First Published:
11:54 AM PDT, May 9, 2022
More human remains were found in drought-stricken Lake Mead, where a corpse in a corroded barrel was discovered little more than a week ago, authorities said.
National Park rangers responded Saturday to visitors who called, saying they found skeletal remains in the lake’s Callville Bay, the Park Service said in a news release.
Nevada’s Clark County Medical Examiner is working to determine the cause of death, according to the statement. No other information was released.
On May 1, boaters on the country’s largest man-made reservoir reported finding a badly decomposed barrel in the muck left by plunging water levels. Inside was a body.
It belonged to a man who was shot in the late 1970s or early 80s, authorities said last week.
The clothes and shoes found on the body date to that time, Las Vegas Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Investigators determined the man’s shoes were sold at Kmart and manufactured in the 1970s, he said.
Water levels in Lake Mead are severely low, caused by climate change and an unprecedented drought. The massive source of drinking water is bordered by Arizona and Nevada.
Authorities have said they expect to find more bodies in Lake Mead, a long-favorite dumping ground for Las Vegas-area mobsters.
The man-made reservoir’s water level has dropped some 160 feet since 2000. The lake is currently at its lowest level since it was filled in 1935.
“We don’t have enough water supplies right now to meet normal demand. The water is not there,” Metropolitan Water District of Southern California spokesperson Rebecca Kimitch said recently. The agency told about 6 million customers in sprawling Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties to contain outdoor watering to one day a week, effective June 1, or face stiff fines.
