The death of a NASA nuclear scientist in a 2025 traffic accident has resurfaced in the public debate, in the shadow of the case involving scientists who have died or gone missing in the US in recent years. 29-year-old Joshua LeBlanc died in a traffic accident in Huntsville, Alabama, when the Tesla he was driving veered off the road and then collided with a guardrail and trees, after which it caught fire.

The vehicle was found burned on the afternoon of July 22, 2025, according to Alabama police cited by Fox. About two hours later, the 29-year-old’s family reported him missing, according to KLFY. Joshua had not shown up for work. He worked as an aerospace electrical engineer at NASA on nuclear propulsion projects.

Joshua’s body was charred and unrecognisable. His identity was confirmed after the autopsy. At the time, his family told KLFY that they feared he had been kidnapped and that he had left his phone and wallet at home at the time of his disappearance.

Joshua LeBlanc

Police traced LeBlanc using data from his Tesla’s Sentry Mode and found that the vehicle had remained at Huntsville airport for four hours on the morning of the day he died. According to the family, he was not scheduled to go there that day and did not contact them, which was unusual.

His work at NASA
According to LeBlanc’s LinkedIn profile, he worked at NASA for about five and a half years and was head of the Instrumentation & Control (I&C) team for the Space Nuclear Propulsion (SNP) program. NASA’s SNP technology “will enable faster and more reliable transport for crew and cargo missions to Mars and scientific missions to the outer solar system,” according to the space agency’s website. Joshua later took over leadership of NASA’s “Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations” (DRACO) program, a nuclear thermal propulsion engine.

Missing and deceased scientists
At least 12 other individuals, the vast majority of whom were involved in nuclear science and space research, have died or gone missing since 2022, some under mysterious circumstances:

Monica Hashido Reza, 60, missing
Melissa Cassias, 53, missing
Anthony Chavez, 79, missing
Steven Garcia, 48, missing
William Neil McCasland, 68, missing
Michael David Hicks, 59, deceased
Frank Maywald, 61, deceased
Nuno Loureiro, 47, deceased
Jason Thomas, 45, deceased
Karl Grillmair, 47, deceased
Amy Eskridge, 34, deceased

The case gained particular publicity about a month ago with the disappearance of retired Air Force Lieutenant General William Neil McCasland. He was last seen leaving his home in New Mexico, leaving behind his phone, electronic devices and even his glasses, taking only a pistol. His wife told the emergency number “911” that he appeared to be trying “not to be traced.” McCasland had previously overseen the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson base, which has long been associated with rumours of research into alien technology following the Roswell incident in 1947. His disappearance fuelled speculation in UFO circles.

Steven Garcia, a government contractor at a facility producing about 80% of the non-nuclear components of US nuclear weapons, disappeared in August 2025, leaving his home in New Mexico with only a pistol and without his phone, wallet or keys.

Garcia shortly before his disappearance

Anthony Chavez, Melissa Cassias – a high-security clearance administrative secretary – worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the most important US nuclear organisations, and disappeared in 2025 in a similar manner, leaving behind personal belongings and walking away on foot.

Monica Hashido Reza, head of a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory involved in a space materials research program funded by McCasland, disappeared during a trip with friends in California.

Monica Hashido

Other scientists from the same institution, Frank Maywald and Michael David Hicks, who was involved in NASA’s DART asteroid deflection program, died under unexplained circumstances in 2024 and 2023 respectively. In addition, pharmaceutical researcher Jason Thomas was found dead at the bottom of a lake in Massachusetts in March, after having been missing since December 2025.

From left, McCasland, Cassias and Chavez

At least two scientists died violently: astrophysicist Karl Grillmair, whose research was linked to the US Air Force, and nuclear physicist Nuno Loureiro, who had led significant progress in nuclear fusion, were shot dead in their homes.

Nuno Loureiro

This was followed by reports on Amy Eskridge, a researcher based in Huntsville, Alabama. Eskridge died on June 11, 2022, in Huntsville, at the age of 34. Her death has been reported as a self-inflicted gunshot wound, though limited details have been released, according to Fox. Eskridge co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science and described her work as focused on experimental propulsion concepts, including research into what she called “anti-gravity.”

“We discovered anti-gravity and our lives went to hell and people started sabotaging us,” she said in a 2020 interview with YouTuber Jeremy Rys, according to Fox. “It’s harassment, threats. It’s terrible. If you stick your neck out publicly, at least someone will notice if they take your head off. If you take risks privately, they’ll bury you. They’ll burn your house down while you’re sleeping and it won’t even make the news.” In the same interview, she described what she saw as increasing pressure around her work: “I have to move forward with publishing, because the longer I delay, the worse things get,” she said, noting that it was becoming “increasingly aggressive.”

In presentations and interviews, Eskridge also stated that researchers working on unconventional technologies may face pressure to withdraw their work from the public sphere, describing what she saw as a pattern in which scientists announcing major breakthroughs “disappear” from the public eye or stop publishing.

Amy Eskridge

FBI investigation
The deaths and disappearances have not been officially linked in any way, but they have drawn the attention of the White House.

“I hope it’s coincidental, but we’ll know in the next week and a half,” Donald Trump told reporters last week.

In a statement to Fox, the FBI confirmed it is working with other federal authorities in the investigation into the deceased and missing scientists: “The FBI is leading efforts to identify connections between the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, as well as our partners in state and local law enforcement, in order to find answers.”