Congress probes deaths and disappearances tied to Los Alamos secrets

Two Los Alamos National Laboratory-linked cases have landed in a congressional probe that is now examining at least 10 deaths and disappearances among people tied to U.S. nuclear secrets and rocket technology, putting renewed pressure on lab security and federal oversight in Northern New Mexico.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer and Subcommittee Chairman Eric Burlison sent letters on April 20 to the Department of Energy, the Department of War, the FBI and NASA seeking information on scientists and other personnel whose work touched sensitive programs. The lawmakers said the reported pattern could pose a grave threat to national security and to people with access to scientific secrets. The letters said two of the missing or deceased individuals were affiliated with Los Alamos National Laboratory, though they were not named.

That detail has sharpened attention in Los Alamos County, where the lab remains the region’s largest federal institution and a central piece of the nation’s weapons enterprise. The Energy Department says Los Alamos National Laboratory’s primary mission is to provide scientific and engineering support to national security programs, including work in support of the nuclear weapons stockpile.

The broader list of cases stretches back to 2023 and includes Michael David Hicks, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist from 1998 to 2022 who died in 2023; Monica Reza, a former director of JPL’s Materials Processing Group who disappeared while hiking in California in June 2025 and remains missing; and retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, who disappeared from the Albuquerque area in February and remains missing. McCasland was last seen on Feb. 27, 2026, and his wife reportedly told 911 that he may have planned not to be found. He had also served as commander of Kirtland’s Phillips Research Site and the Air Force Research Laboratory and sat on the Kirtland Partnership Committee board.

The FBI said it was spearheading the effort to look for possible connections and was working with DOE, the Department of War and state and local law enforcement. President Donald Trump called the matter “pretty serious stuff” and said his administration would look at it.

Burlison has gone further, suggesting the possibility of foreign involvement and naming China, Russia and Iran as countries he would not be surprised to see connected. At the same time, some investigators and family members have pushed back on sweeping theories and said the individual cases may not be linked.

For Los Alamos, the stakes are larger than any one disappearance. Any unexplained loss involving current or former personnel connected to classified work raises questions about vetting, monitoring and how much confidence the public can place in the systems built to protect the nation’s most sensitive science.