A government contractor with top security clearance at one of the nation’s primary nuclear weapons production facilities disappeared from Albuquerque, New Mexico, on August 28, 2025, and has been identified by open-source researchers as the 10th U.S. defense or space expert to die or vanish since mid-2024.
Steven Garcia, 48, worked as a property custodian at the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a Department of Energy (DOE) facility that produces more than 80 percent of all non-nuclear components for U.S. nuclear weapons.
Garcia was last seen on surveillance footage leaving his Cattail Court SW home carrying a handgun. An anonymous source told the Daily Mail he was “a very stable person.”
Garcia’s case is one of four disappearances concentrated in the Albuquerque metro, a geographic cluster that has not been the subject of any formal public inquiry.
The city houses KCNSC’s New Mexico operations facility, Kirtland Air Force Base, and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), three installations that coordinate closely on U.S. nuclear programs.
Retired Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland, 68, left his Albuquerque home on February 27, 2026, without his phone or prescription glasses, carrying only a .38-caliber revolver. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), citing privacy constraints, confirmed he had experienced “mental fog” before his disappearance and that the FBI later joined the search, as SOFX previously reported.
McCasland previously commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and oversaw research programs at Kirtland from 2001 to 2004.
Two LANL employees, Anthony Chavez, 79, and Melissa Casias, 54, disappeared in 2025 under near-identical circumstances, each last seen leaving home on foot without a phone, wallet, or identification.
At a White House press briefing on April 15, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked whether any agency was investigating a connection between the cases. She pledged to consult relevant agencies, calling it “something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into.”
PETER DOOCY: “There are now 10 American scientists who have either gone missing or died since mid 2024. They all reportedly had access to classified nuclear or aerospace material. Is anybody investigating this to see if these things are connected?”
KAROLINE LEAVITT: “I’ve seen… pic.twitter.com/CCqhmwQx7D
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 15, 2026
Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told the Daily Mail the cases warrant scrutiny. “You can say these are all suspicious, and these are scientists who have worked in critical technology,” Swecker said.
Authorities have not established any confirmed connection among the cases.
