Here’s a careful list of the American scientists and researchers most often cited in the recent reports about missing or deceased people tied to sensitive nuclear, aerospace, or fusion/energy work, along with the last known project or role described publicly. The reporting does not establish that these cases are connected, and several were explicitly described by officials or families as having no known link to the others.cbsnews+1
Reported cases
| Person | Status | Last publicly described project or role |
|---|---|---|
| Amy Eskridge | Died in 2022; reported suicide | Antigravity / advanced propulsion research, described in reporting as work on experimental anti-gravity propulsion the-independent. |
| Michael David Hicks | Died in 2023; cause not publicly disclosed | Research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, specializing in comets and asteroids livenowfox. |
| Frank Maiwald | Died in 2024; cause not publicly disclosed | Researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; reporting described him as a longtime JPL engineer/scientist livenowfox+1. |
| Nuno F. G. Loureiro | Died in 2025; killed in a shooting | MIT physicist and director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, working on fusion and plasma physics livenowfox+1. |
| Monica Jacinton Reza | Missing since June 2025 | NASA JPL materials scientist and director of the Materials Processing Group; work included a nickel-based superalloy used in rocket engines livenowfox. |
| William Neil McCasland | Missing since February 2026 | Retired Air Force general; former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory livenowfox. |
| Melissa Casias | Missing since June 2025 | Administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory; reporting says she had a security clearance, but not a technical research role livenowfox. |
| Anthony Chavez | Missing since May 2025 | Former Los Alamos worker/foreman supervising construction at the site livenowfox. |
| Steven Garcia | Missing since August 2025 | Property custodian for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City National Security Campus; not reported as a scientist fortune+1. |
| Carl Grillmair | Died in 2026; shot | Caltech astrophysicist; reporting highlighted his astronomy work, including discovering water on a distant planet livenowfox. |
| Jason Thomas | Died after being missing; not a scientist in the strict sense | Novartis researcher/biologist; reporting did not tie him to alternative energy work livenowfox. |
| David Wilcock | Died in 2026; reported suicide | UFO researcher and media figure, not a scientist or energy researcher the-independent. |
Important distinction
A few of the names commonly circulated online are not actually alternative-energy scientists, and some were lab staff, administrators, or people in unrelated technical roles. The strongest alternative-energy-related case in the reports is Amy Eskridge, who was associated with experimental propulsion ideas, and Nuno Loureiro, who worked in fusion energy, which is often discussed as a clean-energy pathway.livenowfox+1
What this means
The public reporting you’re referring to is a mix of confirmed deaths, missing-person cases, and online speculation, with no verified evidence in the reporting that these people were working on one shared alternative-energy project. If you want, I can turn this into a stricter list containing only people directly tied to alternative energy or propulsion research, excluding the nuclear, aerospace, and lab-support cases.cbsnews+1