More human skeletal remains found at Lake Mead’s Swim Beach amid dropping water levels!

More human skeletal remains were discovered in the Lake Meads Swim Beach area Monday night, officials said, the third time authorities have announced a shore finding amid the rapidly retreating lakeshore.

So far this year, authorities have recovered human remains in the lake five times, three of which have been at Swim Beach. It’s unclear if the three Swim Beach discoveries are all from one person or separate individuals. A county spokesperson told CNN that the Clark County coroner is working to determine whether the first two swimming beach finds, both partial remains, were from the same person.

National Park Service rangers responded to Swim Beach at about 8 p.m. Monday night and worked with the Las Vegas Police Department’s diving team to locate a perimeter to retrieve the remains, the park service said in a news release. The Clark County coroner has also been contacted.

CNN has reached out to Clark County officials for more information and has not heard back.

In addition to those found in Swim Beach, two other sets of remains have been discovered in the lake since May, including one body that is being investigated as a murder case after it was found in a corroded barrel with a bullet wound, officials said.

The murder victim, whose remains were found on May 1, likely died sometime in the mid-1970s to early 1980s, according to police and Clark County Coroner Melanie Ross. Police said the victim’s clothes and shoes helped investigators determine the approximate time of death, as some of the clothes were well preserved, and labels were still visible.

The park said that just a week after the victim’s remains were found, a second group was discovered in the lake’s Calville Bay. Ross has tentatively identified the remains as belonging to a man estimated to be between 23 and 38 years old, she previously told CNN. She said the cause and manner of his death were not specified.

Ross said the coroner’s office is trying to extract DNA from the first two sets of remains in an effort to determine who they belonged.

The third set of partial remains were found at Swim Beach on July 25, followed by another partial remains found in the same area on August 6. It is unclear whether the third discovery of the remains on Monday is related to the previous two subgroups.

The excavation of the remains has begun as the shoreline of Lake Mead is significantly retreating due to the massive and prolonged drought in the west. Severe drought has reduced water levels in Lake Mead – the country’s largest water reservoir – to just 27% of its full capacity, threatening the essential water supply for millions of people in the region.

With the water level lower, other visitors were able to see other previously sunken objects in the lake, including a sunken WWII-era ship and the tank’s original 1971 intake valve.

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