Since May, five human bodies have been discovered in the lake. CHICAGO (WLS) -- It's one of the most famous slogans of any American city: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Mysteries of Lake Mead: As Nation's Largest Reservoir Dries Up, Human Remains Are Found 5 Times in 4 Months. The police dive team was again dispatched to assist in recovering the remains, which a visitor found in the water, and park officials contacted the coroner's officer. Smith met the I-Team at Lake Mead recently, about 30 miles from the infamous gambling strip that was controlled by Chicago gangsters in the 1970s and 1980s, right when several mob-linked men vanished. Discovery Company. Less than a week later, two sisters on paddleboards found a. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. "There are a couple of people who have disappeared at a very crucial time and a very stressful time for the Outfit in Las Vegas," said John L. Smith. As its water levels continue to drop, officials believe that Lake Mead has hundreds more bodies waiting to be found. Firearms are often found at the lake, a police spokesman said, and it wasn't clear if the gun is connected to the remains found on May 1. Las Vegas police believe he was a murder victim who died from a gunshot wound. But nearly everything else about them is a mystery. Since the lake was created in the 1930s, around 300 people have drowned in the reservoir. With the help of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's dive team, park rangers responded and set up a perimeter to retrieve the body, the NPS said. Schafer said they work to uncover the bodies to "give back to the families" who lost them. In a news release, the coroner's office stated medical examiners identified the remains as Las Vegas resident Claude Russell Pensinger, noting "The identification was It continues to diminish and is about 27% full. At the time, even as local authorities sought to downplay the influence of organized crime syndicates, mobsters from Midwest cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Kansas City, Mo., wielded immense clout around Las Vegas. So far, only one set of human remains has been positively identified through the use of DNA analysis. Tony "Ant" Spilotro was himself murdered in 1986 and found with his brother buried in an Indiana cornfield. Another set of remains was found on May 7 in the parks Callville Bay area. ET, a third set of human remains were discovered along Lake Mead's arid shore. While the water levels rose slightly in recent weeks due to heavy rainfall in the area, the reservoir remains only 27 percent at its full capacity. Whenever I tell someone I Scuba dive in Lake Mead, (NV) they nearly always ask, "Have you seen any dead bodies?" I suspect it is due to Vegas reputation. "A barrel has a signature of a mob hit," Geoff Schumacher, vice president of The Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas, told the Associated Press. At the Mob Museum downtown, tourists with beers in hand take in exhibitions describing the citys blood-splattered past. Edward III counting the dead after the battle of Crcy. Two dead bodies were found in Lake Mead just outside of Las Vegas. Dropping water levels in Lake Mead, above the Hoover Dam, revealed human remains that have probably been hidden for decades.CreditJoe Buglewicz for The New York Times. Paying more despite good credit? Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring today's Kill Count! It's the lowest level on record for the. His. ABC News' Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report. Inside what a witness described to the station as a 50-gallon drum was person who seemed to have died from a gunshot wound in the '1970s or '80s an estimate investigators with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department developed based on the person's clothes and shoes. ", "My guess is that most of the remains found to date, if recent, may be some combination of adipocere and skeleton," Connor said. Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse has since preliminarily ruled the cause and manner of death was homicide by gunshot and also said her office is submitting specimens from the remains to try to. Lake Mead also has a surface elevation of 1,229 feet (375 m) above sea level with the surface area being 247 square miles (640 km2). In August, DNA revealed one set of bones belonged to a boater who drowned in 2002 and disappeared. ROBBING LAKE MEAD OF WATER: THE EMERGENCY PLAN AIMED AT KEEPING WATER FLOWING TO THE WEST. Vandermark, a friend of Smith's family, worked at the mob-linked now-defunct Stardust as slot manager. The dip has seen rivers "mineralize," sunken boats emerge and shores recede. Copyright 2023 WLS-TV. No, its the lake resort manager hunted down by the Chicago Outfit. As Ms. Melvin put it: Theres a whole lot of mystery around them.. The NPS said bones found on May 7 are believed to belong to Thomas Erndt, a 42-year-old man who reportedly drowned on August 2, 2002. The Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner is assisting with determining the cause of death, the park service said. And more human remains discovered in the plummeting waters of Lake Mead? It wasnt until I saw the jawbone with a silver filling that I was like, Whoa, this is human, and started to freak out, Ms. Melvin, 30, said. Another set of human remains was found at Lake Mead Monday as the reservoirs water levels continue to recede, according to a news release from the National Park Service. A formerly sunken boat sits upright into the air with its stern stuck in the mud along the shoreline of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, on June 10, 2022, near Boulder City, Nev. Another body has been uncovered in the shrinking reservoir, according to officials. SEE ALSO | Is third corpse found in receding Lake Mead a missing Chicago mobster? 2023 Cable News Network. Green said he suspects Chicago mob figures are the most likely remains in the water, and that there are probably more to come. What it means: It appears over the years the reservoir has become the dumping ground for bodies, perhaps even victims of mob violence. I dont think they ever found the body, Mr. Green said. "There are a lot of bodies which have still not been found at the bottom of Lake Mead. As of Tuesday, Lake Meads water level was at 1,040 feet, about 174 feet below its level in 2000, when it was last considered full. The receding waters of Lake Mead have exposed three bodies and a number of sunken boats amid a megadrought in the Western US. The National Park Service, which manages the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, said in a news release that around 3 p.m. rangers found a barrel containing human remains in Hemenway Harbor, a. A body in a container like a barrel, she said, could decompose faster than one exposed to water. A barrel containing human remains was discovered in Nevada's Lake Mead over the weekend as a historic drought grips the West. The areas where the two bodies were found, he said, could have been dumping grounds connected to other crimes. how many bodies have been found in lake mead. David Kohlmeier, a retired police officer who is now a podcaster and social media personality, is offering a $5,000 reward to divers who find other remains in Lake Mead. The second set of remains was found on May 7 at Callville Bay and the third on July 25 at Swim Beach, according to the National Park Service. A B-29 plane, still shadowed by the depths, is becoming visible for the first time in decades. Brian Ross is joined by legendary mob lawyer and former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman to talk about the investigation. Mark Henle/The Republic via USA Today Network. Smith has been investigating the Chicago Outfit for decades in Las Vegas, and is a well-known author on organized crime. Two former police officers who now co-host a Las Vegas podcast are offering a US$5,000 reward for qualified divers to find more barrels, and possibly more bodies in Lake Mead. The lake's water levels could soon reach "dead pool" status, experts say. The water level at Lake Mead is lower than any time since the 1930s. The receding waters also have exposed previously sunken boats, including a World War II-era landing craft last month. "Stuffing a body in a barrel. On May 1, 2022, a boater noticed a barrel stuck in the mud and made the grisly discovery of a body inside. Lake Mead's water levels are dropping due to the ongoing megadrought in the western United States. But even with the finds, the drought has wrought more destruction than opportunity for discovery. Pappas, whose underworld associations were noted when he disappeared, managed a resort on Lake Mead backed by a Teamsters pension fund, and had been involved in Democratic politics. But, you know, maybe these bodies coming up at Lake Mead will reveal something to us," Schumacher said. Between a plethora of animal remains, an uncovered World War II-era power boat, and now three dead bodies, Lake Mead is looking increasingly more ominous. Brian Ross is joined. As Lake Mead water levels drop and more dead bodies are discovered, experts believe many could be connected to Chicago mob activity in Las Vegas. Six skeletons have surfaced so far and so have stories of missing mob victims from the decades. After a pickup truck with a female body inside was found in a receding lake in Texas in 2014, officials used dental records to identify a woman who had been missing since 1979. Lindsey and Lynette Melvin found a set of human remains in Lake Mead days after the discovery of a barrel containing another body. In 1976, John Roselli, a crime figure with Las Vegas ties, was found floating dead in one in Biscayne Bay outside Miami. In May, a body was found in a barrel with clothing from the 1970s or 80s. Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital. While taking a test run on the lake, Taylor's boat . by | Apr 25, 2023 | uw stevens point baseball roster | top 20 most powerful greek gods | Apr 25, 2023 | uw stevens point baseball roster | top 20 most powerful greek gods County officials said the man died from a gunshot wound, with the manner of his death . A key water source for roughly 25 million people, Lake Mead also can produce enough. Its unclear whether the bone and the remains are from the same person, and the Clark county coroners office is still investigating previously found partial sets of remains to determine how many people total have been recovered from the depths this year. 5 dead bodies surfaced near Las Vegas in 3 months. Could it be the work of a biker gang muscling in on Mafia turf? "It does lead to a lot of speculation," said John L. Smith. Climate Change They believe that he was killing people were having people killed on a regular basis," said Geoff Schumacher, Vice President of Exhibits and Programs at the Las Vegas Mob Museum. Theyve all been spotted since May, at all times of day in three parts of the sprawling lakes western corner, along a stretch of lakefront less than an hour from Las Vegas. Van Arnum, the former coroner, remembers the body of Lee Taylor who died trying to break the water speed record on Lake Tahoe in November 1980. On the morning of Saturday, Aug. 6, skeletal remains were found in the same area, he said, and the coroner's office is trying to determine if the two discoveries are linked to the same person. Human remains unveiled in Lake Mead's low water levels last year have finally been identified as a Las Vegas man who went missing years ago, local authorities said this week. The second set of remains was found on May 7 at Callville Bay and the third on July 25 at Swim Beach, according to the National Park Service. In Utah last year, the receding waters of Lake Powell revealed a car that had plunged 600 feet off a cliff, killing the driver. The remains were the second found in Lake Mead in less than a week. The National Park Service confirmed on Wednesday that a human bone discovered by a diver directed a park dive team to an area where the skeletal remains were found. At the Mob Museum, Spilotro commands several displays including the handcuffs he once wore. The imperiled lake was created by the Hoover Dam at the border between Arizona and Nevada. One name surfaces frequently. The remains have been spotted since May in three parts of the sprawling lakes western corner, but nearly everything else about them is a mystery. One body has been identified as Thomas Erndt, who drowned 20 years ago in the reservoir, according to ABC News. Other theories about the bodies also abound. Homicide investigators believe the body was placed in the barrel in . On May 1, boaters found a barrel containing the body of a homicide victim in Lake Mead. Are there Chicago Outfit ties to 5th skeleton found in Lake Mead's potential watery mob graveyard? Unlike previous discoveries including the first body, which was found in barrel in May and is suspected to be linked to a mob murder in the 70s officials dont currently suspect foul play. The largest US reservoir, Lake Mead supplies drinking water to 20 million people from Las Vegas to. The reservoir is so large that its currents can circulate a body far from where it drowned or was dumped, and cause it to break apart. The I-Team spoke with the longtime Las Vegas crime syndicate expert Smith after body number two was found in May. Could the bodies found in Lake Mead be connected to the Chicago mob. A forensic anthropology professor at Colorado Mesa University, Melissa Connor, previously told Newsweek that they the bodies within the Lake may have turned into a "soap-like consistency known as adipocere. Its the lowest level on record for the reservoir since it was filled in the 1930s. "The embarrassment is just going to keep growing over this," Laura Harth, the campaign director at Safeguard Defenders, told Newsweek. The lake also guards the wreckage of a B-29 Superfortress one of the largest aircraft used in World War II that crashed into its waters in 1948, as well as a stunning complex of Ancestral Puebloan ruins, including a structure with more than 100 rooms. news release from the National Park Service, World War II-era landing craft last month, exposed one of the reservoirs original water intake valves. Could the bodies found in Lake Mead be connected to the Chicago mob. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Copyright 2023 WLS-TV. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much It's. As of August 23, Lake Mead's water level was at 1,043.48 feet. 5 min read. The first body was discovered in early May, and police believe it dates back to the late 1970s to early 1980s and are investigating it as a homicide, according to CNN. The lakes low water level exposed one of the reservoirs original water intake valves in April for the first time. There are suspicions that the Chicago mob killed some or all of them-perhaps during the heyday of Anthony "Ant" Spilotro, who supervised Chicago Outfit rackets in Vegas in the 1970s and into the 1980s. A dead fish sits in shallow water on the banks of Lake Mead near the Lake Mead Marina on August 19, 2022 in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada. RELATED: Could the bodies found in Lake Mead be connected to the Chicago mob? A few days later, another body was found. Mr. Green, whose father was a casino dealer with the distinction of being fired by Lefty Rosenthal, the inspiration for the gangster portrayed by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorseses 1995 film, Casino, has his own theory about the body in the barrel. Michael Green, a historian, studies the Mafias role in forging Las Vegas. More than 1,100 gangland hits are on the books at the hands of Chicago mobsters since the Roaring 1920s. This time, as reported by CNN, a diver, who is a private business operator at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, found a human bone in the Callville Bay area of Lake Mead on Oct. 17. On Saturday the National Park Service (NPS) announced its rangers had. "There, I think it might have been a bit more likely that if you ran afoul of the Chicago Outfit, they'd take you for a ride out to the desert. As of Monday, Lake Mead's water level was around 1,052 feet above sea level roughly 162 feet below its 2000 level, when it was last considered full. He was a friend of my family," Smith told the I-Team. Vandermark, also thought to have pocketed funds from his mob bosses, went missing in 1976. The University of Nevada at Las Vegas is studying the ash to determine how often the Las Vegas area was inundated with ash over time, and may help prepare for future events from active volcanoes from far away since the dust can travel for hundreds of miles. As Lake Mead water levels drop and more dead bodies are discovered, experts believe many could be connected to Chicago mob activity in Las Vegas. Long-term drought and other changes to the landscape make more grim discoveries possible, and require planning for mass casualty events like deadly heat waves, storms and wildfires. Park rangers responded to a report of human remains found in the parks Swim Beach area in Boulder City, Nevada, at about 4:30 p.m. PT, the release said. The water level at Lake Mead is lower than any time since the 1930s.