Another body has been discovered at drought-hit Lake Mead near Las Vegas as water levels reach a record-low.
The human remains surfaced on Monday in the Boulder Beach swimming area at Lake Mead – the largest reservoir in the US formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River – which is rapidly receding due to climate change.
It is the third body to be found since May in the mud of the shrinking shoreline between Nevada and Arizona, about 30 minutes away from the notoriously mob-founded Las Vegas Strip.
The gruesome discoveries were made as a former Sin City mob lawyer revealed clients wanted “climate control” to keep water levels high.
The remains found on Monday were spotted partially encased in mud at the water line of the swimming area, north of Hemenway Harbour marina in Boulder City, Nevada.
The National Park Service confirmed the body was discovered by members of the public but have not said how long it was submerged underwater.
It is too soon to identify the gender of the person or a time and cause of death, Clark County coroner, Melanie Rouse, said on Tuesday.
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Investigators will review missing persons records in a bid to establish the identity of the remains.
The coroner’s office is still trying to pinpoint the identity of a man whose body was found in a rusted barrel in the Hemenway Harbour area on 1 May.
His death is being investigated as a homicide after police said he had been shot and his clothing dated to the mid-1970s to early 1980s.
Investigators are considering whether the death may have been Mafia-related, homicide detective Lieutenant Ray Spencer told the New York Times.
“I would say there is a very good chance as the water level drops that we are going to find additional human remains”, Spencer said at the time.
Days later, skeletal remains belonging to a second man were found on 7 May in a newly-surfaced sand bar near Callville Bay, more than nine miles from the marina.
The body, as yet to be identified, was found by two sisters as they were paddle boarding.
NASA satellite images revealed the dramatic impact of the severe drought on Lake Mead – which was just 27% full as of 18 July this year – its lowest level since April 1937, when it was being filled for the first time.
The drop in water levels comes as scientists say the western US, including the Colorado River basin, has become warmer and drier in the past three decades.