Police believe man found in barrel at Lake Mead died from gunshot wound

Las Vegas police provided more details Tuesday morning in the discovery of a body at Lake Mead National Recreational Area.

Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said they believe the body found in a barrel Sunday was a man who died from a gunshot wound.

“We’re going to expand our time frame of the murder to the middle to late 1970s to early 80s,” he said Tuesday morning, citing the clothes and shoes the man was wearing.

Spencer said officers discovered the shoes the man was wearing were sold at Kmart and manufactured in the middle and late 1970s.

The barrel was found Sunday near Hemenway Harbor because of dropping water levels in the lake.

Spencer previously said it is possible the barrel was dumped in the lake from a boat.

“The water level has dropped so much over the last 30 to 40 years that, where the person was located, if a person were to drop the barrel in the water and it sinks, you are never going to find it unless the water level drops,” Spencer said in an interview Monday. “The water level has dropped and made the barrel visible. The barrel did not move….It was not like the barrel washed up.”

The Clark County coroner’s office had not identified the man as of Tuesday.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.