A group of divers discovered another set of skeletal remains in Lake Mead last week, marking the latest findings as the sixth set recovered since May.
A park service dive team searched the lake after a commercial diver found “what appeared to be a human bone in the Callville Bay area” on October 17, the Lake Mead National Park Service told Fox LA.
“At this time, no foul play is suspected,” Stefani Dawn, a Park Service spokesperson, told Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The Clark County coroner’s office has been contacted to confirm the identity of the deceased.”
According to Clark County Public Affairs Officer Stacey Welling, the divers were performing contract work at the marina in Calville Bay when they discovered the initial evidence of the human remains.
While the details of the latest discovery are still unknown, the grim finding comes after five other sets of human remains have been found since May.
Historic drought levels have impacted the shrinking Colorado River reservoir near the Hoover Dam, drying up local waterbeds into deserts.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reports Lake Mead’s water levels hit a historic low, roughly 1,046 feet, which has left mountains surrounding the area with an imprint showing how far the levels have dropped.
According to ABC News, D.J. Jenner, the owner of Las Vegas Scuba, said that he had witnessed the water levels sink down to approximately 40 feet after observing the lake for years when he first opened his business.
“There’s still plenty of water out here for people to come out and enjoy the lake, but it is going down pretty quickly,” he said.
Park services officials first announced that a group of boaters discovered the first body with a gunshot wound inside a metal barrel stuck in the mud near the lake’s Hemenway Harbor on May 1.
Detectives on the case believe the victim may have been murdered sometime between the mid-1970s to the early 1980s based on the clothing and footwear found with the body, a local NBC affiliate reports.
Less than a week later, authorities found a second set of remains that surfaced at Callville Bay, which a local County coroner said she believes belong to someone between 23 and 38 years old.
National Park Service authorities announced nearly two months later that rangers responded to a report on July 25 of the third set of human remains found at the park’s Swim Beach area in Boulder City, Nevada.
On August 16, park rangers responded to a report of the discovery of human skeletal remains in the Swim Beach area of Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
NASA, which recently released satellite images of the drought’s impact on Lake Mead, reports that the lake holds the record for the largest reservoir in the U.S. The reservoir supplies water to millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico.
Lake Mead hit its peak in the 1980s, with levels reaching 1,225 feet above sea level. However, NASA satellite imagery shows a dramatic decrease in water levels as lakeshore areas have mineralized over the past 22 years.
The reservoir hit its lowest drop since April 1937 while the lake was still filling for the first time during the construction of the Hoover Dam.
Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs speaks at a press conference calling for abortion rights outside the Evo A. DeConcini U.S. Courthouse on October 7, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)