Maj. Gen. William ‘Neil’McCasland (68) has been missing since February 27, 2026 from Albuquerque, New Mexico. We will refer to him as Neil in this blog as that is what his wife and family refer to him as.
There are many conspiracy theories about this case. This is due to the fact that Neil oversaw classified space weapons programs and served as head of research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio during his time in the airforce. That facility has long been rumored to house fragments of extraterrestrial debris from a UFO crash in Roswell, N.M.
Neil was born in 1957. His parents are William Sr and Robin McCasland. They were an Air Force family. William Sr was killed in a flying accident when his son was young. Robin remarried another airman, William R Casey.
Neil is a highly educated man with a long career history. We feel that it may be important to the case so we are going to run through his achievements.
Neil attended the United States Air Force Academy. He graduated from there in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in astronautical engineering. He went on to obtain a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering estimation and controls from MIT in 1980.
In 1985, Neil went back to MIT and completed a doctorate in astronautical engineering. He defended his dissertation “Sensor and Actuator Selection for Fault-Tolerant Control of Flexible Structures” in August 1988.
Neil went on to attend the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. He graduated from there in 1995. In 2004, he participated in the US-Russia Security Program at Harvard University.
After graduate school, Neil served in the Payload Systems Division with the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Special Projects-6 and 8 at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California until 1985, when he returned to MIT for a doctorate. After graduation, he returned to Los Angeles AFB as assistant director of the Office of Special Projects-13. As a lieutenant, McCasland reportedly stood out among his peers, becoming one of just a handful of lower officers given large program leadership responsibilities for highly classified development units within what became the birth of Air Force satellite reconnaissance as it exists today.
Early in his air force career, Neil married Susan Wilkerson.
In 1992, Neil moved to Colorado where he served as director of mission planning for the Aerospace Data Facility at the Buckley Air Force Base.
He then moved to Los Angeles Air Force Base (LA AFB) where he spent three years as the Chief Engineer of the Navstar GPS Joint Program Office, the controlling authority for the Global Positioning System for government, commercial, and consumer applications.
Over the coming years, some of his roles included:
- Being in control of the Space Based Laser Project Office at LA AFB as Systems Program Director.
- Being the material wing director at the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.
- In 2004, he became vice commander of the Ogden Air Logistics Center.
- After that, Neil returned to LA AFB as vice commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center.
In 2007, Neil was assigned to the Pentagon as director of space acquisition within the Office of the Under Secretary of the Air Force. In 2009 he was promoted to director of special programs within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.
Serving as director of special programs also made Neil executive secretary for the Special Access Program Oversight Committee (SAPOC), in charge of the oversight and review body with full purview of all of America’s most sensitive and secretive knowledge, capabilities, and programs.
Neil’s final posting was in May 2011 where he moved to Ohio and assumed command of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
While in this position, he led billions of dollars in advanced materials sciences and future weapons research across one of the largest scientific centers in the Department of Defense.
As of 2026, Neil was director of technology at Applied Technology Associates, an Albuquerque, New Mexico based subsidiary of Arlington, Virginia based BlueHalo, a defense conglomerate operating in the areas of space warfare, directed energy, missile defense, cyber and C4ISR. He is also an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Neil has a wikipedia page. This information is from the page and is a summary of some wild information.
Neil first became linked with the topic of UFOs during a WikiLeaks release in 2016. Emails from John Podesta, the chairman for the Hillary Clinton Campaign were released.
The archive of documents was obtained from a data breach by Fancy Bear, a hacking group that the United States Government alleges is associated with military intelligence assets of the Russian Federation.
Podesta’s involvement in UFO disclosure initiatives is well documented throughout his service in both the Clinton and Obama administrations; Blink182 band member Tom DeLonge led To The Stars, a nonprofit associated with the UFO disclosure movement.
The pair’s collaboration on seemingly fringe science led some to speculate that public officials like Neil were manipulating Tom into developing a UFO cover story for new classified American defense technology of a terrestrial origin.
Some info about To The Stars:
To the Stars Inc. (often called “To The Stars Academy” or TTSA) is one of the more unusual organizations in the UFO world—it sits somewhere between a media company, research group, and speculative science venture.
The company claimed a pretty ambitious mission:
Study UFOs / UAPs and advanced aerospace tech
Explore “fringe” science ideas (like exotic propulsion or consciousness)
Share information with the public through movies, books, and TV
DeLonge described it as combining:
science + aerospace + entertainment
Other speculation focused on a relationship between Neil and Michael Duggin, an Australian-American scientist with AFRL at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico who spent years of his Air Force career in research on UFO phenomena. Michael was an assistant to J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who led the Air Force’s infamous Project Blue Book, one of the first investigations of reported encounters with UFOs by the United States Government.
This all sounds like a lot but is relevant to all the conspiracy theories surrounding this case.
We will now get into the timeline of Neil’s disappearance.
On Friday February 27, 2026, Neil interacted with a handyman at around 10am. Susan saw Neil and then left to head to an appointment at around 11.10am.
When Susan returned home at 12.04pm and there was no sign of Neil, she reported him missing. He had vanished within a one hour time period.
“His phone, prescription glasses and wearable devices were located at the residence,” Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities also said that hiking boots, his wallet and a .38 caliber revolver in a leather holster were missing from the home.
On March 1, 2026, a Silver Alert was issued for Neil.
A Silver Alert is a public notification system used in the United States to locate missing seniors, particularly those with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or other mental disabilities.
The sheriff’s office said he was last seen wearing a light green, button-up outdoor shirt with a button-down collar and two chest pockets.
Some info from the Sheriff: The Silver Alert was issued based on information available early in the investigation that indicated Mr. McCasland could be at some level of risk and that additional public assistance was needed to locate him. Due to privacy laws, BCSO will not release medical details or speculate about his state of mind.
Authorities asked residents in the local area to review any CCTV from February 27 and 28 and send any information to law enforcement.
The Air Force also released a statement:
“We are coordinating closely with local authorities and defer all updates regarding the search efforts to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office,” said Col. Justin Secrest, base commander of the 377th Air Base Wing at Kirtland, in a statement to the Albuquerque Journal.”Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.”
Neil’s wife Susan has made many social media posts about her husband.
She thanked searchers “for their unflagging dedicated efforts and support,” and added, “I would like to take this opportunity to dispel some of the misinformation circulating about Neil and his disappearance, mostly from uninformed media sources.” She then made the following points:
“The initial Silver Alert from BCSO mentioned medical conditions, which some have taken to mean Alzheimer’s. Neil is at some risk, but not from dementia. He was not confused and disoriented.”
“There was no concerning Friday-morning telephone call to a close relative. I have been in contact with all of his close relatives and some not-so-close ones. This is a complete fabrication.”
“It is true that when Neil was in the Air Force, he had access to some highly classified programs and information. He retired from the AF almost 13 years ago and has had only very commonly held clearances since. It seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him.”
“It is true that Neil had a brief association with the UFO community through Tom DeLonge, former frontman for Blink-182 and founder of the organization To The Stars. Neil worked with Tom for a bit shortly after his Air Force retirement as an unpaid (Neil’s choice) consultant on military and technical/scientific matters to lend verisimilitude to Tom’s fiction book and media activities.”
She added, “After the Russians hacked John Podesta’s emails (see Neil’s Wikipedia page), there was less contact with Tom and the community pushing for release of UFO information. This connection is not a reason for someone to abduct Neil. Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt. Though at this point with absolutely no sign of him, maybe the best hypothesis is that aliens beamed him up to the mothership. However, no sightings of a mothership hovering above the Sandia Mountains have been reported.”
His wife concluded: “All the thoughts and prayers from around the country are much appreciated. I will update if/when any real information comes in.”
“Neil McCasland has now been missing for one week. There has been no indication whatsoever of where he might be,” his wife wrote. “There have been dozens of searchers on foot, both official and friends and neighbors of Neil’s, who coordinate with the official sources. There have also been horseback searchers, drones with different capabilities, helicopters, three different types of search dogs, neighborhood canvassing and looking for Ring or wildlife videos.”
On March 7, 2026, a gray US Air Force sweatshirt was discovered around a mile east of Neil’s home. No blood was detected on the shirt and deputies aren’t even currently sure if the clothing belonged to Neil.
It has been revealed that Neil vanished just days after President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post he was directing the Pentagon and other federal agencies to release government records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs.
“I hope and pray this is not one of those cases where a former senior military officer was specifically targeted and that he will be found happy and healthy in the immediate near term for his sake and the sake of his loved ones,” Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defense intelligence officer who now advocates for the release of classified information about UFOs, told CNN.
“Whether or not his disappearance had anything to do with any legacy involvement he may have had in UAP research, I prefer to allow law enforcement the necessary time to do their work before speculating,” he added.
On March 13, law enforcement gave an update on the case to the media.
“Investigators have contacted more than 600 homeowners in the neighborhood near Mr. McCasland’s residence to request security camera footage or information,” the sheriff’s office said. “To date, no sightings have been reported.”
Authorities also said they’ve “received dozens of tips” related to the investigation.
Authorities also spoke more about why the Silver Alert was issued for Neil when he was not said to be suffering from dementia or a similar condition. They said that Neil had previously reported experiencing a “mental fog,” as a reason for stepping down from certain entities he had worked with — though investigators said they believed he was mentally sharp when he disappeared.
“There’s no indication, and we are not putting forward that Mr. McCasland was disoriented or confused,” Lt. Kyle Woods said.
“Arguably, he would still be the most intelligent person in the room that any of us would be in. Highly intelligent, highly capable, but that information was given to us early on, and out of an abundance of caution, we escalated to a Silver alert to try to garner as much public attention as possible to try to help locate him as soon as possible,” he said.
On March 14, the New York Post released an article stating that an anonymous social media account possibly belonging to Neil had been discovered.
The last post on the X account was made on February 27, the same day that Neil went missing.
The account @tmbspaceships claims to be run by a “retired 38-year active duty” United States Air Force with a PhD in engineering — listing the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), the Air Education Training Command (AETC), and Air Force Material Command (AETC) as places they’ve worked.
Both the AFIT and AFMC are located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which McCasland ran from 2011 to 2013. He attended the Air War College during his 34-year career, which is a subordinate to the AETC. McCasland attained a PhD in Astronautical Engineering from MIT in 1988.
The account shockingly claimed just months before McCasland’s disappearance that Maj. Gen. John Rossi, who allegedly committed suicide in 2016, was actually murdered because of refusal to hand over nuclear material to private contractors.
The 55-year-old two star general ended his life just two days before receiving a third star and taking the reins at US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Army Times reported.
Army investigators ruled his hanging death was due a severe lack of sleep and job anxiety, according to the outlet.
“Gen. Rossi was a good friend and it is my opinion he did not commit suicide,” the account wrote in a reply posted on Sept. 2, 2025.
“I believe Gen Rossi was killed because of a [sic] incident, reported to the pentagon IG [inspector general], that he would not transfer nuclear weapons to private hands, just months prior in an attempted Nuclear Weapons theft from Ft. Sill,” the post claimed.
“Gen. Rossi knew DOE takes all custody of nuclear weapons, not private contractors,” the post concluded.
What is DOE? In the context of UFOs and space, “DOE” usually refers to the United States Department of Energy.
On March 17, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen spoke about the search for Neil to date:
Investigators had canvassed more than 700 homes and searched a vast stretch of terrain using dogs, drones and helicopters. “It’s vast, it’s a lot of square mileage, there’s a lot of hidden areas, there’s rocky areas, there’s areas where people can get injured in,” he said.
He also said that his office had received 74 tips, not including those sent to the FBI. Investigators were said to be working through a significant amount of video footage.
As of March 18, the search for Neil was still being undertaken. Unseasonably warm temperatures were being experienced in Albuquerque and this was said to be hindering search efforts.
“Unfortunately, we are having one of the warmest springs we’ve had in years, and the imagery coming off of the flare, the mountain was just lit up like a candle even at night,” Lt. Kyle Woods told reporters Monday.
“We couldn’t differentiate from heat signatures and the heat from the rocks.
Lt Woods said that authorities had covered the entire canyon “except maybe some difficult to reach parts” using drones, helicopters and ground teams — but the combination of terrain and weather has left investigators without a breakthrough.
“If we receive information that would lead this to become a recovery mission, we would pursue that with the same vigor,” he said.
Despite it originally being reported that Neil had been wearing the green shirt and hiking boots when he left home, on March 18 we learned that these items had been found at a second home that he owned in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
This is a strange aspect of the case. Was Neil wearing these clothes and he somehow made it to the Pagosa Springs home? This house is around 35 miles north of the New Mexico border and about 200 miles from his home in Albuquerque. Or was it just assumed he was wearing the items as they were missing and they were at the Colorado home the whole time? According to CNN:
Still unaccounted for are McCasland’s wallet, a .38-caliber revolver, a leather holster and a red backpack. Authorities have not said whether they believe he had those items when he left.
Neil is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall with white hair and blue eyes and is believed to have left his residence on foot. He is an avid outdoorsman and is known to often hike, run and cycle in the Northeast Heights and the Sandia Foothills.
Hikers who may have been wearing GoPro-style cameras or taking phone footage in the Sandia Foothills of Albuquerque are also asked to check their footage and submit anything that could help find Neil.
Since Neil’s disappearance, there has been a renewed focus on another unsolved case.
Aerospace engineer Monica Reza, who vanished while on a hike in June 2025.
Monica was last seen on June 22 near Mount Waterman in the Angeles National Forest in California. She was seen at 9.10am near a trail along the Angeles Crest Highway.
According to NewsNation, Monica had been walking around 30 feet behind her hiking partner when she vanished. Her hiking partner said that they turned around and Monica had vanished without a trace.
Monica worked under Neil at one point on a government-funded aerospace program. She developed a special metal used in rockets through a US government funded program that was overseen by Neil.
“We don’t know whether or not these missing persons cases are connected at this point, but I did tip off the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department about it, asked if this was a lead that they were investigating and we’re still waiting to hear back,” NewsNation’s Alex Caprariello said.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/neil-mccasland-missing-timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_McCasland
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/11/us/retired-air-force-general-fbi-search
https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/wife-retired-general-ufo-misconceptions
https://www.aol.com/articles/retired-general-william-mccasland-missing-071529422.html
https://www.bernco.gov/bernalillo-county-sheriff/press-releases
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/17/us/fbi-search-william-mccasland-general-missing
https://www.newsweek.com/monica-reza-case-gains-attention-after-disappearance-us-general-11698172
https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/william-mccasland-search-monica-reza
