Retired Maj. Gen. McCasland Missing in New Mexico

Retired Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland, a 68-year-old veteran of classified aerospace programs, disappeared from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 27, prompting a multiagency search that has now stretched into its third week without any confirmed sightings. The case has drawn renewed scrutiny to the unsolved vanishing of Monica Reza, an aerospace engineer who worked on a government-funded rocket materials project overseen by McCasland and disappeared nine months earlier during a hike in a Los Angeles-area forest.

McCasland was last seen interacting with a repairman at his residence around 10 a.m. on the day he vanished. His wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, left for a medical appointment shortly after 11 a.m. and returned less than an hour later to find him gone. She reported him missing at 3:07 p.m. Authorities noted that McCasland left behind his phone, prescription glasses, and wearable devices, items he typically carried as an avid outdoorsman who frequently hiked in the nearby Sandia Mountains. Still unaccounted for are his wallet, a .38-caliber revolver with its leather holster, and a red backpack.

A Silver Alert was issued out of caution due...