Feb 2026 in a carjacking; suspect charged. Widow calls the theory "absolute nonsense"

Status: Solved (street crime)

────────────────────────────────────────

Person: Jason Thomas, 45

Role: Novartis researcher (not even government)

What happened: Drowned; body recovered from a Massachusetts lake March 2026; was distraught after both parents died

Status: Deceased

Expanded versions of the list reach back to pull in a physicist who died of Alzheimer's at 78, a 34-year-old anti-gravity hobbyist's 2022 suicide, and even UFO commentator Nick Pope, who died of esophageal cancer.

The investigations

- FBI: Director Kash Patel said the FBI is "spearheading the effort to look for connections"

(https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/fbi-will-look-connections-deaths-disappearances-scientists-rcna332397) with DOE and the Department of War.

- House Oversight Committee: Comer & Burlison opened an inquiry

(https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-burlison-seek-information-on-missing-nuclear-and-rocket-scientists/) in April (Axios (https://www.axios.com/2026/04/23/missing-scientists-space-nuclear-congress-investigating)).

- White House: said it's "holistically reviewing all the cases." Trump: "Hopefully, coincidence... but some of them were very important people."

- NASA: "nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat." NNSA: "looking into the matter."

So — is there a thread?

Here's the honest answer: every case that's been resolved has resolved mundane. The MIT murder was a personal grudge, solved. The Caltech murder was a carjacking, solved. Hicks and the others had documented illnesses. Thomas was grieving. Casias's own family says she left voluntarily, and a gun was found with her remains — which points where you'd think it points, pending the ME ruling. The cases span 2021–2026, different employers (LANL, JPL, MIT, Caltech, Novartis, NNSA), different jobs (admin assistant, property custodian, retired foreman, professors), different states, different causes. The statistical context matters: these institutions employ 20,000+ people, and one analyst calculated that the cleared aerospace/nuclear workforce would statistically produce this many deaths and disappearances in this window anyway.

Experts at CSIS and the Nuclear Threat Initiative

(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deaths-disappearances-scientists-staff-government-labs/) both say a foreign adversary picking off an admin assistant and a 78-year-old retired construction foreman makes no strategic sense. What actually happened is the pattern was assembled backwards — skeptic Michael Shermer called it data mining: find anyone who died, then scan their bio for any defense/space/nuclear connection. It snowballed through NewsNation, the NY Post, Daily Mail, and podcasts until the FBI and Congress had to respond to the public pressure. Now it has its own Wikipedia page as a conspiracy theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_scientists_conspiracy_theory).

Still genuinely open: McCasland, Garcia, Chavez, and Reza are missing with no answers, and Casias's cause of death hasn't been ruled. The FBI review is technically ongoing. If anything real surfaces, it'll come from those four missing-persons cases — McCasland's is the strangest (a retired two-star general walking off with a revolver and no phone). But as of today, June 6, 2026, no investigator, family member, or major outlet that's dug into it — CBS, the LA Times, the Boston Globe — has found a single connecting fact between any two cases.

Sources: KTLA (https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/new-mexico-remains-melissa-casias-los-alamos/) · CNN — Casias found

(https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/us/melissa-casias-body-found-new-mexico) · CNN — 10 cases investigation

(https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/21/us/deaths-disappearances-scientists-investigation) · CBS — FBI explainer

(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deaths-disappearances-scientists-staff-government-labs/) · CBS — Casias

(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lab-worker-melissa-casias-dead-new-mexico-national-forest/) · NBC — Casias

(https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/remains-new-mexico-melissa-casias-vanished-rcna347794) · NBC — FBI

(https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/fbi-will-look-connections-deaths-disappearances-scientists-rcna332397) ·

Axios — Congress (https://www.axios.com/2026/04/23/missing-scientists-space-nuclear-congress-investigating) · House Oversight release

(https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-burlison-seek-information-on-missing-nuclear-and-rocket-scientists/) · Los Alamos Reporter (https://losalamosreporter.com/2026/05/30/new-mexico-state-police-identifies-remains-as-missing-taos-woman-melissa-casias/) · Taos News (https://www.taosnews.com/public-safety/police-confirm-body-is-missing-taos-woman-la

nl-worker/article_b498ac86-c4e1-408b-8984-a8c48377945b.html) · Wikipedia

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_scientists_conspiracy_theory) · Fortune

(https://fortune.com/2026/04/21/scientists-disappear-die-nasa-space-blue-origin-spacex/) · KRQE