A White House Official Just Commented on Investigating the Dead and Missing NASA Scientists

Public interest in the string of deaths and disappearances of scientists with NASA ties and a retired Air Force general has significantly grown in recent weeks. Now, a senior White House official has directly addressed whether the government plans to investigate the cases and any connections they may have.

The White House Response to Questions About the Scientists

On April 15, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was holding a briefing centered on tax day when a reporter asked about the growing concerns about missing and dead NASA scientists. The reporter asked: "There are now 10 American scientists who have either gone missing or died since mid-2024. They all reportedly had access to classified nuclear or aerospace material. Is anybody investigating this to see if these things are connected?"

Leavitt responded that she believes there will be an investigation if the details of the reports are true. She also stated that she will speak to the relevant agencies and provide more information on the potential investigations in the future. “I haven’t spoken to our relevant agencies about it. I will certainly do that, and we’ll get you an answer. If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and its administration would deem worth looking into. So let me do that for you.”

You can watch the exchange here:

What We Know So Far About the Cases

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher Michael David Hicks, who passed away in 2023, was recently added to the growing list of NASA scientists who've gone missing or died. A NewsNation report stated that the public hadn't been informed about how he died. Men's Journal's Jessica McBride later reported that the Los Angeles County Coroner listed Hicks' cause of death as “arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease” with “morbid obesity” being described as a “significant condition.” The manner of death was listed as "natural," even though the case remained "open" at the time the coroner issued their report.

A Newsweek article compiled the following list of the scientists with NASA ties and a retired Air Force general who have died or gone missing since July 4, 2024:

• July 4, 2024—Frank Maiwald: A 61-year-old NASA Researcher who died.
• May 4, 2025—Anthony Chavez: A former employee of the Los Alamos National Laboratory who disappeared.
• June 22, 2025—Monica Reza: A NASA scientist who went missing during a hike in a national forest.
• June 26, 2025—Melissa Casias: A Los Alamos administrative assistant who went missing from her home and whose devices had been wiped.
• December 12, 2025—Jason Thomas: A Novartis researcher who went missing and whose body was later found in a lake on March 17, 2026.
• December 15, 2025—Nuno Loureiro: The head of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, who was attacked in his home and died.
• February 16, 2026—Carl Grillmair: An astrophysicist who was fatally shot on his front porch.
• February 27, 2026—William Neil McCasland: A retired Air Force general who disappeared after leaving his home.

So far, there are no confirmed links between any of those cases aside from the sensitive nature of the work the people involved engaged in. Still, the pattern has raised deep concerns. While speaking to the Daily Mail, the former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker explained why he believed potential espionage had to be considered. "The first thing you go to is it's potential espionage. Our scientists have been targeted for a long time, especially in the rocket propulsion area, by hostile foreign intelligence services." In April 2026, Representative Eric Burlison stated that he'd contacted the FBI and asked them to investigate the matter.