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Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, News
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, News
The White House press secretary has promised a full government investigation into the possible deaths of 10 top American scientists.
During a news conference on Wednesday (15 Apr), Karoline Leavitt was asked to comment on the 10 people linked to high-profile space and nuclear research who had either vanished since 2023, several of whom have died.
Asked for the first time if she was concerned by the apparent professional connection between those who are missing, Leavitt, 28, claimed: "I haven’t spoken to our relevant agencies about it."
She went on to insist: "I will certainly do that and will get you an answer.
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"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's response didn't go down too well with a number of reporters in attendance, however.
One journalist hit back: "Does that infer that they’re not looking into it now? For crying out loud, there was a general involved."
The comment referred to retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland, who vanished into thin air in late February, days after concluding a secret programme at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, a facility focused on space and defence technology.
Given the extent of his knowledge of the country's secret services, his disappearance has sparked widespread concern.
While hiking with friends in June of last year, Monica Jacinto Reza suddenly vanished. Weeks earlier, she'd been hired as the director of the Materials Processing Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
McCasland had funded her research before their respective disappearances.
Steven Garcia, a government contractor with top security clearance at nuclear weapon facilities, who'd worked for the Kansas City National Security Campus and is rumoured to have had stakes in America's defence industry, vanished in August of last year.
In CCTV footage recorded at the time, he was last seen leaving his home carrying a handgun. Responding to concerns from friends who insist Garcia bore no mental health concerns, authorities insisted at the time he was a 'danger to himself'.
Two former staff members from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casias, also disappeared just weeks apart last year after leaving their respective New Mexico homes.
Until his 2017 retirement, Chavez had worked at the nuclear research lab, whilst Casias served as an administrative assistant with top security clearance.
According to several news outlets, including The Times, several scientists were recorded to have died weeks after going missing, amongst them, Michael David Hicks.
Hicks previously served as a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He died in July 2023, though no autopsy report or cause of death has ever been recorded.
Frank Maiwald, who'd worked alongside Hicks at the Jet Propulsion Lab, died the following July. Again, no cause of death or autopsy report was added to his files at the time.
Astrophysicist Carl Grillmair - again, an alum of the Jet Propulsion Lab, famed for having founded a planet with water - was fatally shot during a suspected burglary attempt in California.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro, who'd been working on nuclear fusion, was also shot dead at his home in Boston last December. His death was linked to the shooting at Brown University two days prior that killed two and injured nine.
Pharmaceutical researcher Jason Thomas was found dead in a Massachusetts lake in March, three months after disappearing. At the time of his disappearance, he'd held a job testing cancer treatments.