Missing nuclear lab worker found dead as UFO theories swirl
A nuclear lab worker who had been missing for over a year has been found dead with a shotgun beside her, with authorities currently unable to specify the cause of her death.
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The remains of Los Alamos nuclear lab worker Melissa Casias were found in a New Mexico forest with a shotgun; her cause of death is unknown.
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Casias wiped her phone data before vanishing, echoing odd details from other recent disappearances of local defense and tech personnel.
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Her death has fueled conspiracy theories linking the cluster of missing scientists and a retired Air Force General to UFO cover-ups.
The remains of Melissa Casias were found nearly a year after she disappeared from northern New Mexico. Her body was discovered in Carson National Forest.
Casias reportedly wiped data from her phones before leaving home on the day she vanished, with surveillance footage capturing her walking alone several miles from her home.
Casias worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a facility closely linked to US nuclear weapons research, and this discovery has reignited UFO conspiracy theories about missing scientists.
The growing list
Another former Los Alamos employee, Anthony Chavez, disappeared in 2025, just weeks before Casias vanished.
But perhaps the strongest similarity is that government contractor Steven Garcia also disappeared after reportedly leaving home carrying only a handgun, also in New Mexico.
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Retired Air Force General William McCasland is also missing after setting off on a hike in New Mexico in March.
Formerly in charge of the Air Force Research Lab and director of special programs at the Pentagon, McCasland's disappearance sparked the first wave of conspiracy theories.
These theories have been amplified by whistleblowers in the community, including breakthrough figure Matthew Brown, who has raised the alarm on the general's disappearance.
Australian UFO journalist Ross Coulthart, for example, has previously described the quest for missing scientists as a mislabelled core claim and one that is “just going to blow up in our faces.”
