Human remains were found at Lake Mead on Saturday afternoon, according to the National Park Service, marking the second body found there this week.
Rangers were alerted shortly after 2 p.m. by witnesses who said they saw skeletal remains in Lake Mead’s Callville Bay, the Park Service said in a news release. Rangers were on scene as of 7:15 p.m. to set up a perimeter and recover the remains, the Park Service said. The Clark County Medical Examiner has been notified to determine the cause of death, according to the release. No other information was released.
It’s the second such incident officials are investigating.
A body inside a barrel was found on the newly-exposed bottom of Lake Mead near Hemenway Harbor on May 1, as drought has depleted one of the southwest’s largest water reservoirs to historic lows.
Personal items found inside the barrel indicated the person found died more than 40 years ago, Metro Police homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said.
Police plan to reach out to experts at UNLV to analyze when the barrel started eroding. The Clark County Coroner’s Office will also try to determine the person’s identity.
Water levels in Lake Mead have dropped so much that a water intake became visible last week. The drought-starved reservoir on the Colorado River behind the Hoover Dam has become so depleted that Las Vegas is now pumping water from deeper within Lake Mead.
Lake Mead and Lake Powell upstream are the largest human-made reservoirs in the U.S., 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 in Mexico.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.