2022 — 2026
Roster of the U.S. scientists, engineers, and adjacent personnel whose deaths or disappearances between 2021 and 2026 have been absorbed into the “missing scientists” news cycle that reached the White House and triggered an FBI investigation in late April 2026. Every name here is at least loosely connected to classified aerospace research, advanced physics, JPL, Los Alamos, NASA, or the nuclear-weapons complex. Individual cases have documented mundane causes - illness, accident, suicide, carjacking-related homicide - but the cluster pattern itself, and the institutional overlap across it, is unusual enough that it has forced a federal investigation. UAP-connection assessment runs from documented through speculative to loose. See also the full case dossier.
Author / Conspiracy Theorist
Independent
Long-time UFO author and conspiracy theorist whose work focused on alleged extraterrestrial contact and spiritual ascension narratives. Died by suicide on April 20, 2026.
Retired Major General / Former Commander, Air Force Research Laboratory
U.S. Air Force (retired)
Retired U.S. Air Force Major General; seventh Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB. Reported missing from his New Mexico home on February 27, 2026.
Astronomer / Astrophysicist (Retired)
Caltech
Retired Caltech astrophysicist who collaborated with NASA on exoplanet atmospheric characterization. Shot to death on his front porch on February 16, 2026.
Plasma Physicist / MIT Professor
MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center
MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center physicist studying magnetic reconnection and turbulence. Murdered on December 16, 2025.
Assistant Director, Chemical Biology
Novartis
Pharmaceutical chemical-biology research lead at Novartis. Died by drowning on December 12, 2025.
Property Custodian / Government Contractor
Kansas City National Security Campus
Government contractor working as a property custodian at the Kansas City National Security Campus, which manufactures nonnuclear components for nuclear weapons. Last seen leaving his Albuquerque home on August 28, 2025.
Engineer
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Young NASA Marshall Space Flight Center engineer who died in an automobile accident on July 22, 2025.
Administrative Assistant
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory who disappeared on June 26, 2025. Family has stated her departure was voluntary.
Metallurgist / Materials Engineer
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JPL metallurgist and materials engineer who disappeared while hiking on June 22, 2025. Reported by some sources as a former colleague of William McCasland.
Retired Construction Foreman
Los Alamos National Laboratory (former)
Retired construction foreman who had previously worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Disappeared on May 8, 2025.
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Air Force member whose 2024 death has been incorporated into the missing-scientists narrative; specifics of his role and cause of death have not been publicly established.
Engineer, Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JPL microwave-instrument engineer who worked on the SWOT mission characterizing global surface water and ocean topography. Died July 4, 2024.
Planetary Scientist
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JPL planetary scientist specializing in comets and asteroids; worked on NASA's DART asteroid-deflection mission. Died July 30, 2023 of a chronic medical condition.
Independent Researcher
Institute for Exotic Science
Anti-gravity researcher and UAP investigator affiliated with the Institute for Exotic Science. Died by suicide on June 11, 2022 - the earliest case retroactively folded into the 2026 missing-scientists narrative.
Physicist / Anti-Gravity Researcher
University of Alabama in Huntsville (former) / AC Gravity LLC
Chinese-American physicist who spent two decades at the University of Alabama in Huntsville researching gravity modification using high-temperature superconductors. Died in 2021.