Law&Crime Sidebar - Air Force General Linked to UFO Research Disappears

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

A retired two-star Air Force general, William McCasland, has disappeared in Albuquerque — and the case is raising new questions because of his past ties to Air Force UFO research. McCasland was last seen on February 27th, and his disappearance comes just days after President Donald Trump ordered the release of government files related to UFOs and unidentified aerial phenomena, though authorities say there is no evidence linking these events at this time.Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the unanswered questions and why this disappearance is drawing so much attention with missing person's private investigator Steve Fischer.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you or someone you know used the Doordash app between 2023 and 2025, you can visit https://www.forthepeople.com/sidebardoordash to submit a claim.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A retired two-star Air Force General has vanished without a trace. A man once tied to UFO research and just days after President Donald Trump ordered the release of government UFO files and now comments from Hillary Clinton in her Epstein deposition are adding a new twist. This is raising all kinds of questions about, yeah, aliens. Do they exist? And where is this general? We're going to break it all down with a private investigator, help us unpack what may really be going on here. The Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. All right, can we be honest about something real quick before we jump into this?

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It just takes five minutes or less and hope you can check it out. A retired Air Force General with reported ties to one of the most famous UFO research sites in the United States, seemingly has vanished in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Major General William McCaslin, the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, has now been missing for nearly a week. The sheriff's office is asking for tips right now.

The FBI is assisting in the search right now. And the timing of his disappearance, just days after these renewed calls to release government UFO files, it is obviously sparked intense curiosity. According to authorities, on the morning of February 27th, McCastland just disappeared. No confirmed witnesses, no clothing description released, no known direction of travel, just gone. Now, that timing, to be clear, we can't ignore it, okay?

But we're also not suggesting that it is related to this, but we have to mention, okay? Eight days before McCaslin vanished, President Donald Trump posted this message on truth social. Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War and other relevant departments and agencies to begin the process of identifying and releasing government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena, and unidentified flying objects. And then what happened? Hillary Clinton, right, the former Secretary of State, former First Lady, sat for a deposition in the House GOP's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

Remember, we talked about this, we covered on sidebar, the House Oversight Committee. Now, the questioning wasn't about UFOs, but that topic did briefly come up. Listen to this. When your husband was president, it was Lawrence Rockefeller, had an effort to try to disclose UFOs, UAPs. When you were running for president,

John Podesta publicly stated that you would disclose these files if given the chance if you had been president. Are you pleased to see that these files may be disclosed finally? I am pleased. As I say, I think...

So you heard a name there, John Podesta. Now, Podesta served as Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign chairman. Before that, he was White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton and later a senior advisor to President Barack Obama. Here is where things take another term. 2016, WikiLeaks published thousands of emails from Podesta's account, and that included messages from Tom DeLong, the guitarist from the band, Blink 182, who has since become very involved in UFO research projects.

In those emails, DeLong claimed he had been working with individuals connected to the military on UFO-related initiatives. One of the people that he named was General William McCaslin. So DeLong wrote that McCaslin had advised him and helped connect him with potential advisors for his research efforts, although it doesn't appear that McAstlen himself confirmed that he did this. But here's the timeline. February 19th, the president announces plans to release government UFO files. February 26th, Hillary Clinton has asked about UFO disclosure during a deposition and references Podesta's longstanding interest in the topic. And the next day, February 27th, General William

McCaslin is reported missing in Albuquerque. Okay. Now, again, to be clear, there is no evidence linking these events together. And authorities have not suggested any connection. But I mean, how do I not mention this? When a retired Air Force General with reported ties to a major research laboratory disappears and his name appears in past discussion, about UFO disclosures, and that's what the topic is right now, the case is naturally drawing attention. And what happened to him? What actually happened to McCaslin? So here's what investigators say they know so far and why this disappearance has people very, very curious. According to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, William Neal McAsslin is 68 years old.

He stands about 5'11, weighs roughly 160 pounds, white hair, blue eyes. On the morning of February 27th, he was last seen in the area of quail run court and E in Albuquerque. That is according to a missing person's bulletin that the sheriff's office released to the public. Authorities say they don't have a description of what he was wearing. They don't know which direction he went. What they did say, and this is directly from that bulletin, is that McCaslin has unspecified medical issues. And because of those issues, law enforcement is concerned for his safety. This is something that I want to talk about a little bit more. But the sheriff's office has specifically asked residents in the Quayl Run area to check any security camera footage from the morning of February 27th,

doorbell cameras, driveway cameras, anything that might have captured McCasteland or a vehicle leaving that area. Now you go back to McCasland. According to his official U.S. Air Force biography, William McCasland graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in astronautical engineering. Of the next 34 years, he held a variety of space research, acquisition, operations roles, including positions with the National Reconicence Office and at the Pentagon. Now, the National Reconnaissance Office, by the way, is one of the most secretive intelligence agencies in the whole country.

They build and operate America's spy satellites, so obviously you're not going to know too much about that. But McCaslin wasn't just involved in research. He was apparently involved in the kind of research that happens well above top secret clearance levels. But the position that matters most, at least for this story, at least for the circumstances that we're trying to get a sense of, came in 2011. That is when, according to Air Force records, McCastellon took command of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. He held that command until his retirement from the Air Force in October of 2013. The Dayton Daily News and other outlets have reported on the significance of this role, because as commander, McCaslin oversaw the Air Force's $2.2 billion science and technology program,

plus another $2.2 billion in customer-funded research and development. And here's why that matters for the UFO apparent connection. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was the headquarters of Project Blue Book. That's according to an article published by Ohio State University titled the Air Force Investigation into UFOs. According to that article, Project Blue Book ran from 1952 to 1969, and over those 17 years, investigators looked into nearly 13,000 reported UFO sightings. And of those, 701 remain a fuller.

officially labeled as unidentified. The same article notes that Project Blue Book was created by the U.S. government because of Cold War era security concerns and that it was fueled, in the author's words, by American obsession with the extraterrestrial. That article also features the original 1947 sketch from pilot Kenneth Arnold, the man whose flying saucer description kicked off the modern UFO error as well as headlines from the flying disc craze that followed. Now, the program concluded that UFOs did not pose a national security threat, found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology. But the location, that specific laboratory at Wright Patterson, has been at the center of UFO lore for decades. Why? In part because of persistent claims that debris from the 1947 Roswell incident was transported there.

Now, those claims have never been officially confirmed. That's not surprising. but they're part of why Wright Patterson comes up so often in UFO research. And this brings us back to McCaslin. He commanded that laboratory from 2011 until his retirement. And at his change of command ceremony in July of 2013, General Janet Wolfenbarger, then the commander of Air Force Material Command, had this to say. This is according to an Air Force publication.

Quote, General McCaslin has played a pivotal role in developing several unique capabilities that this country is not only, using now, but will rely on in the future to face emerging threats. His contributions leave a lasting positive impact on the Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Material Command, and our Air Force, and will continue to provide this nation with a technological edge for decades to come. And so then McCaslin retires, remains in New Mexico. We know he was familiar with the area. His Air Force bio shows he previously commanded the Phillips Research site at Curtlin Air Force Base in Albuquerque. That's where he was, as far as we know, until February 27th.

When it already said he reportedly left his home without his Apple Watch or phone, this triggered a silver alert due to safety concerns regarding a medical condition. And friends who spoke to the Dayton Daily News describe him as an avid hiker, a bike ride, or a skier. So this is someone who knew the outdoors, who knew how to take care of himself in rough terrain. It gives you an idea about maybe, maybe what might have happened. So I want to bring in somebody who can help us understand what happens next in these cases. a missing persons investigator.

He's going to talk to us about what police are looking for, how the timeline works, whether any of this other stuff actually matters when you're trying to find a missing person. Before we even bring them in, I just want to set the stage on one more thing, one more time with what happened in the days before McCasland vanished,

because the timing is going to be something that we have to ask about directly. February 26, Hillary Clinton sat for a deposition in the House GOP's Epstein investigation. At one point, the conversation turned to UFO, We showed you some of it before. Here is that full exchange. When your husband was president,

it was Lawrence Rockefeller, had an effort to try to disclose UFOs, UAPs. When you were running for president, John Podesta publicly stated that you would disclose these files if given the chance if you had been president. Are you pleased to see that these files

may be disclosed finally? I am pleased. As I say, I think they have to be carefully scrutinized so that no national security information is disclosed. But this is an issue of real importance to so many people, and I think whatever can be disclosed should be disclosed. Was there a program that specifically that that was referencing that you were aware of? I was not. As you mentioned, John Podesta, who was one of my advisors, was deeply interested in the issue. And if I had been elected, I certainly would have listened to his advice.

Well, thank you for indulgence on that. Joining us to help make sense of all of this is a friend of the show, Steve Fisher, private investigator who specializes in missing persons cases. Actually, by the way, as we have Steve, he just came off of a search and rescue mission. He's in a hotel right now. This is the dedication to sidebar that we have from Steve. Steve, thanks so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me. So I just laid everything out. The General's background, the Wright-Patterson connection, the Trump announcement, the Clinton

deposition, the Podesta emails. I want to start with a big question here. When you're looking at a missing person's case like this, which is very different, with all of this going on, context swirling around it, you can't ignore it, how do you, as an investigator, begin to sort through, I guess the best way to say it, what might be relevant and what might be just noise. And that's the whole trick here is

cut through that noise because with this individual's background and you know, there's going to be a ton of noise conspiracy talk. And as searchers, we don't know, you know, we can only go off what we actually have. And I think that

what's in, you know, what I'd be looking at if I was one of the search commanders would be the fact that the phone and watch was left behind and that there's this talk of, well, they activated the, so I think it's the silver alert out there because of some health issues. And although he seems like a very fit, physically active guy, they are talking about some sort of health issues. So there seems like there's something going on there. But he can't ignore, you know, his background. By the way, talk to us why is that

significant they activated the silver alert? Well, So they'll activate that with somebody's vulnerable, especially vulnerable. And usually that's because they're dependent on medication or they have some underlying health condition where they can't really maybe survive, you know, a couple of days out in the elements. And this is a guy who, you know, from what I've heard from his friends accounts, super active, knows the area very well. And one of his friends actually described him as an Olympic level skier. So super physically fit, nose the wilderness, military background.

But they activated Silver Alert. It makes me wonder if maybe he got some sort of recent diagnosis or something, you know, along that lines. But that's pure speculation. It's not like a situation where necessarily somebody, a Silver Alert says, oh, there's some mental incapacity. They walked out on their own. They don't know what's going on. It could also be, let's say, I mean, not to make a comparison, but the Nancy Guthrie case where she needed active medication daily. And if she doesn't have access to that medication, it could be, you know, dire consequences.

Could it be something like that? You know, he was getting, again, I have no idea about his medical history. But it could be something just a health-related issue, why he needs to be found sooner rather than later. Absolutely. And the fact is that they are so strict and worried about HIPAA violations that the searchers probably don't even know what that health condition is. The search commanders do, but they're probably not even. They're just saying it's somebody dependent, but instead of being a voluntary missing or it's somebody that's particularly vulnerable. And it's kind of like an Amber Alert for the kids, you know.

I want to ask you about this timeline, okay? And I just want to be clear again, as I say this, because before investigators, you know, are not necessarily connecting these dots, we're not trying to connect them to. But we're just asking questions here. I mean, I think we have to. When you look at that timeline of right, when they're going to be talking about releasing. these UAP, UFO materials, does that raise any red flags for you? Or do you just set that aside? You just focus on the ground level facts.

You tell me. You've got to try and set it aside and just work on search theory. But it's very, it's always going to listen, even though the investigators aren't talking about it, it is in the back of their mind, right? I mean, it's hard to ignore. But more often than not, these end up just being weird coincidences, you know. And, you know, the thing to the positive, I guess as far as the search goes, you know, with that background, what's going to happen is it's going to be a massive response. And, you know, I had a case last July of a JPL scientist, NASA scientists, who went missing in LA National Force.

And, I mean, it's the first time I'd ever run a search with National Guard was out there with Blackhawks. And I think it's going to be the same type of response for this gentleman as well, you know, and they're going to get everybody. Everybody's going to be involved. It's going to be a massive response. That's an interesting point. You have the sheriff's office who's the lead agency, but now we also have the FBI, right? The Albuquerquefield office is now assisting. Can you walk us through why we might be seeing that and what this actually means?

When the FBI gets brought into a missing person's case, what is assisting look like on this for me? from their perspective, what do they do? And why would they be necessary for a case like this? So there's a couple of different ways. They've been requested, you know, so agencies can request the FBI's assistance if it's not in FBI jurisdiction. So if this wasn't, you know,

National Force or whatever, but they can request the FBI's assistance. And a lot of agencies like we've seen in, you know, Tucson maybe are hesitant. A lot of agencies will take that assistance. And so the FBI will be there as a support agency because the local jurisdiction will be the lead, but they have much more resources. And then if you get like border, if you get like, you know, border control, their search abilities and canines and helicopters, and if you get National Guard in there, which I think they're bringing in, then you've got unbelievable thermal imaging capabilities.

You've got military level stuff. And even though they're support agencies, nobody's really telling them what to do. it's like they're assigned search areas and they're, you know, they have much greater capabilities than local sheriffs do. What about the Air Force connection? The Sheriff's Office says they're coordinating with the, uh, the Curtland Air Force Base, but McCaslin retired, again, I believe in 2013. He's been from Weekendell, just living kind of like a civilian life for more than a decade.

Why would the Air Force base be involved? What role would they play in a case like this? My guess, and it's really guess is just because he was such high level. And, you know, the connection there, you know, he wasn't just, you know, anyway, he ran, you know, big programs there. So I think it's that. It's the same thing that you saw with this JPL scientist. You know, it was what it was. It was somebody at NASA put a call out for assistance to a federal agency to say, hey, one of our scientists has gone missing on a hike.

And next thing you knew, everybody was willing to help. And I think that's probably going to be the situation here. But, you know, who knows for the real. Just generally speaking, okay, even if you put aside his credentials, his past, no confirmed witnesses, no clothing description release, no known direction of travel. He has just disappeared. It's been, you know, a little bit right now. Is that weird?

Is that very unusual? Or do you say to me, Jesse, look, this is, this happens sometimes in missing person's cases. you know, it's not necessarily an outlier. The cell phone and watch left behind, we see a lot. And it's not a good sign. Does it make me wonder if he got some sort of diagnosis or something recently. But when we see those tracking devices left behind, those devices that can be tracked. And somebody like him that really knows the outdoors, and they haven't found him in the first four days with a lot of assets,

It makes me wonder if he wanted, if he, you know, if someone's going on in his life where he, you know, he didn't want to be found. And by the way, to be clear, we don't know that for sure. And to be clear, we also authorities haven't, you know, said outright publicly to suggest that there was foul play, right, that this was a kidnapping, that this is a criminal investigation. You're seeing this multi-agency effort to try to find him. We've talked a little bit about McCaslin himself, the person, right? You know, not the general. His wife, you mentioned, said he loves the outdoors. He's an avid skier. He's a hiker. But I do want to discuss, obviously, the elephant in the room because we'd be lying if we said this wasn't part of, you know, why we're all here. So General McCaslin's name appears in those hacked Podesta emails I mentioned earlier from 2016.

You know, Tom DeLong, the Blink 182 guitarist, UFO researcher, wrote to Podesta, claiming that he'd been working with McCaslin, claimed that McCastellon helped assemble his advisory team, claimed that McCaslin knew what he was trying to achieve. According to the documents that were reviewed by Rolling Stone magazine, in one exchange, DeLong appeared to write to Podesta. When Roswell crashed, they shipped it to the laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. General McCaslin was in charge of that exact laboratory up to a couple years ago. He not only knows what I'm trying to achieve, he helped assemble my advisory team.

He's a very important man. Now, here's what we need to be clear about. According to Newsweek, there are no official records indicating that McCaslin actually advised. DeLong, the general himself has never confirmed or denied it. And, by the way, just to add another layer to here. DeLong has spent years building credibility in this space. He founded Two to the Stars, Inc. wrote a 2019 Newsweek op-ed, arguing that America has been investigating UFOs for years,

appeared in a Netflix docu-series on the topic. So whether or not McCaslin was actually involved, We know that DeLong has positioned himself as someone with insider access. Steve, I go back to you on this. Look, one of the things I'm thinking about, again, elephant in the room, is let's say, there is foul play here. Let's say this is connected to his past. Wouldn't it have been done in a way where it wouldn't have alerted authorities of the public to the fact that he's been missing? I mean, I think that's something interesting to think about, right?

It's creating now more of an uproar. it's making its way in the news. People are looking at this. It's looking more suspicious. So for those who might believe that something happened to him in connection with his past, I don't know if this is the way

that you would go about it. Well, so those people that are going to believe that and they'll continue to believe it no matter what. They're the loudest voice in the room. So just shining a spotlight on this, just amplifies. And so I don't think they'd go about it this way. In fact, his wife,

I saw a quote from her where she, you know, said that she didn't believe. She didn't have anything to suspect style play is involved. But, you know, the guy has a very interesting past. But you got to understand, we've got to realize, too, that the UFO stuff is not all alien-based. It's anything that's, you know, it's these weather balloons, these spy balloons and, you know, any unidentified type of stuff. But he was working on propulsion things and very interesting. He probably knows a, I mean, he does know a lot of things. But like you said, he's been retired a very long time too.

So I think it's going to just end up being noise and a coincidence and something else was going on. But, I mean, you just never know. I mean, it's such strange times that are you living? It's very strange. And I wonder what is your ability to actually look at what he was working on, what his past is? I mean, I would imagine all those records would be classified, whether you were a private investigator or local law enforcement. maybe the FBI has better access to it. How far can they get into actually looking at those records?

It feels very complicated to me. My, and this is just speculating. I would guess there's probably only a handful of people with the FBI that could even access that information. And those aren't people that are on the search. Those are the very high level. These are military classified things that even in the military level. I mean, I can't imagine that many people have access to it.

So private investigator as a searcher, as a sheriff, or sheriff deputy probably zero access. They probably have, you know, so they probably can't even really factor that in besides the speculation. I don't think anybody's briefing them on. Here's exactly what he knew and was working on and stuff like that.

That's all going to still be kept in top secret. I would think. Before I let you go, just want to circle back to this theory that you have and you've talked about it. It could be very, very true. If he were dealing with a situation where someone voluntarily left on the wrong, okay?

How tough is it? it to avoid being detected? How tough is it to avoid being, you know, found by authorities? If you have all these agencies looking into it, I've seen cases like that before, sometimes in, you know, kind of mountainous terrain or wilderness terrain. But how difficult would it be for someone to just pick up leave and not be found? Well, somebody that knows an outdoors well can can actually, if they think it through, you know, they can come up with it. Typically what happens in these situations, if it's that, they're found in the water. And, you know, it's a, you have to wait a certain amount of days before, you know, because of what bodies do when they are in the water. And,

but some people that, you know, will find if, let's say they got this diagnosis and they just decide that they don't want to live with that. If they have like life insurance and stuff like that, sometimes they will hide themselves best they can because they don't pay out on, you know, if people take their own lives. So, you know, and people think that stuff through. So it's really hard. But a guy like this that knows mountain strain knows military, you can make it hard.

But my guess is if there's bodies of water there, you're going to start seeing some intense searches in the water. And again, just to be 100% clear, this is all speculation, this is all theories. We do not know definitively the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. We know at this point that he can't be found. Yeah, in search and rescue, we go off, you know, statistics from past, like markers that we see. We actually, and these are, these are models that are built or are maintained by the Department of Justice that we have access to.

And it's just, it's just giving us probabilities. And it has some markers of that. But I have no inside information on what's going on in that search. So it's just, it's just based on probabilities. is hopefully he's injured and alive, you know, they'll find him. Steve Fisher, thanks so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. We're also up on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody.