The White House directed the FBI last week to coordinate an investigation into the cases of missing and deceased American nuclear scientists, turning a string of disappearances into another high-security spectacle around the machinery of nuclear power and state secrecy. The investigation is ongoing, and a retired high-level FBI official says the cases are suspicious enough to warrant scrutiny because of the sensitive technology involved.
Who Gets Watched
Chris Swecker, who served as assistant director of the FBI, said, "The missing [and] disappearance thing is suspicious inherently." He said, "What they were working on would certainly, without a doubt, be a target of a hostile foreign intelligence service like Russia or China. It could be Iran, could be Pakistan." That is the language of an apparatus built to treat knowledge itself as a strategic asset, guarded by intelligence agencies and defended by layers of secrecy.
Swecker said the six deaths that have been widely reported do not have much in common and that he does not believe they are connected. He said he is not convinced there is a conspiracy afoot even among the missing scientists, but he agrees authorities should be looking for links in the disappearances because of the high-value, sensitive technology they all worked with or near. He said, "I'm just saying that ... the FBI would have interest in anything that happened to them because of what they were working on," and added, "And, in fact, [with] McCasland, the FBI showed up uninvited that very afternoon."
The People at the Bottom of the Story
The disappearance of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland earlier this year set off the cascade of theories about the missing and dead scientists. Swecker said McCasland was the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory and had connections to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where top-secret nuclear research is conducted. He vanished in New Mexico after leaving his home with only a pair of boots and a handgun. He left his phone, keys and glasses behind.
Anthony Chavez, 79, worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory until he retired in 2017. He reportedly disappeared on May 8, 2025. He was last seen leaving his house in Los Alamos on foot, with his car locked in his driveway. He did not bring his phone, wallet or keys on his walk. Melissa Casias, 53, also worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. She went missing on June 26, 2025.
Steven Garcia, 48, went missing from Albuquerque on Aug. 28, 2025. He worked at the Kansas City National Security Campus, located in Albuquerque, which develops most of the nonnuclear components that go into building nuclear weapons. He reportedly left on foot carrying only a handgun. He reportedly had a top secret security clearance.
What the Authorities Call a Pattern
Swecker said, "So Garcia, Chavez and Casias, in my opinion, ought to be lumped in and that should be the focus, and any others that went missing, because that would fit more of a pattern than just killing somebody because of what they know." He added, "Exact same pattern," and said, "They disappeared with all their personal belongings [left] behind. Some of them took their handguns with them, which means they're either in fear or they're going to go use it on themselves."
Swecker also warned scientists working in top-secret fields that there is a daily collection effort by China, Russia, Iran, to some extent, North Korea, but mainly China and Russia to steal technology because they're not good at research and development, and that their programs depend on stealing the technology and reverse engineering it. He said scientists and people involved in defense contracting companies, research and development at universities, and all types of technologies in the U.S., even if it's not military use, ought to be aware that this type of activity goes on day in and day out.
The cases now sit inside the familiar architecture of state response: missing people, classified work, intelligence fears, and an FBI investigation coordinated from the White House. The article offers no resolution, only the same old hierarchy of secrecy and surveillance closing ranks around people who worked near the nuclear machine.