A retired US Air Force general with deep ties to some of the military's most sensitive research programs has disappeared in Albuquerque, New Mexico, triggering a multi-agency search and a wave of questions that no one seems eager to answer.
William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen around 11 a.m. local time on Friday near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque. He left home without his watch or phone. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office issued a Silver Alert and is leading the investigation.
His wife, Susan McCasland, posted on Facebook that he vanished midday on Friday and that there has been no sign of him since. She offered one notable assessment:
[It] does not seem to have been foul play at all.
That may be reassuring in one sense. In another, it deepens the mystery. A 68-year-old man with undisclosed medical issues walks away from his home in broad daylight, carrying nothing, and simply ceases to exist on anyone's radar.
The BCSO acknowledged the severity of the situation early.
Due to his medical issues, law enforcement is concerned for his safety.
By Sunday afternoon, New Mexico Search and Rescue was assisting, with teams involved in a mission in the Albuquerque Open Space area from Sunday through Monday. The FBI Albuquerque Field Office confirmed its involvement on Monday, though a spokesperson stressed that BCSO remains in the lead:
The FBI Albuquerque Field Office is involved in this investigation, as it is standard practice for the FBI to assist our local law enforcement partners if we have a tool, tactic, or technique that could benefit their investigations.
According to the Daily Mail, Kirtland Air Force Base, where McCasland once served, is also coordinating. Col. Justin Secrest, commander of Kirtland's 377th Air Base Wing, told the Albuquerque Journal the base is working closely with local law enforcement. By Tuesday, BCSO said it was coordinating with partners at Kirtland to expand outreach and speed information-sharing.
Sheriff John Allen laid out the ask plainly:
We're asking the public to help by checking and preserving any security camera footage from the area and reporting any information immediately.
What authorities don't have is much to work with. The BCSO's own Facebook post noted an unknown clothing description and unknown direction of travel. That's a thin foundation for a search of this magnitude.
A woman named Mj Davis claimed on Facebook that she may have seen someone matching McCasland's description near the Whitewash trailhead in Piedra Lisa Canyon around the same time he went missing. She said the man was standing off to the side near a bridge over the arroyo at the start of the trail.
BCSO did not publicly dispute the sighting. It also did not confirm it. McCasland is known to frequent La Luz and nearby trail systems and recently completed a 60-mile bike ride, suggesting a man in strong physical condition for his age. Whether that makes his disappearance more or less alarming depends on what you think happened.
This is where the story moves from local news to something considerably more interesting.
McCasland previously led both the Phillips Research Site and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where he managed the Air Force's $2.2 billion science and technology program along with additional customer-funded research. He retired from the Air Force in 2013 and later held private-sector positions, including director of technology at Applied Technology Associates.
That résumé alone puts McCasland in rare company. Wright-Patterson has been at the center of military aerospace research for decades. The base has also been a lightning rod for UFO-related speculation since at least the 1947 Roswell incident.
Which brings us to the part of the story that has set the internet on fire.
Tom DeLonge, the Blink-182 founder who went on to establish To The Stars Academy, referenced McCasland multiple times, claiming the general had advised him on disclosure matters and helped assemble an advisory team. DeLonge suggested on a podcast that he was being advised by McCasland and several named and unnamed insiders to carry out a slow disclosure of UAP information to the American public from government or contractor sources. McCasland's name also surfaced in the 2016 WikiLeaks release of emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta.
Here's what matters: these claims come from DeLonge and have not been confirmed by McCasland or official records. There is no public evidence that McCasland participated in UFO crash retrievals, reverse-engineering of non-human technology, or classified extraterrestrial programs.
That doesn't make the claims irrelevant. It makes them unverified. The distinction matters, especially when a man is missing and his family is waiting for answers.
Strip away the UFO speculation and the picture is this:
Sheriff Allen said what needed saying:
Our priority is finding Mr. McCasland safely.
That should be everyone's priority. The UFO angle will fuel podcasts and Reddit threads for months regardless of the outcome. But there is a 68-year-old man somewhere in the high desert of New Mexico, and the people who love him want him home.
The conspiracy theories can wait. The search cannot.
