Retired general was not 'confused and disoriented' when he went missing, wife says

Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies learned that a firearm was missing from the home of retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland after he disappeared nearly two weeks ago, BCSO announced in a news release Thursday.

McCasland was last seen at about 11 a.m. Feb. 27 in the area of Quail Run NE, near Tramway and Academy. That day, the sheriff’s office issued a Silver Alert.

“The initial Silver Alert from BCSO mentioned medical conditions, which some have taken to mean Alzheimer’s,” McCasland’s wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, said in a Facebook post last week. “Neil is at some risk, but not from dementia. He was not confused and disoriented.”

BCSO spokesperson Jayme Gonzales said “due to privacy laws, BCSO will not release medical details or speculate about his state of mind.”

At about 10 a.m. Feb. 27, a repairman was talking with McCasland at his house. Seventy minutes later, McCasland Wilkerson went out, Gonzales said in the release. At about 12:04 p.m., she returned and McCasland was not there. He had left without his phone, glasses and “wearable devices.” She called friends and family before reporting him missing at about 3:07 p.m., Gonzales said.

According to BCSO, McCasland left the house wearing a light green, long-sleeved shirt. Missing from his home were a .38 caliber revolver with a leather holster, hiking boots and a wallet.

On March 7, Gonzales said investigators found a gray Air Force sweatshirt about 1.25 miles east of the house. No blood was detected, though “additional analysis is pending,” she said.

“The sweatshirt has not been confirmed by family or friends to be associated with Mr. McCasland; however, it prompted an additional targeted search effort in the area,” Gonzales said. “BCSO continues to pursue all credible leads and follow up on every tip received. While there is currently no evidence indicating foul play, investigators are examining all available information as the case remains active.”

Investigators have contacted more than 700 homes, requesting security video and information, according to BCSO.

“Additional search efforts have included drone operations, helicopter support, ground searches with Search and Rescue teams, and K-9 searchers,” Gonzales said. “To date, BCSO has not received any confirmed sighting or confirmed video showing Mr. McCasland leaving the area or indicating a direction of travel. Search efforts and investigative followup are ongoing.”

As deputies continue to look for McCasland, McCasland Wilkerson is attempting to dispel theories about her husband’s disappearance, which has garnered national attention in recent days.

UFO connection

McCasland is the former commander of Phillips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base and Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, as well as a Kirtland Partnership Committee board member.

The retired major general’s disappearance has spawned some speculation about his possible connection to UFOs.

In a New York Post piece, Australian journalist Ross Coulthart said in an interview that McCasland going missing coincided with President Donald Trump making overtures about the U.S. government’s knowledge about UFOs, alleging the ex-general was supportive of giving the public more information about those classified topics.

“The fact that Gen. Neil McCasland has disappeared off the face of the Earth is a grave national security crisis for the United States of America,” Coulthart said. “This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head.”

McCasland Wilkerson said on social media that while McCasland had access to “some highly classified programs and information” while he was in the Air Force, he had been retired for more than a decade. “It seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him.”

She added that McCasland had a “brief association” with the UFO community through Tom DeLonge, a Blink-182 co-founder and founder of the organization To The Stars, which claims UFOs are real.

After McCasland retired, McCasland Wilkerson said he worked for DeLonge as an unpaid consultant “on military and technical/scientific matters to lend verisimilitude to Tom’s fiction book and media activities.”

“(But) this connection is not a reason for someone to abduct Neil,” she said. “Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET (extraterrestrial) bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt. 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.”

In the March 6 news release, Gonzales said people have attempted to “develop their own theories based on the limited information available to the public and this makes finding Neil harder.”

Anyone with information, she said, can call the BCSO Missing Person Unit at 505-468-7070 or submit an anonymous tip via Tip411 by texting BCSO and the tip to 847411. 

People can also share videos and photos with the sheriff’s office.

“Due to the significant volume of requests and to ensure the public receives consistent, verified information,” Gonzales said, “BCSO will provide updates through written releases and planned media availabilities when there is confirmed information that can be shared.” 

Gregory R.C. Hasman is a general assignment reporter and the Road Warrior. He can be reached at ghasman@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3820.