On the morning of February 27, retired Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland, 68, walked out of his Albuquerque home and did not return — leaving behind his phone, his family, and no explanation. A man who spent decades shaping some of America's most sensitive military programs, from GPS to space-based lasers, he now exists at the center of a vast and anxious search across the mountain foothills he once roamed freely. The FBI, the Air Force, and hundreds of volunteers have joined the effort, held together by the quiet hope that a decorated life does not end without resolution.
FBI Joins Search for Missing Retired Air Force Major General in New Mexico
A 68-year-old retired military officer with an unspecified medical condition has been missing for nearly two weeks, prompting extensive search operations involving hundreds of personnel and multiple agencies.
A man walked out of his home and simply did not come back.
Mark
Why is the FBI involved in what sounds like a missing person case? Don't local police usually handle those?
Mimi
Because of who McCasland was. He held some of the most sensitive positions in the Pentagon—GPS systems, space-based laser programs, special projects. That kind of background triggers federal involvement, especially when there's no clear explanation for why he disappeared.
Luke
But the source says investigators have found no evidence of foul play. So we don't actually know if anything criminal happened. The FBI involvement might just be precautionary given his clearance level.
Mark
What's this medical issue everyone keeps mentioning but won't explain?
Mimi
The sheriff's office never specified it. They only said it added urgency to the search. His wife said he wasn't confused or disoriented, which is why she pushed back against the Silver Alert criteria.
Luke
Right—a Silver Alert is for people with cognitive decline, but his wife explicitly denied he had dementia. So why was it issued? That's a gap in the reporting.
Mark
The UFO angle seems to be everywhere in this story. Is that actually relevant?
Mimi
His wife felt she had to address it directly because of the timing—Trump's announcement about UFO records came days before McCasland disappeared. And McCasland did work briefly with Tom DeLonge's UFO research company. But his wife was clear: that's not why he's missing.
Luke
The reporting includes that context, but it also includes Elizondo's careful statement that he won't speculate. The story doesn't claim there's a connection; it just notes the coincidence and lets readers draw their own conclusions.
Mark
How extensive was the search?
Mimi
Massive. Over 600 homeowners contacted, dozens of searchers on foot, horseback teams, drones, helicopters, three types of search dogs, neighborhood canvassing, Ring footage review. It was a full mobilization.
Luke
That tells you something about how seriously authorities took it, but it also means if he's out there in terrain he knows well, they've had a lot of time and resources to find him. The fact that they haven't is significant.
Mark
What does his wife think happened?
Mimi
She's focused on the search and thanking everyone involved. She made clear he wasn't abducted, didn't have dementia, and that his old military secrets wouldn't be worth extracting. But she didn't offer an alternative explanation for where he is.
Luke
Which is honest—she doesn't know. The reporting doesn't pretend to know either.
Der Puls
- A 68-year-old retired general with an undisclosed medical condition vanished on foot from his Albuquerque neighborhood nearly two weeks ago, leaving no phone, no note, and no trail.
- His decades-long work on classified Pentagon programs — GPS, space-based lasers, special operations oversight — drew the FBI and Kirtland Air Force Base into what might otherwise be a local missing persons case.
- The timing of his disappearance, just days after Trump announced a push to declassify UFO records, ignited online speculation that his own wife felt compelled to publicly and directly refute.
- Hundreds of searchers on foot, horseback, and drone have combed the Sandia Mountains foothills, reviewed doorbell footage, and contacted over 600 neighbors — yet no evidence of foul play, and no sign of the man.
- His wife closed her public statement with dark humor about alien abduction, but the grief beneath it was plain: a family is waiting, and the mountains have not answered.
On the morning of February 27, retired Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland, 68, walked out of his Albuquerque home and did not return — leaving behind his phone, his family, and no explanation. A man who spent decades shaping some of America's most sensitive military programs, from GPS to space-based lasers, he now exists at the center of a vast and anxious search across the mountain foothills he once roamed freely. The FBI, the Air Force, and hundreds of volunteers have joined the effort, held together by the quiet hope that a decorated life does not end without resolution.
William Neil McCasland walked out of his Albuquerque home on the morning of February 27 and did not come back. He was 68, an avid hiker who knew the Sandia Mountains foothills well, but he left without his cell phone and without a word to anyone. The next day, a Silver Alert went out across New Mexico — the kind issued when someone over 50 may be experiencing cognitive decline. An unspecified medical condition made the search more urgent, though authorities declined to elaborate.
The response that followed reflected the weight of who McCasland was. An astronautical engineer educated at the Air Force Academy, MIT, and Harvard, he had served as chief engineer on the Pentagon's GPS program, directed the Space Based Laser Project Office, and commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Because of those deep ties to sensitive programs, the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office and Kirtland Air Force Base joined the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office in coordinating the search.
His disappearance landed in an already charged moment. President Trump had announced just days earlier that he was directing federal agencies to release records related to UFOs and extraterrestrial life. McCasland's name was already known in those circles — he had briefly worked with Tom DeLonge's To The Stars, Inc. His wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, addressed the speculation head-on in a Facebook post: her husband had no special knowledge of alien bodies or Roswell debris, had been retired for nearly 13 years, and was not, she implied, a man worth abducting for secrets. Luis Elizondo, a former Pentagon intelligence officer and UAP advocate, echoed the call for restraint, urging the public to let investigators work before drawing conclusions.
The search itself was immense — foot teams, horses, drones, helicopters, three kinds of search dogs, Ring camera footage, wildlife cameras, and outreach to more than 600 neighborhood homeowners. No evidence of foul play emerged. All scenarios remained open. Wilkerson thanked the community with evident exhaustion and closed with a line of gallows humor about alien motherships — the kind of joke that only makes sense when someone is trying very hard to hold themselves together while waiting for news that hasn't come.
William Neil McCasland, a retired Air Force major general, walked out of his Albuquerque home on the morning of February 27 and vanished. He was 68 years old, carrying no cell phone, leaving behind no word to family or friends. Nearly two weeks later, he remains missing, and the search has grown to encompass the FBI, the Air Force itself, and hundreds of volunteers fanning across the foothills and mountains he knew well.
McCasland left on foot around 11 a.m. that Thursday. He was an avid outdoorsman—the kind of man who hiked, ran, and cycled regularly through Albuquerque's Northeast Heights and the Sandia Mountains foothills. But something was wrong. Authorities would not specify what medical issue he carried, only that it lent urgency to finding him. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office issued a Silver Alert the next day, a statewide emergency notification typically reserved for missing people over 50 showing signs of cognitive decline. The alert remained active as the search intensified.
The scale of the effort speaks to who McCasland was. He held some of the most sensitive positions in the American military. An astronautical engineer with degrees from the Air Force Academy, MIT, and Harvard's Kennedy School, he had served as chief engineer on the Pentagon's Global Positioning System program, directed the Space Based Laser Project Office, and oversaw special programs at the Department of Defense. He commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio—a facility long rumored in UFO circles to house extraterrestrial debris, claims the Air Force has consistently denied. Because of his background and established partnerships, the sheriff's office coordinated closely with the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office and Kirtland Air Force Base. The FBI confirmed its involvement.
The timing added another layer of intrigue. McCasland's disappearance came just days after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was directing the Pentagon and federal agencies to release government records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs. McCasland's wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, felt compelled to address the inevitable speculation. In a Facebook post, she acknowledged that her husband had a brief association with the UFO community—he had worked briefly with Tom DeLonge, the Blink-182 musician and co-founder of To The Stars, Inc., a company studying unidentified aerial phenomena. But she was direct: her husband did not have special knowledge about extraterrestrial bodies or Roswell debris. He was not confused or disoriented. He had retired nearly 13 years ago. "It seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him," she wrote.
Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defense intelligence officer now advocating for UFO disclosure, told CNN he hoped McCasland would be found safe and well, but he cautioned against speculation. "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," Elizondo said.
The search itself was exhaustive. The sheriff's office had contacted more than 600 homeowners in the neighborhood. Authorities deployed dozens of searchers on foot, horseback riders, drones with different capabilities, helicopters, and three different types of search dogs. They canvassed neighborhoods and reviewed Ring doorbell footage and wildlife camera videos. The community mobilized—friends and neighbors joined official search teams. Wilkerson thanked everyone involved, the weight of gratitude evident in her words.
As of the reporting date, investigators had uncovered no evidence of foul play. They were, they said, still considering all possible scenarios. The sheriff's office asked anyone with information to come forward, offering a dedicated webpage for footage and other files. Wilkerson ended her post with a touch of dark humor, the kind that emerges when a family is holding on: "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." But beneath the gallows wit was the simple, urgent fact: a man was missing, and everyone who knew him wanted him home.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
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.— Susan McCasland Wilkerson, McCasland's wife
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.— Luis Elizondo, former Department of Defense intelligence officer
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