UFOs, Whistleblowers and Mysterious Deaths

[NorCal Dave]

There seems to be a growing trend of linking the unfortunate deaths or disappearance of various scientists and military personal to UFOs. Specifically either the person in question worked in or at genuinely classified programs or locations, but with UFO ties. Alternatively, there is the claim the person in question was going to offer some evidence of some kind but was unable due to their untimely death. Some others appear to be more of a stretch, linking the person with programs or institutions that might be UFO adjacent.

We already have a thread on the disappearance of USAF General McCasland, linked below, and there are others mentioned. As some of these cases might get more complicated and detailed, they may warrant their own threads, but it seemed a good idea to have a central thread where we can post new cases as they get reported with appropriate links. If something comes of these claims, a dedicated thread can be started.

In the Daily Mail there was the story of potential whistleblower, Mathew James Sullivan:

A former US Air Force intelligence officer died before he could testify in a whistleblower hearing about UFOs, sparking demands for an FBI investigation.

Matthew James Sullivan was just 39 when he died on May 12, 2024 after reportedly taking his own life. However, his official cause of death has not been made public, nor was the case reported on by local media at the time.

Now, Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri has told the Daily Mail that Sullivan was preparing to be a key witness for congressional investigators looking into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs.

Apparently he was being recruited by David Grusch:

Sullivan had been contacted by UAP whistleblower and retired US Air Force Major David Grusch prior to the intelligence officer's sudden death, which reportedly left Grusch 'extremely distraught.

'Grusch was helping him come forward as a whistleblower,' Burlison confirmed to the Daily Mail on Friday.

Note we have the usual claim that because of where he worked, he must have known about secret stuff making his untimely death "suspicious":

Burlison shared he had 'grave concerns' that Sullivan's death appears 'suspicious,' suggesting that the veteran intelligence officer may have been targeted to silence him before revealing knowledge of non-human spacecraft and extraterrestrials.

'Look at Matthew Sullivan's credentials and his experience. He certainly was someone who was read in at the highest classification levels and knew some of our nation's most important secrets,' Burlison explained. 'And so did a lot of these other people.'

The congressman explained that an investigation by the Intelligence Community Inspector General uncovered 'serious allegations of misconduct and potentially unlawful activities' which pointed to the 39-year-old's death not being a suicide.

Burlison said: 'The fact that he had been scheduled by the UAP Task Force. That he had been scheduled to come and speak... After hearing about this tragedy, I felt it was worth looking into.'

On Thursday, he made a formal request to FBI Director Kash Patel to have agents investigate Sullivan's death as a potential crime.

'The sudden and suspicious circumstances surrounding his death raise significant concerns about potential foul play and the safety of other individuals involved in this matter,' Burlison wrote in a letter to the FBI shared with the Daily Mail.

Burlison made similar comments about the disappearance of McCasland, though there was no indication McCasland was going to talk to Burlison's UAP Taks force, rather he just knew to much:

Burlison stated plainly, "We believe that he has a lot to say about this topic." Every attempt made by both Congress and whistleblower David Grusch was deflected with the same answer - McCasland
had nothing to say. Now he cannot be found at all.

Again, it's where and what Sullivan MAY have known, assuming UFO are actual alien crafts, that makes his death suspicious (bold by me):

Specifically, Sullivan had an extensive background tied to military intelligence and advanced technology being used by the US worldwide. He also worked for multiple groups that allegedly have decades-old ties to America's UFO secrets.

After serving as a '5th Generation aircraft intelligence chief,' Sullivan worked for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center as a deputy director at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The Ohio complex has long been linked to the alleged retrieval of crashed alien spacecraft since the Roswell incident in 1947.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...ath-air-force-whistleblower-ufo-virginia.html

From the McCasland thread, @Harabeck shared another Daily Mail article with a similar tone about a JPL scientist Michael Hicks:

Another scientist with ties to America's space program has now joined the growing list of deaths and disappearances around the US.

Michael David Hicks, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), passed away on July 30, 2023 at the age of 59, but the cause of death was never made public, and no record of an autopsy being performed could be found.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...asa-jet-propulsion-lab-scientists-deaths.html

Hicks seemed to have little if anything to do with UFOs, but the fact that he worked at JPL for NASA and his family chose not to share his cause of death publicly, made it look suspicious. The article mentions other mysterious deaths or disappearances of various individuals and while there is no "allegations of foul play" it's all a bit suspicious (and yes I keep using the word over and over because that's what this seems to be all about):

While there have been no public allegations of foul play, Hicks' case marks the ninth person with ties to America's space or nuclear secrets who has died or mysteriously vanished in recent years, which has set off alarm bells among US national security experts.

Moreover, three of these scientists had close ties to Hicks, as all of them worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab or participated in NASA missions there.

Most of the scientist listed were only vaguely related to UFOs, if at all. One thing they do have in common is the congressional UAP task force talking up the various situations. Like Burlison in the Sullivan case, we have Burchett commenting on these others:

Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett told the Daily Mail in March: 'There have been several others throughout the country that have disappeared under suspicious circumstances. I think we ought to be paying attention to it.'

Burchett has blasted the nation's intelligence community, specifically calling out the so-called 'alphabet agencies' such as the FBI, for being unhelpful and frustrating his attempts to find out the truth about what has happened to these scientists.

'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 warned

As is often the case in stories like this, even fairly obvious causes are shrouded in suspicion because, it's suspicious:

While Loureiro's murder has not been directly connected to the other deaths and disappearances, Burchett, Swecker and independent investigators have noted that his revolutionary work in nuclear fusion may have made him a target of a greater conspiracy against US scientists.

Nuno Loureiro, 47, was assassinated at his home in the Boston suburb of Brookline on December 15, 2025. Authorities said the gunman was Claudio Neves Valente, a former classmate from Portugal.

'It's been happening since the Cold War,' Swecker explained. 'Especially when nuclear technology and missile technology were first coming to the forefront.'

So, since Loureiro did work in nuclear fusion and nefarious foreign agents were interested in what he knew, they had an old school mate assassinate him.

Others are a bit noteworthy, if not exactly suspicious, as there is a pattern of these folk wondering off in New Mexico never to be seen again. Along with General McCasland's disappearance there were 2 other similar ones mentioned:

Two others with ties to nuclear research went missing just weeks apart. Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casias, who both worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), vanished from their homes in 2025 under nearly identical circumstances.

Chavez, 79, worked at the nuclear research lab until his retirement in 2017. Casias, 54, was an active administrative assistant at the facility and is believed to have had top security clearance.

Both were last seen leaving their homes in New Mexico on foot, leaving behind their cars, keys, wallets and phones before disappearing without a trace nearly one year ago

And then the authors of the article just throw in suspicious deaths, just because they're strange, even through the victim not only had nothing to do with UFOs, they had nothing to do with anything UFO adjacent. But it was suspicious:

In another mysterious incident, Jason Thomas, a pharmaceutical researcher testing cancer treatments at Novartis, was found dead in a Massachusetts lake on March 17, 2026, after disappearing without a trace three months earlier.

.

From the article @Harabeck created a list of suspicious deaths and disappearances:

• Michael David Hicks
• Monica Reza (or maybe Monica Jacinto?)
• Frank Maiwald
• Carl Grillmair
• Nuno Loureiro
• Anthony Chavez
• Melissa Casias
• Jason Thomas

Some of these others can be tackled if and when more information becomes available.

Thread specifically about McCasland:

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/my...linked-air-force-general-sparks-search.14774/

EDIT: Add a grid to list people, dates and affiliations.


I've labeled the columns as:

SCI/WB: Scientist or whistle-blower associated with possible mysterious death or disappearance.
DOD/D: Date of death or disappearance.
AFF: Affiliation, or connection to an agency, program, branch of government or contractor that makes the death suspicious.
UFOR: UFO rating from 1-5. How connected is the person or their affiliation to UFOs. This is obviously subjective, but I'm using the common popular concept of UFOs in relation to the person listed. I'm envisioning a quick way to see who may have been involved in something traditional associated with UFOs, as opposed to just a strange case being thrown into the mix for hype or to pump up the numbers.

For example, both McCasland and Sullivan were in the USAF, then at defense contractors, had high security clearances and both worked at Wright Patterson AFB, which in the UFO lore is where the Roswell crashed saucer and bodies were taken. I'd give that a 5 out of 5.

Hicks worked at JPL and NASA but not in much that is really UFO related, so a 3? Thomas worked at the pharmaceutical giant, Novartis, and while there may be lots of conspiracies about Big Pharma, it's a 1 for UFOs.

SCI/WB

DOD/D

AFF

UFOR

McCasland	2/2026	USAF	5
Sullivan	5/2024	USAF	5
Hicks	7/2023	JPL NASA	3
Grillmair	2/2026	Cal Tech NASA JPL	2
Reza	6/2025	JPL	2
Maiwald	7/2024	JPL	2
Loureiro	12/2025	?	1
Casias	6/2025	LANL	2
Chavez	5/2025	LANL	2
Thomas	1(?)/2026	Novartis	1

 

[MapperGuy]

Among the factors that needs to be considered is the sheer number of people working at various government locations and on the many different programs and projects that may be at a single location. The last government facility I worked at had over 8000 people in one location, of which I might recognize and know the names of maybe 100 of them. Large organizations means there will always be people leaving, retiring or dying.

 

[Mendel]

Not to mention that these deaths are years apart. It'd be good if the date and manner of death could be added to the list.

 

[JMartJr]

To come at it from another angle -- if "them" are killing off people who might give away the UFO cover-up, why are Elizondo, Grusch and the like still looking at the grass from above rather than underneath? Are they considered harmless because they don't actually know anything? Or is this whole claim nonsense? (Perhaps both...)

 

[Onyx]

I was actually in the process of writing a post about this very topic, but less about UFOs, and just how weird it is that all these specific people are being murdered or disappearing. Might as well contribute here instead of making my own thread.

I kept getting posts on Twitter about someone named Amy Eskridge, a scientist "working" on "gravity-based propulsion", who claimed was being harassed by the government (or who she claims to be "contractors") and was eventually found dead in 2022.

Big Daily Mail article released on April 17th:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...-scientist-amy-eskridge-death-huntsville.html

A cursory search of her reveals some suspicious information. She founded a company called Institute for Exotic Science, with her father (a former NASA engineer). There is virtually no information about this Institute; the website is gone, and is only mentioned in a PDF presentation to the Huntsville Alabama L5 Society:
https://www.hal5.org/PDF/HAL5-Dec2018-Talk-AntiGravity.pdf

I found what claims to be Amy Eskridge's last text messages, from a former business partner of hers.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1soiqv1/amy_eskridges_last_text_messages_before_death/#lightbox
Unfortunately, these read like your standard "I've-discovered/invented-something world-changing-and-now-some-shady-people-are-out-to-get-me" Messages. Although, it is a bit odd that she is saying that "contractors" are after her, instead of the usual US, or foreign, government.

Collection of a few videos of her speaking about random topics:

Source: https://x.com/ursla_k80/status/2045315799607611450?s=46

Source: https://x.com/kekiusteeshirt/status/2045199845053337882?s=46

Source: https://x.com/dantethedon/status/2045104847079522695?s=46
There is something off about these videos of her. All of them just make her appear to be way more mentally ill and delusional, than someone that somehow independently figured out how to achieve "anti-gravity".

I'm still not sure why this woman's death is being brought up now again. It might be because of the DailyMail article I linked. I can't help but feel a bit weirded out by these events.

 

[NorCal Dave]

Not to mention that these deaths are years apart. It'd be good if the date and manner of death could be added to the list.

Good call. I'll see if I can add some stuff while my edit window is open. After that Mick or an admin would have to update the list as needed.

 

[NorCal Dave]

As I was editing my OP, I came across yet another Daily Mail article from Friday, saying the Trump administration is directing the FBI to look into these deaths and disappearances:

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Friday on X that President Donald Trump has brought the FBI into the investigation.

'In light of the recent and legitimate questions about these troubling cases, and President Trump's commitment to the truth, the White House is actively working with all relevant agencies and the FBI to holistically review all of the cases together and identify any potential commonalities that may exist,' Leavitt said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...house-fbi-investigate-missing-scientists.html

Trump was apparently briefed on this:

'Well, I hope it is random, but we are going to know in the next week and a half,' Trump said. 'I just left a meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff. Hopefully, coincidence... but some of them were very important people, and we are going to look at it.'

The Daily Mail is now also adding yet another "Wondered off in New Mexico Case" with a Steven Garcia. The importance of is based on an anonymous tip that he may have worked at a contractor providing parts for nuclear weapons.

Steven Garcia, 48, vanished without a trace on August 28 last year. He was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on foot, carrying only a handgun.

An anonymous source told the Daily Mail that Garcia was a government contractor working for the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a major facility in Albuquerque that manufactures more than 80 percent of all the non-nuclear components that go into building the military's nuclear weapons.

And, along with @Onyx post above, the Daily Mail is including Ms. Eskridge:

Amy Eskridge was just 34 years old when she allegedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head in Huntsville, Alabama, on June 11, 2022. However, neither the police nor the medical examiners have publicly released any details of an investigation ever taking place.

Before her death, she was openly researching and trying to develop anti-gravity technology, a way to control or cancel out gravity, which could revolutionize space travel and energy production

.

 

[Ann K]

Unfortunately, these read like your standard "I've-discovered/invented-something world-changing-and-now-some-shady-people-are-out-to-get-me" Messages. Although, it is a bit odd that she is saying that "contractors" are after her, instead of the usual US, or foreign, government.

There are several categories into which these cases might be found, and I'll be darned if we know into which any individual event should go without a good deal more information:

1. Legitimate scientist shut down by a legitimate overt governmental entity for legitimate reasons.
2. Legitimate scientist shut down by a "black-ops" type of governmental group.
3. Legitimate scientist shouted down by civilians who simply disagree with their work (I think @Mick West falls into this group).
4. Legitimate scientist attacked by civilian "crazies" (perhaps not the best word to use here, but consider it a kind of shorthand) with their own agendas, such as anti-vaxxers or religious extremists.

5, 6, 7, 8 Deluded or incompetent scientist in all the above scenarios.

9. Scientist in either category who imagines an opposition to the work.

On the face of it Eskridge would appear to fall somewhere in the 5 to 9 category, but perhaps it's my own bias that discounts the credibility of someone who claims to be working on stuff that breaks all known principles of physics.

 

[Onyx]

5, 6, 7, 8 Deluded or incompetent scientist in all the above scenarios.

9. Scientist in either category who imagines an opposition to the work.

On the face of it Eskridge would appear to fall somewhere in the 5 to 9 category…

I agree with your assessment. It also doesn't help her case that I can't seem to find any papers she might have written or published anywhere.

but perhaps it's my own bias that discounts the credibility of someone who claims to be working on stuff that breaks all known principles of physics.

It's understandable though; It's a very big thing to just claim. It also doesn't help that the term "antigravity" immediately makes me think of conspiracy nonsense, snake oil salesmen, and kinda shitty sci-fi.

 

[NorCal Dave]

On the face of it Eskridge would appear to fall somewhere in the 5 to 9 category, but perhaps it's my own bias that discounts the credibility of someone who claims to be working on stuff that breaks all known principles of physics.

I think the first thing is to determine if she is an actual trained scientist. As in some sort of formal training. Doesn't have to be PhD level, but something besides her claim that "I can learn a new field in 3 months". I watched a bit of one of her posts and she doesn't sound like most scientist I've heard. She rambled on about one group of M'F'ers trying to get her to publish, while the other group of M'F'ers were saying we will kill you bitch if you publish. It was out there.

 

[John J.]

I kept getting posts on Twitter about someone named Amy Eskridge, a scientist "working" on "gravity-based propulsion"

Amy Eskridge had a bachelor's degree majoring in chemistry and biology.
This MSN article, "Who is Amy Eskridge? Scientist's death queried amid US expert mysteries", 18/04/26, Joe Edwards https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/w...xpert-mysteries/ar-AA217FaY?ocid=BingNewsSerp says

According to her social media, Eskridge's work spanned leadership and technical roles—including serving as a CEO, chief technology officer and co‑founder—across multiple research organizations. She also had earlier experience in business development and laboratory positions during her academic training.

(My emphasis)
So apart from "laboratory positions" during her degree (i.e. while an undergraduate) there's not much evidence, outside of her own claims, that she worked as a scientist in any position that was not of her own making.

I would encourage members here to watch the three (mercifully short) Amy Eskridge videos usefully posted by @Onyx in post #5.

She can master any field in three months*. Any. She knows "ultraterrestrials" are real, and they come from 47,000 and 52,000 years into the future.
The parents of someone she doesn't like were both obstetrician-gynaecologists for MK Ultra**, and that person was "raised on LSD from the age of six".

I very strongly suspect her claims were delusional. Perhaps part of her tragedy was that she lived in a society where people who went along with her claims were seen as "supporters", when in fact they might have contributed to reinforcing a misguided set of beliefs; and that she appears to have had access to a firearm.
Since 2022, more than 27,000 Americans have died each year in suicides using a firearm;
"Firearm Suicide in the United States", John Hopkins University https://publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-gun-violence-solutions/issues/firearm-suicide
"Fast Facts: Firearm Injury and Death", CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 24 July 2024 https://www.cdc.gov/firearm-violence/data-research/facts-stats/index.html


* This is an extraordinary, and frankly ridiculous, claim.

** (1) MK Ultra and its abuses were real; however it's hard to understand why OBGYNs would be required from what we know about the program.
(2) Supposing this were true- how would Eskridge know this? It's hardly the sort of thing you'd let slip in polite conversation.

 

[NorCal Dave]

This MSN article, "Who is Amy Eskridge? Scientist's death queried amid US expert mysteries", 18/04/26, Joe Edwards

I wonder how much this article answers about Eskridge or the new questions it raises about journalism. Much of it seems to just be a rehash of the Daily Mail article, which is credited:

On Thursday, the Daily Mail reported that Amy Eskridge, 34, died in Huntsville, Alabama, on June 11, 2022.

According to the Daily Mail, Eskridge had been investigating and attempting to develop antigravity technology, a method of manipulating or offsetting the effects of gravity.

The Daily Mail report said that after Eskridge's death, the Institute for Exotic Science's website was no longer accessible....

This is then mixed with some supposed post by Eskridge on social media:

According to her social media, Eskridge's work spanned leadership and technical roles—including serving as a CEO, chief technology officer and co‑founder

More interesting is this unsourced paragraph:

Eskridge graduated from the University of Alabama in Huntsville with a double major in chemistry and biology, and she became an interdisciplinarian and a master of electrical engineering, chemistry, physics and genetic engineering. She was also the chair and president of the Institute for Exotic Science in Huntsville, which she co-founded, according to obituaries posted online.

A double major in chem and bio and then 4 different MS in electrical engineering, chemistry, physics AND genetic engineering?! Wow, what else? Electrical engineering and genetic engineering seem awfully different disciplines. Maybe someone with BS in chem and bio could go into a MS in genetic engineering, but to go onto an MS in electrical engineering would require a lot of undergrad make up work. And she did this all in a short time.

In addition, the MS in the hard sciences at big R1 universities is becoming a rare thing. In my collage days, one got a Bachelors, then a Masters and then maybe a PhD. By the time my kids were in collage in the 2010s, one got a Bachelors and then tried to go straight for a PhD program. Masters programs were only offered in specific areas of a given subject, like a masters of Folklore in Anthropology or a masters of Medical Lab Management in chemistry. Just physics or chemistry at an R1, she would have been going for a PhD.

Just a quirky aside, but UA Huntsville is where Secrets of Skinwalker Ranch's Dr. Travis Taylor collected several of his BS/MS/PhDs.

Note also the article claims Eskridge is the "chair and president" of Exotic Science. I'm pretty sure "chair" is an academic term. At the schools I'm familiar with, various departments have "chairs", somewhat equivalent to a manager in the corporate world, but often rotated amongst professors. My wife spent 30 years in the corporate finance world, and she never was, nor ever worked for a "chair".

A glance at the end of the MSN article may have a clue:

Newsweek's reporters and editors used Martyn, our Al assistant, to help produce this story. Learn more about Martyn.

Maybe Martyn was prompted to read the Daily Mail article and comb through Eskridge's social media post and compile an article. The multiple MS and strange corporate nomenclature may be Eskridge's own doing, her videos had the vibe of someone just throwing stuff out there, but the AI then just ran with it, Joe Edwards may have tuned it up a bit, but we're left to figure out exactly what is going on.

It's almost a blending of Bob Lazar with Charlie Javis and Elizabeth Holms.

The article does reinforce that much of this from some people on the congressional UAP sub-committee and the Daily Mail.

 

[Jay Y]

I will be succinct. I'm not saying it is the case of course but some of the behaviour exhibited in these videos shares many of the characteristics as that of someone who is under the influence. There could of course be myriad other reasons for such behaviour.

This is subjective and intuitive but effects and mannerisms with regards to facial features lead me to this.

 

[John J.]

A double major in chem and bio and then 4 different MS in electrical engineering, chemistry, physics AND genetic engineering?! Wow, what else?

Nanotechnology.

After her graduation from UAH with a double major in chemistry and biology, she became an interdisciplinarian and a master of electrical engineering, chemistry, physics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology.

"Amy Eskridge Obituary" https://obits.al.com/us/obituaries/huntsville/name/amy-eskridge-obituary?id=35311909, "Published by AL.com (Huntsville) from Jun. 21 to Jun. 26, 2022".

Note that it says she became "...a master of...", not that she was awarded master's degrees.