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3h ago

Drought Exposes Human Remains at Lake Mead and Lake Powell

Federal managers have ordered deep water‑use cuts as record low levels uncover shoreline sites that will take months of forensic work to identify.

A sunken World War II-era Higgins landing craft that used to be nearly 200 feet underwater surfaces in Lake Mead in July 2022.
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Wooden pallets mark the location of where a barrel was found containing a human body in Lake Mead on May 1, 2022.
A paddle boat cruises in Lake Mead near the Hoover Dam, far below the bathtub ring of light minerals indicating the lack of water.

Overview

  • Park rangers and Las Vegas police recovered human bones at Boulder Beach on Lake Mead after a visitor found a jawbone on Sunday, Aug. 16, and a non‑criminal dead‑body report was taken.
  • Kane County deputies and National Park Service rangers collected possible human remains from Lake Powell on Aug. 14 and sent them to the Utah State Medical Examiner for autopsy and identification.
  • Lake Mead sits near 1,039 feet above sea level and about 27% of capacity, and federal readings showing near‑record low storage prompted the Department of the Interior to require multi‑year cuts for Arizona, California and Nevada.
  • Officials say there is no current indication of criminal activity in the latest Lake Mead find, but multiagency responses and degraded, long‑submerged evidence mean identifications and cause‑of‑death determinations can take months.
  • The recoveries follow a pattern as decades of drought and warming have drawn down reservoirs, exposing sunken towns, boats and artifacts and reopening cold cases such as the 2022 barrel homicide believed to date to the 1970s or 1980s.