FBI Launches Investigation Into Dead and Missing Scientists Tied to NASA, Blue Origin, and SpaceX

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has formally opened an inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of at least 11 American scientists and researchers with ties to NASA, nuclear defense programs, SpaceX, and Blue Origin — a pattern spanning several years that is now drawing urgent attention from the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Search Interest by Region

This story has gained significant traction across multiple countries, with the following approximate Google Trends search interest recorded:

Region	Search Interest
United States	10,000+ searches
Hacker News	1,000+ searches
Australia	1,000+ searches
Taiwan	200+ searches

What We Know: The Cases

The cases date back to 2022 and involve individuals affiliated with institutions including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Los Alamos National Laboratory, MIT, Caltech, and the Kansas City National Security Campus.

Among the confirmed or reported cases:

Monica Reza — Director of JPL's Materials Processing Group and an Aerojet Rocketdyne engineer, she disappeared while hiking in a Los Angeles-area forest in June 2025. She had patented a nickel super-alloy used in both space travel and military weaponry.
William "Neil" McCasland — Retired U.S. Air Force Major General who commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He has been missing since February 27, 2026, after leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico home without his phone, prescription glasses, or wearable devices.
Carl Grillmair — Caltech astrophysicist who worked on NASA's NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor missions. He was fatally shot at his home outside Los Angeles in February 2026. A suspect was arrested, but authorities do not believe the suspect knew Grillmair personally.
Michael Hicks — JPL researcher who worked on asteroid characterization research underlying NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. He passed away in July 2023 at age 59.
Frank Maiwald — A space research specialist who died in Los Angeles in 2024 at age 61.
Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casias — Two Los Alamos National Laboratory employees who vanished weeks apart in 2025 under nearly identical circumstances, each leaving behind their car, keys, wallet, and phone.
Jason Thomas — An assistant director at Novartis with active Department of Defense contracts. He disappeared in December 2025 and was found dead in a Massachusetts lake in March 2026.
Nuno Loureiro — MIT physicist who was killed.
Matthew James Sullivan — A former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who died in 2024 before he was scheduled to testify in a federal whistleblower case related to UFOs.

The FBI's Response

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the bureau's involvement on April 20, 2026. "We're going to look for connections," Patel told Fox News, noting whether those connections extend to "classified access, access to classified information, and or foreign actors." He added that if nefarious conduct or conspiracy is uncovered, "this FBI will make the appropriate arrest."

The bureau released a formal statement indicating it is coordinating with the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and state and local law enforcement partners.

Congressional Pressure

The investigation was accelerated by the House Oversight Committee. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) sent letters to FBI Director Kash Patel, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, demanding staff-level briefings no later than April 27, 2026.

"If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets," the committee wrote.

Burlison told Fox News that a foreign intelligence operation was "the most likely explanation," calling the overall pattern to have "all the hallmarks of a foreign operation." However, no official connection between the cases has been confirmed.

President Trump, briefed on the matter last week, described it as "pretty serious stuff" and said he hoped the pattern was "coincidence," while signaling he expected answers "in the next week and a half."

The SpaceX and Blue Origin Connection

The cases have drawn particular scrutiny because of the overlap between the victims' research areas and technologies now central to major defense contracts held by SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Space Force awarded SpaceX nearly $6 billion and Blue Origin approximately $2.3 billion in national security launch contracts in April 2025. SpaceX is separately contracted for the Golden Dome missile defense satellite constellation, while Blue Origin was added to the $151 billion SHIELD contract through the Missile Defense Agency and hired its first-ever president of national security in December 2025.

Blue Origin unveiled its NEO Hunter planetary defense concept in March 2026, developed in partnership with JPL and Caltech — the same institutions where several of the missing or deceased scientists worked.

The House Oversight Committee specifically noted a previously undisclosed professional connection between Reza and McCasland, who reportedly collaborated on "an Air Force-funded research program in the early 2000s pertaining to advanced materials needed for reusable space vehicles and weapons."

Neither SpaceX nor Blue Origin responded to requests for comment from Fortune.

Government and Institutional Responses

NASA stated it is "coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies" and that "at this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat." Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed the Department of Energy has launched a formal internal probe, saying: "A lot of the nuclear security scientists are in DOE. So yes, of course we are looking into this." He added that nothing alarming had been found yet.

The Department of Defense said it would respond to the committee directly.

Not all voices have accepted the conspiracy framing. Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer stated publicly that she reviewed the cases individually and found "Occam's Razor reasons" supporting each disappearance or death. "This isn't some large scale conspiracy to take off people who work/worked in science-based industry," she wrote on X. However, Coffindaffer said she was "glad the FBI is going to put this notion to rest."

Why This Story Is Trending

The breadth of the cases — spanning multiple institutions, years, and a mix of unsolved homicides and missing persons — combined with the victims' ties to classified defense programs and high-profile private space contractors has drawn sustained public interest. The overlap with sensitive national security technologies, the absence of explanations for why several individuals left their homes without personal devices, and the involvement of both Congress and the White House have elevated the story beyond typical crime reporting. On Hacker News, the technical community has been actively discussing the institutional connections between the victims and cutting-edge aerospace research.

Sources

Track live search trends around this story and related topics on Kiolix Pulse:

Kiolix Pulse | Data-Driven Insights on Global Trends