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The headline practically writes itself.
A 78-year-old man, whose friend told law enforcement had been working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on quantum physics experiments related to the question of “matter existing in two places simultaneously,” has mysteriously gone missing.
Countless netizens deployed their tinfoil hats after Anthony Chavez, a retired HVAC technician who was allegedly assisting a quantum physicist at the facility, was reported missing in May of last year, as NewsNation reports. According to law enforcement documentation obtained by Los Angeles Magazine, police had recovered his “car, wallet, cigarettes and handwritten journal at his home” after he vanished into thin air.
Investigative journalist Lauren Conlin told NewsNation that Chavez “specifically” worked on quantum physics that investigated “being in two places at once.”
While it sounds like a storyline plucked straight out of “Rick and Morty,” there’s no evidence to suggest Chavez was sucked into a parallel dimension when an experiment went off the rails. Scientists are only starting to wrap their heads around the concept of quantum superposition, a principle in which a physical system can exist in a combination of multiple possible states at the same time. But instead of being capable of swallowing an entire adult human being whole, we’re talking about the basic units of quantum information known as qubits.
In short, you’d have to be deeply invested in the conspiracy theory-driven side of social media to believe Chavez unexpectedly tumbled into a wormhole that opened up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
At the same time, there are other intriguing elements surrounding the case. Chavez’s disappearance occurred just over a month before Los Alamos administrative assistant Melissa Casias was reported missing. Her remains were eventually found earlier this year in a New Mexico national forest with a handgun nearby.
However, there’s currently no evidence to suggest the cases are connected. We don’t even know if Chavez and Casias even knew of each other.
In April, a House Oversight Committee announced it was “seeking information from the Department of Energy, Department of War, FBI, and NASA” about a string of roughly a dozen scientists, who “have died or mysteriously vanished in recent years.”
The scientists are said to have “had a connection to US nuclear secrets or rocket technology.”
The group includes retired Air Force Research Laboratory commander William Neil McCasland, who once worked at an Ohio Air Force base that’s steeped in UFO lore, and went missing earlier this year.
Naturally, the news kicked conspiracy theorists into overdrive, as lawmakers ominously suggested there could be a “possible sinister connection between a string of mysterious deaths and disappearances.”
To date, there’s no evidence suggesting that any of these cases are in any way connected. But that hasn’t stopped tinfoil hat-donning UFO truthers from spinning up theories.
Chavez’s alleged quantum physics research, in particular, has drawn their attention.
“Real quantum research explores superposition and teleportation-like effects,” one X account tweeted, “concepts that eerily echo eyewitness descriptions of [unexplained aerial phenomena]/[Non-Human Intelligence] craft phasing, relocating instantaneously, or defying classical physics.”
“Coincidence in one of America’s most secretive labs,” the account wrote. “Or are these the latest casualties in a shadow battle over exotic technology and disclosure?”
More on missing scientists: FBI Investigating Series of Deaths Among Top Scientists With Very Specific Specialties
