The mystery of the missing scientists began with a Silver Alert. In late February, a retired Air Force major general named Neil McCasland left his house in New Mexico for a walk and never returned. Rumors spread on social media that the elderly former astronautical engineer had been abducted or killed. Forget Nancy Guthrie, they said. Here was a guy who used to run a 'UFO-linked' lab. Here was a guy with knowledge of 'America's deepest, darkest secrets.' So where was this guy' McCasland's wife did her best with a post on Facebook to address what she called the 'misinformation circulating about Neil and his disappearance,' but wild notions only multiplied. Dots were added, then connected: Another scientist'an advanced-materials researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) named Monica Reza'had disappeared while hiking near Los Angeles in June 2025. A physicist at MIT had been murdered in December. 'What is going on seems to be an enemy action,' Walter Kirn, the novelist and...
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