Las Vegas; Mafia’s crimes are submerged in Lake Mead
Two sisters from Henderson, Nevada, were paddle boarding on the lake near a former marina resort, when they shockingly found bones on a newly uncovered sand bar. During the weekend that followed, boaters discovered a man’s decaying body in a rusted-out barrel covered in muck.
The body has not been recognized, but based on the shoes discovered at the scene, he was shot somewhere between the mid-1970s and the early 1980s. The death has been treated as a homicide investigation. On April 25, the falling lake level revealed Las Vegas’ uppermost drinking water intake, prompting the local water authority to convert to a deep-lake intake. Over 2.4 million inhabitants as well as 40 million tourists now rely on this intake system every year.
Lindsey Melvin, who photographed the site, said they initially mistook it for the skeleton of a local bighorn sheep. With a closer look, a human jaw with protruding teeth was visible. They contacted park authorities, and the National Park Service confirmed that the bones were originating from a human in a statement.
Bodies Found In Barrels at Lake Mead (The New York Times)
Las Vegas police stated that there was no immediate indication of foul play so they’re not investigating. If the Clark County coroner believes the death was unusual, a homicide investigation will be launched, according to the agency.
Geoff Schumacher, vice president of The Mob Museum, a refurbished historic downtown Las Vegas post office and federal facility that debuted in 2012 as The National Museum, anticipated that more bodies would be unearthed.
After a second set of human remains discovered in a week from the depths of a drought-stricken Colorado River reservoir within a 30-minute drive from the reputedly mob-founded Strip, Las Vegas is flooded with legend about organized crime.
Former Las Vegas Mayor, and lawyer for Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro, Oscar Goodman, stated on Monday, “There’s no knowing what we’ll find in Lake Mead… It’s not a bad spot for a body to be dumped.”
He wouldn’t say who might be found in the massive reservoir created by the Hoover Dam, which spans Nevada and Arizona.
“I’m relatively sure it was not Jimmy Hoffa,” he joked. However, he said that many of his former clients appeared to be interested in “climate control,” AKA keeping the lake level up above any bodies that may lurk below.
After offering a $5,000 reward for qualified divers to search for more barrels, David Kohlmeier, a former police officer and current co-host of “The Problem Solver Show” podcast, said he received calls from people in San Diego and Florida willing to make an attempt.
Officials with the National Park Service stated that Kohlmeier is not authorized to organize that operation, and that there are hundreds of barrels in the depths dating back to the 1930s when Hoover Dam was built.
Kohlmeier said he also received information from the families of missing people, including a man accused of murdering two family members in 1987, a parent from Utah who vanished in the 1980s, and a 1992 disappearance of a hotel employee.
“You’ll probably find remains all throughout Lake Mead,” Kohlmeier added, referring to Native Americans who were among the region’s first settlers.
“I wouldn’t bet the mortgage that we’re going to solve who killed Bugsy Siegel,” said Michael Green, a history professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, alluding to the iconic criminal who established the Flamingo on the Strip in 1944. In 1947, Siegel was assassinated in Beverly Hills, California by an assailant still unknown to this day.
People are talking about the discovery not only about mob strikes, but also about delivering relief and closure to mourning families, according to Green.
Source: New York Post
