Leavitt responds to Peter Doocy's query on missing US scientists: 'We’ll get you an answer'

WASHINGTON, DC: During a White House press briefing on Wednesday, April 15, Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy questioned Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about reports concerning 10 US scientists.

Since mid-2024, reports claim that several scientists have either gone missing or died. The issue has drawn attention from UFO-focused communities and national security observers, though it remains speculative and unverified by authorities.

Peter Doocy questions Karoline Leavitt on missing US scientists

Peter Doocy raised the issue directly, stating, “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 to the concerns, noting, “I’ve seen the report, Peter. 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 administration would deem work worth looking into. So let me do that for you.”

Reporting on the cases has ranged from outlets such as the Daily Mail to online blogs like The Liberty Line, which is cited as the primary source listing the 10 individuals.

Newsweek also covered the developments, noting that “a new report has highlighted that Michael David Hicks, a longtime NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientist involved in asteroid and comet research, died in 2023 with no public cause of death disclosed, marking the ninth case in a growing list of deaths or disappearances of US experts in advanced space, defense, and nuclear fields in recent years.”

The report further stated that “authorities have not established any concrete connection among the cases, and there have been no public allegations of foul play in Hicks’ death,” while adding that some lawmakers have called for closer scrutiny as high-profile incidents continue to draw attention.

Timeline of US scientist deaths and disappearances

According to reports cited by OAN, a timeline of cases outlines a series of deaths and disappearances involving individuals linked to advanced scientific and defense fields.

On July 30, 2023, Hicks, aged 59, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientist who worked from 1998 to 2022 and contributed to more than 80 scientific papers, died with no publicly disclosed cause of death and no record of an autopsy found.

This was followed by the death of Frank Maiwald on July 4, 2024, a NASA JPL researcher who died in Los Angeles at age 61, also with no disclosed cause. On May 4, 2025, Anthony Chavez, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory employee, vanished.

In June 2025, two cases emerged within days of each other. Monica Reza, a NASA scientist, went missing during a hike in the Angeles National Forest on June 22, while Melissa Casias, a Los Alamos administrative assistant, disappeared from her residence on June 26, with reports indicating that her mobile devices had been wiped.

Later that year, on December 12, 2025, Jason Thomas, a Novartis researcher, went missing; his body was subsequently recovered from a lake on March 17, 2026. Just days later, on December 15, 2025, Nuno Loureiro, head of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was fatally attacked at his home.

In early 2026, Carl Grillmair, an astrophysicist, was shot on his front porch on February 16, and on February 27, William Neil McCasland, a retired Air Force general, disappeared from his New Mexico home.

Notably, three of the first nine cases, Hicks, Maiwald, and Reza, had direct connections to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Missouri Rep Eric Burlison described the disappearances as “deeply concerning” and said he had requested FBI involvement. He also suggested that McCasland “has a lot of information” on UFO-related matters, though McCasland’s wife rejected such speculation.