Shocking new evidence has been found at the site where a missing nuclear lab assistant was found dead, raising serious concerns about the state of the investigation.
A lawyer for the family of Melissa Casias, who vanished in June 2025 and was found dead 11 months later, told the Daily Mail several red flags involving law enforcement led the woman’s loved ones to start their own search for answers – with stunning results.
David Adams of Parnall and Adams Law revealed that a trove of evidence was discovered nearly a month after New Mexico State Police had officially declared the crime scene clear and removed Casias’s skeletal remains for medical examination.
That independent search of New Mexico’s Carson National Forest in late June uncovered bones, torn and bloody clothing, orange peels and strands of hair that were not collected by police when the 53-year-old’s body was found on May 28.
The lawyer also revealed that the family strongly believed Casias did not commit suicide and had no reason to disappear.
Adams explained: ‘There seemed to be a separate narrative taking place that somehow she wanted to be missing and that she had other places that she would be.’
Although the origins of the hair found at the scene have not been determined yet, the attorney noted that it appeared to be horse hair and theorized that the body of Casias may have been taken to this location by an unknown suspect.
‘In my mind, when you see that, you kind of go, okay, well, I could see that you would need a horse to get her up there if you were moving a body, for instance, because how you would otherwise do that,’ Adams said.
Melissa Casias worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a long-running nuclear research facility, before disappearing on June 26 last year. Her remains were found on May 28
The Casias family and volunteers from the group 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue also unearthed shredded paper, which relatives believe has Casias’s handwriting on it and what appears to be a tobacco pouch. Casias reportedly did not use tobacco.
Adams said: ‘The family really wasn’t expecting to find any additional information, other than to just kind of finally have an idea of where her last resting grounds were, so they could kind of go pay their own respects, and it certainly turned out to be something much, much more.’
The shocking crime scene find has turned the case on its head, with Adams claiming investigators in New Mexico have seriously damaged their credibility if it is found that Casias was the victim of foul play and a suspect is brought to trial.
‘There becomes a question of a chain of custody… Could law enforcement have spat a tobacco pouch in the crime scene? I mean, certainly possible. I mean, that would be an example of just poor training,’ Adams explained.
‘If somebody actually did do that, I mean, it defeats every best practice regarding the crime scene and protecting the integrity of a crime scene.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the New Mexico State Police for comment regarding the situation. A spokesperson said the matter was being brought to investigators for further response.
Adams, who is a former federal prosecutor, said his firm was hired by Casias’s parents and siblings after multiple red flags were raised by legal observers looking at the case who suspected foul play.
‘There [were] enough phone calls coming in, where people were providing information that they thought was relevant based upon how they knew Melissa, and observations that they have made regarding it, and a lot of it has come to be information that I would undoubtedly dive deep into investigating,’ he revealed.
The final image of Melissa Casias alive came from a surveillance camera near State Road 518 in New Mexico, approximately three miles from her home
Melissa Casias (Left) pictured with her husband Mark Casias
‘Some of it even stretches into government entities, not for their potential involvement in this, but more so from the perspective that people that should be interviewed have some very difficult relationships within government agencies that raised enough red flags for me,’ Adams added.
Casias was an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a major nuclear research facility for the US government since World War II.
She vanished without a trace on June 26, 2025, strangely walking out of her Ranchos de Taos home without her purse, keys or wallet and traveling alone eastward on State Road 518, roughly three miles from her home, around 2.20pm local time.
She also left both of her phones inside her home, which her family later found had been reset to factory settings, meaning all of Casias’s messages and call data had been wiped off the devices. A drop of blood was also reportedly found inside the home.
A handgun was found next to Casias’s skeletal remains in Carson National Forest on May 28, but police have not released any information about it, including who it belonged to, if it was fired and if any fingerprints were left on the weapon.
An anonymous law enforcement source told the Daily Mail that the current circumstances of the Casias case were highly irregular, adding that key pieces of information should have been known by investigators weeks ago.
‘They should have known who the gun belonged to that week if the serial number wasn’t filed off,’ the source declared.
They added that local police departments often send handguns in potential criminal cases to Washington DC for detailed analysis, which would have produced results in far less than seven weeks.
Pictured: Workers harvesting timber within Carson National Forest. It is unclear how long Casias’s body was in the park before being discovered
New Mexico State Police have stated that the body of Melissa Casias was found alongside a handgun in the McGaffey Ridge area of the Carson National Forest (Pictured)
The last update New Mexico State Police gave to the Daily Mail came on June 16, when authorities revealed that initial CT scans of Casias’s skull did not show signs of a gunshot wound or traces of a bullet.
Adams confirmed that a bullet casing has not been found at the scene.
He added that the area where Casias was discovered was in a part of the New Mexico park that would have been extremely difficult to reach on foot and would have required several stops for rest and water.
The nuclear lab employee was one of four individuals who vanished under nearly identical circumstances over the last year in New Mexico, with each person having deep ties to America’s nuclear weapons facilities in the state.
Fellow LANL employee Anthony Chavez, 79, worked at the lab until his retirement in 2017, although his role there has not been made clear. He vanished without a trace after walking out of his home on May 4, 2025, just seven weeks before Casias.
Steven Garcia, 48, vanished without a trace on August 28, 2025. He was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on foot, carrying only a handgun, a bottle of water and no identification or phone.
An anonymous source told the Daily Mail that Garcia was a government contractor working for the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a major facility in Albuquerque that plays a key behind-the-scenes role in America’s national defense.
Casias and other missing person cases came to light after retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland vanished from his New Mexico home on February 27, 2026.
The general had previously been in charge of the Air Force Research Lab, which worked closely together on national security projects, especially research involving America’s nuclear capabilities, with both of these labs.
These disappearances, along with a string of deaths among NASA scientists tied to advanced rocket and propulsion research, have sparked a national conversation about the so-called ‘missing scientists’ case.
Calls for answers pushed President Trump to order the FBI to investigate any potential connections between the cases, however, intelligence officials have not provided any updates on their investigation since Trump’s announcement in April.
In a statement on Wednesday, the bureau told the Daily Mail: ‘The FBI continues to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and local law enforcement partners to find answers.’
Adams disputed the FBI’s claims, telling the Daily Mail that there has been no contact with the FBI and no signs of any federal presence in the Casias case to this point.
Adams, whose firm specializes in helping families in missing person and homicide cases, especially those involving women, has previously taken legal action against law enforcement agencies over alleged failures in properly investigating crimes.
The attorney could not say if the handling of this case would eventually lead to legal action on behalf of the Casias family, but noted that the new evidence recovered from Carson National Forest was turned over to authorities to assist with the investigation.
Nearly two months later, the Office of the Medical Investigator has not revealed an official cause of death or revealed if the case was being viewed as a suicide or murder.
