Retired General Vanished With Hiking Boots And A Revolver,
Photo not from story. (Handout photo by Katelynn Jackson/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)
Authorities in New Mexico are continuing the search for a retired U.S. Air Force general who disappeared two weeks ago under unusual circumstances.
William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen at his home in Bernalillo County on February 27. According to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, the former general had a brief interaction with a repairman around 10:00 a.m. that morning. His wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, left the house at approximately 11:10 a.m. for a medical appointment. When she returned at 12:04 p.m., McCasland was gone.
Investigators said several personal items were still inside the home, including his glasses, cellphone, and wearable electronic devices. After searching for him and contacting family members and friends without success, Wilkerson reported him missing at about 3:07 p.m., prompting law enforcement to begin an investigation.
Officials believe McCasland may have been wearing a light green long-sleeved outdoor button-up shirt when he disappeared. Authorities also said he likely left with his hiking boots, his wallet, and a .38-caliber revolver carried in a leather holster.
During the search, detectives located a gray U.S. Air Force sweatshirt about 1.25 miles east of the couple’s residence. The garment has not been confirmed as belonging to McCasland, but investigators collected it and conducted an initial examination. No blood was detected during that first analysis.
The sheriff’s office said the investigation is ongoing and that all credible leads are being pursued. Search efforts have included drone flights, helicopter support, ground search teams, and K9 units.
On March 6, McCasland’s wife addressed rumors circulating online about her husband’s disappearance. In a Facebook post, she pushed back on what she described as misinformation, saying he had shown no signs of dementia, confusion, or disorientation before he went missing. She also rejected claims that he had made a troubling phone call to a family member prior to his disappearance.
Wilkerson acknowledged that her husband had once briefly interacted with individuals involved in the UFO community. After retiring from the Air Force, McCasland worked for a short period as an unpaid consultant for Tom DeLonge, the former lead singer of Blink-182 and founder of the organization To The Stars. According to Wilkerson, McCasland provided advice on military, technical, and scientific topics to help add realism to DeLonge’s fiction and media projects.
She noted that contact between her husband and that group decreased after emails belonging to John Podesta were hacked and released publicly. Some of those emails referenced Podesta’s interest in UFOs and included mentions of McCasland.
Wilkerson dismissed speculation that the connection had anything to do with her husband’s disappearance. She said McCasland had no special knowledge about extraterrestrial materials allegedly connected to the Roswell crash and stored at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
While McCasland had worked with highly classified programs during his Air Force career, his wife said he retired more than a decade ago and has only maintained routine security clearances since then, making any theory about kidnapping for sensitive information unlikely.
McCasland previously held a senior leadership role at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. In that position, he oversaw a workforce of about 10,800 personnel and directed the Air Force’s $2.2 billion science and technology program, along with an additional $2.2 billion in research and development funded by other customers.
When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office referred inquiries to the department’s official press release as the investigation continues.
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