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Work of scientists in ‘suspicious’ disappearances is prime target for hostile foes: retired FBI agent
As about a dozen cases involving missing or deceased American nuclear scientists have come to light, a retired high-level FBI official says some of them fit a pattern that he considers suspicious.
“The missing [and] disappearance thing is suspicious inherently,” said Chris Swecker, who served as assistant director of the FBI. “What they were working on would certainly, without a doubt, be a target of a hostile foreign intelligence service like Russia or China. It could be Iran, could be Pakistan.”
Swecker believes the six deaths that have been widely reported don’t have much in common, and he doesn’t believe they’re connected.
While Swecker isn’t convinced that there’s a conspiracy afoot even among the missing scientists, he agrees that authorities should be looking for links in the disappearances, given the high-value, sensitive technology that they all worked with or near.
The disappearance of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland earlier this year set off the cascade of theories about the missing and dead scientists. He was the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, and had connections to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where top-secret nuclear research is conducted.
He vanished in New Mexico after leaving his home with only a pair of boots and a handgun. He left his phone, keys and glasses behind.
“I’m just saying that … the FBI would have interest in anything that happened to them because of what they were working on,” he said. “And, in fact, [with] McCasland, the FBI showed up uninvited that very afternoon.“
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Anthony Chavez, 79, worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory until he retired in 2017. He reportedly disappeared on May 8, 2025. He was last seen leaving his house in Los Alamos on foot, with his car locked in his driveway. He did not bring his phone, wallet or keys on his walk.
Melissa Casias, 53, also worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. She went missing on June 26, 2025.
Steven Garcia, 48, went missing from Albuquerque on Aug. 28, 2025. He worked at the Kansas City National Security Campus, located in Albuquerque, which develops most of the nonnuclear components that go into building nuclear weapons. He reportedly left on foot carrying only a handgun.
He reportedly had a top secret security clearance.
“So Garcia, Chavez and Casias, in my opinion, ought to be lumped in and that should be the focus, and any others that went missing, because that would fit more of a pattern than just killing somebody because of what they know,” said Swcker.
“Exact same pattern,” he continued. “They disappeared with all their personal belongings [left] behind. Some of them took their handguns with them, which means they’re either in fear or they’re going to go use it on themselves.”
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Swecker also had a warning for scientists working in top-secret fields.
“What people really need to be aware of — anybody involved in technology and anything that China or Russia or our competitors want to get their hands — ought to understand that there is a daily collection effort by China, Russia, Iran, to some extent, North Korea, but mainly China and Russia to steal technology because they’re not good at [research and development],” he said. “And their whole programs depend on stealing the technology and reverse engineering it.”
“So, scientists, people involved in the defense contracting companies, research and development at universities, you know, all types of technologies in the U.S., even if it’s not military use, ought to be aware that this type of stuff goes on day in and day out.”
Last week, the White House directed the FBI to coordinate an investigation into the cases. The investigation is ongoing.
The second James Comey indictment is not just absurd, it’s deeply troubling.
Trying to prosecute a guy for threatening the president’s life by posting a picture of seashells?
After a previous, much broader indictment against the fired FBI director despised by President Donald Trump was thrown out of court?
But don’t take my word for it:
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ABC’s Jonathan Karl: “Even Trump’s allies are privately calling it ‘embarrassing,’ or as one very prominent former Trump DOJ official told me last night, ‘depressing.’”
National Review’s Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor: “This farce, then, is nothing more than a continuation of Trump’s lawfare campaign against a political enemy. It is inconceivable that Comey could be convicted of a crime in these circumstances, but the president’s minions are putting him through the anxiety, expense, and stigma of the judicial process.”
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley said on Fox: “I must be in a parallel universe to be talking about the shell art of James Comey…Just showing the picture’s going to be a weak case in terms of a threat.”
“It’ll be thrown out. It’s classic revenge,” Ty Cobb, a Trump White House lawyer in the first term, told CNN.
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The seashell collection, which Comey said he found on a North Carolina beach, said 86 47. In restaurant parlance, 86 means to get rid of a customer or dish, not kill them. And the other numbers refer to the 47th president. It was spectacularly bad judgment for Comey to post the photo on his Instagram account.
But after an uproar, Comey deleted the posting and said he in no way meant to suggest political violence.
“I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go,” Comey said after the new charges were filed.
It’s no secret at this point that the Justice Department has become an aggressive player in Trump’s retribution campaign. One reason he fired Pam Bondi as attorney general is that he was unhappy with the pace of the probes.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche denied yesterday that the president had ordered him to bring the indictment. “Anybody who tries to put forward some narrative that this is just about seashells or something to the contrary is missing the point,” he told CBS. “You cannot threaten the president of the United States.”
But Trump didn’t have to make a secret phone call to demand the indictment. He talks openly about those he views as enemies, such as Letitia James. He said he was glad when ex-special prosecutor Bob Mueller died.
In the past, Trump has referred to Comey as “scum,” “slimeball” and a “lying scumbag.”
Trump told reporters yesterday that 86 is “a mob term for kill them, you know? You ever see the movies? “‘86 ‘em,’ the mobster says to one of his wonderful associates.”
Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on whether he felt his life was in danger, Trump said “probably.”
“The people like Comey have created tremendous danger, I think, for politicians and others. You know, Comey is a dirty cop, he’s a very dirty cop…He’s a crooked man.”
Other presidents might have declined comment on what is now an ongoing criminal prosecution, but that’s not Donald Trump.
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The first indictment, last September, came after Secret Service agents tracked down the former FBI chief. It included charges of leaking and lying to Congress, but Tuesday’s stripped-down version deals only with the shell photo.
Trump defenders say he was persecuted during his first term with four criminal cases. So this, in their view, is proper payback.
But during the campaign I lost track of how many times Trump told me “the best retribution will be success.”
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Instead, he’s gone after political opponents, law firms, news organizations and others with a vengeance.
These efforts have so far fallen short in court. The Comey indictment is such a stretch that even most conservative legal commentators aren’t defending it.
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