The ongoing investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a retired Air Force general revealed that he vanished within a one-hour window while his wife was out.
William “Neil” McCasland was last seen at or near his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the morning of Feb. 27. The retired major general, 68, was heavily involved in military space and technology programs and has been linked to UFO investigations.
In a Thursday press release, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said a repairman was at McCasland’s residence at around 10 a.m. on Feb. 27. At 11:10 a.m., his wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, left the house to go to a medical appointment.
When she returned home at around 12:04 p.m., McCasland was no longer there, authorities said. His phone, prescription glasses, and wearable devices were all at the residence, but other belongings were believed to be missing, including his hiking boots, wallet, and a .38 caliber revolver with a leather holster.
Susan began trying to find her husband and reached out to family and friends. Hours later, around 3:07 p.m., she reported him missing.
Investigators believe the retired general may have been wearing a light-green, long-sleeved button-up shirt when he disappeared. McCasland is 5′11″ with white hair and blue eyes.
Over the weekend, authorities also found a gray U.S. Air Force sweatshirt about 1.25 miles east of the McCasland residence. No blood was detected on the garment, but additional analysis is pending. McCasland’s friends and family do not believe that the sweatshirt was his, but the discovery prompted a targeted search effort in the area.
The Sheriff’s Office said there is currently no evidence of foul play.
The neighborhood canvass has expanded to cover more than 700 homes, and authorities have also launched drone operations, helicopter support, ground searches, and K-9 searches for McCasland. The FBI has also joined the search.
McCasland once commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, which has long courted speculations about extraterrestrial debris.
The subject of aliens has been in the news more often this year, following former President Barack Obama addressed the subject in a podcast interview last month. President Donald Trump then further added fuel to the fire by refusing to say whether aliens were real but accusing Obama of releasing “classified information.”
Susan, however, said her husband’s knowledge of highly classified information was unlikely to be linked to his disappearance.
“It is true that when Neil was in the Air Force, he had access to some highly classified programs and information,” she wrote in a Facebook post last week. “He retired from the AF almost 13 years ago and has had only very commonly held clearances since. It seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him.”
After he retired, McCasland worked briefly with musician Tom DeLonge from the rock band Blink-182. DeLonge co-founded the company To The Stars, Inc., which probes unidentified aerial phenomena.
“This connection is not a reason for someone to abduct Neil,” Susan said. “Though at this point with absolutely no sign of him, maybe the best hypothesis is that aliens beamed him up to the mothership. However, no sightings of a mothership hovering above the Sandia Mountains have been reported.”
