A NASA nuclear scientist died in a fiery crash in a rural Alabama town last year, prompting suspicion among family members.
Joshua LeBlanc, 29, died in a fiery crash in his Tesla on July 22, 2025. The crash occurred near Huntsville, Alabama, at approximately 2:45 p.m., and his Tesla was discovered charred beyond recognition, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. The vehicle collided with a barrier, then numerous trees, before bursting into flames.
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According to KLFY, LeBlanc’s family reported him missing around 4:32 a.m. that day. He unexpectedly did not show up for his job as an aerospace technologies electrical engineer at NASA, where he worked on nuclear propulsion programs.
His body was similarly charred beyond recognition, and authorities identified him three days later after transporting it to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.
At the time, his family told KLFY that they suspected he had been kidnapped and that he had left his phone and wallet at home at the time of his abduction.
Police traced down LeBlanc using data from his Tesla Sentry Mode and discovered that his vehicle had been parked at Huntsville’s airport for four hours on the morning of his death. His family stated that his trip west was not part of his daily plans and that he was not contacting them as usual.
According to LeBlanc’s LinkedIn site, he worked at NASA for around five and a half years, serving as a team lead for NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion (SNP) Instrumentation and Control (I&C) Maturation. NASA SNP technology “would enable faster and more robust transportation for crew and cargo missions to Mars and science missions to the outer solar system,” according to the government agency’s website.
LeBlanc eventually became the team leader for NASA’s Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operation (DRACO), a nuclear thermal propulsion engine.
Since 2022, at least 12 more people, the vast majority of whom work in nuclear science and space exploration, have died or gone missing, some in strange circumstances.
Monica Reza, 60; Melissa Casias, 53; Anthony Chavez, 79; Steven Garcia, 48; and former Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, were all reported missing from 2023 to 2026, with each disappearance being regarded suspicious.
Michael David Hicks, 59; Frank Maiwald, 61; Nuno Loureiro, 47; Jason Thomas, 45; Amy Eskridge, 34; and Carl Grillmair, 47, all passed away between 2022 and 2026.
Hicks, Maiwald, and Reza were all affiliated with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The White House is aware of the murders and disappearances, albeit no official connection has been established. “I hope it’s random, but we’ll know in the next week and a half,” Trump told reporters last week. “I just left a meeting on that subject.”
The FBI confirmed to Fox News Digital that it is collaborating with other federal agencies to investigate the 11 missing and deceased scientists. The FBI is leading the search for ties between the missing and deceased scientists,” the organization stated. “We are working with the Department of Energy, the Department of War, and with our state and local law enforcement partners to find answers.”
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which investigated LeBlanc’s death, issued a press release in July of last year, reiterating specifics of the crash.
