LAKE MEAD, Nevada: The U.S. National Park Service has announced that a barrel containing human remains was found by boaters this week in Lake Mead, Nevada.
The macabre find was made at Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Hemenway Harbor in Boulder City, the service told The New York Post.
After the find, park rangers went to the area and set up a perimeter, and the federal agency’s Investigative Service Branch is now working with Las Vegas police in an ongoing probe.
In a statement, the park service said the cause of death will be determined by the Clark County Coroner’s Office.
Meanwhile, television station KLAS reported that the barrel seemed to have been stuck at the bottom of the lake. However, due to the ongoing drought, it became exposed as water levels fell.
“We were docking our boat to go home and heard a woman scream. My husband walked over and found the body,” Shawna Hollister told KLAS.
The drought-hit Lake Mead, created by the construction of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, is the country’s largest man-made reservoir and has more than 750 miles of shoreline in Nevada and Arizona.
