An skilled hiker and avid outdoorsman, William Neil McCasland isn’t the standard lacking individual, however the retired Air Force main general hasn’t been seen since he walked out of his Albuquerque dwelling on the morning of February 27, forsaking his cellphone, prescription glasses and wearable units.
As a part of the search, authorities flew a helicopter geared up with infrared cameras over the cliffs and canyons close to his dwelling at night time, hoping to spot him by his warmth signature. But the unseasonably warm spring turned the panorama towards them.
“The mountain was just lit up like a candle,” Lt. Kyle Woods of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office stated at a information convention Monday. “We couldn’t differentiate from heat signatures and the heat from the rocks.”
Seventeen days after his disappearance, officers nonetheless can’t say the place the 68-year-old went, why he left or whether or not another person was concerned — a thriller deepened by public fascination with the retired general’s ties to UFO lore.
Surveillance cameras cowl each ends of McCasland’s avenue, but authorities stated Monday they’re nonetheless combing by way of that footage together with video offered by residents.
Asked if authorities imagine one thing nefarious could have occurred, Woods stated, “We haven’t ruled anything out, but we have nothing pointing to it either.”
What McCasland did and didn’t take with him has turn out to be central to the investigation. Woods stated it was unusual for McCasland to go away with out his cellphone or wearable units, each of which had been discovered at his dwelling.
McCasland has a second dwelling in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, about 35 miles north of the New Mexico border and roughly 200 miles from his Albuquerque dwelling. There, investigators recovered a light-weight inexperienced long-sleeve button-up shirt and mountaineering boots, in accordance to the sheriff’s workplace. Still unaccounted for are McCasland’s pockets, a .38-caliber revolver, a leather-based holster and a purple backpack. Authorities haven’t stated whether or not they imagine he had these objects when he left.
A grey US Air Force sweatshirt was discovered about 1.25 miles east of McCasland’s dwelling on March 7 — eight days after he disappeared, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen stated. McCasland’s household hasn’t confirmed it was his, however no blood was detected on the shirt in preliminary testing and the invention led investigators to goal the world for added searches.
During his profession, McCasland was on the heart of a few of the Pentagon’s most superior aerospace analysis and as soon as commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. But he had reported experiencing “mental fog” earlier than his disappearance, a situation he cited as the explanation for stepping down from varied teams he labored with, officers stated Monday.
Allen declined to go into additional element out of respect for McCasland’s household.
Still, Woods pushed again towards any suggestion that McCasland was impaired.
“There’s no indication, and we are not putting forward that Mr. McCasland was disoriented or confused,” Woods stated. “Arguably, he would still be the most intelligent person in the room that any of us would be in. Highly intelligent, highly capable.”
Woods stated that after authorities had been made conscious of the psychological fog and contemplating McCasland’s age, they issued a Silver Alert “out of an abundance of caution” to appeal to as a lot public consideration as doable.
A huge and unforgiving search space
Investigators have canvassed greater than 700 houses and searched an unlimited stretch of terrain utilizing canines, drones and helicopters. “It’s vast, it’s a lot of square mileage, there’s a lot of hidden areas, there’s rocky areas, there’s areas where people can get injured in,” Allen stated.
Woods stated searchers have coated the complete canyon “except maybe some difficult to reach parts” utilizing drones, helicopters and floor groups — however the mixture of terrain and climate has left investigators and not using a breakthrough.
He additionally supplied a sobering evaluation of the timeline.
“If we receive information that would lead this to become a recovery mission, we would pursue that with the same vigor,” he stated.
But he acknowledged the grim actuality: “We are many weeks in, and if he were to have gone into the mountains, the likelihood of surviving this time frame would be very low.”
Officials have requested residents and companies within the space to evaluate surveillance video — together with doorbell cameras, sprint cams and path footage — from February 27 and February 28. The precedence window is between 9 a.m. and a pair of p.m. on February 27. A repairman last interacted with McCasland at his dwelling round 10 a.m. that day, and his spouse returned shortly after midday to find him gone, in accordance to a timeline beforehand launched by investigators.
Allen stated his workplace has acquired 74 ideas, not together with those sent to the FBI. Investigators are nonetheless working by way of a major quantity of video footage.
The base McCasland as soon as commanded has lengthy been rumored to home extraterrestrial debris linked to the Roswell incident, regardless of Air Force denials. His disappearance got here simply days after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was directing the Pentagon and different federal businesses to launch authorities data associated to extraterrestrial life and UFOs.
Allen stated his workplace will “look into everything,” however burdened that investigators deal in info, not conspiracy theories. Anyone with info can contact the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 505-468-7070.