transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:19] So why do you suppose that all of this has been kept from the world? Exploring our past, our future, and the mysteries of our universe.

Speaker 2:
[00:27] Where do they come from?

Speaker 1:
[00:28] Why can't you explain it? Everybody in youthology is screaming for disclosure. The future is now. This is Micah Hanks.

Speaker 2:
[00:36] From the high mountains of Appalachia in a bunker below ground. Welcome one and all. It is the Micah Hanks Program. Glad as always to be getting into gear and going in pursuit of the anomalous in our existence as we do every week, listen on demand via podcasting apps everywhere and courtesy of our friends at the UnX Radio Network. Hope everyone's doing great. Although I can tell you right now things are a little chilly right here in Appalachia at the moment. After temperatures that were close to 90 over the weekend, it dropped back down into the 30s again just the other night and it's still currently in the 50s but feels much cooler. I tell you, the weather here in Western North Carolina, if you don't like it, just wait 10 minutes because it's almost certain to change. But in any case, whether it's cold or warm, wherever you are, I hope you're all doing wonderfully out there in these very uncertain times. This week we are going to be turning our attention to a very concerning situation, something that's occupying a lot of people's minds out there, something that we're also seeing increasingly reported by the mainstream media. And in fact, it is a question so concerning, it has made its way all the way to Washington and now top officials and US leadership are now reportedly receiving briefings about scientists who are either going missing or who are dying under unusual circumstances. Now for many weeks we've been talking about this story primarily involving the disappearance of former US Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland. But I've got to tell you, as the web of disappearances and mysterious deaths continues to grow by the day, and literally just over the weekend we had a few additions that have now made their way onto this growing list, I've got to tell you, I have a few questions. I think we're going to have to take a deep dive and we're also going to have to ask some very hard questions about the theory that there are indeed connections between all these scientists and more importantly, why some say that's all related to UFOs. We're going to dive into that here in just a moment first. Here is what's happening in the news. So the situation in Iran is as contentious as ever according to CNBC. Fifty days now into the US-Israel war with Iran, tensions escalating again now they say after clashes that occurred in the Gulf. As they report, after a tumultuous weekend, American and Iranian negotiators would resume talks in Islamabad on Monday, or at least that was the plan. But according to an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, there was now no plan for a second round of negotiations with the US. That, according to Reuters, this all comes as the two-week ceasefire is set to expire on Tuesday. But for those who were watching this situation unfold late last week, Iran declared on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was finally open to commercial traffic. Of course, responding to this, we saw crude prices tumble more than 10 percent, but by Saturday, just one day later, hopes for a fully opened artery quickly unraveled. CNBC reporting that Tehran had reclaimed control of the choke point by that time, and that after the US leadership refused to end the US naval blockade, the US Navy was forced to withdraw from the Gulf of Oman. There was a pick up in transit attempts that continued throughout the weekend, throughout most of Saturday, in fact, although shipping traffic in the Gulf once again stalled, vessels coming under fire mid-passage and being forced to withdraw before the end of the weekend. Sunday, the US Navy ended up firing on and seizing an Iranian container ship in the Gulf of Oman. The Trump administration has called this a total violation of the existing truce. President Trump has now threatened again to strike Iranian power plants and bridges if Tehran refuses a deal. So that is the situation that kept many on edge over the weekend. Although in different parts of the world, there were other things that had folks feeling a bit shaken. Specifically, a major earthquake that struck off the northern Japanese coast. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, it was a 7.7. So that's pretty major indeed. And when those kinds of earthquakes happen, that prompts, inevitably, a tsunami warning. There were concerns about waves that could be much larger, but at least waves of as much as 2.5 feet had been reported already. Authorities have now warned that waves could reach as high as 10 feet. Fortunately, as of now, there's no significant damage or injuries that have been reported. Nonetheless, as a precautionary measure, residents in the affected area were urged to stay away from coastal regions. Tens of thousands of people were told to head to higher ground. Trust me, even here, in the mountains, where the weather is ever-changing and seemingly in a constant state of flux, I know all too well, even at the high ground, that when officials tell you to watch out for flooding, take those advisories seriously. So to our listenership in Japan, we do occasionally hear from them, but indeed, please stay safe over there. And in fact, I would simply put this out also to our listenership around the world, really, without anybody listening in Japan right now, since we're discussing what's happening in that part of the world, if you have any updates about the Japanese government's ongoing investigations into UAP. You know, they have essentially a corollary to the Pentagon's All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, and there have been some developments there in recent days, so maybe that would be worth exploring in the future on this program. But also speaking of the Japanese connection when it comes to UAP, one of our listeners, Sean, recently wrote in, and he said, Micah, I would love to hear you do a deep dive into the Japanese Airlines 1628 incident from back in the 1980s, where Captain Kenji Terauchi had been flying over Anchorage, Alaska and encountered several objects that couldn't be identified. One of them was reportedly extremely large. In his email, Sean observed that my take, yours truly, on UAP these days tends to lean more toward the idea that these are secret government capabilities, that there have been stealth aircraft developments and things over the years, and that these and other secret programs can account for a lot of UAP sightings. Well, I actually think that is true, but I by no means say that all UAP sightings can be explained as secret experimental craft or other kinds of covert technologies. I think some of history's best cases probably are that, but make no mistake, there are also some genuine anomalies, or at very least, some unresolved cases that seemingly defy explanation, unless somebody out there has some extremely advanced capabilities indeed, and that somehow that has remained off the books. And it's kind of a catch-22 because you can go so far down the UFO rabbit hole that things can get really confusing. And in my own personal opinion, the best thing that you can do is not give yourself over to the temptation of relying on pet theories. I was talking with my pal Brett Tingley about this this morning. Some recent studies that have come out have reported certain patterns and correlations that emerge in historical data. And Brett was looking at this and he says, you know, you could also argue that a lot of the patterns that are being observed and that are being ascribed to genuine UAP in the case in question also could involve stealth aircraft. Which again seemingly is in line with a lot of what I talk about on this show. But I also said to Brett, you know, that is one interpretation. And often UAP advocates tend to overlook those kinds of similarities in the data between their conclusion and other conclusions. In other words, the data and the trends that emerge could equally apply to a range of different hypotheses as opposed to merely supporting one. And as I told Brett, everybody essentially does this. Everybody tends to look at UAP data and they kind of have an idea in mind about what they think it all means. And then they start finding ways of using UAP cases or analyses or studies or trends or patterns or any other kind of available information as supporting their pet theory. Often, I think people are unaware that they do this. And so it can indeed be very difficult to go into UAP investigation with a truly unbiased and balanced perspective. We always try to here on the show. And so if indeed I have seemingly conveyed that I think these are all government technologies to Sean or to anybody else, maybe it's time to look at the other side of the equation. So we'll do that at some point in the near future. But for the here and now, there is also an update regarding the current efforts by the US administration to declassify UFO files, as indicated in the following audio.

Speaker 3:
[09:28] As you remember, I recently directed the Secretary of War. How good is Pete Hegseth doing by the way? To begin releasing government files relating to UFOs and unexplained aerial phenomena. And I figured this was a good crowd, because I know you people, you're really into that, I don't know if I am. So I'm pleased to report today, I thought I'd save it for this crowd, because you're a little bit out there, you know, a little bit. That this process is well underway, and we found many very interesting documents, I must say, and the first releases will begin very, very soon, so you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct, you'll figure it out, let me know.

Speaker 2:
[10:14] And there we have the US. Commander in Chief Donald Trump saying that they have found some very interesting documents. Now, maybe that's the case, and hopefully if these are released, we will learn something new. I don't, of course, hold out hope that there will be significant revelations, but if indeed there is something that comes to light, you can rest assured that we will be discussing that here on this program. But it is intriguing to know that apparently this effort, which seems to be an informal effort as of now, I don't think there has been an executive order that the White House has passed, that Donald Trump has pushed through. I haven't seen anything like that, so again, we will wait and we will see what ends up being released, and I'll be eager to see through what process this information is released. Maybe there will be an executive order, or maybe this will simply be something that is carried out as part of some sort of a Pentagon directive in cooperation with AERO. I know AERO, of course, has already said that they intend to cooperate with this effort, however it unfolds. So if some significant new information is released in the days ahead, or in truth, if nothing of significance is reported, however this plays out, you can rest assured, we will be covering that here on the program. Very much like we are now in a position where I feel like we have to address the ongoing claims involving disappearing or scientists who have turned up dead under unusual circumstances, why are these incidents occurring? Is there really continuity between them? And what does all this have to do with UFOs? All of those questions will be examined and explored, and in fact I think I may have a few answers, as we dive into the case of the missing scientists when we return, right here in a moment on The Micah Hanks Program. The Case of America's Missing Scientists. Where are scientists and others vanishing to? Or what are the circumstances that have led to the disappearances or the deaths of some of these individuals? Welcome back. It is The Micah Hanks Program. This story has been going viral now for several weeks. And of course, we have touched on parts of this entire narrative over the last several weeks. But today, it is now time that we take a deeper look. What is happening? What the claims entail? The knowns and the unknowns. And why I think there is a fundamental scientific principle that should be observed when it comes to situations like this one. I think a great place to start is the fact that the question about missing scientists officially made its way to Washington recently. And that as a result of reporter Peter Doocey asking White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about whether White House officials are now going to be investigating this. We have that audio.

Speaker 4:
[13:58] For you, Karoline, 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?

Speaker 5:
[14:15] I've seen the report, Peter. I haven't spoken to our relevant agencies about it. I will certainly do that and we'll get you an answer. If true, of course, that's definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into. So let me do that for you.

Speaker 2:
[14:29] That was about all that came out of the press conference the other day. But very soon, the media picked this up. Those who hadn't already. Fox News, for instance, picking up the story as follows.

Speaker 6:
[14:38] An unsettling mystery. At least 10 American scientists, military officials and associates have been found dead or suddenly vanished. And now some lawmakers are calling for an investigation.

Speaker 2:
[14:49] Now during that segment, they spoke with Congressman Eric Burleson. He had the following to say specifically about these disappearances and what he thinks the evidence currently points to.

Speaker 7:
[14:58] Well, these were not ordinary citizens. These are some of the most advanced scientists that are working on some of our most critical nation secrets. This has all of the hallmarks of a foreign operation.

Speaker 2:
[15:12] All the hallmarks of a foreign operation, that according to Congressman Eric Burleson. But wait, we go live to Washington now because this has just been brought to the attention of the President of the United States, as the following audio indicates.

Speaker 4:
[15:25] Ten missing scientists with access to classified stuff, nuclear material, aerospace, they've all gone missing or turned up dead in the last couple months. Based on what you've been briefed, what do you think is happening here? And do you think that this is connected or totally random?

Speaker 3:
[15:41] Well, I hope it's random, but we're going to know in the next week and a half. I just left the meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff. But we're going to be now. Hopefully, I don't know, coincidence, if you want it, whatever you want to call it. But some of them were very important people. And we're going to look at it over the next.

Speaker 2:
[16:00] So we have, quite literally, top people in Washington on the job. Also got to love the reporter asking in the audio there about these scientists who have all gone missing in the last couple of months. Right, as we'll soon see, that's not accurate. In fact, I suspect there may be a few other things about this story that aren't entirely accurate, but not to get ahead of myself. So having followed this story now for several weeks, beginning with the disappearance of Major General William McCasland, and now seeing the way that the media has begun to report this, as well as some lawmakers, I have to honestly ask, is there as much to this story as some are trying to say there is? So as we've already established, this story is at least several weeks in the making, and many are trying to expand this web of disappearances to not just disappearances, but also deaths, also not just to scientists, but now to government contractors. As we'll soon hear, from the outset, the whole claim about these disappearances or deaths had already spanned a couple of years, but now they've extended this all the way back to at least 2023. And according to many of the recent reports on this situation, what is the common thread linking all these individuals who have either disappeared or who have died? You guessed it, UFOs. According to the Metro, and this article, by the way, was even shared on Drudge Report recently, hence why I'm sharing it here. This may not be even the most recent report on this. In fact, actually, those who follow my work at the debrief and who read the weekly intelligence brief newsletter, you will already be aware that we covered this. And again, because I felt finally like I had to. Although in truth, we also mentioned it two weeks ago on the show. I spent a very brief segment talking about this situation and also some new audio that has surfaced, which we will be hearing here shortly because I think that is crucial to understanding what's really happening and also the developing narrative that we've seen in recent weeks. So the Metro article I'm referencing linked to Drudge Report puts it out in front of a lot of people and no doubt, of course, helps this entire story go viral. Here's what they reported. Since 2023, ten people linked to top secret space and nuclear research in the US have either died or vanished. They also note, of course, the recent mention of this by Peter Doocey and the response which we just heard from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt there at the White House. But as they note, this situation has been ongoing for quite some time. It began, they say, with General William Neil McCasland, a retired Air Force general who vanished in late February after leading secret programs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Now, right there, of course, as we acknowledged on this show, yes, it is true that William Neil McCasland had led the Air Force Research Lab at any given time. They've got anywhere from 11,000 to maybe 12,000 employees. Indeed, that does, of course, oversee the major scientific and developmental efforts within the US Air Force. But apart from that, his other assignment before he retired had also been overseeing all of the special access programs in the United States. But even more fundamental to the UFO connection is the fact that for a short time, and this is confirmed, it's been known for years, Neil McCasland had at least informally advised Tom DeLong, the Blink-192 singer and guitarist and also the man who would go on to found the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences in October of 2017. The rollout of which, of course, introduced to the public for the first time, Lou Elizondo, but also associated with that effort were Christopher Mellon, Steve Justice and many others, former government insiders who were now becoming a part of this very unique UFO research initiative. Neil McCasland was not part of that, but Neil McCasland had worked as an unpaid advisor to Tom DeLong prior to the publication of a co-authored novel he did with AJ. Hartley called Secret Machines, and actually there's a whole series of novels, and yes, they deal with UFOs. So according to the official story, McCasland had actually been advising Tom DeLong about that novel, but had also introduced him to some other individuals in government. We don't know who exactly that was, but it's possible that those introductions may have helped to facilitate some of the connections that DeLong would eventually end up making, and of course, which would become central to the formation of To the Stars back in late 2017. So it all really began with Neil McCasland and his disappearance on February 27th. But then other scientists, some of whom had already been missing or who had already died, but their deaths or disappearances suddenly began to come to the attention of those who were following the disappearance of McCasland. A few examples and now returning to the Metro article, as it lists several of them. Michael David Hicks, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, passed away in July 2023, as they note there was no autopsy or cause of death recorded. Then of course we also had Frank Maywald, who died in July 2024, no cause of death or autopsy given, but he also had ties to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. So the connection there seems to be connections to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Keep in mind of course that Neil McCasland was in the Air Force. He had no association with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Neil only had limited knowledge of UFOs. From what I've seen, there is very little, if any, evidence suggesting that Mr. Hicks or the late Mr. Maywald had either had a direct interest in UFOs, but they were involved in planetary research and some tangent areas of interest, you might say. We also had this one, and I'd actually been tracking this case before Neil McCasland's disappearance, Carl Grillmayer, who was another astrophysicist, also supported by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. They say he was believed to have found a planet with water before he was shot and killed in a suspected burglary attempt in rural California. We'll discuss the details of his killing a little more in depth here shortly. Next, according to the Metro's accounting here, is Steve Garcia, a government contractor who had top security clearance at US nuclear weapons facilities, specifically, I believe the Kansas City National Security Campus where he worked. That location, according to the Metro at least, is rumored to have a major stake in America's defense industry. Garcia's case is both concerning and also it does bear some obvious similarities to the disappearance of Major General William Neil McCasland. Garcia was last seen on a CCTV leaving his home in August of last year, so many months before the disappearance of McCasland. But according to that footage obtained at the time that he went missing, he was also carrying a handgun. Neil McCasland was believed to be carrying a handgun with him at the time that he went missing. Additionally, when Garcia vanished, authorities said that they believed he was a danger to himself. But friends have disputed any suggestion that he was suicidal or had mental health issues. Of course, the same yet again had been said of Neil McCasland at the time he went missing. But we have some updates on that. We'll get to that here shortly. Next up on the list according to the Metro, Anthony Chavez and Melissa Casillas. Both of these individuals worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. They too were seen leaving their homes in New Mexico. They both were also on foot before they disappeared without a trace, just weeks apart, but also in 2025. So again, you'll note that many of these cases, actually probably the majority of the missing individuals, had disappeared prior to Neil McCasland's disappearance. Their disappearances or in some cases, their deaths had been reported. Some individuals out there, researchers who track missing person cases, including myself, by the way, although I try not to ascribe extraordinary causes or reasons or correlations to them necessarily, but that's one reason we're talking about this all right now. But indeed, others had already noted some of these incidents involving disappearances or deaths. But with the disappearance of Neil McCasland, suddenly this web of scientists began to open up, and people really began looking at this and saying, okay, are there more connections here than we initially thought? Soon another would be added, Nuno Lugiero, whose murder, by the way, he was a MIT professor, but he was shot dead in his home in Boston. He had been working on nuclear fusion. Then there was Jason Thomas, who worked as a pharmaceutical researcher involving cancer treatments. He also found dead in a Massachusetts lake, and although his remains were discovered, he had disappeared three months earlier. But really, the first one beyond McCasland that came on to my radar was shortly after McCasland's disappearance had been reported. This became, as you'll recall, a national story. And then many of us, for the first time, learned about the disappearance of Monica Jacinto Reza. Now Reza vanished last June while on a hiking trip with friends. Shortly before her disappearance, she had become the director of the Materials Processing Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. So again, she is one of several other scientists linked to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who went missing. And really one of the first who came on the radar, in terms of the now-alleged web of missing scientists, primarily because she was one of the first who it was believed had a link to Neil McCasland, who during his time in government had been responsible for the efforts which provided the funding mechanisms for her work. So keep in mind again, he actually had headed the Air Force's research lab, and he also oversaw special access program management for the entire United States federal government. But Monica Reza, who worked at NASA's JPL, received funding that online sleuths have linked to McCasland. And so that was the first connection, and perhaps in some ways the most significant. Because I doubt that all these other disappearances, the ones that came before going all the way back to 2023, let alone the ones that have occurred more recently, including not even scientists, but just people who are security guards and government contractors. Basically anybody who's anybody who had anything to do with official United States secrets, especially involving nuclear programs, space technologies, and aerospace. Anybody who has gone missing now within the last three or so years has been tied in to this growing conspiracy, which is broadly referred to in the media as The Missing Scientists. Now, as I mentioned earlier, there have been some researchers who had already been tracking some of these cases. Monica Reza is intriguing, of course, because she disappeared while hiking with friends. Let's put aside for just a moment her involvement in very advanced research efforts for the United States government and just look at the fact that she is an individual who out there exploring the wilds of North America, vanished with friends and still remains missing. This, of course, is an area of interest that strikes home for me because for many years, I have investigated disappearances in US national parks. And depending on which data that you draw from, according to some statistics, an average of as many as 4,661 people may be reported lost every year. Of course, you break those figures down and that's more than 380 individuals every day. To be exact, it's 388.5, rounded. But if you were to divide that figure by about 30, again, to give you a daily average, you get about 12.94. So you could say on average that around 13 people, on average, are expected to go missing in national parks every single day. Now, not all those people stay missing. You also have to take into consideration that search and rescue efforts are required for those individuals. But according to Yosemite National Forest search and rescue figures, on average, about 4,660 or so people end up initially being reported lost. Many fortunately are found. Some, of course, remain missing. So this is by no means an isolated or unusual occurrence. It is unfortunately something that happens all too frequently. And personally, due to a few near misses, especially in my youth as a solo hiker, going places and hiking and climbing and doing things by myself in remote areas where I probably shouldn't have been by myself, experiences, personal ones, made it all too clear to me the kinds of reasons why people go missing and how quickly things can go wrong when you're out there alone in the woods, far away from where people are likely to find you. And actually, based on my research into these kinds of cases over the years, a lot of people go missing very close to where others are. In fact, there are many cases where people have vanished. And while the search effort was focused on a wide area, spanning a large remote area and far distances from where that person initially left on their hike, often the person's remains will be found relatively close to where other hikers are or under other circumstances where they should have been pretty easily spotted, but they remained missing. So in short, there are so many factors we have to consider here. In a case like Monica Reza's disappearance, for me would have been interesting apart from all the insinuations that have been made recently, but now she has become one of many scientists that a growing number of armchair researchers and also mainstream media outlets are now looking at and saying, why are all these scientists going missing? So why are they missing or dying? What's really going on? We'll dive into this a little deeper and look at the facts when we return right here on The Micah Hanks Program. In fact, Fiction and Missing Scientists. What's actually going on right now? With scientists, former officials, government contractors and others who allegedly have knowledge of US secrets. We're gonna dive back into this and try and make sense of all this madness here in a moment. First, I wanna remind you, if you aren't already an ex-subscriber, you're only getting half the story. Because every week we have additional dispatches that go out to ex-subscribers. Keep in mind, once you become an ex-subscriber, not only do you get access to those additional weekly shows and the monthly specials that we do, or we take a deep dive into famous classic cases, or occasionally classic science fiction, or other various sundry things of interest, but you also get your own unique RSS feed. So once you become a member, you get that access to the RSS feed, you subscribe to that like you would to any other podcast. But all of the shows, including this one, are delivered to you all in one place on that RSS feed, and ad free. So you don't have to have the interruptions of advertisements, no fast forwarding or listening through them. Now you get the uninterrupted experience, and it's a great way to support my work. And probably the best part is it's really just $7 a month. A lot of the other podcasts have raised their prices over the year. I have never done that. I try to make it affordable and easily accessible, but those dollars do pile up over time if enough people subscribe. And so if you'd like to support my work, and trust me, there's a lot that goes into it every week, consider becoming an ex-subscriber for less than what you'd spend on fast food. Every month you can get access to all these shows and the ad-free experience. So getting back into the conversation here, where we left off, we had looked at a number of the scientists on the current list, and it's constantly growing. But these are some of the individuals, I should really say, because they aren't all scientists. But these individuals who have now been linked to an alleged, and I think it's fair to call it this, a UFO conspiracy theory. And I think it's fair to say that because at the heart of all this was the tragic disappearance of Major General Neil McCasland. Once he went missing, it was only at that time that many internet detectives began searching for others who had disappeared under, again, according to whose judgment, really from one person to the next, that's anybody's guess. But according to whatever criteria everyone had been looking for at the time, which seems to have been any person within the last few years who seemed to have any kind of relationship to working with government and who either died or vanished or was a victim of a homicide. But you can start to see when you really put it in those terms how loose the criteria actually was. Probably that's why nobody linked these individuals until Neil McCasland went missing. But with his known connection to Tom DeLong and the UFO subject, that seems to have opened the floodgates. And everybody started saying, OK, well, now we've got a bunch of scientists. And it's pretty clear what the obvious connection is. These people all worked in government jobs or at facilities linked to UFO secrets. And as we heard, now it's made its way all the way to Washington. Reportedly, according to Karoline Leavitt, she plans to bring this to the attention of officials in Washington and have the relevant agencies looking into the possibility that there actually are connections here. So with all that in mind, I guess the first question we should ask is, is there new information of any kind that has come to light recently that could help to inform us a little about some of these disappearances? And then furthermore, if we were to look at some of them on a case-for-case basis, would there be details that would help us to illustrate whether there are indeed likely to be connections or whether this is a tangled web of conspiracy theories? Well, the short answer is yes. New things have come to light and some pretty significant developments. In fact, I mentioned on the show recently that 911 Call Audio from Susan McCasland Wilkerson, the wife of Neil McCasland, has now surfaced. And although we had not played it previously, I had said that at some point in the future, we would have to review that. I can think of no better time than right now, given the relevance of some of the information in that call. And I want to now feature that audio in its entirety so you can hear exactly what was being discussed by the wife of Neil McCasland and the 911 operator at the time she first reported that he was missing. We have that audio now.

Speaker 8:
[35:10] April, how may I help you? Hi, April. My name is Susan Wilkerson. My husband is missing. And it's been about three hours. And I have some indication that he must have planned not to be found. He's left his phone. He changed his clothes into I don't know what. I think he's on foot. All of our cars and bicycles are in the garage. I left for a doctor's appointment at about 1110. And he was here at that time at the house. And I got back from that at noon and he was gone. He turned it off and left it behind, which seems kind of deliberate because he's always got his phone. He has a smart watch. I don't know if that's with him or not. Has he ever done this before? Never. Nothing even remotely like it. He's a retired Air Force Major General. He's very responsible, but he's also facing some medical issues. Do you have any video at your home? No. Has he been diagnosed with any mental disorders or anything like that? Well, we've been seeing a doctor, both physical and mental, in terms of anxiety, short-term memory loss, lack of sleep. The same doc I went to see today. Does he carry any weapons on him? Well, not generally. He does have a gun safe, and I went to look in the gun safe to see if anything was missing, but I couldn't tell if anything was. He has quite a number of pistols and rifles. Other than saying if his brain and body keep deteriorating, he didn't want to live like that. But it seemed to me that was just a, man, I hate how this is going kind of thing, because I told him, yes, you do. Yes, you do. OK, we're going to send some deputies up to talk to you, see if we can search a little bit and see what's going on. OK? Sure.

Speaker 2:
[37:15] So there is the audio in question. And when you hear that discussion, it does indeed offer some additional details. Does it not? Of course, Miss McCasland Wilkerson had gone and checked her husband's gun safe. She couldn't determine at that time if a gun was missing, but she did mention right after that that he had made some comments about being dissatisfied with how things were going. If this is how things are going regarding his, who knows, maybe his metal, but also physical state. And she had tried to console him. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. But again, what she is describing in that audio, when added to what's already known, the man seemingly left his house on foot. He left behind the kinds of things you would normally take with you, like your smartphone, like your glasses. But he did, as it was later confirmed, carry with him one of his firearms and a leather holster for that. In light of what she says in the 911 audio, a slightly different story emerges. New pieces of the puzzle have emerged. But of course, there are some who would say, yeah, despite what she is saying though, perhaps his motives, even if he did claim his own life, that seems to be, in plain speak, what's happening here, what's being implied. But even if that were the case, how do we know it wasn't to try and protect some secrets that he had from getting out or because he knew someone was coming after him? And again, this kind of, and I think it's fair to call it this, conspiracy-laden thinking arises primarily from trying to go and look at possible connections between his disappearance and those of other scientists, which after several days, and no resolution to his disappearance, and for the time being, as far as we know, McCasland is still missing, although I suspect I know probably what happened to him. Many of you out there probably do also. Technically, his case is unresolved. He still remains missing. There have been no human remains found that have been linked to him, nothing really that has been found has been linked to Neil McCasland. And so in the absence of any definitive resolution, speculation inevitably ensues. And now many are linking his disappearance to those of others who have vanished going all the way back to 2023. But it also really helps to look at some of the other people who have vanished recently. Because once you really take a closer look at those individual cases, it begins to become clear that these are isolated incidents. And I'll go ahead and say that up front. I know many people will disagree, and trust me, I'm no stranger to getting angry messages from people about things I say that they disagree with. I'll just mention that here and now. But I try to emphasize to my listeners that, to the best of my ability, I try to bring you the truth. And not just the truth that the UFO people want to hear, or the truth that the skeptics want to hear, or the truth according to facts determined by the mainstream media, because a lot of them in the mainstream media who are covering this story, in my opinion, are doing a terrible job. I have seen recent pieces on various mainstream cycles addressing this story and trying to act like there are definitive links between all these scientists and very uncritically reporting this as though it is news. Whereas the facts seem to tell a very different story. So why would the mainstream outlets cover this if there weren't actually facts that supported the narrative? Oh gosh, I can't imagine why in the world they would put a sensational story like this with mystery and intrigue on primetime television shows where they want to try and keep the attention of their viewership, but then afterward they cut out those portions, put them on YouTube as standalone clips, and then they attract an even wider audience online. No, I can't imagine why there would be uncritical reporting on a story like this that would appear on the news. But what I'm about to tell you is what they aren't telling you on those news segments. News for clicks, in other words. We look at a case like Carl Grillmayer. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detectives who arrived at the scene, Grillmayer was found shot to death on the porch of his home in the rural town of Llano. Now, that alone, people would listen to that and they would say, my gosh, okay, this is kind of weird. This guy was a well-respected scientist. He had been described by some as having a detective-like ability to find potential planets worthy of astronomical inquiry. I mean, a really brilliant guy. And he was known for having participated in a lot of significant planetary-related discoveries. So, why was he found shot to death on the porch of his home? Many are asking that question, especially those who have linked his death to this web of missing scientists. But as KABC. 7 out of Los Angeles reported around the time of his death, quote, deputies had arrested Freddie Snyder later in the day for carjacking and soon linked him to Grillmayor's shooting. So they had a suspect in custody. They did not have a motive. But it has been confirmed that Snyder, the individual who is believed to have shot Grillmayor, had already been arrested late last year. Why? Because he had been trespassing, guess where, on Grillmayor's property while carrying a rifle. So, here in this instance, we already have a suspect. They are in custody. There is no motive. But that same individual had been arrested previously for trespassing on the property of the individual who is now dead, who was shot dead by the suspect. And what was that individual doing at the time that he was initially arrested last year? He was carrying a gun. What did he say he was doing? He claimed he was walking to the post office. As you do, armed with a rifle, am I right? Lauren Conlon, a reporter and a podcaster writing for LA. Mag, back on the 2nd of April, had noted of this incident that in Grillmayer's case, there is currently no evidence suggesting a larger conspiracy. However, she added, law enforcement has treated the killing as an isolated criminal act, but for some, the patterns are difficult to ignore. That much indeed seems obvious. And in fact, as I noted in the newsletter there at the debrief on Thursday of last week, Conlon appears to be one of those who is having such difficulties ignoring these patterns because she went on NewsNation's Jesse Weber live television show and she talked about these cases. Specifically, which ones stood out to her in all of these disappearances and deaths. She said, I mean Monica Reza worked closely with General McCasland and she disappeared under extremely, extremely disturbing and mysterious circumstances. Now, did they actually work together? Right now, I don't think there's actually any evidence they worked together. If you recall, Reza worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. McCasland, who was retired, by the way, let's also point that out. But McCasland had worked at the Air Force Research Lab, and also, not at the same time, by the way, I think that he worked at the research lab and then he moved on to this final position, but in separate assignments he had also overseen for a time, the United States Special Access Programs. Although those assignments had some relationship to the work that NASA does, McCasland was not an employee at NASA, Reza was not an employee at the Air Force under its research lab, I don't think that you can make a strong argument that those two individuals worked together. Again, the most compelling links that I have seen online by some of the Internet sleuths is simply that funding for Reza's work had come from the location in government where McCasland had previously worked. And yet, of course, on the mainstream media cycles we're seeing, they worked together and they both disappeared under very strange circumstances. Well, yes, that is actually true. But with the new information that comes to light, with the audio in the 911 call clearly indicating that McCasland had made noises to his wife about being concerned about his current state as a retired aging Air Force official, and they've been seeing a doctor for some of these issues, we take that into consideration and we also look at National Park Service statistics on people who go missing in parks, how many go missing every month and even every day, statistically speaking, you start to see that indeed these cases are tragic and they are mysterious. But circumstances like these when it comes to missing person cases are not uncommon, nor are they probably in any way linked. We'll wrap up this conversation here in just a moment when we return right here on The Micah Hanks Program. Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities in the Search for America's Missing Scientists. You know, we have to keep in mind, and I say this respectfully, that while many are making a mystery out of the situation, and there are indeed some loose ends, I think we can say, we must also acknowledge that some of these individuals were the tragic victims of homicides. Some of these scientists appear to have simply died. Can we rightly call their deaths mysterious, especially if there was no official cause of death, and no autopsy that was ever conducted? Again, one should potentially consider contacting a coroner and asking them, how often are there deaths for which there are no autopsies? How often are there deaths where the family asks that the cause of death is not revealed? One might find some rather surprising statistics in that area, too, and I would suspect this would be the case because of a number of seemingly pretty obvious factors. One, sometimes people simply die of natural causes. Two, sometimes people have conditions that they are suffering from that eventually claim their life. Three, sometimes people die under less than glamorous conditions, and family doesn't always want those circumstances to get out to the world. As my friend Tim McMillan, a former law enforcement officer who has investigated many deaths, homicides, and other similar circumstances, missing person cases, too, Tim has always joked with the debrief team and I, whatever you do, no matter what, never ever go naked at home when you are by yourself. The reason Tim gives us this important advice is because he says he would be amazed at how many people end up passing away while they are at home, stantly clad or wearing no clothing at all. Now, of course, the broader point that Tim is trying to make is that a lot of people die. I know it's hard to believe, but here's another statistic for you, a really troubling one. Everybody dies. Everybody. Now, taking that into consideration and also taking into consideration what people do in the privacy and the comfort of their homes, it's probably not hard to imagine that people are sometimes found dead under unusual circumstances. But my broader point in bringing this up is that sometimes, at the request of a family for medical reasons or for simple reasons of privacy, details about the conditions under which an individual was found following their death, those details are not always released. And sometimes also due to the conditions they may have had, health complications they may have suffered prior to death, there is no need for an autopsy either. So it's not always mysterious that someone dies or that there is no autopsy, even if they happen to be an employee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. But to me, there's something that's even more fundamental about all this. And I have mentioned at the outset of the discussion that there is a fundamental scientific tenet that really should be addressed in terms of this whole situation about the alleged missing scientists. And I addressed this also in the Intelligence Brief Newsletter last week. This involves the time-honored concept that correlation does not imply causation. In fact, I actually said in the newsletter and I quote, this phrase, first known to have been used in this form by British statistician Carl Pearson, and later associated with Carl Sagan, but actually, going all the way back to philosopher David Hume, is of vital importance when it comes to our all-too-human tendency to want to spot perceived connections between various phenomena. In short, just because there are correlations between two variables, it does not mean that they are related. Let's look at some fun and hilarious examples. For instance, the one that Tim gave us. Just because people are often found dead in their homes and they're not wearing clothing, does that mean that going naked when you are home alone and nobody's looking is nonetheless potentially a hazard to your health? Of course it's not. That's part of what makes the observation funny. Here's another. Dinosaurs didn't brush their teeth. Notice that all the dinosaurs are dead. Did the dinosaurs die because they had a mad case of gingivitis? No, of course not. But as you can see, there can sometimes be correlations drawn between events that have no actual causal relationship. Now, getting more serious, we should also ask. We know that people sometimes go missing. But when we have a bunch of scientists who all seem to kind of have jobs somewhat similar to each other, and a few go missing, a few of them died, and a few are actually murdered in cold blood, are there possible connections there? I mean, it's not impossible that there are connections, but personally, I do not see any. At least not in this case. Let's look at some more facts. One, not all of these individuals in question are scientists. Some were security guards, contractors, or held other positions. Two, not all of these individuals worked for the same agencies, even though it has been reported as if they actually had. Three, some of these individuals had been reported missing, so for all we know, some may still be alive. But as we suspect, based on new information that has come to light, some of those people who went missing probably did so because they wanted to, and for reasons far more mundane but no less tragic than links to UFO secrets. Four, some of the individuals died with no official cause of death having been reported like we were just talking about, and there are very clear reasons, if you think about it, why that may have been the case. This one may be the most tragic. Some of these individuals were obvious victims of homicides. If a person is killed on their back porch by a repeat offender in cold blood, and, frankly, based on the circumstances of Grillmeier's death, it seems to be implied, but again, I can't prove this, authorities have not said that they have a motive in Grillmeier's killing. But again, the suspect who had been taken into custody had also been arrested previously while trespassing and carrying a weapon on the property of the individual that he shot and killed. Some reports that have covered this more in depth than most of the mainstream media has been doing recently have indicated that it was believed there may have been some words that were exchanged at the time of the first arrest. We could again assemble a story here, although again, I think we have to be very careful about doing that. That's part of what led us to all these unrelated suppositions about The Missing Scientists and what have you. But nonetheless, some of the reports did imply that there had been an altercation. This is what led to the initial arrest and that the suspect in the later shooting might have had a grudge against Grillmeier. That that might possibly have been the motive. We don't know. But that seems far more likely than the idea that a random killing occurred that happened to have targeted a man who was involved in the search for alien life. Point number six. These incidents didn't all occur within a short period of time. We are now looking at several years, three and a half going on four years. How much further do we have to go back to try and incorporate all these mysterious deaths? And then point number seven, as I think we've already established, apart from the whole situation involving Neil McCasland, there is very little, if any, evidence that actually presents a case that there are links involving the UFO subject between any of these individuals. And in truth, the only one that potentially really comes to mind, and it's a pretty tenuous link, is that link between Monica Reza and Neil McCasland. There was a funding link there. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, of course, has been linked to Roswell, and everybody always wants to know about Roswell. Again, long-time listeners know my feelings about Roswell. I don't think it had anything to do with aliens. And therefore, if my contention that Roswell involved a very secretive US government project, and again, there are actually even documents that support that reality, that in addition to information that's been collected by journalists, which is not very well known in the UFO conspiracy circles, but if you know where to look, it's out there, and I've done deep dives on this podcast about that. Go back in the archives, look for the Roswell and also the Unit 731 episodes that we did back to back. They also talk about Operation Paperclip, but it really will give you some important historical context about what was happening in the world at that time and what I actually think happened at Roswell. If that is true and accurate, and I'm not a disinformation agent from the government trying to get people to believe that there are no alien crash records retrievals, there very well may be, by the way. I just don't think Roswell was one of them. But indeed, if my suspicion that the evidence points to Roswell being a secretive US technology is true, then the idea that the Roswell wreckage had anything to do with UFOs and that it was taken to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base becomes far less concerning, or at least it should, to any serious historical and scientifically minded UFO researcher. And so at least as far as Roswell goes, that is anathema to whatever is being held there at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base or which Neil McCasland or anybody else at the Air Force Research Laboratory might have knowledge of. Nonetheless, Monica Reza had been working in materials technology at the time of her disappearance, and some people have tried to link her knowledge and the technologies that she was working on to the broader UFO mythos associated with the Roswell incident. So while you might say that the closest connection between two individuals actually is between Reza and McCasland, if you really look deeper at the history of this subject, most of that falls apart. I'm sorry, but it's just true there is very little that links them on the lines of there being some sort of a UFO connection. And so fundamentally, at the end of the day, what we have to try and accept is that it is very unlikely that these disappearances are actually linked. What we are more likely seeing is an all too human desire to spot patterns where none exist. And frankly, one reason that I am arguing that this is the case here is because I've seen it so many times before in the UFO community. We look at the famous nuclear incidents. Well, UFOs are interested in our nuclear capabilities, and therefore what they are essentially trying to do is protect us from engaging in war and using nuclear weapons against one another. They frequently demonstrate their capability of disarming our nuclear capabilities, and so they must be trying to convey to us a message of peace. Don't use nukes, and if you do, we may have to stop you. There have actually been UFO researchers for years who have tried to make this argument, to try and say that this is actually the reason why UFOs appear at nuclear sites. There very well may be some truth to the UFO sightings at nuclear sites. In fact, I strongly suspect that there is some good historical data that supports that contention. But the question of what those UFOs actually are, what their real motives and intent could possibly be, I mean, questions like that still remain unanswered. We really actually do not have enough data to draw conclusions. But nonetheless, there have been entire books about this, television shows that have been produced about it, stories that have been told by former officials who get up and will tell you. You know, these things are interested in our nukes. They may be trying to protect us from ourselves. A hard question we have to ask. If the aliens, believed to be behind the UFO phenomenon, really don't want us using weapons, why do we have wars, like what we currently have happening right now in Iran? Why do we have conflicts that have been ongoing, like what we have between Russia and Ukraine? Well, the aliens aren't going to interfere in earthly affairs, of course. There's a prime directive underway. Right. So, what you're saying is they'll only disarm our capabilities when we aren't using them for conflict, only when they can innocuously hover above a nuclear base and shut down our missile defense systems for a few minutes. That's the only time that preventing the use of nuclear weapons seems to really matter to the alien visitors. Any other kind of war we engage in, any other kind of escalation or conflict, that's all still on the table, I guess. Again, we sometimes have to challenge our suppositions, and we have to acknowledge our all-too-human tendency to want to see patterns where none actually exist. Finally, we have to remember the families who are coping with the losses of these individuals, those still missing, or those who have already died. And we should try to show some respect and give them some space. I know this is a hard thing they're going through. All right, that is all for the here and now. As always, follow my work online at micahanks.com and the debriefed.org. Thank you for being here and I'll catch you next time. You guys, stay strange out there.