The remains of Melissa Mondragon Casias, a national laboratory staffer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have been found in New Mexico almost a year after the worker‘s disappearance was linked with a larger group of U.S. scientists, government employees and contractors who vanished or died under mysterious circumstances amid questions she was a victim of foul play or took her own life, and if so, why?
Human remains found by a hiker last week in a New Mexico national forest have been confirmed to be those of a Los Alamos National Laboratory employee who had been missing for nearly a year, authorities said.
The discovery in the McGaffey Ridge area of Carson National Forest was reported Thursday, and the New Mexico Medical Investigator’s Office identified the remains as those of Melissa Mondragon Casias, authorities announced over the weekend.
‘Investigators also learned that a handgun was located alongside the remains,’ New Mexico State Police said in a statement Saturday, NBC News reports.
Melissa Casias cause and manner of death yet to be determined
The Medical Investigator’s Office has yet to determine the cause and manner of death, police said.
Casias, 53, an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was found about 6 miles from the family home, after she was seen walking along a state highway the day she was reported missing.
Casias was reported missing on June 26 after failing to turn up to work.
She was last seen at approximately 2:15 p.m. local time walking southbound on State Road 518 from Talpa and was classified as a ‘missing endangered’ person according to a New Mexico State Police (NMSP) advisory bulletin.
Victim of foul play or did New Mexico lab staffer take her own life?
Her husband, Mark Casias previously said his wife had dropped him off at the laboratory, a federal energy research institution where they were both employed, earlier on the day she disappeared.
He said that Casias told him she was going to another location within the lab to complete a work task but that she didn’t return as planned.
The husband said he went through documents that he claimed showed Melissa being under immense stress at the time, though he declined to share details.
The couple’s daughter, Sierra, said she later found her mother’s belongings, including keys and a cellphone that had been reset to factory settings, in the family’s home in the town of Ranchos de Taos.
Although police didn’t rule out foul play — including the possibility the scientist may have gotten into a vehicle that day — investigators said last year that it ‘may be the case’ that Casias disappeared of her own volition. If so, why?
Melissa Casias avid hunter and previous work
Casias’ case was one of a number of deaths and disappearances of U.S. scientists and government employees that attracted public attention earlier this year, sparking speculations of nefarious plots against individuals with access to sensitive information.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Casias worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory since March 2023 and had previously worked as an executive administrative assistant for finance, administration and government relations at New Mexico Highlands University.
Photos on her Facebook profile show she had a passion for hunting, and in 2021, she received a hunting guide license from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, according to her LinkedIn.
Latest mystery scientist and government employee death
More than a dozen U.S. scientists, government employees and individuals working on government science projects or with other sensitive information have gone missing or met violent deaths since 2022.
The most recent and one of the most prominent cases is that of retired U.S. Air Force Major General William McCasland, 68, who went missing near his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 27.
McCasland had been leading a military investigation into unidentified flying objects at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where he worked.
Social media users have theorized that the disappearances and deaths may be linked to something secretive and sinister, such as a plot to kill anyone with knowledge of classified UFO information. On the wave of growing interests in the cases, Trump recognized them as a matter of public interest in April.
The FBI is now ‘spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists,’ and it “is working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state … and local law enforcement partners to find answers,’ the agency previously released.
