A former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who was preparing to testify about unidentified aerial phenomena died before he could speak, and now a Missouri congressman wants the FBI to find out why.
Rep. Eric Burlison formally requested that FBI Director Kash Patel open an investigation into the death of Matthew James Sullivan, a 39-year-old Falls Church, Virginia, resident and Air Force veteran who died on May 12, 2024. Sullivan had reportedly been scheduled by the UAP Task Force to come forward as a whistleblower in connection with congressional inquiries into whether the U.S. government has concealed evidence of UFOs.
Sullivan's official cause of death has not been made public. Initial reports described it as a suicide, but the case had reportedly remained in the hands of a local Virginia medical examiner, not federal investigators, until Burlison intervened. The congressman told the Daily Mail on Friday that he has "grave concerns" and considers the circumstances surrounding Sullivan's death "suspicious."
Sullivan was no fringe figure. He served as deputy director at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the same installation long associated with Cold War-era UFO lore, including allegations tied to the 1947 Roswell incident. He also worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's so-called "idea factory" credited with helping develop the Internet, GPS, and stealth technology. On top of that, he held a role as a Department of War contractor.
Burlison emphasized Sullivan's access to the most sensitive levels of classified information. He told the Daily Mail:
"Look at Matthew Sullivan's credentials and his experience. He certainly was someone who was read in at the highest classification levels and knew some of our nation's most important secrets."
The congressman added bluntly: "And so did a lot of these other people."
That line points to a broader pattern that has caught lawmakers' attention. Burlison referenced 11 other deaths and disappearances documented since 2022 involving individuals connected to aerospace, intelligence, and classified programs. The Daily Mail reported that several scientists and administrative officials with ties to NASA, nuclear research, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have vanished or turned up dead in recent years. Whether those cases are connected remains an open question, but one that Congress now appears intent on pressing.
The broader pattern of tensions between state-level investigators and federal agencies over accountability and transparency adds context to why lawmakers may feel compelled to push for federal involvement in a case that local authorities have handled quietly.
Central to the story is David Grusch, the retired U.S. Air Force Major who became a household name in the UAP world after testifying before Congress in 2023. Grusch spent 14 years in the Air Force before serving as an intelligence officer at the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that builds and launches surveillance satellites for the Pentagon. He became a whistleblower after allegedly learning of hidden UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs.
Grusch now serves as a senior advisor to Burlison. The congressman confirmed Friday that Grusch had been in contact with Sullivan before his death and was actively helping him come forward.
"Grusch was helping him come forward as a whistleblower."
Burlison said he himself had not spoken to Sullivan directly. But the congressman described Sullivan as someone who had been specifically scheduled by the UAP Task Force to provide testimony.
"The fact that he had been scheduled by the UAP Task Force. That he had been scheduled to come and speak... After hearing about this tragedy, I felt it was worth looking into."
What Sullivan was prepared to disclose remains unknown. Burlison told the Daily Mail he did not know the specific information Sullivan intended to share. That gap, between what Sullivan apparently knew and what anyone outside the classified world will ever learn, sits at the center of this case.
The question of what federal agencies know and choose not to share is hardly new. Recent reporting on the FBI's handling of the Epstein files has raised similar concerns about institutional transparency and the selective release of information in politically sensitive matters.
Burlison's letter to Patel pulled no punches. In it, the congressman wrote that "the sudden and suspicious circumstances surrounding his death raise significant concerns about potential foul play and the safety of other individuals involved in this matter." He also cited an investigation by the Intelligence Community Inspector General that uncovered what he described as "serious allegations of misconduct and potentially unlawful activities", findings that, in Burlison's view, pointed away from suicide as an explanation for Sullivan's death.
The congressman is not acting alone. He and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer are preparing a joint letter to the FBI listing several cases lawmakers want investigated as part of what they describe as a possible conspiracy. Burlison, a member of the Oversight Committee, has been part of a broader congressional effort investigating claims that the federal government has not been truthful about the existence of UFOs.
Burlison told the Daily Mail he had been in contact with members of the FBI, but the bureau neither confirmed nor denied whether the intelligence community had been investigating Sullivan's death, or the 11 other deaths and disappearances documented since 2022.
That kind of institutional silence is a familiar frustration. Lawmakers across the political spectrum have encountered similar stonewalling from the FBI in other politically charged investigations, where information flows upward but rarely back to the officials who are supposed to exercise oversight.
Perhaps the most revealing part of Burlison's comments had nothing to do with Sullivan specifically. It had to do with what Sullivan's death means for everyone else who might step forward.
The congressman described a climate in which potential whistleblowers feel physically unsafe. Some, he said, have chosen to go public precisely because they believe visibility offers protection.
"There's some that came forward, that have come forward to try to be public just to avoid any kind of foul play. In a lot of ways, going public can be a protection in and of itself. I do know of at least one individual that did come forward, and has been very public, and did so because he felt that his life was in danger."
That is a remarkable statement from a sitting member of Congress. Burlison is not describing a policy disagreement or a bureaucratic turf war. He is describing people inside the national security apparatus who believe they could be harmed for speaking to lawmakers. Whether those fears are justified, the fact that they exist, and that a congressman takes them seriously enough to petition the FBI director, deserves attention.
The pattern of federal agencies operating with minimal external accountability is a recurring theme. Separate FBI probes involving classified information and national security personnel have raised persistent questions about who watches the watchers.
There are no new whistleblower hearings on UAPs currently scheduled, the Daily Mail reported. Sullivan cannot testify. His cause of death remains unpublicized. The specific information he intended to share is unknown even to the congressman who asked the FBI to investigate.
The Daily Mail reached out to local authorities in Virginia for comment. No response was reported.
Skeptics will note that "suspicious" is a word that carries weight but not evidence. And Burlison himself acknowledged he did not speak to Sullivan directly. But the congressman's letter, the involvement of the Oversight Committee chairman, and the documented trail of deaths and disappearances among individuals connected to classified programs add up to something that warrants more than a local medical examiner's file.
Investigations into alleged misconduct by government officials are never comfortable for the institutions involved. That discomfort is not a reason to look away.
When people inside the government believe they need to go public just to stay alive, the problem is no longer about UFOs. It is about whether the institutions Americans fund and trust are capable of policing themselves, or whether they have decided that silence, one way or another, is the preferred outcome.
