House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) said Sunday that “something sinister” might be happening as officials probe a rash of disappearances and deaths of former top scientists who reportedly worked with classified information.
Comer said he would bring in leaders of the agencies where the scientists worked for questioning about the matter. His comments come after the White House said last week it would be probing the strange cases and President Donald Trump said he hoped the disappearances were “random.”
“We’ve put a notice out to the Department of War, to the FBI, to NASA, to the Department of Energy, that we want to know everything that they know about what happened with these scientists because those four agencies were predominantly the agencies that those 11 individuals were affiliated with. And we want to try to piece this together,” Comer told Fox News on Sunday.
“We know there are many countries around the world that would love to have our knowledge and nuclear capabilities. And these are the people that were at the forefront of it, and they’re either dead or missing,” he added.
A few of the strange cases include the disappearance of NASA scientist Monica Jacinto Reza, who went missing during a hike in June 2025; astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, who was shot on his front porch in February; Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Nuno Loureiro, who was shot and killed in his home in December 2025; and Air Force Maj. Gen. William McCasland, who went missing from his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home in March.
The investigation into the deaths and disappearances is being led by the FBI.
“These missing and killed scientists and former professional members of the Department of Energy vary [widely], and we’re working most importantly with our state and local partners who have the jurisdiction on each of these cases, whether they be a homicide or a missing person’s case, they have the evidence. What we’re going to do is collectively pull it all into one place,” FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News on Sunday.
Patel said that the investigation was focusing on whether there were any connections to classified information or foreign actors.
Other examples of strange circumstances involving the scientists include the disappearance of Kansas City National Security Campus government contractor Steven Garcia in Albuquerque in 2025, allegedly with a handgun, and the discovery of pharmaceutical scientist Jason Thomas at the bottom of a Massachusetts pond after he went missing three months ago.
