The teen said there had been multiple \u2018false claims\u2019 made about her mother, including allegations that she owned and carried a handgun and scandalous rumors about her personal life, which Sierra claimed were spread by a private detective.<\/p>\n
The teen posted on\u00a0Facebook\u00a0in early May: \u2018The information being shared is largely either publicly available material presented in a misleading way or statements that are simply untrue.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018The statement that Melissa owned or routinely carried a handgun, specifically described as a \u201cGlock subcompact 9mm\u201d is inaccurate. She could not legally purchase a firearm and did not have one.\u2019<\/p>\n
Casias, who vanished without a trace on June 26, 2025, was discovered in the McGaffey Ridge area of Carson National Forest next to a handgun on May 28 by a local hiker.<\/p>\n
![\"Casias](\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AA24WdUc.img?w=634&h=544&m=6\")
<\/div>\nWhile the circumstances surrounding Casias\u2019 disappearance are still a mystery and have been linked to a string of missing nuclear workers in the US Southwest, Casias\u2019 daughter slammed other claims allegedly made by an investigator hired to find the 53-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u2018This individual has been \u201chired\u201d by members of my mother\u2019s family. He has made repeated accusations toward me and my family while failing to provide any meaningful contribution to the actual search for my mother,\u2019 Sierra said.<\/p>\n
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\u2018Instead, the focus has consistently been on targeting my father rather than advancing the investigation,\u2019 the grieving daughter added.<\/p>\n
Sierra did not reveal the name of the private investigator she was making the claims about.<\/p>\n
However, the Daily Mail has learned that Arizona-based investigator Thomas McNally has been working on the case on behalf of Sierra\u2019s grandparents, Joe and Joanne Mondragon.<\/p>\n
In April,\u00a0McNally claimed:\u00a0\u2018What the attention should be on is that there\u2019s a 53-year-old woman who\u2019s missing and has a family who love her, while the husband is out trying to date other women and doesn\u2019t care about her.\u2019<\/p>\n
He has also claimed that Casias\u2019 \u2018skeletonized\u2019 remains were found propped up against a tree in the New Mexico forest and there was a gunshot wound to the skull.<\/p>\n
New Mexico State Police announced that they identified the remains as the missing nuclear lab employee, but told the Daily Mail the medical examiner was still working to officially determine Melissa\u2019s time and cause of death.<\/p>\n
Sierra blasted the narrative that her father, Mark Casias, was having any marital troubles and fought over money issues with Melissa before the LANL employee vanished from the family\u2019s Taos, New Mexico residence.<\/p>\n
\u2018Claims that my father was blaming my mother for our financial situation or speaking negatively about her from the beginning are not accurate,\u2019 the teen posted.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\u2018I was consistently with him and present for the conversations being referenced. He did not have a full understanding of the financial situation early on,\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n
\u2018Much of the information was still being uncovered, documented, and pieced together over time and still is to this day. It is misleading to suggest he was assigning blame for circumstances that were not yet fully known.\u2019<\/p>\n
Before her mother\u2019s remains were discovered, Sierra revealed that she was already pursuing legal action related to the inflammatory claims made against her parents.<\/p>\n
She also alleged that comments that questioned the private investigator\u2019s remarks or supported her father were mysteriously deleted or blocked online.<\/p>\n
\u2018Spreading misinformation in a situation this serious is damaging to me, to others who care about my mom, and to the integrity of the case itself,\u2019 the teen declared.<\/p>\n
Sierra also clarified questions and criticisms regarding the family\u2019s actions following her mother\u2019s disappearance last year, including changing the locks of their New Mexico home and throwing out her mother\u2019s belongings.<\/p>\n
The teen claimed that their home had been previously broken into by her ex-boyfriend and that disputes with other family members had led the family to secure the home as Casias\u2019 disappearance gained national attention.<\/p>\n
Sierra also said her mother \u2018struggled with hoarding and accumulated a significant volume of unnecessary items,\u2019 leading her and her father to take the excess to a local dump as the search continued.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The teen did not address ongoing concerns that her mother\u2019s case may be tied to the larger investigation into the growing number of scientists, nuclear lab workers and former military officials who have died or disappeared in recent years.<\/p>\n
The wife and mother was also one of four known people tied to US nuclear facilities to vanish without a trace in New Mexico over the last year.<\/p>\n
Fellow LANL employee Anthony Chavez, 79, worked at the lab until his retirement in 2017, although his role there has not been made clear. He vanished without a trace after walking out of his home on May 4, 2025, just seven weeks before Casias.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, government contractor Steven Garcia, 48, vanished without a trace on August 28, 2025. He was last seen leaving his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on foot, carrying only a handgun and no identification.<\/p>\n
An anonymous source told the Daily Mail that Garcia worked for the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), a major facility in Albuquerque that plays a key behind-the-scenes role in building nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
The mysterious disappearances came to light after retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland vanished from his New Mexico home in February.<\/p>\n
The general had previously been in charge of the Air Force Research Lab, which worked together on national security projects, especially research involving America\u2019s nuclear capabilities, with these lab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The daughter of the dead nuclear lab worker found in a\u00a0New Mexico\u00a0forest claims the truth about her mother\u2019s disappearance has been twisted by those allegedly trying to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28343,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28341\/revisions\/28343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}