Remains found in New Mexico forest identified as missing lab worker

Human remains found by a hiker in northern New Mexico have been identified as Melissa Shirley Casias, the 53-year-old Los Alamos National Laboratory administrative assistant who vanished after failing to show up for work nearly a year ago. New Mexico State Police said the remains were discovered May 28 in the McGaffey Ridge area of Carson National Forest, and a handgun was found alongside them. The Office of the Medical Investigator helped confirm the identification, but the cause of death has not been determined.

Casias was reported missing June 26, 2025. State records list her as missing from Taos, New Mexico, and say she was last seen that same day. Family members said she had driven her husband to work at LANL that morning, returned home after realizing she had forgotten her badge, and later went to Taos to take lunch to her daughter. Investigators and relatives later placed her last known movement on NM 518 in Talpa, southeast of Ranchos de Taos, where she was seen walking eastbound.

The search for Casias stretched across months and became a community effort. Her family organized volunteer searches, set up a Facebook page, launched a GoFundMe campaign, and offered a $5,000 reward for information. Her car, purse, keys, wallet, phones and computer were all found at home after she disappeared, deepening the mystery around how she left and where her trail ended.

Her identification closes one of the region’s most closely watched missing-person cases, but it leaves major questions unresolved. Authorities have not said how Casias reached the forest, how long her remains had been there, or what role, if any, the handgun played in her death. For investigators, the case now shifts from locating a missing woman to reconstructing the final hours of a LANL worker whose disappearance began with an ordinary workday and ended in a remote stretch of forest miles from home.