Megan Basham

So they're calling for an investigation.

This was committee chair James Comer on Sunday.

So the committee has sent letters to numerous agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Nuclear Security Administration, asking all of them for briefings about these incidents and also what protections exist for personnel working with this kind of sensitive scientific information.

Yeah, so one of the earliest cases that's frequently being cited here is Michael David Hicks.

He was a longtime scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he died back in 2023.

Authorities never publicly disclosed a cause of death.

And then another case is Monica Jacinto Reza.

She also worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a director.

And she disappeared in 2025 while hiking.

And despite extensive searches with helicopters, radar, volunteers, she's never been found.

And then in February of this year, retired Air Force Major General William Neal McCasland.

He previously led the Air Force Research Laboratory, and he worked on classified aerospace programs.

Well, he vanished from his home in New Mexico.

A repairman spoke with him in his house the morning of February 27th, but when his wife returned home around noon, he was gone.

So investigators say his phone was left behind, but his hiking boots, his wallet, and somewhat key here, a .38 caliber revolver were missing.

Though McCaslin had been complaining of mental fog before he disappeared.

Well, the big concern is that these individuals had access to sensitive scientific or military information.

Think about things like rocket technology, nuclear research.

So that's why we have some lawmakers floating the possibility that foreign adversaries, think China or Russia, could be attempting to acquire U.S.

secrets by targeting some of these key personnel.