- MORE: Missing nuclear official becomes TENTH person tied to dark pattern surrounding US secrets
The White House has broken their silence on the disturbing string of deaths and disappearances involving scientists with knowledge of America's biggest secrets.
During Wednesday's briefing at the White House, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked for the first time about the ten people linked to space or nuclear secrets who have mysteriously died or vanished without a trace since 2023.
When asked if the Trump Administration was aware of the incidents and if the US intelligence community was already investigating whether they were connected, Leavitt did not have a definitive answer for reporters.
The press secretary said: 'I haven't spoken to our relevant agencies about it. I will certainly do that, and will get you an answer.'
'If true, of course, that's definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into. So let me do that for you,' Leavitt continued.
The comments have been immediately met with criticism from the public, who claimed without evidence that federal officials have not been taking the pattern seriously or have been working to cover it up.
'Does that infer that they’re not looking into it now? For crying out loud there was a general involved,' one person said, referring to retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland, who vanished on February 27.
McCasland's disappearance set off a flurry of activity by independent investigators looking for clues. What they found was a series of links to multiple nuclear officials who have gone missing and a string of scientists who were either murdered or found dead.
'Truly sad that somebody has to bring it up before they look into it. Scientists with sensitive information that many of our enemies would absolutely love to have and do have now. They were NOT abducted by aliens,' one person posted on social media.
'That's code for stop noticing and shut up,' another skeptic claimed.
'FINALLY! You mean she didn’t know until today??? I call B*******!!' one X user commented.
Among the most prominent voices dissatisfied with the government's response to the alleged national security threat has been Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett, who has claimed McCasland was deeply tied to the country's secret UFO programs.
Burchett previously told the Daily Mail he had been demanding answers regarding the search for the retired general and others, but had received no answers from the US intelligence community - including the so-called 'alphabet agencies' such as the FBI.
'I've been constantly ran down different rabbit holes with them, so I don't have any need to talk to them at all,' the congressman said in March.
'The numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research. I think we'd better be paying attention, and I don't think we should trust our government.'
The Daily Mail has reached out to Burchett's office for comment on the White House response on Wednesday.
McCasland, 68, was the most recent official to disappear, as he was last seen leaving his New Mexico home without his phone, wearable devices or glasses less than two months ago. He was only carrying a pistol and his wife told 911 dispatchers that it appeared he was trying 'not to be found.'
The strange circumstances surrounding the general's disappearance were almost identical to four other missing person cases taking place between May and August 2025 in the Southwest.
Concerningly, all four have been tied to McCasland through his work overseeing the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which has been rumored to study extraterrestrial technology since the 1947 Roswell UFO crash.
While at Wright-Patterson, McCasland oversaw and reportedly approved the funding for scientist Monica Jacinto Reza's work on a space-age metal for rocket engines called Mondaloy.
Reza, 60, disappeared while hiking with friends in California on June 22, 2025. She had just become the director of the Materials Processing Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The three other disappearances all involved workers at some of America's most important nuclear facilities, and all three were last seen walking out of their homes without their phones or keys, just like McCasland.
Steven Garcia, 48, vanished without a trace on August 28, 2025. He was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico home on foot, carrying only a handgun.
An anonymous source told the Daily Mail that Garcia was a government contractor working for the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a major facility in Albuquerque that manufactures more than 80 percent of all the non-nuclear components that go into building the military's nuclear weapons.
Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casias both worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), one of the nation's most important nuclear research sites.
Chavez, 79, worked at the lab until his retirement in 2017, although his role there has not been made clear. Casias, 54, was an active administrative assistant at the facility and is believed to have had top security clearance.
All three were last seen leaving their homes in New Mexico on foot, leaving behind their cars, keys, wallets and phones before disappearing without a trace. Police have not had any updates in the cases since last year.
In addition to the string of disappearances, five scientists in key areas of research have died over the last three years, including two who were murdered in their own homes.
Nuclear physicist Nuno Loureiro and Astrophysicist Carl Grillmair were both shot to death in their homes in recent months.
Independent investigators have noted that Loureiro's revolutionary work in nuclear fusion may have made him a target of a greater conspiracy against US scientists, as his work may one day upend the energy industry.
Grillmair's work with NASA's NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor has also been linked to the Air Force, as the telescopes used the same systems the military relies on to track satellites and missiles.
Meanwhile, NASA scientists Michael David Hicks and Frank Maiwald, who also worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab, died from unknown circumstances at early ages.
Maiwald, 61, was the lead researcher on a breakthrough that could help future space missions detect clear signs of life on other worlds just 13 months before he died in 2024.
Hicks, who passed away just a year after leaving JPL at age 59, had been involved with the DART Project, NASA’s test to see if humans could deflect dangerous asteroids away from Earth.
NASA JPL has not commented on the deaths of Maiwald or Hicks, and did not reply to Daily Mail's inquiries into the nature of the scientists' work before their deaths.
In another mysterious incident, Jason Thomas, a pharmaceutical researcher testing cancer treatments at Novartis, was found dead in a Massachusetts lake on March 17, 2026, after disappearing without a trace in December 2025. Local police have claimed there was no foul play suspected.