Update on Lake Mead : The fourth such find since May has been a set of human remains discovered in the Nevada lake Mead’s dwindling waters, according to authorities on Saturday. Follow Chopnews to get update.
More human remains are found in receding reservoir near Las Vegas
In the midst of the greatest drought in decades, the lake, the nation’s largest reservoir, is continuing to decrease, exposing previously concealed secrets no longer shielded by its waters.
The National Park Service (NPS) reports that on August 6, at about 11:15 a.m., someone found human bone remains at Swim Beach in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Since May, during the drought, three further sets of human remains have been discovered in the lake.
The homicide branch of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police assumed control of the case on May 1 when a body with an evident gunshot wound was discovered in a corroding steel barrel at the lake’s Hemenway Harbor.
Police say the body belonged to a person who passed away between the middle of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. Some people have hypothesised that the man may have been the target of a mob hit.
A week later, on May 7, two sisters paddling in Lake Mead’s Callville Bay discovered some skeleton remains more than 20 miles from where the first victim was located, according to NPS.
Neither the cause of death nor the length of time the second person spent in the lake are now known.
At Swim Beach, the same location where the most recent bones were discovered, a third set of remains were discovered on July 25. This collection of remains is merely a portion, and analysis is ongoing.
Only the diminishing shore line of Lake Mead, whose water levels have dropped this year, allowed for these sad discovery.
According to NASA, the lake’s water levels are at their lowest point since April 1937, when the reservoir was began being filled.
The agency’s photographs reveal that as of July 18, Lake Mead was only 27 percent full.
It was the fourth time since May that reports of perhaps decades-old remains at the lake in Arizona and Nevada, 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, have been made. The following are some of the discoveries:
Remains were discovered in a barrel on May 1. According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, a victim who died from a gunshot wound may have died in the 1970s or the early 1980s based on the attire they were wearing.
May 7: According to officials, a second barrel found along a shoreline contained remains.
On July 25, reports of remains at Swim Beach surfaced.
