Family of Los Alamos lab worker found dead near handgun rejects suicide theory, suspects foul play

Family of Los Alamos lab worker found dead near handgun rejects suicide theory, suspects foul play

Melissa Casias, 54, disappeared in June 2025 from Taos, leaving behind her purse, driver's license and multiple cellphones, police say

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Remains of missing scientist found in New Mexico

Christina Coleman reports on the discovery of Melissa Casias' remains in a New Mexico forest, a missing Los Alamos National Laboratory worker. This incident highlights a disturbing pattern of 11 US scientists and government employees tied to nuclear programs mysteriously disappearing or dying since June 2022. The FBI and House Oversight Committee are investigating.

The family of a worker at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico found dead next to a handgun over the weekend has rejected the idea that she would have killed herself, and some relatives believe foul play may have been involved.

Melissa Casias, 54, vanished on June 26, 2025, from Taos, New Mexico, according to authorities.

Relatives on her parents' side of the family wrote on Facebook that the area where she’d be found, in the McGaffey Ridge area of Carson National Forest, had been searched previously.

A hiker found her body over the weekend, according to New Mexico State Police. They publicly identified her remains Saturday. They said there was also a handgun nearby.

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Melissa Casias, 53, an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was reported missing on June 26, 2025, and her whereabouts remain unknown. (Mondragon family)

An official cause and manner of death had not been made public as of Thursday morning. Fox News Digital has reached out to the county medical examiner’s office and police for more information.

Although the post mentioned a "mound of evidence," it was not immediately clear what the family had collected in connection with the case.

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"You don’t need to be a hunter, a scientist or a cop to know that a human body is not going to be left out in the elements and be undisturbed a year later," said Thomas McNally, an Arizona private investigator who has been working with her family.

New Mexico State Police Chief Matt Broom, center, provides updates during a news conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

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He said Casias was known to conceal carry a pistol, but he couldn't speak to the caliber or condition of the one found near her remains.

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However, he distanced Casias from reports of other government lab workers who have gone missing in recent months, telling Fox News Digital she was an administrative assistant and not a scientist. Some of her duties involved scheduling government vehicles for off-site maintenance, he said.

A replica of the Los Alamos Project Main Gate, where the first atomic bombs were developed during World War II, stands at the edge of town in Los Alamos, New Mexico, U.S., July 30, 2023. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

New Mexico State Police have said Casias failed to report to work the day she went missing, then visited her daughter but never came home.

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According to authorities, she left behind personal belongings including her purse, driver's license and multiple cellphones.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, about 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is one of 16 Energy Department labs around the country. There are currently about 14,000 people working there.

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It was established in 1943 in connection with the Manhattan Project — resulting in the world's first nuclear weapons.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the lab for comment.

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