New details are emerging in the disappearance of a U.S. Air Force general who retired as commander of a research division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.
Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland went missing in New Mexico on Feb. 27. His wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, reported him missing later that day, when she returned from a medical appointment to find him gone without taking his glasses, phone and other personal items, according to USA TODAY.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office issued a Silver Alert for McCasland, 68, for unspecified medical issues. A Silver Alert is an advisory for a missing person who is 50 or older and has an “irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties,” according to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. The sheriff’s office later clarified McCasland’s mental state at a March 16 press conference.
Here’s the latest.
Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office updates search for Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, clarifies Silver Alert
At its March 16 news conference, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said it had issued the Silver Alert because McCasland previously reported that he was experiencing a “mental fog.” But Lt. Kyle Woods of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office underscored that investigators do not believe McCasland was cognitively impaired at the time of his disappearance.
“There’s no indication, and we are not putting forward that Mr. McCasland was disoriented, confused,” Woods said. “Arguably, he would still be the most intelligent person in the room that any of us would be in. Highly intelligent, highly capable, but that information was given to us early on, and out of an abundance of caution, we escalated to a Silver Alert to try to garner as much public attention as possible to try to help locate him as soon as possible.”
The sheriff’s office said there were still no confirmed sightings of McCasland and reiterated that there is currently no evidence of foul play. The case remains an active missing person investigation.
Timeline of William McCasland’s disappearance
A repairman interacted with McCasland at his home around 10 a.m. local time on Feb. 27, according to a timeline released by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
McCasland Wilkerson left for a medical appointment at about 11:10 a.m. and returned shortly after noon to find him gone, the sheriff’s office said. He left behind his phone, prescription glasses, and wearable devices at the residence. But several items appeared to be missing from the residence, including his hiking boots, a wallet, and a .38-caliber revolver with a leather holster, the sheriff’s office said.
After attempting to contact family and friends, McCasland Wilkerson reported him missing at about 3:07 p.m., and the investigation began immediately, according to the sheriff’s office.
On March 7, a gray U.S. Air Force sweatshirt was discovered about 1.25 miles east of the home and prompted additional search efforts in the area, the sheriff’s office said. Authorities said the sweatshirt has not been confirmed to belong to McCasland, and initial testing detected no blood.
FBI joins hunt for missing general
FBI agents and investigators from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office had been spotted canvassing the neighborhood where McCasland was last seen, KRQE in Albuquerque reported.
The FBI will join a missing persons case at the request of state or local law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Resource Manual. That makes resources such as the FBI Identification Division and the FBI Laboratory available to investigators.
McCasland commanded Air Force Research Laboratory at Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
McCasland was the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, according to his Air Force biography. He managed a $2.2 billion science and technology program as well as $2.2 billion in additional customer-funded research and development. He joined Wright-Patterson in 2011 and retired in 2013.
He was commissioned in 1979 after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in astronautical engineering. He has served in a wide variety of space research, acquisition and operations roles within the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office.
Susan McCasland Wilkerson, wife of missing general, pushes back against ‘misinformation’
McCasland Wilkerson took to social media to “dispel some of the misinformation circulating about Neil and his disappearance.”
In a Facebook post, McCasland Wilkerson refutes media reports alleging McCasland’s dementia, concerning phone calls and his involvement with the UFO community.
“It is true that Neil had a brief association with the UFO community through Tom DeLonge, former frontman for Blink-182 and founder of the organization To The Stars,” Wilkerson wrote. “Neil worked with Tom for a bit shortly after his Air Force retirement as an unpaid (Neil’s choice) consultant on military and technical/scientific matters to lend verisimilitude to Tom’s fiction book and media activities.”
Also being spread by “uninformed media sources,” she said, includes “misinformation” about:
McCasland mentioned in WikiLeaks release in connection to UFOs
McCasland was described as a key adviser on UFO-related projects by DeLonge, UFO researcher and guitarist for the band Blink-182, Newsweek reports. The general’s name appears in the 2016 WikiLeaks email release from John Podesta, then Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.
In emails to Podesta, DeLonge said he has been working with McCasland for months and that the general was aware of the materials DeLonge was probing because McCasland has been “in charge of the laboratory at Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base where the Roswell wreckage was shipped,” according to Newsweek.
However, there is no official record of DeLonge’s claims, and McCasland has neither confirmed nor denied it.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base home to UFO project
The Dayton Air Force base was home to Project Blue Book in the 1950s and ’60s, according to “The Air Force Investigation into UFOs” published by Ohio State University.
During that time, it logged 12,618 UFO sightings, with 701 of those remaining “unidentified.” The U.S. government created the project because of Cold War-era security concerns and Americans’ obsession with aliens.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New details emerge in missing Air Force general with alleged UFO ties
Reporting by Chad Murphy, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
