“As the water goes down, the skeletons come up,” tourist Noel De Leon said of the declining water levels at Lake Mead
Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Human remains were discovered at Lake Mead’s Boulder Beach by visitors who were playing with rocks in shallow water on Sunday, Aug. 16
- The discovery comes amid declining water levels at Lake Mead, which reached a record low on Aug. 7
- Authorities confirmed the remains belonged to a human, and are now investigating the incident
Two people were visiting Lake Mead when they discovered human remains in the shallow water.
The unidentified remains were reported before 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 16, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police (LVMP) said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. The LVMP confirmed a “non-criminal, dead body report” was taken. The remains were found at Boulder Beach, part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, per SFGATE.
Dianelis Molina Cruz said her friend was in the lake playing with rocks when he “grabbed the jaw,” she told KLAS.
“And when he looked, he saw the teeth and everything,” Cruz continued.
Upon their discovery, the pair alerted the police. Authorities and the Clark County Office of the Coroner responded and confirmed the remains belonged to a person. An investigation into the remains remains ongoing.
Cruz told KLAS that the whole ordeal was a “surprise,” explaining, “You’re never going to think that you’re going to find something like that.”
One tourist, Noel De Leon, remarked on the lake’s “very low” water levels. “The water looks very low compared to where it should be,” De Leon told the outlet. “As the water goes down, the skeletons come up.”
Credit: George Rose/Getty
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As of Aug. 7, Lake Mead, the largest man-made reservoir in the U.S., has reached a record low water level of 1,040.50 feet, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It is predicted to decline another 30 feet in the next two years, per KLAS.
PEOPLE reached out to the National Park Service and Clark County Office of the Coroner for comment.
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