Apparent human remains, including a jaw with teeth, were recovered at Boulder Beach on Lake Mead, Nevada, on 16 August, as the reservoir's water levels fell to 1,040 feet above sea level, below a previous record low set in July 2022.
Dianelis Molina Cruz and Noel De Leon discovered the bones while walking along the shore, with De Leon noting that the low water levels contributed to the find. The US National Park Service is investigating alongside the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which filed a non-criminal, dead body report for the remains, now identified as definitively human.
Lake Mead, which supplies water to roughly 40 million people across seven states, tribal nations, and Mexico, has seen receding waters expose other remains in recent years, including a body found in a barrel in 2022 and remains that helped resolve a 1998 missing person case.