A retired Air Force major general with a long trail of UFO lore attached to his name reportedly sat down for dinner with members of the U.S. Space Force just hours before he disappeared in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
William Neil McCasland, 68, has not been seen since Feb. 27, when investigators say he was last spotted near Quail Run Court NE. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Silver Alert, the public notification system used to locate missing seniors and those believed to be at risk.
Body-camera footage obtained by the Law&Crime Network shows deputies speaking with an unidentified woman who told police she and Space Force personnel met McCasland at a restaurant around 6 p.m. on Feb. 26. The woman said she worked with McCasland through the Kirtland Partnership, a nonprofit tied to protecting and expanding Kirtland Air Force Base, the massive research hub in Mobile County’s neighboring New Mexico that includes nuclear weapons-related facilities.
Officially, the Space Force equips the military for operations in space and protects satellites and other assets. It also tracks unexplained objects for national security, a mission that has fueled endless speculation about UFOs.
The witness claimed McCasland still moved in sensitive circles and suggested he held significant access, despite public statements from his wife that he had only routine clearances since retiring more than a decade ago.
“He was the head of Air Force Research Lab to the point the man’s names are in the UFO documents that are fixed to be released,” the witness told police, according to the recording. “He’s in that depth, so he has a very high security clearance.”
But the woman also said something felt off during the dinner.
“I was shocked this morning when I saw the alert because what I noticed Thursday evening [February 26] is that he wasn’t his usual self. He was kind of spacey and quiet and you know that that happens with people,” she said, according to the recording.
Deputies also spoke with McCasland’s wife, Susan Wilkerson, who appeared stunned by the disappearance. In the footage, she told officers her husband had just been prescribed a new medication intended to help him sleep and address symptoms that had been worrying the family.
“Today he had taken a drug that the doctor prescribed last night that was supposed to help him sleep,” Wilkerson said, according to the recording obtained by Law&Crime Sidebar with Jesse Weber.
NEW: The missing UFO-linked Air Force general had a meeting with an unidentified woman and members of the US Space Force just hours before he went missing.
William Neil McCasland, who was linked to classified UFO programs, vanished on February 27.
According to new bodycam… pic.twitter.com/C9s6kcoC03
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 27, 2026
“With weight gain, he’s lost about 20 pounds for no reason, and with anxiety, today he woke up and said, ‘Well, I have got better sleep, but it’s like the after effects of a bad hangover. I’m just foggy. I can’t get any motivation to do anything,’” she added.
Wilkerson told authorities McCasland had been seeing doctors for physical and mental issues and had voiced fear that his brain was “deteriorating,” according to the report. She also said he left home without his phone, wearable devices or identification and believed he “had planned not to be found.”
Investigators say McCasland changed clothes before leaving and took only a pair of boots and his .38-caliber revolver. No sign of him has been reported since.
McCasland previously led Kirtland Air Force Base and ran the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Both sites have been magnets for decades of rumors about advanced aerospace work and unexplained phenomena. The Space Force has acknowledged major operations at both locations in recent years, including Space Systems Command and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office at Kirtland, and the National Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson.
UFO talk has followed Wright-Patterson for generations, including claims by former government scientists that debris from the alleged 1947 Roswell crash ended up there for study. Officials have long said the installations focus on national security and defense research.
Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett has publicly tied McCasland to America’s alleged UFO pipeline, and UFO whistleblower David Grusch has also named him in recent commentary about non-human craft recovery and reverse-engineering allegations.
Deputies canvassed neighbors after the disappearance. One neighbor, described in the footage as a former subordinate, told officers McCasland was “really straight laced” and said it would be out of character for him to vanish without warning.
“He used to be my boss. My boss’s boss’s boss,” the neighbor said, according to the body-cam recording. “He was this scary colonel. He’s a PhD. I’m a PhD, but like he’s a PhD in some other science, engineering and then he ran the scientific lab and he’s smart as hell.”
McCasland’s case has also been linked online to other recent missing-person reports involving government workers and scientists tied to facilities he once oversaw, though authorities have not publicly connected those cases.
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