Overview
- The FBI, which said Monday it will lead a consolidated review, is coordinating with the White House and agencies such as the Department of Energy and the Defense Department to look for any common threads.
- House Oversight leaders James Comer and Eric Burlison requested briefings from the Pentagon, Energy, FBI and NASA by April 27, calling the pattern a national security concern and saying it is unlikely to be a coincidence.
- NASA said it is cooperating with federal partners and stated that nothing related to the agency points to a national security threat, adding that it will share more information when possible.
- Reports aggregate about 10 to 11 cases since 2022 across NASA, national labs and defense research, and officials stress there is no proven link, noting case-specific findings that include a suicide ruling, an arrest in Carl Grillmair’s killing, and police tying Nuno Loureiro’s death to a mass shooting suspect.
- Burlison highlighted two more names for scrutiny, former Air Force intelligence officer Matthew Sullivan, who died in 2024, and physicist Ning Li, who died in 2021, as online attention surged after retired Maj. Gen. Neil McCasland disappeared in February.