FBI investigating identity of man found in barrel at Lake Mead
The FBI confirmed Wednesday that the agency is involved in investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a barrel at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
In a statement to the Review-Journal, the department declined to say more than that they were involved in the investigation.
The unidentified man was found May 1 near Hemenway Harbor. Police suspect the man died after he was fatally shot sometime in the middle to late 1970s or early ’80s, based on his clothes and shoes.
“We’ve done the national hotline and had numerous call-ins, but nothing has panned out,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said in an interview Tuesday. “The problem with the science side of it is it’s old science. Databases weren’t available back then to reference DNA.”
The Vegas Justice League, which is comprised of five philanthropists, put together $5,000 for Othram Labs to use DNA to help identify the man.
Lombardo was unsure if the evidence had been sent to Othram as of Tuesday, and Othram could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.
“I wouldn’t use the word confident. I’m hoping so,” he said regarding solving the case. “We’re putting the appropriate amount of resources to figure it out.”
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Ricardo Torres-Cortez contributed to this report.
