Unanswered mysteries: How investigators will examine cases of missing, dead U.S. scientists

The cases of a dozen U.S. scientists and researchers who disappeared or died under suspicious circumstances are still causing widespread concern. In Washington, the FBI and congressional leaders say they're looking into it. Boston 25 News reporter Bob Ward spoke to an FBI profiler about this investigation. There is a lot of speculation and, frankly, concern that some of our top scientists and researchers have been targeted for years. The cases stretch across the United States going all the way back to 2022. I spoke to a retired FBI profiler who told me investigators have to set aside assumptions as they look for any possible connections. They are among our country's best and brightest scientists and researchers with access to our nation's secrets. Some of them work for the defense industry, others connected to the space program. They are about a dozen people missing or dead, raising suspicions that they may have been targeted. Now the FBI is investigating, and Boston Congressman Stephen Lynch, among many, wanting answers. Do you believe this is worth looking into? Oh, absolutely, yeah, definitely. There are probably six of those cases that raise serious questions. FBI agents are now investigating the cases, trying to determine if there is any hard evidence linking some or all of the cases together. As an FBI profiler, what we're looking for are similarities, we're looking for patterns. So we'd start with, do these scientists know each other? Retired Massachusetts-based FBI profiler Julia Cowley tells me investigators will only go where the evidence takes them. You have to really check your bias at the door and say, is this really a significant connection? Am I really seeing a link here, or am I just wanting to see that link? This week, the FBI issued a final report on the December murder of MIT professor Nuno Larreiro, concluding that this man, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, acted on a decades-old grudge. Do you think it's safe to exclude that case from this list of other potential cases that we do not yet have final reports on? Yes, I do. I think it is an isolated incident. I think this person was specifically targeted by one person that held on to a grievance for many, many years. Retired agent Cowley told me FBI profilers will be looking for consistent patterns across multiple cases before they can even begin to think about linking them together. She said the circumstances of each case may make it difficult to make those connections. I'm Bob Ward for your local station, Boston 25 News.