Body found in barrel by boaters at drought-starved Lake Mead: authorities
A barrel containing decomposing human remains was discovered by boaters at Lake Mead in Nevada, authorities said Monday.
The macabre find was made by a park-goer Sunday afternoon at Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Hemenway Harbor in Boulder City, the National Park Service told The Post.
Park rangers responded to the area and set up a perimeter. The federal agency’s Investigative Service Branch is working with Las Vegas police in an ongoing probe.
“No further information is available at this time,” the park service said in a statement.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office will determine the person’s cause of death.
The barrel appeared to have been stuck in mud and may have been exposed due to low water levels amid an ongoing drought, KLAS reported.
“We were docking our boat to go home and heard a woman scream,” witness Shawna Hollister told the station. “My husband walked over and found the body. His shirt and belt were the only thing we could see over his decomposing bones.”
A message seeking comment from Las Vegas police was not immediately returned Monday afternoon.
It’s unclear how long the body had been at the receding shoreline, KSNV reported.
The drought-starved Lake Mead — created by the construction of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River — is the country’s largest manmade reservoir and has more than 750 miles of shoreline in Nevada and Arizona, according to the National Park Service.
