Two of the four human remains discovered thanks to historically low water levels in Lake Mead could have belonged to the same person, coroners said Tuesday.
The bones and other fragments turned up in May – first with a male body in a barrel. The person was shot in the head and a murder investigation was launched. The man is believed to have been killed in the 1970s or 1980s.
On May 7, a person believed to be between the ages of 23 and 38 was found in Callville Bay and DNA samples were taken.
A man living in Spain, Todd Kolod, said he was increasingly confident the remains were his father Daniel, who died in a speedboat accident on the lake in 1958 at the age of 22 and whose body was never recovered .
A third set of remains was found at Swim Beach on July 26, and a fourth set was unearthed at the same site on Saturday.
“Currently, the examination of these remains includes the work to determine whether or not the two remains belong to the same individual,” the coroner’s office said in a statement Tuesday.
The fourth set of remains (pictured) were discovered Saturday at Swim Beach in Lake Mead. On Tuesday, the coroner said it could be the same person discovered on July 25
This is the third group of human remains discovered at Lake Mead on July 26. No other details were given about the remains – including the person’s gender and how long they were in the lake. Coroners believe this could be the same person as the remains discovered August 6
People are pictured at Swim Beach in Lake Mead on Sunday – the day after the fourth set was found. The coroner is investigating whether Saturday’s remains belong to a person found on July 25
Two girls are seen at Lake Mead’s swimming beach on Sunday
Swim Beach is pictured Sunday, with water levels at an 80-year low
Christopher Orozco told Fox 4 that he and his family were visiting the lake for a swim on Saturday when they found the bones sticking out of the sand under shallow water.
He said he took photos and video of the bones before reporting them to the National Park Service.
“We went into the water, one of my daughters said she saw something in the water that she thought was a bone,” Orozco said.
“I said ok let me check. As I got closer I picked it up and realized it was such a big bone.’
The National Park Service confirmed that Orozco was the first person to report the discovery on Saturday.
According to NASA, the water level in Lake Mead is the lowest since 1937. On July 18, 2022, the lake was 27 percent full
Identifying all of the remains could take months, if not years.
Some of those who died in the lake may not be traceable as DNA sampling is a relatively recent invention.
Las Vegas police are combing through their records of unsolved missing persons cases and have taken DNA from several families to see if answers can be found.
Kolod, who is curious whether the second set is actually his father, said over the weekend he has yet to be asked for DNA, although he would be happy to help.
The set included bones with missing teeth that appeared to match a partial denture Daniel had in his mouth.
“With every clue, I always expect it to take us further from our goal, but every clue consistently brings us closer and that’s like a bull’s eye,” he told 8 News Now.
Kolod had hoped to identify his father by his teeth.
Daniel was in a car accident a few years ago before drowning and losing his front teeth so he wore dentures.
Todd Kolod, pictured here with his father Daniel, was born in 1956, two years before his father died in Callville Bay
Todd Kolod believes the second body could be that of his father, Daniel Kolod, who fell from a speedboat while on a fishing trip with a friend 64 years ago, which overturned when hit by a wake
A second body (pictured) was discovered in drought-stricken Lake Mead reservoir a week after the body was found in a barrel exposed to the lowest water levels
Teeth from a second body were discovered in drought-stricken Lake Mead, just a week after another body surfaced in the reservoir
Journalists from 8 News Now took photos of the remains for Dr. Deborah Staten, owner and dentist at Desert Hills Dental who is certified to assist in identifying remains from dental records.
She said it is clear the skeleton is missing the front teeth, but she believes the person was missing other teeth before her death and suspects some were recently removed.
Dental records have probably been destroyed in the past 60 years.
Kolod said he wanted to provide a DNA sample as soon as possible to solve the mystery but was frustrated at how long it had taken.
“The pace of contacting me about a DNA sample – I’m losing hope,” he said.
“Maybe this new insight will shed some light.”
About 300 people have drowned in Lake Mead since the 1930s, but that doesn’t include those whose bodies were never recovered, including Daniel Kolod.
Human remains, as well as sunken boats, including a World War II landing craft, and other items were discovered on the lake during the summer when the water level receded.
The first body was discovered in a barrel (picture). The coroner said her office is continuing to work to identify the man whose body was found in a rusted barrel in the Hemenway port area on May 1
Little information has been released about the discoveries. Investigators are combing through the missing persons reports to identify the bodies
Clark County officials are shown creating a perimeter around the latest gruesome discovery at Lake Mead
Graphic alert: Clark County park rangers and coroners are examining the body discovered at Lake Mead today. Information is limited but we will post a live report. A witness reported the human remains at Swim Beach/Boulder Beach at approximately 4:30 p.m. today. pic.twitter.com/u9w5zLFa85
— Brett Forrest (@brettforrest89) July 26, 2022
Coroners and medical staff load up human remains found at Lake Mead today. The third set of human remains discovered since May 1st. First was the body in a barrel, then the half-buried remains, and now this. All of them appear to have been spotted due to receding waters pic.twitter.com/RLFWcJLToH
— Brett Forrest (@brettforrest89) July 26, 2022
Inlet towers stand exposed in Lake Mead as the water in the lake continues to dry up on the Arizona side of Hoover Dam
According to NASA, the water level in Lake Mead is the lowest since 1937
Lake Mead’s water level is at its lowest in over 85 years
A formerly sunken boat lies on cracked earth hundreds of feet off the shore of Lake Mead in Lake Mead National Recreation Area on May 10, 2022
The lake, including a marina in Boulder City, Nevada (pictured), is shrinking as the water recedes
The discoveries have fueled speculation about long-unsolved missing persons and murders stretching back decades – to organized crime and the early days of Las Vegas, just a 30-minute drive from the lake.
The drop in lake levels comes as a large majority of peer-reviewed science says the world is warming, largely due to rising carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Scientists say the western US, including the Colorado River basin, has become warmer and drier over the past 30 years.
About 40 million people depend on the Colorado River for their water supply, with Lake Mead and Lake Powell serving as the region’s main reservoirs.
According to NASA, the water level in Lake Mead is the lowest since 1937. On July 18, 2022, the lake was 27 percent full.
In June, Ann Willis of the Washington Post’s Center for Watershed Science said: “In the last 1,200 years we have not seen a period as dry as we are now.
“We’re really making new lows in terms of how extreme the conditions are.”
Lake Mead was once 1,200 feet above sea level.
But after more than two decades of drought, it was just 1,040 feet above sea level in July — the lowest level since fill-up in the 1930s.
It is currently falling about 12 inches every week.