LAS VEGAS — More human remains have been found at the drought-stricken Lake Mead National Recreation Area east of Las Vegas, authorities said Sunday.
It’s the fourth time since May that debris has been found as western drought forces the shoreline to retreat at the shrinking Colorado River reservoir behind Hoover Dam.
National Park Service officials said rangers were called to the reservoir between Nevada and Arizona around 11 a.m. Saturday after skeletal remains were found at Swim Beach.
Rangers and a dive team from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police went to retrieve the remains.
Park Service officials said the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office will try to determine when and how the man died while investigators review missing person records.
On May 1, a barrel of human remains was discovered near Hemenway Harbor. Police believe the remains are of a man who died of a gunshot wound and the body was likely dumped in the mid-1970s to early 1980s.
Less than a week later, authorities announced that human skeletal remains had been found in Calville Bay.
Most recently, partial human remains were found in the Boulder Beach area on July 25.
Police speculate that more remains may be found as the water level in Lake Mead continues to recede.
The discoveries have sparked speculation about long-unsolved missing persons and murder cases dating back decades to organized crime and the early days of Las Vegas, just a 30-minute drive from the lake.
The lake’s surface has dropped more than 170 feet (52 meters) since the reservoir was filled in 1983.
The drop in lake levels comes as the majority of peer-reviewed science says the world is warming, mainly due to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Scientists say the western US, including the Colorado River basin, has become warmer and drier over the past 30 years.
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