First off the word scientists is being used loosely in this conspiracy. Allegedly about 11 scientists have died under mysterious circumstances, but…some aren’t mysterious at all. The fact that someone is pushing this conspiracy and seems to be trying to make things seem more mysterious than they are is the mystery and conspiracy to me.

Other notable events going on now are the Iran War, the lose of public respect for the State of Israel over its handling of the Gaza Situation, the Epstein Scandal, general corruption and nepotism under Trump with his family, Palantir takeover of citizen dats records, etc.

There are things this administration doesn’t want people to know or talk about and it seems UFOS are a convenient way to distract from what we as a society can control, which is making our politicians accountable.

Many of these scientists worked on project teams or programs. Killing one person on a project or program doesn’t seem to make sense if the goal is set back or damage the success of an effort. Some of the missing scientists were older, pushing or beyond their sixties, and they didn’t work in isolation. Their coworkers would have been aware of what they were doing, so why not take out an entire team?

The GEC Marconi Scientist deaths seems more compelling because those scientists worked on a related singular program. This current Missing or Dead Scientists Case in the USA seems like a patch work of coincidence driven by America’s tendency to be mistrustful of government and paranoid.

Some of these deaths are because of old age (Maiwald and Hicks), whereas others are potentially foul play (Reza), others are proven murder (Grillmair and Loureiro), another was mental illness/suicide (Eskridge), and others seem totally unrelated to a plausible core conspiracy (Casias and Chavez) .

The only conspiracy which seems plausible is the possible links between Air Force General William McCasland and Monica Reza, but sprinkling in these other cases seems to ironically muddle the revelation of a plausible conspiracy.

But this link seems very weak because Reza was working with the Air Force Research Lab (ARFL) in 1999, but McCasland was working at Los Angeles AFB, spending three years as the Chief Engineer of the Navstar GPS Joint Program Office, the controlling authority for the Global Positioning System for government, commercial, and consumer applications. McCasland wasn’t posted to Wright Patterson AFB until 2011 and he retired in 2013. [Source: https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/104776/major-general-william-n-mccasland/].

A lot of people have no clue about government or the military. To them all they know is Hollywood and TV depictions. The government is not as exciting as what people seem and it is not as nefarious. You literally have grumpy anti government Republicans working in government agencies and collecting checks. Simply because the ARFL sounds cool doesn’t mean every project or program there is Top Secret. Wright Patterson AFB is in important base as far as pushing USAF commercial efforts because it is home to the Air Force Institute of Technology where it trains USAF office Program and Project Managers, but also home of USAF Material Command which oversees essentially procurement, life cycle contract management, installation management, sustainment, research,

According to McCasland’s wife, she stated her husband had been retired for so long after his disappearance that any information he did have may have been not very useful.

Further, Maria Reza who patented an alloy metal…that patent can be found in the public domain.

Making all these deaths into a coherent and linear conspiracy may actually rob victims of justice.

This to me seems like a psychological operations and disinformation campaign by the government to encourage hope in the UFO believer community and the separate general “conspiracy theory” community.

Possibilities

Multiple things can be true at the same time.

These multiple things can be totally unrelated, somewhat related, or totally related.

A possibility is there is no connection, and these are all random events, but because humans want to see patterns, it is easy to point to the scientist’s deaths as being a conspiracy.

Or, someone is taking these random events and trying to create a larger conspiracy, plausibly as a mass prank/trolling event, a distraction campaign, etc. For example, an idea can spring from 4Chan and then become viral, notably with social media financially rewarding engagement, i.e., the more sensational views get, the more financial rewards for people.

According to Radio Canada International (RCI) (2026), Mick West, author of 2018’s Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect, is also unimpressed by the supposed connections. According to West, the deaths are real. The families’ grief is real. The pattern is not, he wrote on his Substack page (new window). Further, RCI (2026), stated that West characterizes what is occurring as a death list fallacy. The most famous occurrence in modern times arguably stems from when a few authors in the 1960s compiled lists and cast a suspicious eye toward the deaths of many people closely or even tangentially connected to President John F. Kennedy, his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, and Oswald’s killer, nightclub owner Jack Ruby. West, using a sample size of what he estimated to be about 700,000 individuals with top secret clearance in the aerospace and nuclear agency work population, argues that ordinary mortality averages for such a population over a 22-month period would result in about 4,000 deaths, 70 homicides and 180 suicides (RCI, 2026). [Source: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/en/news/2248519/killing-of-calgary-born-scientist-tied-to-mysterious-u-s-deaths-disappearances-despite-quick-arrest]. [Source: https://mickwest.substack.com/p/the-uap-body-count-doesnt-add-up].

Also, within the conspiracy, some of the deaths are random events, but some of them are part of a larger narrative, such as stated above, i.e., an outside party could be trying to steer a conspiracy narrative for distraction purposes.

For example, according to Joey Esposito of Snopes.com (2026), The “dead or missing scientists” conspiracy theory first gained mainstream traction when it was covered on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show” in an episode that aired April 2, 2026. CNN, The New York Post, The Daily Mail and Men’s Journal followed suit, and Fox News published a follow-up story. [Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/did-11-us-scientists-connected-to-sensitive-research-die-or-go-missing-what-we-know/ar-AA21UwlJ?ocid=BingNewsSerp]

Or maybe there is something such as UFO Cult like Heaven’s Gate going on. For example, some scientists involved in UFO-ology believe in some sort of upcoming event and ran away, did self-harm such in the case of Heaven’s Gate, etc.

There is also the possibility of paranoid anti-government types hurting scientists because of their believed ties to “Deep State” technology, though these scientists are just regular people. This reminds me of the plot of the movie, Bugonia.

Lastly, there could be a larger conspiracy involving all the scientists. This is the most extreme case and the most doubtful.

There was the GEC Marconi Case of the 1980s, but that appears more plausible with foul play, but still the overall conclusion was inconclusive about their being concerted conspiracy.

If this is all a distraction campaign, someone could be copying and pasting the narrative of the GEC Marconi Murders to mass troll the public into going on a wild goose chase.

Foreword and Insights

First, there could be economic uncertainty due to grant and funding cancellation which can increase depression and mental health issues (e.g., higher self-deletion rates amongst older white men and the onset of schizophrenia amongst younger scientists in their late twenties to early thirties).

Secondly, higher crime rates in areas focused on intensive scientific research such as in Energy Research in New Mexico, Aerospace in Southern California, urban areas of large public institutions, etc. [See; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_New_Mexico].

Thirdly, the possibility of riskier lifestyles due to the stress of work, maintaining security clearances, etc.

For example, I would argue that the Security Clearance (Standard Form 80) process with the federal government can be a stressful process, especially if obtaining a Top Secret with Secured Compartmentalized Information (SCI) and Polygraph (i.e. Poly). Omissions or lies can be charged as federal crimes.

Due the stress of having one’s life under the radar (for example, disclosing that time you tried LSD in college or how you get turned on by Eastern European accents), plus periodic mandatory reporting to the government, can cause people to be scared or “feel like they are being watched”, considering mandatory reporting involves disclosures around romantic relationships, foreign contacts, financial inheritance, alcohol consumption, drug use, etc.

Due to the stress of having clearances, some people may do riskier behaviors that are legal to “blow off stream”, which means drinking alcohol, engaging in casual sexual activity with multiple partners or subordinates, gambling, etc. Essentially doing things that are addictive or risky but not technically illegal and involving disclosures. This is something common in Law Enforcement, the military, etc. Risker lifestyles can lead to romantic fallouts (crimes of passion), indebtedness, etc.

Also, dangerous hobbies such hiking, flying, etc.

For example, some people involved in the Aerospace industry are former pilots, so there is the chance of accidents with aircraft, etc.

Amy Eskridge

Amy Eskridge seems like a sad, isolated case of self-harm due to her having chronic pain issues which her family spoke about. Based on other videos of Amy, it seems she was also suffering from mental health issues. Blaming her death on a government conspiracy seems to undermine who Amy was and appropriates her pain for a larger conspiracy which some in the public want.

She died by suicide on 11 June 2022, aged 34 according to International Business Times. [Source: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/grieving-father-dismisses-conspiracy-theories-1792374”

Amy Eskridge’s father worked at NASA working on experimental propulsion systems based on plasma. She did no have a Doctorate despite being considered a genius by some comments (not saying you need a Ph.D., to be a genius).

According to News Nation correspondent Nancy Loo, her father denies any ties to other scientists deaths. Amy founded the Institute of Exotic Science, which she stated is a for-profit institution, which to me appears strange since an organization of this nature seems as if it should be a non-profit institution tied to grants and universities, but seems to be backed by private donors. The Institute seems to help scientists who had their government grants cancelled or ended up gaining private equity to accelerate their prior projects for commercialization.

I looked up Amy’s institute, called the Institute of Exotic Science (
HTTP://INSTITUTEHSV.COM) , to obtain her DUNS and CAGE Code. I found that the legal name of the I.E.S., is INSTITUTE P.B.C., under CAGE Code (Commercial & Government Entity) Code 87RE0 (which can be found on the Defense Logistics Agency’s website). [Source: https://cage.dla.mil/Search/Details?id=11896397]. The DUNS number is 116910125. The address is  5536 APPLE GROVE RD, JOPPA, AL 35087 6161, and Amy is listed as the main POC. Her father’s work can be found at (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard-Eskridge).

According to Factualy.com (accessed on 27 April 2026 at 7:30 pm EST), Amy Eskridge’s family has consistently described her in public statements and obituaries as a brilliant scientist who suffered from chronic pain and to them there is nothing mysterious about her death, which officials ruled a suicide; her father has publicly pushed back against conspiracy theories, saying “scientists die also, just like other people” [1] [2] [3]. The family has urged reliance on official findings and dismissed online speculation linking her death to directed-energy attacks or other foul play [1] [3]. [Source: https://factually.co/fact-checks/society/eskridge-family-statements-health-circumstances-of-death-obituaries-a8917a].

Carl Grillmair

According to  Alexa Mae Asperin (2026) of Fox New 11, who used official statements from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and jail records documenting the suspect’s arrest history, is that Carl Grllmair, the victim, who is a scientist from Cal Tech was killed at his Llano home by Freddy Snyder, aged 29.

According to Thea Felicity of the International Business Times (2026), Grillmair worked at Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center. Further, pne of his most celebrated achievements was detecting signs of water on a planet orbiting a distant star. It was a major step in the search for life beyond Earth. He also discovered and mapped galactic streams, remnants of ancient cosmic collisions (Felicity, 2026). [Source: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/caltech-scientist-carl-grillmair-shot-dead-1780659].

According to Radio Canada International (RCI) (2026), Grillmair won NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal and attended the University of Calgary before earning a master’s degree from the University of Victoria, eventually earning his PhD outside of Canada. In the 1990s, he joined the California Institute of Technology’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (RCI, 2026). [Source: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/en/news/2248519/killing-of-calgary-born-scientist-tied-to-mysterious-u-s-deaths-disappearances-despite-quick-arrest]. Grillmair was known for his work on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and his groundbreaking discovery of water on a distant exoplanet (Asperin, 2026). Grillmair lived in the desert and even built his own telescope to take advantage of the darkness outside of the city lights (Asperin, 2026). [Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/carl-grillmair-man-to-be-arraigned-in-death-of-renowned-caltech-scientist/ar-AA221gXj?ocid=BingNewsSerp].

Synder is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday for the murder. Snyder faces additional charges for a carjacking involving his mother and a residential burglary, following his release from custody in December (Asperin, 2026). Synder, a 29-year-old who lived two miles away in Llano, Calif., was charged with his murder (RCI, 2026). Investigators have not yet disclosed a motive for the attack or confirmed any link to a series of recent deaths and disappearances among local scientists (Asperin, 2026). Yet, per RCI (2026), while all defendants deserve the presumption of innocence, and a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesperson admitted it doesn’t appear the victim and alleged killer knew each other personally, police appear satisfied they have their man (end quote).

Timeline according to Asperin (2026)

• December 20, 2024: Snyder is arrested in Palmdale on suspicion of carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle.
• December 23, 2024: Snyder is released from custody.
• December 28, 2024: Snyder allegedly commits a first-degree residential burglary.
• February 16, 2025: Carl Johann Grillmair is shot and killed; Snyder is arrested following a related carjacking report.
• February 18, 2025: Snyder is officially charged with murder and carjacking.
• Wednesday (Current): Snyder is scheduled to be arraigned.

Nuno Loureiro

The Death of Nuno Loureiro to me is proof that this “large scientists conspiracy” is part of a Right Wing agenda and diversion campaign. I say this because Nuno was killed in connection with the 2025 Brown University Mass Shooting Event, and the Right Wing lied and tried to blame it on a Palestinian. They did this of course as part of an Anti-Left Wing and Anti-Pro Palestinian campaign during the worst parts of the Gaza Genocide. So, the Right Wing already knows they lied about this incident which involves a scientists they are alleging is now part of a larger conspiracy. That does not make sense. This may be smoking gun in that they are appropriating a tragedy they already tried to misdirect and appropriate elsewhere.

According to his Wikipedia page, Nuno Filipe Gomes Loureiro, a MIT researcher, was from Portugal. He was the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center from 2024 until his murder in 2025 (end quote).

The assailant was a fellow Portuguese national who studied at the same school as Louriero in Portgual. This case seems like a case of mental illness, dreams of grandeur, and jealously directed at Engineering students. A revenge shooting.

Frank Maiwald

According to his obituary, Frank Werner Maiwald, aged 61, passed away on July 4, 2024, in Los Angeles, CA (Legacy.com, 2026). 61 is it not uncommon for someone at his age to pass away. He was associated with the JPL and NASA.

According to Legacy.com (2026), Frank managed the development of the SBG-VSWIR instrument and had previously overseen the successful delivery of two instruments for the AMR-C program. His roles included serving as a technical group supervisor and contributing to various significant projects such as AMR/SWOT, COWVR, AMR/Jason 3, and HIFI.

According to the Earth-data subsite of the NASA.gov (n.d.) website, AMR-C stands for the Advanced Microwave Radiometer-C (AMR-C) is a multi-spectral passive microwave radiometer used to correct the radar altimeter instrument measurement aboard the Sentinel-6/Michael Freilich platform. The radiometer accounts for the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, which affects the speed of the altimeter’s radar pulses. The Sentinel-6/Michael Freilich platform will continue sea surface height measurements which have been acquired by the Topex-Poseidon and Jason missions since the 1990s (NASA.gov, n.d.). [Source: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/instruments/amr-c].

According to the NASA Technical Report Server found at NASA.gov (2026), SBG-VSWIR stands for Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Visible to Short Wavelength Infrared (VSWIR) Wide Swath Instrument Concept [Source: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20230005693]

According to the Center on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), the purpose of the SBG-VSWIR Program is Imaging spectrometer to provide information on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, hydrology, weather, climate, and solid Earth. [Source: https://database.eohandbook.com/database/missionsummary.aspx?missionID=974.]. The launch date per this site is 2031 and end-of-life date is in

Further, about the SBG, NASA (n.d.), stated that NASA has initiated a new study for the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Designated Observable, identified in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) 2017 Decadal Survey, “Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observations from Space.” The Decadal Survey document presented a clear vision for the combined roles of visible to shortwave infrared imaging spectroscopy and multispectral or hyperspectral thermal infrared imagery in addressing terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and other elements of biodiversity, geology, volcanoes, the water cycle and applied sciences topics relevant to many societal benefit areas (NASA, n.d.). [Source: https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/decadal-surveys/decadal-sbg/].

According to the JPL (est. 2023), stated on their website that the SBG mission(s) will use hyperspectral visible to shortwave infrared (VSWIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) imagery to investigate ground/water temperature, snow reflectivity, active geologic processes, vegetation traits, and algal biomass. Two spacecraft (satellites) that make up SBG: SBG-TIR and SBG-VSWIR. SBG VSWIR will collect only during the day over both ocean and land. SBG-TIR will collect during the day and at night over both ocean and land; it is comprised of two different instruments (OTTER and VNIR). This program will utilized Artificial Intelligence tool created by the AIG, i.e., Artificial Intelligence Group of the JP/NASA called CLASP (Compressed Large-scale Activity Scheduling and Planning ) which serves as the core tool for mission analysis. Developed by the AIG and used in several flight missions, it ingests spacecraft trajectories, science campaigns with their observational constraints, and spacecraft models (including instrument modes, power model, and memory constraints), and outputs observation schedules for a given planning horizon.[https://ai.jpl.nasa.gov/public/projects/sbg/] [https://ai.jpl.nasa.gov/public/projects/clasp/].

Michael Hicks

According to Forest Lawn.com, the obituary for Hicks, reads as follows [Source: https://obituaries.forestlawn.com/obituaries/michael-hicks]:

Michael David Hicks of Sunland, California, astronomer, artist and father, passed away Sunday July 30, 2023, at 59 years of age.  Born in Dayton, Ohio, Michael earned degrees from Boston University and a PhD in Lunar and Planetary Science at the University of Arizona followed by long career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.  His research did much to advance the scientific knowledge of comets and asteroids. Michael authored and co-authored numerous articles for The Planetary Science Journal, The Nature Journal, The Astronomer’s Telegraph, and for the Lunar and Planetary Institute. He received many awards for his work over his career, as a team member on the NASA Redirect Mission Concept Development Project, the Near Earth NASA Tracking (NEAT) Team, the NASA Dawn Science Team and the NASA Deep Space 1 Comet Team.

Michael’s passion for science was coupled with a deep appreciation of art.  He pursued projects in visual media, from woodblock prints to oil painting to metalwork, he played the ukulele, and loved the writings of Hunter S. Thompson. 

As a father, Michael stressed the importance of developing both intellect and compassion, passing on to his daughter the motto “head and heart.” 

A lover of the Muppets and Wallace and Gromit, Michael’s whimsy and sweetness will be missed. He is preceded in death by his mother Joan and his infant brother Brian, and survived by his father Richard, daughter Julia, ex-wife Brunella, and siblings Richard, Stephen, Suzette, Jeanette, Paul, and Barbara. 

Monica Reza

Per the reporting of Lauren Conlin of Los Angeles Magazine (2026). According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Reza was last seen around 9 a.m. near the Mount Waterman area in California’s Angeles National Forest after going missing on June 22, 2025. Reza appeared to vanish without a trace, with her scent reportedly stopping at a hat believed to have belonged to her. She has also been linked to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where she was reportedly stationed at the same time as retired Air Force General Neil McCasland; a facility long associated with advanced aerospace programs and reportedly sensitive material connected to the Roswell Crash of 1947. Los Angeles spoke with a source who participated in a yoga group with Reza and knew nothing about her work in aerospace research (Conlin, 2026). The source confirmed that Reza was hiking with a male and female companion from her yoga group, where she was reportedly training to be an instructor (Conlin, 2026). The yoga studio, however, was not a typical one (Conlin, 2026). According to the source, it incorporates not only yoga, but also astrology and Vedic sciences (the studio blends physical yoga practice with spiritual and philosophical elements, including astrology and traditional Vedic teachings from ancient India) (Conlin, 2026). The source revealed that Reza and her male companion oddly began running on the terrain, which is uncommon given how steep and uneven it is, particularly on the downhill sections (Conlin, 2026). The source described this as unusual- this would not be a place to go running, even as a skilled hiker (Conlin, 2026). The male companion confirmed Reza was behind him, reportedly running, when he eventually called out to her and received no response (Conlin, 2026). He later showed others the location where he last saw her. The source noted that from that spot, the road was both visible and audible, suggesting Reza was relatively close to a more accessible area when she disappeared (Conlin, 2026). [Source: https://lamag.com/crimeinla/new-clues-in-monica-reza-case-surface-as-trump-launches-probe-into-missing-scientists/]

Reza seems to be her married name because in articles pointing back to her alloy discovery she was going by Monica Jacinto. [Source: https://spacenews.com/what-is-mondaloy-and-why-should-you-care/]

Melissa Casias

A Los Alamos National Laboratory administrative employee who was reported missing in New Mexico in 2025. Her disappearance was bizarre as she was last seen walking along a highway. Los Angeles does not believe her disappearance is connected to the others as Casias held an administrative position with Los Alamos, and was said to be having private financial issues. [https://lamag.com/crimeinla/new-clues-in-monica-reza-case-surface-as-trump-launches-probe-into-missing-scientists/}

Anthony Chavez

A reported employee or affiliate of Los Alamos National Laboratory who allegedly disappeared in 2025. [https://lamag.com/crimeinla/new-clues-in-monica-reza-case-surface-as-trump-launches-probe-into-missing-scientists/]