Local authorities said more human remains were found in Lake Mead. As CNN reports, park rangers received a report on Saturday morning that skeletal remains had been found. It is the fourth body found in the Hoover Dam reservoir on the Arizona-Nevada border, where water levels recently dropped to record lows.
The three previous finds — one of them a body in a barrel with a gunshot wound — were all in advanced stages of decomposition, which officials said made DNA identification difficult.
With a view to the most recent find, it was unclear how long the body had been in the lake, it said. Unlike the barrel corpse, the homicide squad of the responsible Las Vegas Metropolitan Police is not currently investigating.
The identities and circumstances of all bodies found are currently unclear. The grim discoveries in the lake had immediately led to quick theories about criminal backgrounds, which the responsible investigators, however, describe as speculation. Only the corpse in the barrel with the gunshot wound made it obvious that someone was involved in the killing.
According to the National Park Service, it’s also possible that the other people drowned in the lake when the water was higher and they’ve just been discovered.
According to NASA, Lake Mead was only 27 percent full of water on July 18. Sunken boats and a shipwreck from World War II also came to light.
The lake serves as a drinking water reservoir for millions of people in Arizona, Nevada and California. It is a reservoir of the Colorado River downstream of the Grand Canyon. According to Nasa, the falling levels are due, among other things, to persistent drought and climate change.
Sources: CNN, NASA
