Authorities found human remains on the shoreline of shrinking Lake Mead last October, Las Vegas authorities announced on Tuesday.
According to the report, the human remains were traced back to a report of a man who drowned in April 1974.
In an exclusive report published by AP News, it was revealed that “Donald P. Smith was 39 when he was reported missing in the waters of the Colorado River reservoir behind Hoover Dam, the Clark County coroner’s office said in a statement. The identification was made through DNA, and his death has been ruled accidental.”
“Coroner’s investigators are still trying to identify other remains found last year while the lake recedes because of drought, county spokeswoman Stacey Welling said. That includes those of a man who Las Vegas police say was shot in the head and stuffed into a barrel found in May 2022 near a popular swimming and boating area about a 30-minute drive from the Las Vegas Strip,” the report added.
City officials also revealed that they didn’t immediately have information regarding a missing person or drowning report that was related to Smith, or family contacts.
“His were the last of a series of remains publicly reported to have been found last year at the lake, which has for decades been a fishing, swimming and boating destination and the object of lore about being a dumping ground for the underworld during the early years of the Las Vegas Strip,” AP News added.
Human remains found last October on the shoreline of shrinking Lake Mead were from a North Las Vegas man who drowned in April 1974, authorities in Las Vegas said. https://t.co/s5AG4Hkf7O— AP Climate (@AP_Climate) March 29, 2023
The media outlet also revealed that authorities discovered that the remains found in May 2022 in the Callville Bay area “were identified in August 2022 as those of Thomas Erndt, a 42-year-old Las Vegas father whose family said he drowned during a nighttime family boat outing late Aug. 2, 2002 at the lake.”
Furthermore, over the three-week search in late July and early August, other skeletal remains were discovered along the shoreline at the Boulder Beach swimming area that reportedly belonged to one person, the coroner said in an official statement on Tuesday.
At the time of writing, authorities are still trying to link a name with the aforementioned remains.
