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A US rocket scientist vanished without a trace on a Los Angeles hike five months before retired Air Force Gen. William McCasland disappeared under eerily similar circumstances — and the two had a close professional connection.
Monica Reza went missing on the morning of June 22, 2025, in the Angeles National Forest while hiking with two experienced companions who were exploring the popular Mount Waterman Trail, according to a Facebook page dedicated to finding her.
Volunteers and authorities searched the area for months using helicopters, radar, droves of hikers, and dogs — but have found no trace of Reza, 60, who is still considered a missing person, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Reza used the last name Jacinto in her wildly successful professional career as a material scientist at Aerojet Rocketdyne, which was funded for years by NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, according to SpaceNews.
Her patented nickel-based “super-alloy,” Mondaloy, brought her into the orbit of McCasland — who oversaw the Air Force group that funded research in the early 2000s into advanced materials needed for reusable space vehicles and weapons.
McCasland was material wing director at the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicle Directorate, and commander of Phillips Research Site in Kirtland Air Force Base from 2001 to 2004, which would directly pertain to Reza’s research, according to his official Air Force biography.
“Because Mondaloy is a family of alloys, I worked with the Air Force to scale up production, look at different processing methods and get the material ready for insertion into a rocket engine,” she told SpaceNews in a 2017 profile.
Aerojet Rocketdyne “achieved a major milestone” in rocket engine technologies in 2016 based on Reza’s advancement, according to an Air Force press release.
“An objective of this program is to help eliminate the United States’ reliance on foreign rocket propulsion technology,” Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello, the AFRL commander, said at the time. “This is key to ensuring our national security, and the people of the Rocket Propulsion Division are making impressive strides in achieving our goal.”
Aerojet Rocketdyne was sold in 2023 for a whopping $4.7 billion to military defense contractor L3 Technologies.
McCasland, who is associated with the UFO community, went missing on Feb. 27 from his Albuquerque, New Mexico home, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
He was last seen by his wife, Susan, at 11:10 am local time. She reported that her husband left with only a backpack and a .38 caliber revolver — without his wallet and his cell phone.
The 68-year-old was an avid hiker, like Reza. He also has not been found despite a wide search by authorities that included thermal drones.
He went missing just six days after President Trump announced that he would be releasing the files pertaining to UFOs and aliens.
McCasland was a “gatekeeper” and a “participant” in the UFO community, a source previously told The Post.
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