A string of US scientists who have either disappeared or died is a matter of urgent national importance, a member of the House Oversight Committee insisted Friday — as a UFO researcher became at least the 11th added to the list of mysteries.
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said his office had already been eyeing some of the “too coincidental” disappearances a year before President Trump announced Thursday that he had ordered an investigation.
He said the fate of the scientists is almost “certainly” linked to the access some had to classified aerospace, defense and UFO information — with the potential involvement of bad actors from China, Russia or Iran.
“This is a rallying call to pay attention to this issue and make sure that our nation’s top scientists are safe and secure,” Burlison said on “Fox & Friends” early Friday.
“This is too coincidental, and so we have to be investigating this. We need to have our nation’s top investigators, the FBI and every agency looking into this matter.”
Some of the scientists have “literally just disappeared” without a trace, he said — including Air Force Maj. Gen. William “Neil” McCasland, who disappeared in February after Burlison said he tried to contact him twice about his research into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs).
In many cases, the congressman said, these scientists “felt some form of threat” before they went missing or died.
“They literally just disappeared. Left all of their devices at home. This is not normal,” Burlison said on Fox. “These are some of the most advanced scientists, researchers in our nation, some of the most important people for national security efforts. And they all just mysteriously disappeared.”
Burlison’s call for “bipartisan support” for a federal probe into the concerning cases comes after another scientist’s mysterious death came under scrutiny Thursday, NewsNation reported.
Amy Eskridge, 34, who was involved in extensive research into anti-gravity technology, UFOs and extraterrestrial life, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at her home in Huntsville, Alabama in 2022, according to the Daily Mail.
Her death was ruled a suicide and no public information was released.
Before her alleged suicide, Eskridge had launched a research company, “The Institute for Exotic Science” in order to create a “public-facing persona to disclose anti-gravity technology.”
She chillingly said that started the company because “If you stick your neck out in private… they will bury you, they will burn down your house while you’re sleeping in your bed and it won’t even make the news.”
Eskridge revealed in a 2020 interview that she had plans to disclose information about UFOs and extraterrestrials to the public — and was receiving threats.
“I need to disclose soon, man. I need to publish soon because it’s like escalating. It’s getting more and more aggressive,” she said.
“This has been going on for like four or five years, and over the past 12 months, it’s been escalating, like more aggressive, more invasive digging through my underwear drawer and sexual threats.”
She partnered with retired British intelligence officer Franc Milburn to investigate the alleged harassment, according to the Daily Mail.
Eskridge was subject to multiple physical and psychological attacks, including an incident in which an unknown suspect allegedly fired a “directed energy weapon,” that burned her body with microwaves according to Milburn’s findings, which were submitted to Congress in 2023.
Milburn later concluded that Eskridge’s death was not a suicide.
Eskridge is the 11th mysterious death or disappearance of high-ranking scientists linked to the mystery. While widespread theories about the scientists and their fate have spread online, officials have not identified any connection between those deaths and disappearances.
Trump announced Thursday that his administration would provide the public with answers in the next few days.
Among the missing or dead is McCasland, who disappeared from his home in Albuquerque, NM, according to local officials. Investigators claimed he said he experienced “mental fog” before vanishing.
McCasland, who retired in 2013 and vanished Feb. 27, had worked in top positions pertaining to space research and acquisition.
His name appeared in the WikiLeaks dump of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, with a UFO enthusiast, Tom DeLonge, claiming to have conversed with him on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).
The retired general, like several of the other scientists, apparently walked out of his house without his phone and other personal devices.
Other missing or dead scientists include: Melissa Casias, who had a security clearance at Los Alamos National Laboratory and vanished last June; Anthony Chavez, a retired Los Alamos National Laboratory worker who went missing last May; Jason Thomas, who led Novartis’ chemical biology team and was found dead this past March; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Frank Maiwald who died in 2024; famous MIT physicist Nuno Loureiro who was shot dead last December; exoplanet research Carl Grillmair, who was killed in February; Steven Garcia, who worked on security for a producer of non-nuclear components in American-made nukes and went missing in August of last year; and aerospace engineer Monica Jacinto Reza, who went missing last June.
