Human remains discovered last summer in Lake Mead near Las Vegas have been identified as a 52-year-old man who has been missing since the late 1990s.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office said the skeletal remains of Claude Russell Pensinger of Las Vegas were found in pieces on July 25, Aug. 6 and Aug. 16 near the shoreline of Boulder Beach on Lake Mead.
Although the coroner was able to identify the identity of Russell Pensinger, he was unable to determine the cause or manner of his death.
Pensinger was fishing in the Boulder Beach area at the time of his disappearance on July 14, 1998, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Remains found in Lake Mead
As the waters of Lake Mead have receded during an unprecedented drought, human remains have been found on at least six occasions since May 2022.
In March, the coroner’s office identified the skeletal remains of Donald Smith, 39, a former North Las Vegas resident, who drowned in Lake Mead in April 1974.
Smith’s remains were discovered in the Callville Bay area by contractors working near the marina on October 17, 2022. Authorities said her death was accidental.
On May 7, 2022, two sisters, Lynette and Lindsey Melvin, discovered the remains of 42-year-old Thomas Erndt, who had allegedly drowned in the lake on August 2, 2002 while on a boating excursion with his family.
Six days earlier, on May 1, boaters found the remains of a man who had been put in a barrel in a case believed to be related to mob activity. His cause of death was a gunshot wound.
In addition to the skeletal remains found in Lake Mead, a World War II-era ship was also seen halfway out of the water in July.
Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, on the border with Nevada and Arizona. It supplies water to more than 40 million people.
Keep reading:
· Skeletal remains found in Lake Mead are identified: it is a Las Vegas man who drowned 49 years ago
They find more human remains in Lake Mead in Las Vegas after receding waters due to drought
· Human remains found in Lake Mead are identified as those of a man who disappeared 20 years ago