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Tags: tim burchett | ufo | nasa | mit | caltech

Rep. Burchett Warns of Missing, Dead US Scientists

By    |   Monday, 23 March 2026 05:12 PM EDT

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., says some intelligence agencies have thwarted his attempts at finding out what happened to several prominent scientists and researchers in the U.S. who reportedly died or went missing the past year.

"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," he told the Daily Mail.

William Neil McCasland, a 68-year-old retired Air Force general who was the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where he managed what his biography on the Air Force website said was a "$2.2 billion science and technology program as well as additional customer-funded research and development of $2.2 billion," went missing in New Mexico on Feb. 27.

He was also associated with the unidentified flying object community.

Monica Reza, a rocket scientist with ties to McCasland, disappeared last June in the Angeles National Forest while hiking with two friends.

Reza, 60, invented a breakthrough rocket-engine alloy with NASA.

"Everybody's talking about the UFO stuff," Burchett told the Daily Mail.

"Those folks are very secretive about what they know. So I suspect very much that [McCasland] was involved in some of that."

In December, Nuno Loureiro, 47, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was shot to death at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Last month, California Institute of Technology astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, 67, who studied distant planets and other areas of astronomy for decades, was shot dead on his porch.

"There have been several others throughout the country that have disappeared under suspicious circumstances," Burchett told the outlet. "I think we ought to be paying attention to it."

Solange Reyner

Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


Politics
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., says some intelligence agencies have thwarted his attempts at finding out what happened to several prominent scientists and researchers in the U.S. who reportedly died or went missing the past year.
tim burchett, ufo, nasa, mit, caltech
288
2026-12-23
Monday, 23 March 2026 05:12 PM
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