A high-ranking retired US Air Force major general who as soon as commanded a base lengthy associated with UFO lore has been missing for nearly two weeks, and authorities are interesting to the general public for assist discovering him, based on the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico.
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, left his Albuquerque residence on foot at roughly 11 a.m. February 27 and has not been in contact with household or mates since, the sheriff’s workplace stated in a news release on March 6.
The sheriff’s workplace issued a Silver Alert the following day, which stays in impact. McCasland has an unspecified “medical issue” that has added urgency to the search, authorities stated.
His telephone, prescription glasses and wearable units have been left behind on the home, and investigators imagine his mountaineering boots, pockets and a .38-caliber revolver with a leather-based holster are missing, the sheriff’s workplace stated in a information launch on Thursday.
Investigators additionally launched a extra detailed timeline exhibiting a repairman interacted with McCasland on the residence round 10 a.m. on February 27, and his spouse returned shortly after midday to seek out him gone.
A grey US Air Force sweatshirt was discovered about 1.25 miles east of McCasland’s residence throughout a search on March 7, although officers stated it has not but been confirmed to belong to him, based on the Thursday launch. No blood was discovered on the sweater, the sheriff’s workplace stated.
Authorities have performed intensive neighborhood canvassing, interviews and coordinated search operations in an effort to seek out him, contacting greater than 700 householders in the neighborhood, the sheriff’s workplace stated.
McCasland is 5-foot-11 with white hair and blue eyes, the sheriff’s workplace stated. He is “an avid outdoorsman” who hikes, runs and cycles in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights neighborhood and the Sandia Mountains foothills.
Investigators launched a photograph on Thursday exhibiting McCasland in a lightweight inexperienced, long-sleeved button-up out of doors shirt he might have been sporting on the time he went missing.
Search efforts have additionally included drones, helicopter help, floor searches with search-and-rescue groups and Ok-9 items, although investigators say they haven’t recognized any confirmed sightings or footage exhibiting McCasland “leaving the area or indicating a direction of travel,” based on the Thursday launch.
“Due to his background and established partnerships, BCSO is coordinating closely with multiple agencies,” together with the FBI Albuquerque Field Office and Kirtland Air Force Base, the sheriff’s office said. The FBI has confirmed its involvement.
McCasland held a number of the most delicate positions in the US army, according to the Air Force. An astronautical engineer with levels from the US Air Force Academy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, he held a collection of high-level posts throughout his profession.
He served as chief engineer on the Department of Defense’s Global Positioning System program, system program director of the Space Based Laser Project Office and director of particular applications on the Pentagon. He additionally commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — a base lengthy rumored to deal with extraterrestrial debris linked to Roswell, regardless of Air Force denials.
Following his retirement, McCasland briefly labored with Blink-182 musician Tom DeLonge, a co-founder of To The Stars, Inc., an organization that claims it research details about unidentified aerial phenomena, his spouse stated.
NCS has reached out to the Air Force and McCasland’s household for remark.
His disappearance got here simply days after President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social publish he was directing the Pentagon and different federal companies to launch authorities information associated to extraterrestrial life and UFOs.
“I hope and pray this is not one of those cases where a former senior military officer was specifically targeted and that he will be found happy and healthy in the immediate near term for his sake and the sake of his loved ones,” Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defense intelligence officer who now advocates for the discharge of labeled details about UFOs, advised NCS.
“Whether or not his disappearance had anything to do with any legacy involvement he may have had in UAP research, I prefer to allow law enforcement the necessary time to do their work before speculating,” he added.
“It is true that Neil had a brief association with the UFO community,” McCasland’s spouse, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, stated in a Facebook post. “This connection is not a reason for someone to abduct Neil. Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt.”
A Silver Alert is an emergency notification pushed out statewide, just like an AMBER alert, however for missing individuals over the age of fifty who show a “deterioration of intellectual faculties,” based on the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. But Wilkerson stated her husband doesn’t have dementia. “He was not confused and disoriented,” she stated.
McCasland retired nearly 13 years in the past, and Wilkerson stated it “seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him.”
Wilkerson thanked the neighborhood and authorities for their help, noting the “dozens of searchers on foot, both official and friends and neighbors of Neil’s … horseback searchers, drones with different capabilities, helicopters, three different types of search dogs, neighborhood canvassing and looking for Ring or wildlife videos.”
The sheriff’s workplace stated it has thus far “uncovered no evidence of foul play” however is “still considering all possible scenarios.”
Investigators have requested these in the realm to contact them if they’ve any data. Footage and different recordsdata will be despatched to the sheriff’s workplace by means of a dedicated webpage.
“… Maybe the best hypothesis is that aliens beamed him up to the mothership,” Wilkerson stated in her publish. “However, no sightings of a mothership hovering above the Sandia Mountains have been reported.”