The FBI is working to find a retired Air Force major general who went missing in New Mexico nearly two weeks ago.
William Neil McCasland, 68, left his cellphone behind at his home in Albuquerque around 11 a.m. on Feb. 27 and has not been in contact with his family or friends since, according to authorities. He is believed to have left his residence on foot. Local law enforcement said the man is known to hike, run, and cycle often.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office confirmed FBI involvement in the case last week.
“Investigators at the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office have worked hand in hand with the FBI and other partner agencies, and have so far uncovered no evidence of foul play,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “We are, however, utilizing all possible resources including advanced technologies, and still considering all possible scenarios as we follow up on leads towards locating Neil.”
McCasland’s disappearance remains a mystery.
“As of today, despite the collective efforts of law enforcement and the community, we still do not know what happened to Neil after he left home on February 27th,” the office added.
While it remains unclear what motivated him to leave his home without prior notice, McCasland’s connections to UFO research have piqued the public’s interest.
The timing of his disappearance is especially notable, considering it came a little over one week after President Donald Trump ordered his administration to begin “identifying and releasing” government files related to extraterrestrial aliens, UAPs, and UFOs. Trump has questioned the existence of UFOs as recently as last month.
McCasland once commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. UFO experts believe the base houses extraterrestrial debris linked to the Roswell incident in 1947. The debris is said to belong to a UFO that crashed in the New Mexico desert. The Air Force denies that the base contains such debris.
The missing general was also previously chief engineer on the Department of War’s space-based GPS program, system program director of the Space Based Laser Project Office, and director of special programs at the Pentagon.
The day after he was reported missing, the New Mexico Department of Public Safety issued a Silver Alert. It remains in effect as he has not been found yet.
Authorities say McCasland has a “medical issue” that remains unspecified as the search nears its second week. A Silver Alert is typically triggered when a missing adult older than 50 suffers from mental conditions, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. His wife says he does not have dementia.
TRUMP ORDERS RELEASE OF FILES RELATED TO ALIENS AND UFOS, CITING ‘TREMENDOUS INTEREST’
“Neil is at some risk, but not from dementia,” Susan McCasland Wilkerson wrote on Facebook in the past week. “He was not confused and disoriented.”
In the post, Wilkerson took aim at “uninformed media sources” for spreading “misinformation” about her 68-year-old husband and his unsolved disappearance.
