A Theory That Cannot Yet Be Ruled Out

Since 2022, at least 10–13 individuals connected to U.S. nuclear, aerospace, and defense research have died or disappeared under varied circumstances. Official investigations by the FBI and House Oversight Committee began in April 2026. NASA has stated nothing indicates a national security threat. Many cases have ordinary explanations: natural causes, unrelated homicide, suicide, or accidental loss.

Yet a theory persists that cannot be fully dismissed while probes remain open: that selected expertise was targeted for a covert nuclear-related project, with peripheral cases serving as deliberate noise to throw investigators off the scent. The focus of this theory rests first on the four individuals who remain missing.

The Four Still Missing: The Core Skill Cluster

The four individuals still unaccounted for, form the central technical package in the theory:

Monica Reza (NASA JPL materials director): Co-inventor of Mondaloy, a nickel-based superalloy. Expert in advanced high-performance materials that could be applied to nuclear devices or delivery systems.

William Neil McCasland (retired Maj. Gen., former AFRL commander): Astronautical engineer who oversaw billions in Air Force advanced materials, space vehicles and weapons research. High-level systems integration and classified programme leadership.

Steven Garcia (property custodian, Kansas City National Security Campus): High-clearance contractor handling nuclear-weapons non-nuclear components and secure assets. Logistics and compartmented access expertise.

Anthony Chavez (retired Los Alamos HVAC/support, claimed quantum interest): Lab access background plus unverified personal work on quantum “two places at once” concepts. Weakest technical link, potentially useful for fringe processing ideas or physical access knowledge.

Taken together, these four could theoretically support development of advanced nuclear systems: high-performance alloys and materials for the device itself (Reza), high-level programme leadership and classified weapons R&D oversight (McCasland), secure handling and logistics of nuclear-related components (Garcia), and lab access plus fringe quantum ideas (Chavez). Combined with selected deceased expertise (LeBlanc’s nuclear systems work and Loureiro’s plasma/fusion knowledge), the theory posits a package that could be used for nuclear weapons or nuclear-armed delivery systems. Major gaps still exist in pure weapons physics and fissile production, but the skill set is broader than any single specialty.

The Deceased: Peripheral Skills and Possible Decoys

Most of those found dead possessed skills only loosely related to nuclear or advanced weapons systems. Their inclusion in the public narrative could function as misdirection to dilute focus on the four still missing.

Michael David Hicks (NASA JPL planetary scientist): Specialised in comets, asteroids and the DART deflection mission. Useful for planetary defence or impact modelling – not nuclear weapons design. Remains a peripheral case.

Frank Maiwald (JPL RF/microwave engineer): Built satellite instruments and specialised in microwave radiometry and RF systems. In the theory, his expertise could have been used to design a secure remote-activation or “remote use button” system for whatever platform the core team was developing.

Carl Grillmair (Caltech astrophysicist): Exoplanet atmospheres and stellar streams. Observational expertise only.

Jason Thomas (Novartis chemical biology): Pharmaceutical research. No relevant overlap.

Melissa Casias (Los Alamos administrative assistant): Support staff. Zero technical contribution.

Two deceased held more relevant expertise: Joshua LeBlanc (NASA nuclear systems electrical engineer on DRACO and space nuclear thermal programmes) and Nuno Loureiro (MIT plasma physicist and fusion director). These could have supplied nuclear systems and high-energy plasma knowledge. Frank Maiwald’s RF skills fit a remote-activation role. Amy Eskridge’s fringe claims add exotic colour but little verified science. The others fit the decoy pattern far better than a core team.

The Open-Borders Factor

Any covert programme of this scale would require more than four specialists. Operational security, logistics, construction support, and security details demand dozens or hundreds of vetted personnel. One element of the theory points to the previous administration’s border policies: roughly 10 million encounters plus significant gotaways between 2021 and early 2025 created an unprecedented volume of unvetted entrants. Critics argue this window allowed Chinese military-linked individuals, Iranian operatives, or other adversarial agents to enter and establish networks before restrictions tightened.

In this framing, the missing American specialists provide technical leadership and classified know-how, while foreign agents supply the larger workforce and operational muscle that would otherwise be impossible to assemble covertly inside the United States. The theory does not claim this happened; it simply notes that the demographic and security conditions made such a recruitment path more feasible than in prior decades.

Conclusion: A Theory Still Standing

Official statements emphasise coincidence, ordinary causes of death, and the absence of proven links. Most deceased individuals had little to no nuclear-weapons utility and may simply have been swept into an online pattern-seeking exercise. The four still missing, plus key deceased like LeBlanc and Loureiro, form a tighter skill cluster around materials, nuclear systems leadership, secure nuclear logistics, plasma/fusion knowledge and remote activation – enough, in the theory, for nuclear devices or nuclear-armed systems.

Nevertheless, while FBI and congressional inquiries remain open and key individuals stay unaccounted for, the coordinated-extraction hypothesis cannot yet be ruled out. It requires no supernatural elements – only selective targeting of complementary expertise (with the four missing at the centre), the addition of peripheral cases as noise, and the exploitation of a historically porous border for supporting manpower. Whether that hypothesis survives further investigation is still an open question.