Las Vegas police to announce identity of body found in barrel in Lake Mead

Police in Las Vegas are poised to settle a mystery Thursday by publicly revealing the identity of a man whose body was found in a barrel in Lake Mead.

The discovery by boaters in 2022 sparked memories of the city’s mob era , which ended in the mid-1980s. Organized crime helped build up the city, and a body stuffed in a barrel was known as a signature mob hit.

Las Vegas police have scheduled an news conference for Thursday afternoon. Authorities have already said the man was shot , and they estimate he was killed between the mid-1970s and early 1980s, based on the type of shoes found with him.

The man had been wearing a button-down short-sleeve shirt, light blue jeans, a silver wristwatch and blue-and-white tennis shoes.

Lake Mead is at a historic low due to years of overuse, longstanding drought and increasing temperatures. The water level of the 90-year-old reservoir has continually dropped, exposing areas that were previously underwater and leading historians to predict more bodies will be found.

A few days after the barrel was discovered, a second barrel was found by a KLAS-TV news crew, not far from the first. It was empty. Shortly after that, paddleboarders discovered human remains on a newly surfaced sand bar, but officials found no evidence of foul play.

In August, more human remains were discovered and police again determined there was no evidence of foul play.

Lake Mead and the upstream Lake Powell are the largest human-made reservoirs in the U.S., part of a system that provides Colorado River water to more than 40 million people, tribes, agriculture and industry in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and across the southern border in Mexico.

In 2022, the dropping lake level exposed Las Vegas’ uppermost drinking water intake, forcing the regional water authority to switch to a deep-lake intake it completed in 2020 to keep serving the city’s 2.4 million residents and visitors, casinos and suburbs. Las Vegas attracts around 40 million tourists per year.

拉斯维加斯警方将于周四公开一名男子的身份，以解开一桩谜案。这名男子的尸体在米德湖的一个桶里被发现。

2022 年，划船者发现了这具尸体，这唤起了人们对这座城市黑帮时代的回忆，那个时代在 20 世纪 80 年代中期结束。有组织犯罪帮助这座城市发展壮大，而将尸体塞进桶里则被认为是黑帮的标志性谋杀手段。

拉斯维加斯警方已安排于周四下午召开新闻发布会。当局此前已表示，该男子遭枪击身亡，并根据在其身上发现的鞋子类型，估计其遇害时间在20世纪70年代中期至80年代初期之间。

该男子当时身穿短袖衬衫、浅蓝色牛仔裤、银色手表和蓝白相间的运动鞋。

由于多年的过度使用、长期干旱和气温升高，米德湖水位已降至历史最低点。这座拥有90年历史的水库水位持续下降，使之前被淹没的区域露出水面，历史学家预测未来会发现更多遇难者遗骸。

几天后，KLAS-TV电视台的新闻摄制组在离第一个桶不远的地方发现了第二个桶，但桶是空的。不久之后，一些桨板爱好者在新近露出的沙洲上发现了人类遗骸，但官方没有发现任何谋杀迹象。

8 月份，警方发现了更多人类遗骸，并再次认定没有谋杀的证据。

米德湖和上游的鲍威尔湖是美国最大的人工水库，是为亚利桑那州、加利福尼亚州、科罗拉多州、内华达州、新墨西哥州、犹他州、怀俄明州以及墨西哥南部边境的 4000 多万人口、部落、农业和工业提供科罗拉多河水的系统的一部分。

2022年，由于湖水位下降，拉斯维加斯最上游的饮用水取水口暴露出来，迫使当地水务部门启用2020年竣工的深水湖取水口，以继续为该市240万居民、游客、赌场和郊区供水。拉斯维加斯每年吸引约4000万游客。