Person · Walker County, AL
Joshua K. LeBlanc
NASA Marshall electrical engineer. Electrical engineer at NASA Marshall in Huntsville from 2019, aged 29. He led instrumentation and control work for space nuclear propulsion, then the DRACO nuclear rocket engine, which was cancelled weeks before he died. On 22 Jul 2025 he was reported missing before dawn, his Tesla sat at Huntsville airport for about four hours, and that afternoon it crashed and burned in Walker County. No cause or manner ruling has been published.
On the record
- Died 22 Jul 2025.
- List check (the press lists): partly right. Crash, date and disappearance check out. He was an electrical engineer on nuclear propulsion controls, not a nuclear engineer by degree.
- As the list had it: "Added as the '13th' by TikTok @sweetandsaltylin, late Apr 2026, and by Rep. Burlison on X, 28 Apr 2026. Fox News, 22 Apr 2026: 'NASA nuclear engineer found dead in burned Tesla after vanishing from his Alabama home last year.'"
- Cause or status, as sourced: Single-vehicle crash, per ALEA: his 2021 Tesla Model 3 left the roadway, struck a guardrail and several trees, and caught fire. Identified by the Alabama Dept. of Forensic Sciences. No cause or manner ruling or toxicology published. Crash linked to personal distress: proposed, not demonstrated.
- ALEA: single-vehicle crash about 2:45 pm on 22 Jul 2025, Hill Road, about 2 miles south of Empire, Walker County. Tesla struck a guardrail and trees and caught fire.
- Family reported him missing at 4:32 am. Phone and wallet at home. Did not show up for work.
- Tesla Sentry data put the car at Huntsville International Airport for about 4 hours that morning.
- DRACO was closed out in mid-2025 after NASA's budget request gave no funding to nuclear thermal propulsion.
- Burlison on X: 'A new name for the list ... This is not normal.'
- Newsweek found no personal or professional tie between him and Amy Eskridge.
Claims (5)
He was abducted.secondhandSourced, unconfirmed
'This is not normal.' He belongs on the list.speculationSourced, unconfirmed
The burned Tesla is suspicious: fire destroys evidence, or the car was hijacked remotely.speculationSourced, unconfirmed
He was killed over nuclear propulsion knowledge after DRACO was cancelled.speculationSourced, unconfirmed
A single-vehicle crash linked to personal distress.analysisSourced, unconfirmed
Cases (1)
Connected
Gravity and antigravity research fieldNuclear weapons and nuclear propulsion fieldPlasma physics and fusion fieldRF, terahertz sensors and radiometers fieldInstitute for Exotic Science / HoloChron LLC orgLockheed Martin Skunk Works orgNASA orgNASA Marshall Space Flight Center orgRedstone Arsenal (Army AMCOM, MDA, NASA Marshall host) orgAmy Catherine Eskridge personMaj. Gen. William "Neil" McCasland personDr. Ning Li personDr. Nuno F. G. Loureiro personDr. Sergey O. Macheret personSteven Garcia person