When the wife of retired U.S. Air Force general William Neil McCasland reported him missing more than a month ago, she told a 911 dispatcher that he might have “planned not to be found.”
McCasland, 68, was last seen in Sandia Heights, located in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, metropolitan area, on February 27, according to authorities, Luxury Handbag Shopping previously reported.
In 911 audio obtained and published by Law&Crime on Thursday, April 2, his wife, Susan Wilkerson, is heard telling a 911 dispatcher “My husband is missing.”
“It’s been about three hours, and I have some indication that he must have planned not to be found,” Wilkerson also said.
“He’s left his phone, he changed his clothes into I don’t know what. I think he’s on foot,” Wilkerson added in the call, NBC News reported.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, the lead agency investigating McCasland’s disappearance, said in a news release issued the day of his disappearance that because of McCasland’s “medical issues, law enforcement is concerned for his safety.”
Before he retired from the Air Force in 2013, McCasland had commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, according to his online military biography.
He has worked in various space research roles for the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office, and previously commanded the Phillips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.
Before he went missing from his home in Albuquerque, authorities said that McCasland said he was having “mental fog,” CNN reported.
Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen has said that “There’s no indication, and we are not putting forward that Mr. McCasland was disoriented or confused,” according to CNN.
Wood added that “he would still be the most intelligent person in the room that any of us would be in” and described McCasland as “highly intelligent, highly capable.”
The sheriff’s office announced in a March 3 news release that it was working with multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI due to McCasland’s “background and established partnerships.”
After McCasland disappeared, the sheriff’s office said that items linked to him, including a green long-sleeve button-up shirt and hiking boots, were found at his second home in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, CNN reported.
Other items belonging to McCasland, including his wallet, a .38-caliber revolver, holster and red backpack, are missing, according to the outlet.
In addition to McCasland, there have been a number of U.S. scientists involved in space research who have recently gone missing or have died, FOX News reported.
This includes Carl Grillmair, a Caltech employee who was shot and killed at his Los Angeles County home in February.
A man has been arrested in connection with his death, Us previously reported.
