FBI Joins Hunt for Missing UFO-Linked General

Retired Major General William Neil McCasland, 68, has been missing since February 27th, 2026, after walking out of his home near Quail Run Court Northeast in Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, he left without his phone, his watch, or a known direction of travel. A Silver Alert — an emergency notification system for missing elderly adults — was immediately issued.

McCasland is not an ordinary retired officer. He spent 34 years in the U.S. Air Force, earning a degree in astronautical engineering from the Air Force Academy and two degrees from MIT. His career covered classified Special Projects under the Secretary of the Air Force, the military GPS program, and directed energy research. His final posting was as Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio — where he managed a 4.4 billion dollar research portfolio and oversaw roughly 10,800 personnel.

Wright-Patterson is the Air Force installation where debris from the 1947 Roswell incident was reportedly taken for analysis. It was also home to Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s official UAP investigation program, which catalogued over 12,000 sightings and left more than 700 officially unresolved. McCasland ran its research division.

According to WikiLeaks, in 2016 a hacked email from Tom DeLonge — co-founder of Blink-182 and founder of To The Stars Academy — to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta referenced McCasland directly. The subject line read “General McCasland.” DeLonge wrote that McCasland had helped assemble his UAP advisory team and was deeply aware of the Roswell materials held at Wright-Patterson. Per The Independent, McCasland never publicly confirmed or denied any of it. Prominent Roswell investigator Don Schmidt confirmed he reached out to McCasland personally about the crash and wreckage — and was refused any comment.

As reported by KRQE News 13, the FBI Albuquerque Field Office has now officially joined the search alongside BCSO, with Kirtland Air Force Base also coordinating outreach. Missing persons investigator Dave Paulides, founder of the Canam Missing Project, noted that it is extremely rare for a sheriff’s office to request FBI involvement in a missing adult case absent evidence of a crime. Officials have confirmed search activity is ongoing but have not publicly identified the specific areas being searched or the teams involved.

As of this report, General Neil McCasland has not been found.

Sources

Canam Missing Project. (2026, March 5). Missing 411 David Paulides Presents a Retired Air Force General Who Ran Wright Patterson is Missing [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDnECUdvfJw

General McCasland — WikiLeaks. (n.d.). https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3099

KRQE. (2026, March 3). FBI joins search for missing retired Air Force general in Albuquerque [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gXSQtDTt_8

Liberatore, S. (2026, March 4). UFO-linked Air Force general’s disappearance takes mysterious new twist amid “sighting” in New Mexico. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15610785/ufo-william-neil-mccasland-disappearance-albuquerque.html

Sommerlad, J. (2026, March 5). William Neil McCasland: Former US general linked to UFO research goes missing in New Mexico. The Independent. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/william-neil-mccasland-missing-new-mexico-ufos-b2932511.html