Two dead bodies have been found along Lake Mead’s shoreline due to lower water levels.
Now theories abound about how they ended up in the pond and who they really are.
There are many indications that the bodies have been lying there for several decades.
Forty miles outside of Las Vegas is Lake Mead, one of the largest water reservoirs in the United States. As a result of climate change, water levels have fallen sharply and at present the reservoir is only 30 percent full.
It is the lowest water level ever measured in the reservoir and the shoreline has thus become wider.
Now two dead bodies have been found along the previously hidden shorelines, one lying in a rusty barrel and half buried in the sand.
The carcass in the barrel is, according to the police in Las Vegas, a murder victim who was shot dead during the mid-70s to the early 80s. It bases the police on the victim’s clothes and shoes.
The other remains were found by two sisters who paddled on the artificial lake. When they encountered the remains of the bones, they thought they belonged to a thick-horned sheep.
It was not until I saw the row of teeth with a silver filling that I thought: “Oh, it’s a human being”. I started freaking out, says 30-year-old Lynette Melvin, one of the sisters, to New York Times.
The police can not yet say anything about that body find.
Could it be Jay Vandermark?
The discovery of dead bodies is often linked to tragedy and pain for relatives. But in mythical Las Vegas, theories about what may have happened to the people and who they really are are now flourishing.
Does the body in the barrel belong to Jay Vandermark, a slot machine supervisor at Stardust Casino who swindled millions of dollars in slot machine revenue and disappeared in 1976?
Or is it the politically controversial hotel manager Johnny Pappas who went up in smoke the same year?
Could it be a victim of the motorcycle gang’s bearer walk in the Mojave Desert?
Maybe it’s just someone who drank a glass too much and fell overboard?
The theories are many.
More bodies may be found
Climate change has hit both Lake Mead and its sister reservoir Lake Powell, which supplies more than 40 million people with water.
“The lakes have drained dramatically over the past 15 years and it is likely that we will find more bodies dumped in Lake Mead as the water level drops further,” said Ray Spencer of the Las Vegas Police Department.
In Southern California, including Los Angeles, water restrictions will be announced. From the first of June, private individuals and companies may only water their gardens and orchards once a week.
– This is a crisis that has never been seen before, says Adel Hagekhalil, head of the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California.