William Neil McCasland, 68, was last seen Feb. 27 at about 11 a.m. near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) said. According to authorities, McCasland left his home on foot and has not been in contact with family or friends since.
"It is unlike Neil to be out of touch from his family and friends for this length of time; but we have not given up hope," stated the BCSO in their last update on March 6.
The sheriff’s office said it is coordinating with the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office as part of the investigation while also conducting an extensive search effort involving local and state agencies.
“BCSO can confirm Mr. McCasland is a retired U.S. Air Force general,” the sheriff’s office said in a public statement. “Due to his background and established partnerships, BCSO is coordinating closely with multiple agencies, including the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, which is assisting as standard practice when it has a tool, tactic, or technique that may benefit the investigation.” The sheriff’s office remains the lead agency.
Search teams have conducted neighborhood canvassing, follow-up interviews, and coordinated search operations in the area since McCasland disappeared. “Our priority is finding Mr. McCasland safely,” Sheriff John Allen said in the statement.
Officials are asking residents in the area to check security camera footage from Feb. 27 and Feb. 28.
“At this time, the case is being handled as a missing person / Silver Alert investigation, and BCSO is pursuing all credible leads,” stated BCSO. “The Silver Alert was issued under New Mexico criteria for an endangered missing person age 50 or older with a clear indication of irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties.”
Authorities have not released details about McCasland’s medical information, citing privacy laws.
“There have been dozens of searchers on foot, both official and friends and neighbors of Neil’s,” Wilkerson wrote. She added that search operations have included “horseback searchers, drones with different capabilities, helicopters, three different types of search dogs, neighborhood canvassing, and looking for Ring or wildlife videos.”
Wilkerson also addressed online speculation surrounding her husband’s disappearance, writing that some widely circulated claims are inaccurate.
“The initial Silver Alert from BCSO mentioned medical conditions, which some have taken to mean Alzheimer’s,” she wrote. “Neil is at some risk, but not from dementia. He was not confused and disoriented.”
McCasland retired from the Air Force after a decades-long career in space and defense programs.
His wife said that while “he had access to some highly classified programs and information” in the Air Force, “he retired from the AF almost 13 years ago and has had only very commonly held clearances since,” adding: “It seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him.”
She also said McCasland’s brief involvement with the UFO community ended years ago and called any link to his disappearance unfounded. McCasland worked as an unpaid consultant for former Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge’s fiction projects after retiring from the Air Force.
“This connection is not a reason for someone to abduct Neil,” she posted. “Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET 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.”
McCasland was commissioned in 1979 after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a degree in astronautical engineering. He later earned a doctorate in the same field from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and held several senior positions in defense and space acquisition during his career.
Authorities continue to ask anyone with information about McCasland’s whereabouts to contact the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office Missing Persons Unit. "If you have any information, text BCSO to 847411 or call our Missing Persons Unit at (505) 468-7070," stated the sheriff's office.