Rep Burlison demands FBI probe after top US scientists vanish or turn up dead

House Oversight Committee member Eric Burlison is demanding the FBI get involved after a string of "disturbing" disappearances and deaths involving U.S. scientists and researchers with access to top-level secrets.

Burlison described the pattern as "too coincidental" to ignore after at least 10 researchers have gone missing or turned up dead in the last two years.

"This is a rattling call to pay attention to this issue and make sure that our nation's top scientists are safe and secure. This is too coincidental," the Missouri republican said Friday on "Fox & Friends."

"We have to be investigating this. We need to have our nation’s top investigators, the FBI and every agency looking into this matter," he added.

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Burlison said his office first became aware of the trend last year when an individual scheduled to speak with him, Matthew Sullivan, died by suicide under what he described as suspicious circumstances. He said his office referred the case to the Office of the Inspector General and the FBI, which he said deemed it "credible and urgent."

The recent disappearance of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William "Neil" McCasland in February was another wake-up call. McCasland had been involved in research on unidentified anomalous phenomena and held top roles in space research.

Authorities at the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico said he walked out of his home while his wife was out, leaving his phone behind but taking his wallet and a gun. McCasland’s wife wrote on Facebook that her husband retired years ago, and that it’s "quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him."

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Still, Burlison said the number of cases warrants an investigation.

"What's really disturbing when you look back and reflect on it, you've got Monica Reza, you've got Anthony Chavez, you got Melissa Cassius and you have Steven Garcia, all of which, along with General McCasland, walked out of their homes," Burlison said.

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"These are some of the most advanced scientists, researchers in our nation, some of the most important people for our nation's national security efforts, and they all just mysteriously disappeared," he added.

President Donald Trump addressed the disappearances this week but did not say whether he believes the cases are connected. He noted that he would know more soon, having just emerged from a briefing on the subject.

"Hopefully, I don't know, coincidence, if you want it, whatever you want to call it. But some of them were very important people, and we're [going to] look at it," Trump said.

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Over a dozen state officials rally behind game-changing Trump admin rule cracking down on fraud: 'Essential'

FIRST ON FOX: Financial officers from 12 states are backing a proposed Department of Labor rule that targets healthcare "middlemen" by demanding more transparency, rallying behind the Trump administration’s waste, fraud, and abuse crackdown as well as the goal of lowering healthcare costs.

In a letter to the Labor Department obtained by Fox News Digital, over a dozen state financial officers in the State Financial Officers Association (SFOF) offered their support of a proposed rule being evaluated by the Labor Department targeting pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that would expose hidden fees, conflicts of interest and overcharging that drive up costs.

"Healthcare purchasers are operating in the dark, paying inflated costs because hidden pricing and middlemen obscure where every dollar goes," OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, told Fox News Digital. "By bringing those hidden prices into the light, companies can finally identify waste, negotiate better deals, and redirect those savings toward higher wages, more jobs, stronger benefits for workers, and increases to shareholder value." 

Oleka went on to explain that on a state level, the transparency brought on by the new rule is "essential to safeguarding taxpayer resources and fulfilling fiduciary responsibilities."

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"Transparency isn’t just about accountability; it’s critical to detecting waste, preventing fraud, and ensuring that healthcare spending delivers value to the workers, businesses, and taxpayers who ultimately bear these costs."

If implemented, the rule would require full disclosure of these "middlemen" revenue streams, expand beyond pharmacy benefit managers to insurers and third-party administrators, and allow access to claims and pricing data, which SFOF says will be a key tool in combating fraud while outlining in the letter that the administration shouldn’t stop there.

"As the guardians of billions of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars, we support the Labor Department's proposed rule and hope the administration goes even further," Tina Cannon, Utah’s state auditor, told Fox News Digital.

"Enforcing price transparency is essential for us to perform our fiduciary duties effectively," she said. "Greater oversight and accountability for employer-based health plans will help prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in federal healthcare programs, such as the $463.7 million in inappropriate hospital payments my office uncovered in Utah last year. Expanding this rule would help us do our jobs, root out fraud and waste, and reduce the cost of healthcare for all Americans."

A "complex web" of hidden rebates, fees, and incentives, driven by pharmacy benefit managers, has allowed fraud to go undetected for years, according to the letter.

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The push follows months of action from the Trump administration and SFOF to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse across government. Trump recently named Vice President JD Vance the nation’s "fraud czar" to lead an anti-fraud task force, and in February the SFOF uncovered billions in taxpayer waste.

Treasurers and auditors from 12 states — including Nebraska, Louisiana, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Dakota, Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Mississippi and Kansas — signed onto the effort.

More than $50 billion annually in undisclosed rebates and fees is retained by top pharmacy benefit managers, which has "prevented effective oversight," according to the letter. The letter details methods used to generate this hidden fraud.

"Healthcare overcharging in the United States erodes shareholder value by driving up costs for employers (and patients)," the letter states.

VANCE REVEALS $19B FRAUD UNCOVERED IN MINNEAPOLIS, HINTS CALIFORNIA IS NEXT TARGET

One major concern is that pharmacy benefit managers charge more for a drug than they pay at the dispensing pharmacy "to keep the difference or ‘spread’ as profit." In turn, money hidden from regulators drives price spikes. 

The letter also states that pharmacy benefit managers are buying more expensive drugs from manufacturers for higher rebates without those incentives ever being disclosed.

"These arrangements are generally not made public, so plan sponsors often do not have insight into how much pharmacy benefit managers are actually paying for drugs on their formularies," according to the letter.

It adds that pharmacy benefit managers are steering patients away from cheaper pharmacy options to their own affiliated pharmacies to boost profits.

In 2023, U.S. healthcare spending reached nearly $5 trillion, about 17.6% of GDP, while employers spent roughly $1.3 trillion in 2024, with costs rising more than 5% annually, according to the letter.

The letter builds on recent pressure from these same officials on Fortune 500 companies to more closely examine healthcare spending data, signaling a growing investor-driven push for cost transparency.

It also follows a recent SFOF report showing that financial officers prevented $28 billion in waste and abuse in 2025 alone, along with new polling indicating that Americans view fraud as a major driver of rising living costs.

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Socialist Mamdani touts government-run grocery plan as ‘grand experiment’' at grocery new site

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke at one of his proposed government-run grocery stores on Tuesday, touting what he described as a "grand experiment" that would reduce the cost of everyday items like bread and eggs.

The socialist mayor, who has promised to open one such store in each borough, said the city will subsidize basic grocery items while a private operator runs the stores under city rules requiring lower prices.

"New York City it is time for a grand experiment once again, just as LaGuardia used government to respond to the challenges of the Great Depression, we will use government to respond to rising prices and unaffordable groceries," Mamdani said at La Marqueta in East Harlem on Tuesday.

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The 9,000-square-foot store in East Harlem will be constructed from the ground up on a nearby vacant, city-owned lot and is expected to open by 2029, while the first city-owned grocery store is expected to open in late 2027. Mamdani has allocated $70 million in capital funds for the development of the five sites.

The Harlem grocery store will cost $30 million to build, according to the New York Times.

Mamdani invoked former Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, noting the site once housed a city-run market created during the Great Depression to lower food costs.

"Now, here's how it works. The city will subsidize a core set of staples. A private operator will run the store, but the answer to the standards that the city will set these standards include requirements that at our stores, bread will be cheaper, eggs will be cheaper, grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation, and workers will be treated with dignity," Mamdani said.

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Mamdani said grocery prices in New York City have risen nearly 66% over the past decade, significantly outpacing the national average. The city-owned grocery initiative is designed to lower costs on everyday staples by using public ownership to eliminate costs that are currently passed on to consumers, he said.

"The difference in this approach is that we are not hoping for affordability. We're guaranteeing affordability in the contract we will have with a private operator," Mamdani said.

"Now, at its peak, La Marqueta serves 25,000 customers per day. We hope to make a similar impact here in this very neighborhood," Mamdani said. "Continuing Fiorello LaGuardia legacy. This is what we mean by a new era when New Yorkers are being priced out of their groceries. Government will step in and deliver affordability," he added.

Mamdani said the city-run stores would be part of a broader "ecosystem" and would not replace existing grocers, including bodegas and neighborhood supermarkets, amid questions about their impact on small businesses.

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Israel's spy chief says Iran mission will only end when 'extremist regime' is replaced

Mossad Director Dadi Barnea declared Tuesday that Israel’s operations against Iran will end "only once the extremist regime in Iran is replaced." 

Barnea made the remark during a Holocaust commemoration event, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

"We meticulously planned so that our operations would continue and manifest themselves even in the period following the strikes in Tehran," Barnea reportedly said. "Our commitment will be fulfilled only once the extremist regime in Iran is replaced." 

"Forty days of intense combat have led to highly significant achievements, foremost among them a blow to the enemy's central objective -- the destruction of the State of Israel," Barnea added, according to Ynetnews. "However, our mission has not yet been completed."

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Israel began its Operation Roaring Lion against Iran on Feb. 28, the same day the U.S. military launched Operation Epic Fury. 

The joint U.S.-Israel effort has decimated Iran’s military and missile infrastructure and resulted in the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. 

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Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is severely disfigured after sustaining leg and face injuries during initial airstrikes on Tehran in February, Reuters reported earlier this week.

Khamenei is recovering after incurring the injuries in the Feb. 28 airstrikes that killed his father. 

Fox News Digital’s Robert McGreevy contributed to this report.  

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New Jersey nurse gunned down at work by estranged husband in murder-suicide: police

A New Jersey nurse was shot and killed inside her workplace in an apparent murder-suicide, after her estranged husband allegedly ambushed her outside and chased her into the building, authorities said.

Brandon Alexander, 35, targeted his wife, Victoria Alexander, 38, a nurse at the Excelcare Rehabilitation Facility in Egg Harbor Township, around 6 a.m. Monday morning, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release.

Brandon Alexander blocked his wife’s car in the parking lot as she arrived for work, got inside her vehicle and left two suicide notes on the dashboard, investigators said.

Prosecutors said that when a food delivery driver asked him to move his car, Victoria Alexander seized the chance to escape and ran into the building.

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Her husband, however, followed her inside and shot her multiple times before turning the gun on himself, according to authorities.

ANNA KEPNER'S STEPBROTHER CHARGED AS ADULT WITH MURDER, SEXUAL ABUSE IN FLORIDA TEEN'S CRUISE SHIP DEATH

Victoria Alexander was pronounced dead at the scene. Brandon Alexander was rushed to a hospital but later died from his injuries, officials said.

Authorities described the shooting as an isolated incident. There were no reports of other injuries.

Investigators did not immediately share the contents of the two apparent suicide notes.

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Anna Kepner's dad wants accused stepbrother in 'orange jumpsuit and handcuffs' after alleged cruise murder

The father of an 18-year-old allegedly murdered and sexually assaulted in her cruise ship cabin says her accused stepbrother is a "danger" who belongs in "an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs."

Christopher Kepner told the Daily Mail that he is outraged that the accused murderer, 16-year-old T.H., is still allowed to live with a relative despite being federally charged as an adult.

"We’re upset that he’s still out. We’re six months in, and he should already have been arrested, and yet he’s free to do whatever he wants right now," Christopher Kepner told the outlet. "That’s our problem. He’s been able to do whatever he wants and go where he wants, but the family’s been sitting here unable to do anything."

T.H. was initially charged as a juvenile on Feb. 2. He is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse. If convicted, the teen faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

ANNA KEPNER’S STEPBROTHER CHARGED AS ADULT WITH MURDER, SEXUAL ABUSE IN FLORIDA TEEN’S CRUISE SHIP DEATH

The charges come months after the teen, affectionately called "Anna banana," was found dead onboard the cruise ship during a family vacation with her father, stepmother, grandparents and several siblings.

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"I want to see him in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. He does not need to be free. He does not need to be in the general public, around any kids or women in general," Christopher Kepner said.

"He’s a danger to himself and a danger to others."

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Kepner said that the 16-year-old has shown no remorse since the alleged murder, the Daily Mail reported.

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"He's still saying that he can't remember and that's about it. He hasn't apologized. He hasn't shown any remorse for anything," he added. 

On Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida announced that Anna's stepbrother would be charged as an adult.

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The teen is facing possible life in prison if convicted, records showed. Fox News Digital has reached out to T.H.'s attorneys for comment.

"Our hearts go out to the victim’s family during this unimaginable loss," U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said. "A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging serious offenses that allegedly occurred aboard a vessel in international waters. We will present the evidence in court and pursue this case with professionalism and care. As in every case, the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

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Anna Kepner was discovered dead around 11:15 a.m. on Nov. 7 inside her cabin aboard the cruise ship. Authorities later ruled her death a homicide caused by "mechanical asphyxiation," according to documents previously reviewed by Fox News Digital.

According to investigators, she was found under the bed in her cabin, wrapped in a blanket and covered with life jackets. The cabin was shared with her stepbrother.

In February, T.H. was seen arriving in federal court in Miami. The teenager walked into the courthouse in a camouflage hoodie, his face concealed beneath a low-pulled baseball cap and a hood wrapped tightly around it.

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Ancient ocean mystery deepens as long-misidentified fossil is finally revealed by researchers

More than two decades after scientists identified a fossil as the world's oldest octopus — officials now say it wasn't one at all.

A recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that the fossil Pohlsepia mazonensis — a 300-million-year-old sea creature found in the Mazon Creek fossil beds of northeastern Illinois — was closer to a nautilus than an octopus.

Researchers now believe the creature was a relative of the nautilus, which is a shell-covered cephalopod with tentacles.

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Cephalopods are a class of marine animals that includes octopuses, squids and cuttlefish, and are known for their tentacles and advanced nervous systems — and for lacking rigid skeletons.

The fossil was identified as the world's oldest octopus in 2000 — but is now considered the oldest soft-tissue nautilus in the world.

University of Reading zoologist Thomas Clements, the lead researcher of the new study, told The Associated Press the fossil is a "very difficult [one] to interpret."

He added, "To look at it, it kind of just looks like a white mush."

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"If you look at it, and you are a cephalopod researcher, and you’re interested in everything octopus, it does superficially look a lot like a deep-water octopus."

The determining factor, Clements said, was its teeth — which researchers examined using a synchrotron to peer inside the fossil.

They found that each row had 11 teeth — more than the seven or nine typically found in octopuses.

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"This has too many teeth, so it can’t be an octopus," Clements said.

"And that’s how we realized that the world’s oldest octopus is actually a fossil nautilus, not an octopus."

The fossil had the same teeth as a nautiloid called Paleocadmus pohli, an ancient creature found in the same area.

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Researchers say the mix-up likely occurred because the creature decomposed and lost its shell before it was fossilized.

The next oldest-known octopus fossil is about 90 million years old — around 210 million years younger than the fossil Pohlsepia mazonensis.

"It’s a huge gap," Clements said, noting it had long raised questions.

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"And so that big gap got researchers sort of questioning, ‘Is this thing actually an octopus?'"

The fossil is currently held in the Field Museum in Chicago. 

Paul Mayer, who manages the museum's fossil invertebrate collections, said he was "a little surprised" by the new classification, but acknowledged that scientists have questioned the finding for years.

"People have been questioning whether it was an octopus ever since the original paper was first published in 2000," Mayer told the AP.

He added that the news "is great for our collections, and hopefully new discoveries will be made and new stories will be revealed."

The Associated Press contributed reporting. 

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