A conspiracy theory linking the disappearances and deaths of at least 11 U.S. scientists to UFOs, foreign espionage and hidden national security secrets has moved from obscure online forums to congressional inquiries and questions for President Donald Trump, highlighting how digital misinformation can rapidly shape mainstream political debate.

The theory alleges that researchers connected to space exploration, nuclear facilities and advanced defense technologies have either vanished or died under suspicious circumstances, suggesting a coordinated plot involving foreign adversaries such as China, covert government programs, or even extraterrestrial activity.

While law enforcement agencies continue to investigate individual cases, experts say there is no verified evidence connecting the incidents and warn that the narrative reflects a broader pattern in which unrelated tragedies are stitched together into compelling but unsupported conspiracies.

At the center of the latest wave of speculation is the disappearance of retired U.S. Air Force Major General William “Neil” McCasland, 68, who vanished on Feb. 27 from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

McCasland, a former commander of the Kirtland Air Force Base’s Phillips Research Site and Laboratory, had previously overseen programs involving space vehicles and directed-energy technologies. According to authorities, he left his home between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., leaving behind his phone and glasses but taking a .38 revolver.

He is believed to have left on foot.His wife reported him missing shortly after midday, prompting the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office to issue a Silver Alert, typically used when an older adult disappears under concerning circumstances.

No confirmed trace of McCasland has been found since.His background in military research quickly drew attention from UFO-focused online communities, where speculation spread that his disappearance was linked to classified aerospace programs or knowledge of unidentified anomalous phenomena, often referred to as UAPs.Lt. Kyle Woods of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said investigators were examining all available leads but had found no evidence supporting UFO-related claims.

“I appreciate that there’s a community that wants to go down the rabbit hole of UFOs,” Woods told reporters. “We can only go off the facts.”The lack of immediate answers created fertile ground for broader theories. Online accounts soon began compiling a list of other scientists who had disappeared or died in recent years, suggesting they were all connected by sensitive government work.

Among them was Michael David Hicks, a former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who studied near-Earth asteroids and comets. Hicks died in 2023 at age 59 from causes that were not publicly detailed.Monica Reza, who served as director of NASA’s materials processing group, disappeared in June 2025 while hiking in Angeles National Forest in California. According to police reports, Reza, 60, was walking about 30 feet behind a companion when she vanished. Her body has not been recovered.

Other names added to the list include astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, who was shot and killed at his home; MIT physicist Nuno Loureiro, killed by a former classmate; and Jason Thomas, a chemical biologist at Novartis who disappeared in December before his remains were found in Massachusetts in March.Amy Eskridge, an Alabama-based researcher who claimed to be working on “gravity-modification research,” was also drawn into the theory.

Eskridge died by suicide in 2022, but renewed attention followed comments by Franc Milburn, who identifies himself as a former British intelligence officer. Milburn said Eskridge had once told him not to believe reports of suicide if she were found dead.

These separate incidents, many with known explanations or unrelated circumstances, were amplified through social media, podcasts and right-wing media outlets, where they were presented as possible evidence of a larger hidden operation.President Trump was asked publicly about the reports and said he would look into them, giving the theory further visibility.

Republican lawmakers James Comer of Kentucky and Eric Burlison of Missouri escalated the issue last week by sending letters to the FBI, NASA, the Department of Energy and other federal agencies demanding an investigation into what they described as a possible “sinister connection.”

“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security,” they wrote, citing concerns that scientists linked to nuclear and aerospace work could be targets.They also suggested McCasland and Reza may have had a “close professional connection,” though no evidence of coordinated targeting has been publicly established.

The issue intensified further after the recent death of UFO researcher David Wilcock, who died by suicide outside his home in Boulder County, Colorado. Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee responded publicly by questioning whether so many incidents could simply be coincidence.

But researchers who study conspiracy culture say coincidence is often exactly what people resist accepting.Greg Eghigian, professor of history and bioethics at Pennsylvania State University and author of “After the Flying Saucers Came,” said the current theory reflects longstanding patterns in American UFO culture, where military secrecy, nuclear sites and unexplained deaths easily combine into larger narratives.

“It folds neatly into decades-old notions that UFOs are spotted around nuclear facilities and that some of these places may be masking UFO-related projects,” Eghigian said.He said the post-COVID information environment has intensified distrust of scientific institutions and made audiences more receptive to narratives involving hidden knowledge and secret state operations.

“When people want to connect these dots, it falls readily into a sweet spot for UFO lore,” he said. “The military, state secrets, nuclear technology, missing people — the seeds of this were planted decades ago.”Podcaster Joe Rogan, whose audience reaches millions, recently suggested the disappearances might be linked to “plasma technology,” adding to the mainstream visibility of the speculation.

Yet perhaps the clearest rebuttal has come from McCasland’s wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, who has publicly pushed back against theories suggesting her husband was abducted for classified knowledge.She said her husband had retired nearly 13 years earlier and no longer had access to sensitive information.

“It seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him,” she wrote.Addressing his past association with Tom DeLonge, the former Blink-182 musician who has become involved in UAP disclosure discussions, she said that connection was “not a reason for someone to abduct” him.She also dismissed claims that he had secret knowledge about extraterrestrial evidence linked to the Roswell incident.

Using humor to challenge the speculation, she wrote that perhaps “aliens beamed him up to the mothership,” before adding that no mothership had been reported hovering over the Sandia Mountains.

For investigators, McCasland remains a missing person case, not proof of extraterrestrial intervention. But for a digital ecosystem built on suspicion, mystery itself often becomes enough.

An 18-year-old, Angelina Han Hicks, was taken into custody in North Carolina and charged with conspiracy to commit murder and assault related to members of Congregation Beth Israel, a historic Jewish place of worship in Texas.

A juvenile suspect, identified as 16 years old, was separately arrested in Texas and charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder, authorities said.The Federal Bureau of Investigation said its Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force launched the investigation following a tip received earlier this week.

The Houston Police Department said there was no indication of any ongoing credible threat after the arrests.Court records allege the conspiracy involved plans to “kill as many Jews as possible” by driving through a congregation at a synagogue.

A judge ordered Hicks detained on a $10 million bond, citing concerns over public safety and potential communication with alleged co-conspirators.Authorities said the timeline outlined in warrants pointed to a possible attack in 2028, though prosecutors indicated concerns that the threat could have been more immediate.

Investigators have not publicly disclosed a motive.The synagogue temporarily closed earlier this week as a precaution following warnings from law enforcement but has since reopened, according to community officials. The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston said security remains a priority.

The case comes amid heightened concerns over attacks targeting Jewish institutions. Last month, an armed individual drove a vehicle into a synagogue in Michigan, underscoring growing security challenges faced by such communities.

Hicks’ legal counsel said the case remains at an early stage, with further investigation expected. Her next court appearance is scheduled for May 13.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said the alert was issued in coordination with Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The group, also known as “Fancy Bear,” has been attributed by Western governments to Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU.According to the BfV, APT28 exploited weaknesses in TP-Link routers, affecting several thousand devices worldwide, including about 30 in Germany.

In some cases, authorities confirmed breaches, leading operators to replace compromised hardware.The agency said the campaign was aimed at facilitating surveillance of sensitive targets, including state institutions and key infrastructure networks.

APT28 has previously been linked to cyberattacks against Germany’s parliament, the Social Democratic Party and air traffic control systems, underscoring its long-standing role in espionage operations targeting European institutions.

German authorities urged heightened vigilance and coordination among operators to mitigate risks posed by the ongoing campaign.

The March 20 report, issued by the FBI and other federal agencies, said Iran’s government posed an elevated risk to U.S. military and government personnel, Jewish and Israeli institutions, and Iranian dissidents within the United States.

It added that while no broad threat to the general public had been identified, the potential for targeted attacks remained significant.President Donald Trump had publicly minimized the risk of Iranian retaliation on U.S. soil in recent months.

When asked on March 11 whether he was concerned about a possible attack, Trump said he was not. His rhetoric shifted this week, however, as tensions escalated, including a warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight” before he agreed to delay military action and accept a two-week ceasefire.

The intelligence document, titled “Public Safety Awareness Report,” was released weeks after reports that the White House had blocked a similar product from being made public. At the time, officials said the move was to ensure information was properly vetted.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration remained focused on protecting national security and cautioned against drawing conclusions from individual law enforcement documents without broader context.

The FBI and National Counterterrorism Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while a spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment.

The report, obtained through public records requests by the nonprofit Property of the People, warned of “elevated physical threats” following the outbreak of conflict. It said Iranian security services had previously attempted kidnappings and killings targeting Americans, using methods ranging from firearms to more covert tactics such as poisoning, arson and suffocation.

According to the report, Iranian operatives often rely on individuals with legal status or access within the United States and have used digital tools including social media monitoring, livestreams and mapping applications to identify and surveil potential targets. It also cited the use of cyber tactics such as phishing campaigns.

The report further warned that Iran has attempted to lure individuals to third countries closer to its territory, “almost certainly for kidnapping and eventual executions.”U.S. public opinion has remained cautious about the conflict, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showing that roughly two-thirds of Americans favor ending U.S. involvement quickly, underscoring the sensitivity surrounding threat assessments and policy responses.

Law enforcement agencies were urged to remain vigilant and coordinate closely with federal authorities on any emerging threats.

The request was made by the National Investigations Agency (NIA), India’s federal anti-terrorism agency, in meetings with visiting FBI Director Christopher Wray, said the official, who works at NIA and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The issue of what New Delhi says are Sikh separatists operating against India from U.S. soil was discussed in “greater detail by a team of internal security officials from both countries”, the official said.

“India has requested the U.S. officials to share inputs on suspected individuals who have in recent years been recruited and embedded in the separatist movement,” the official said.

An NIA spokesperson said the agency did not have a comment when reached by Reuters.

The U.S. embassy’s spokesperson said meetings between Wray and Indian officials were underway and he could not share details as yet.

The movement for a Sikh homeland in northern India, crushed decades ago, has burst onto the global stage in recent months as the United States and Canada accused Indian officials of involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in North America.

New Delhi denies any connection to a June murder in a Vancouver suburb but has announced an investigation into U.S. concerns about an alleged plot in New York.

It says such plots were not government policy and it is not hunting down Sikh separatists abroad. At the same time, Indian security and foreign ministry officials say Sikh separatists in North America and Europe raising money, training people and campaigning for India’s division, is a concern for New Delhi.

India has also sought to distance the FBI chief’s visit – the first in years – from the New York case, saying Wray’s trip had been planned for some time.

India’s government, which has denied any involvement in the plot, sought to distance the visit from the case, saying Wray’s trip had been planned for some time.

The U.S. ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, did not go into any details as he announced the visit at a think tank event in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said last week an Indian national had worked with an unnamed Indian government employee on the plot to assassinate the New York City resident who advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India.

At the time, India expressed concern about the accusations, calling it contrary to government’s policy, and said it would carry out its own investigation.

The target of the assassination plot has been identified as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who says he holds American and Canadian citizenships.

The visit by the FBI Director had “been in the works for some time,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday.

“This is part of an ongoing security cooperation,” he added.