FBI probes cases of missing or dead scientists, including four from the L.A. area
WASHINGTON- Amid growing national security concerns, the FBI announced Tuesday that it has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the deaths or disappearances of at least 10 scientists and staff members linked to highly sensitive research, including four from the Los Angeles area.
“The FBI is leading efforts to seek links to missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, the Department of War, as well as our state and local law enforcement partners to find answers,” the agency said in a statement.
The FBI’s announcement comes after the House Oversight Committee said it would investigate reports of scientists’ disappearances and deaths, sending letters requesting information from agencies involved in the federal investigation as well as NASA, which owns the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, where three of the missing or deceased scientists worked.
“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances could pose a serious threat to the national security of the United States and to American personnel with access to scientific secrets,” Reps. James Comer (R-Kent.), committee chairman, and Eric Burlison (R-Missouri) wrote in the letters.
President Trump said journalists last week that he had been informed about the missing and dead scientists, which he described as “pretty serious stuff.” He said at the time that he expected answers about whether the deaths were related “within the next week and a half.”
Michael David Hicks, who studied comets and asteroids at JPL, was the first of the scientists to disappear or die. He died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59. No cause of death has been released.
A year later, JPL physicist Frank Maiwald died at age 61, with no cause of death revealed.
Two other Los Angeles scientists are part of the series of deaths and disappearances.
On June 22, 2025, Monica Jacinto Reza, a materials scientist at JPL, disappeared while hiking near Mt. Waterman in the San Gabriel Mountains.
On February 16, Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was fatally shot on the porch of his Llano home. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arrested Freddy Snyder, 29, in connection with the shooting. Snyder was arrested in December on suspicion of trespassing on Grillmair’s property.
Snyder was charged with murder.
There is no evidence at this stage that the deaths and disappearances, which occurred over a period of four years, are linked.
A spokesperson for NASA, which owns JPL, said in a statement on X that the agency is “coordinating and cooperating with relevant agencies regarding missing scientists.”
“At this time, nothing regarding NASA indicates a threat to national security,” wrote agency spokeswoman Bethany Stevens. “The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information where possible.”
Representatives for Caltech, which manages JPL, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
