Melissa Casias (53) worked at the important and sensitive Los Alamos National Laboratory. On 26 June 2025, she leaves her home in New Mexico without her phone, keys or ID. She is found on 28 May, shot through the head in the wilderness. The authorities say it is unclear whether it was murder, but unofficially police officers tell the Daily Mail that there is no doubt she was killed. The bullet entered from below and exited through the left cerebral hemisphere. She could not possibly have held the weapon herself.
The bereaved family have launched an investigation and are shocked by what they found at the scene. Long after the authorities declared the site cleared, they found biological traces and packets of chewing tobacco. Do the police themselves litter a crime scene without caring? How much can they trust the investigation?
The conduct is all the more peculiar given that Casias is one of ten scientists at the Los Alamos laboratories who have mysteriously disappeared.
There are several circumstances surrounding the disappearance that indicate that this was not an ordinary crime. Casias drove her husband to work. He also worked at Los Alamos. She had forgotten her ID card at home and therefore returned home to work from there. On the way, she stopped by her daughter’s with a sandwich. There, all traces end. But then:
Casias, however, never showed up for work at LANL that day, and when the family returned home, they found a drop of blood inside the house, and both the wife’s and mother’s mobile phones had been wiped and reset to factory settings.
She was last seen on surveillance cameras walking alone eastwards along State Road 518, about three miles from her home, at around 2.20 p.m. local time.
David Adams, a lawyer retained by Casias’ parents and siblings, previously told the Daily Mail that the family still suspects foul play in the case, after legal observers who have followed the investigation into her disappearance and death pointed to several alarming signs.
The most alarming thing is that the phone had been wiped and reset. Someone wanted to erase traces.
The lawyer says the bereaved family reacted strongly to the fact that many traces were still present at the scene.
The search team found bones, torn and bloody clothing, a tobacco pouch, orange peel and strands of hair from a person or something else that were not secured by the police when the 53-year-old’s body was found.
The discovery has turned the case on its head, and Adams argues that investigators in New Mexico have seriously damaged their credibility if it turns out that Casias was the victim of a crime and a suspect is brought to trial.
‘Then a question arises about the chain of custody… Could the police have spat out a tobacco pouch at the scene? I mean, it is absolutely possible. That would, of course, be an example of poor training,’ Adams explained.
Ten scientists connected to sensitive research have disappeared, some of whom have been found dead.
Overall, more than ten nuclear laboratory employees, NASA researchers and military personnel have been linked to the so-called ‘missing scientists case’ over the past year, and the White House has instructed the FBI to investigate any connections between the deaths and disappearances.
According to Adams, however, there have been no signs that the FBI has investigated Casias’ death.
Trump has ordered that the disappearances be investigated, but there has been a strange silence for a long time. The public is alarmed. That the FBI has not been involved in a case as unusual as Casias’ disappearance seems striking. Americans do not have much confidence in the federal police.
https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-16053233/autopsy-melissa-casias-los-alamos-death.html