Authorities in Las Vegas have identified bones found in May alongside a part of Lake Mead’s newly uncovered shoreline as the remains of a 42-year-old Las Vegas man, who’s believed to have drowned 20 years in the past.
The Clark County coroner’s workplace mentioned Wednesday that Thomas Erndt was reported missing Aug. 2, 2002.
The bones have been found on May 7 by paddle boarders close to a former marina in Lake Mead, the shrinking Colorado River reservoir behind Hoover Dam.
An announcement from Coroner Melanie Rouse mentioned investigators used DNA and experiences of Erndt’s disappearance for the identification. An official trigger and method of demise weren’t decided.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported {that a} demise announcement at the time mentioned Erndt jumped from a ship and was presumed to have drowned.
Receding water in Lake Mead has given rise to a sample of alarming discoveries because the spring, as guests proceed to seek out and report human remains that appear to be resurfacing with rising frequency in the noticeably sparse reservoir. Coroner’s investigators are nonetheless working to establish a man who was killed by a gunshot after his physique was found May 1 in a rusted barrel, as properly as partial human skeletal remains found July 25 and Aug. 6 close to a swimming space.
Partial skeletal remains additionally have been found Aug. 16 close to the identical swimming space.
The water ranges at Lake Mead have dropped steadily for a while, amid persistent drought in the southwest, however fell noticeably this season and hit a historic low in July. Lake Mead’s elevation numbers put the reservoir’s capability at lower than 30% of its most, and are just like the water ranges recorded when it was stuffed for the primary time in the Thirties.
story by The Texas Tribune Source link