LAS VEGAS (AP) – A body inside a barrel was found over the weekend at the newly discovered bottom of Lake Mead in Nevada, as the drought depletes one of the largest reservoirs in the United States – and officials predicted the discovery could only be the first of the gloomy finds.
“I would say there is a very good chance, because the water level is falling, that we will find additional human remains,” Las Vegas police lieutenant Ray Spencer told KLAS-TV on Monday.
The level of the lake has dropped so much that last week a reservoir became visible in the drought-affected Lake Mead. The Colorado River’s famine-hungry reservoir behind Hoover Dam is so depleted that Las Vegas is now pumping water deeper into Lake Mead.
Personal belongings found in the barrel show the man died more than 40 years ago in the 1980s, Spencer said.
He declined to discuss the cause of death and declined to describe the items found, saying the investigation is ongoing.
Police plan to contact experts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to analyze when the barrel began to erode. The Clark County Judicial Service will try to establish the identity of the person.
The boatmen noticed the barrel on Sunday afternoon. Rangers in the National Park searched an area near Hemenway Harbor on the lake and found a barrel containing skeletal remains.
Lake Mead and Lake Powell upstream are the largest man-made reservoirs in the United States, part of a system that provides water to more than 40 million people, tribes, agriculture and industry in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and across the southern border of Mexico.
Add Comment