Las Vegas authorities say they have identified the suspected murder victim whose remains were discovered inside a barrel at Lake Mead four years ago. Officials are expected to release the person’s identity later today.
As drought-driven declines lowered the lake’s water level, the barrel became visible. The receding shoreline has also led to the discovery of other human remains, including those believed to belong to drowning victims and people who had been reported missing.
“The bad old days always resurface, don’t they?” said Randy Sutton, a retired Las Vegas police lieutenant who has followed the investigation.
Lake Mead is seen on Sept. 3, 2026, in Boulder City, Nevada. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Sutton and other experts have suggested that the victim could have been targeted in a mob killing.
“Two in the back of the head,” Sutton said, describing the hallmark of mob-style murders from that period. “Bury them in the desert or Lake Mead if they didn’t want them found or leave them where they lay to make a statement.”
A rusted metal barrel, near the location of where a different barrel was found containing a human body, sits exposed on shore during low water levels due to the western drought at the Lake Mead Marina on the Colorado River in Boulder City, Nevada on May 5, 2022. A worsening drought has revealed a four-decade-old body dumped in Lake Mead, police said May 2, 2022, warning that falling water levels would lead to the uncovering of more corpses. Boaters on Lake Mead near Las Vegas discovered a corroded barrel with its sinister contents during a weekend pleasure trip. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Boaters found the barrel near Hemenway Harbor on May 1, 2022, according to the Clark County coroner and medical examiner’s office.
A sign for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is seen outside of the headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada on Oct. 4, 2025. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Investigators quickly determined that the death was suspicious after finding a gunshot wound on the man’s body inside the container.
Police said at the time that the man likely died sometime from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, a conclusion based largely on the clothing found with the remains.
Sutton said construction of new housing developments has also exposed human remains buried in locations that once lay beyond the edges of Las Vegas.
Las Vegas authorities said they will provide additional information during a news briefing scheduled for 3 p.m. PT, or 6 p.m. ET.
