The FBI has joined in the search for a retired U.S. Air Force general who has gone missing in New Mexico.
FBI agents and investigators from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office were seen canvassing the neighborhood where Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland was last seen, KRQE in Albuquerque reports. McCasland, 68, retired as the commander of a research division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.
This is what we know.
McCasland commanded Air Force Research Laboratory at Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
William Neil McCasland
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office issued a Silver Alert for McCasland, who has been missing since last week, Newsweek reports. He was last seen on Feb. 27 in Albuquerque. McCasland is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds. He has white hair and blue eyes, and he has unspecified medical issues, according to the sheriff’s office, which is worried about his safety.
McCasland was the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, according to his Air Force biography. He managed a $2.2 billion science and technology program as well as $2.2 billion in additional customer-funded research and development. He joined Wright-Patterson in 2011 and retired in 2013.
He was commissioned in 1979 after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in astronautical engineering. He has served in a wide variety of space research, acquisition and operations roles within the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office.
What does it mean for the FBI to be involved in a missing persons search?
The FBI will join a missing persons case at the request of state or local law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Resource Manual, making available the resources of the FBI Identification Division and the FBI Laboratory.
The FBI may also open and lead a missing persons case if foul play is suspected, if the person was on federal land — such as a national park — or if the missing person is a U.S. president or federal official — such as cabinet members, members of Congress or federal judges, among others,according to true crime podcaster Jerri Williams. Williams was an FBI special agent for 26 years.
McCasland mentioned in WikiLeaks release in connection to UFOs
McCasland was described as a key adviser on UFO-related projects by Tom DeLonge, UFO researcher and guitarist for the band Blink-182, Newsweek reports. The general’s name appears in the 2016 WikiLeaks email release from John Podesta, then Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.
In emails to Podesta, DeLonge said he has been working with McCasland for months and that the general was aware of the materials DeLonge was probing because McCasland has been “in charge of the laboratory at Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base where the Roswell wreckage was shipped,” according to Newsweek.
However, there is no official record of DeLonge’s claims, and McCasland has neither confirmed nor denied it.
The National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, Feb. 14, 2025.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base home to UFO project
The Dayton Air Force base was home to Project Blue Book in the 1950s and ’60s, according to “The Air Force Investigation into UFOs” published by Ohio State University.
During that time, it logged 12,618 UFO sightings, with 701 of those remaining “unidentified.” The U.S. government created the project because of Cold War-era security concerns and Americans’ obsession with aliens.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FBI joins hunt for retired Wright-Patterson general who went missing