The newest development in the investigation of a number of bodies found in America’s largest reservoir last year is that Nevada investigators have determined that the remains uncovered in Lake Mead belong to a Las Vegas man who has been missing for 25 years.
Visitors to a lakeside beach last summer found bone remains along the coast on three different occasions. As of Thursday, Claude Russell Pensinger, who vanished on July 14, 1998, at the age of 52, has been recognized, according to the Clark County Coroner’s Office.
Pensinger is the third person the office has identified after several sets of remains emerged from the lake amid a devastating drought that has severely depleted the reservoir.
The drought that has plagued the area for almost 20 years has caused the water levels at Lake Mead, a well-known recreation area that welcomed more than 7 million tourists last year, to be at record lows. Large portions of the lake bed have been revealed as a result of the dry spell in the Colorado River basin, excessive extraction, intense heat, and low snowpack.
A person with a gunshot wound was discovered in a barrel at Lake Mead in May; the next week, a jawbone was discovered in the sand; and in July, fragmentary skeletal remains covered in muck were discovered near the shore. More remains were discovered in October by contractors doing work near a marina.
Experts emphasized that the simultaneous findings were not proof of a serial killer but rather the result of the environmental catastrophe draining the lake and exposing bodies that had previously been submerged. The majority are thought to be fatal accidents, but one case—in which the remains were discovered in a barrel—is being looked into as a homicide.
The coroner’s office team has also located two more sets of remains, both belonging to males from the Las Vegas area who are thought to have drowned: Thomas Erndt, 42, and Donald P. Smith, 39, both of whom were last seen at the lake in August 2002 and April 1974, respectively. The three individuals were identified through DNA analysis.
The coroner’s office stated that Pensinger’s death’s cause and manner are unknown. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Pensinger was fishing on the lake when he vanished, and his boat was later seen circling the lake.
When Pensinger failed to show up at a later meeting place, his brother said the two were fishing together on the lake that day in separate boats. He apparently had a strong swimming ability and was a former member of the Navy and coast guard.
The remains of a man who died of a gunshot wound discovered in a barrel have not yet been identified.
Since there is a delay between the time of death and the time of recovery, dealing with skeletal remains is particularly difficult, Clark County coroner Melanie Rouse told the media last year. She added that the administration is still committed to looking into the instances and giving families closure.
“That’s one of the reasons why we continue to do what we do – being able to provide closure and being able to return these unidentified individuals back to their families and provide them with a name,” she said.