5th Body Found At Drought-Stricken Lake Mead

More human remains were found in Lake Mead as water levels at the country’s largest artificial reservoir dropped to historic lows. 

The National Parks Service said rangers on Monday night found remains near the Swim Beach area of the lake in Nevada. 

Rangers set a perimeter to recover the remains with the support of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s dive team. The Clark County Medical Examiner was contacted to retrieve the human skeletal remains, though no further information on the cause of death has been released. 

Tuesday’s announcement comes after four other human remains have been discovered over the last several months as water levels sit at their lowest since the reservoir was first filled in the mid-1930s. 

On May 1, the first body was found in a barrel. Police believe the body was from the 1970s or ’80s. Human remains were also found on May 7, July 25, and August 6. 

As of Wednesday morning, Lake Mead’s water level was at 1,042 feet, approximately 174 feet below its level in 2000 when the great drought began. 

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said in May that “additional bodies have been dumped in Lake Mead” and will likely be found as water levels recede. 

The latest satellite images of the lake’s falling water level over a two-decade period are stunning and were recently published by NASA. 

“Continuing a 22-year downward trend, water levels in Lake Mead stand at their lowest since April 1937, when the reservoir was still being filled for the first time,” the space agency wrote in a recent report. 

… and people from Vegas and other surrounding communities drink this water.