She was called a bipolar musician. She was actually a quantum computing scientist. And she has been missing for 18 months.

The story of Ingrid Lane, Sandia National Laboratories, and the New Mexico cluster nobody is talking about.

By Kristin & Kelli  |  Fear & Wine  |  May 2026

In every news story written about Ingrid Coleen Lane, she is described the same way. Thirty-seven years old. Married. Bipolar. Buddhist. Musician. Struggling with her mental health. A woman who went for a hike in the Jemez Mountains outside Albuquerque on October 15th, 2023, and did not come back.

That description is not wrong. But it is so incomplete that it functionally buried who Ingrid Lane really was. And when you learn who she really was, this story changes completely.

Who Ingrid Lane actually was

Ingrid Coleen Lane was listed in the Sandia National Laboratories Center for Computing Research organizational directory under Org. 01425 -- Quantum Computer Science.

Sandia National Laboratories is not a university research center. It is a national nuclear security laboratory operated for the U.S. Department of Energy. Its mission is the development and maintenance of America's nuclear weapons stockpile. The quantum computing division where Lane worked operates at the intersection of national security and the most advanced computing research in the world.

Her name appears in an official March 2023 NNSA Strategic Outlook Initiative report -- catalogued as SAND2023-04694R, co-produced by Sandia National Laboratories and the Kansas City National Security Campus -- as a Sandia contributor who participated in workshops on the future of the nuclear security enterprise workforce. That report was published seven months before she disappeared.

She was also publicly presented as a neuroscientist from the Mind Research Network at UNM, a collaborative research ecosystem with documented ties to both Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. She attended Johns Hopkins University, studied at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and was pursuing a PhD in biomedical engineering at the University of New Mexico.

She was not a bipolar musician who wandered off a mountain. She was a scientist working at the center of America's classified national security research.

What was found at her car

On October 18th, 2023, an Apple AirTag led investigators to her black 2019 Subaru Impreza on Forest Road 144, at 9,100 feet elevation, out of cellular range, 11 miles north of Highway 126. What they found has never been adequately explained.

Verified -- The Car Scene

The rear hatch window was completely shattered by a large boulder. Law enforcement found no footprints near the vehicle, no tire tracks, no sign of any other human presence in the area investigators described as "just trees." How the boulder got through that window has never been asked by any investigating authority.

Three laptops were inside the car.

An unactivated burner phone was found in its original packaging, unopened. Her husband called this "a huge shock."

The front bumper showed significant collision damage that has never been addressed in any official report.

The Sandoval County Sheriff's Office declared no foul play within 24 hours of finding the vehicle -- without processing the car forensically.

The last confirmed sighting of Ingrid Lane was on the afternoon of October 15th, when two hunters encountered her on the road. She had flagged them down after her car was damaged. They helped her with a tire. They offered her a ride down to the main road. She refused, telling them she was determined to get to the top of a mountain. She seemed coherent and purposeful.

She has not been seen since. More than 80 search and rescue volunteers, canine units, drones, and a Civil Air Patrol plane have searched the area. Nothing has been found.

"Based on the time period, we could pretty much assume that the subject we're looking for is deceased."Bob Rodgers, NM Search and Rescue Resource Officer -- Santa Fe New Mexican

The husband nobody mentioned

In every news story about this case, Ingrid's husband Louis Scuderi is described as a touring musician. That is accurate. It is also incomplete.

Louis Scuderi is an astrophysicist contracted through the Department of Defense. His employer, Stellar Science, is an Albuquerque-based DOD contractor whose portfolio includes directed energy weapons modeling and simulation, high-power microwave systems, laser weapons simulation, and space domain awareness. This work is performed under contract at Kirtland Air Force Base -- the Air Force Research Laboratory's center of excellence for directed energy technology, and the same base where retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland previously commanded the Phillips Research Site before his own disappearance in February 2026.

A quantum computing scientist at Sandia. A directed energy weapons contractor at Kirtland. Living in Albuquerque. Both now absent from the full public record in different ways.

The New Mexico cluster

Ingrid Lane did not disappear in isolation. She disappeared into a geographic cluster that is now the most concentrated node of missing and dead scientists in the country.

The Albuquerque / New Mexico Cluster

William Neil McCasland

Retired Air Force Major General / Commander, AFRL / MIT PhD. Walked out of his Albuquerque home February 27th, 2026. Left his phone, wallet, and glasses. Still missing.

Melissa Casias

Los Alamos National Laboratory / Top Security Clearance. Missing New Mexico. Two factory-reset phones found. $5,000 reward active.

Anthony Chavez

Los Alamos National Laboratory. Missing New Mexico.

Steven Garcia

NNSA Kansas City National Security Campus Albuquerque office. Dead.

Ingrid Coleen Lane

Sandia National Laboratories / Quantum Computer Science / NNSA contributor. Missing Jemez Mountains since October 2023. Car found with smashed window, three laptops, unactivated burner phone. No foul play declared without forensic processing.

Five people. One interconnected defense and nuclear ecosystem. The FBI is investigating the wider cluster. The House Oversight Committee has sent formal letters to the Department of Energy, NASA, the Department of Defense, and the FBI. And Ingrid Lane's name has not appeared in a single federal document, Congressional statement, or FBI press release.

The journalist who first connected Lane to this cluster was Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, writing for The Pugilist on Substack, published May 3rd, 2026. She was the first reporter to say what no mainstream outlet had said: the woman everyone described as a bipolar musician was also a Sandia quantum computing scientist named in an NNSA report. We credit her work fully and encourage you to read it directly.

She ended her investigation with a question we cannot stop thinking about: if Ingrid Lane's identity as a scientist could be erased so completely from the police and news narratives, how many other disappeared scientists are there that we have not heard of yet?

The full episode is coming

We are recording a full Patreon exclusive episode on Ingrid Lane and the Albuquerque thread. We will cover her complete biography, the car scene anomalies, her husband's professional profile, the New Mexico cluster, and what it means that two cities -- Huntsville and Albuquerque -- have now emerged as the geographic centers of this story.

We will also address something her family shared on Reddit: an anonymous text message they received claiming to have information about her death. We want to address that directly and honestly on air, because families in situations like this are targeted. And they deserve honesty, not false hope.

The full episode is a Patreon exclusive.

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If you have information

Active Cases -- Contact Information

Ingrid Lane: Sandoval County Sheriff's Office -- (505) 867-7526 | National Park Service Tip Line -- (505) 709-0077 | Case number: 23-001710

Find Ingrid Lane: Family Facebook group

General McCasland: Bernalillo County Sheriff -- (505) 468-7070

Melissa Casias: New Mexico State Police -- (505) 425-6771 | $5,000 reward active

House Oversight Committee: oversight.house.gov

FBI tip line: tips.fbi.gov

We are healthy. We are well. We are not suicidal. We are not experiencing any psychological distress. We are podcast hosts who found something and decided to keep saying it out loud.

All facts sourced from Sandoval County Sheriff records, the Sandia National Laboratories organizational directory, NNSA SAND2023-04694R, local and national news reporting, and The Pugilist / Substack. Speculation is labeled throughout our full episodes. If you or someone you know is in crisis: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline -- call or text 988