Body Found At Lake Mead Finally Identified

They were popping up all over the place for a while as the water levels at Lake Mead dropped. But the public got very little information about who those bodies belonged to or how they ended up in the lake.

Of course the most talked about of these was the body found in a barrel with an apparent gun shot in its skull. And that reignited all the stories told about the history of mob activity in Las Vegas. Apparently the lake was a popular option for making someone disappear back then.

Even Oscar Goodman hinted that the lake was a good place to dispose of a body. He was defense lawyer to a lot of the mobsters in the 1980's. The former Las Vegas mayor went as far as to confess the mob often asked him about "climate control". Explaining the phrase meant certain members of the mob wanted water levels at the lake to stay high so their victim's bodies would stay buried under water.

As the lake dropped to unprecedented levels last year, bodies started surfacing. At least five separate sets of remains were discovered throughout 2022. Though only the body in the barrel was rumored to have ties to the mob. The rest seemed to be accidents.

That is the case for remains found in October 2022. The last set of the remains to be found surfaced near the shoreline at Lake Mead's Calville Bay. Yesterday those remains were identified. They belonged to Donald Smith of North Las Vegas. He drowned almost 50 years ago, back in 1974. He was 39 years old when he was reported missing.

Another set of remains was discovered at Calville Bay last year. These were found in May of 2022 and identified as another drowning victim. Thomas Erndt of Las Vegas went swimming with his family and never came to the surface when he jumped in the water. He had been missing since that day in 2002. He was 42 years old.

The other sets of remains have not yet been identified.

– Wendy Rush

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I've had so much fun at, and on Lake Mead over the years - as you can see in the pictures. But it's scary what is happening to our lake.

As of last weekend, the depth of Lake Mead is about 1045 feet above sea level, it has lost another 6 feet of water in just one month, and is now at 29% capacity.

The six foot drop in just one month is a lot, but there are a lot of reasons beyond over usage: The Bureau of Reclamation has held back water from Lake Powell to allow power to be generated at the Glen Canyon Dam is one reason, the severe prolonged drought and evaporation are also taking a toll.

If the level continues to fall a water shortage will be declared for 2023. This would mean a reduction in the water allocated to us here in the Vegas valley. Last year we used 242,000 acre feet of water with an allocation of 300,000 acre feet. FYI: An acre foot of water is what two average households use per year.

I know firsthand how low the lake is. How? I had to pay for a prop on a boat rental because I got too close to a rock - that was about 50 feet from the shore!

Have fun on the lake, but be careful out there!

Easy to see how low the lake level has dropped, by the rings.