The ongoing drought in the U.S. West is turning Nevada’s Lake Mead into something out of a true crime series.
Less than a week after a body in a barrel emerged from the reservoir, more human remains have been found in the area. Visitors contacted the National Park Service on Saturday after seeing bones while paddle-boarding near Callville Bay, local news station KLAS reported. The Clark County Medical Examiner has been called to determine the cause of death, and so far, no foul play is detected in this case, according to KLAS.
Guests should not intentionally search for other items or bodies in the area, according to local officials. “Leave it there,” David Alberg, chief of resource management and compliance at Lake Mead, told a local news station KSNV. “If you’re worried or concerned, notify the park service but don’t touch it.”
The skeletal remains found last week were inside of an old corroded barrel near the shores of the lake. Items found in the barrel suggest that the body was thrown into the water at some point in the 1980s, the Associated Press reported.
At the time, Las Vegas police commented that more items and possibly even more human remains were likely to emerge from the receding waters. Last week’s discovery was in an area of the lake that was covered by dozens of feet of water just a few decades ago. There’s no end in sight to the megadrought across the American Southwest, which has also sent the key reservoir Lake Powell to disturbing lows, and may soon be unable to generate hydropower for millions of people in the region.
The ongoing drought in the Southwest is the worst in at least 1,200 years, according to research published earlier this year.