3rd Set of Human Remains Found at Lake Mead Identified

Published: 4/27/2023, 3:23:19 PM EDT

3rd Set of Human Remains Found at Lake Mead Identified — A sign showing where Lake Mead’s water levels were in 2002 is posted near the marina in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nev., on Aug. 19, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Human remains found last summer at Lake Mead, Nevada, have been identified as a Las Vegas man who went missing in July 1998, authorities said Wednesday.

Clark County coroner’s office stated this week that its investigations had identified the man as Claude Russell Pensinger, who was 52 at the time of his disappearance.

Pensinger’s remains were found over the course of several days in July and August last year on newly exposed shoreline near the Boulder Beach swimming area.

The coroner’s office said it was unable to determine a cause of death.

Three other sets of human remains have been found at Lake Mead since May of 2022, after an enduring drought caused the lowest water levels ever recorded in the Hoover Dam’s 247-square-mile reservoir.

Gruesome Discoveries

The first find was made on May 1, 2022 when boaters discovered the skeletal remains of a man in a barrel near Hemenway Harbor, a popular swimming and boating area.

According to County officials, the man died from a gunshot wound to the head, and his death is being investigated as a homicide. Based on clothing recovered from the remains, detectives suspect the as-yet unidentified man was murdered in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Six days later, on May 7 2022, two kayakers found a human skull and a set of bones. These were identified in August as the remains of Thomas Erndt, a 42-year-old airplane mechanic from Las Vegas who drowned on August 2, 2002.

Erndt’s sister told KLAS that she, Erndt, his two children and another adult were out boating when they jumped in the water for a swim, but her brother never came back up. The incident was reported to the police, but Erndt's body was not found until last year. According to the coroner's office, "the cause and manner of Mr. Erndt’s death is undetermined."

On October 17, 2022, contractors working near the marina in Callville Bay found a human bone, and further remains were found two days later. The remains were identified last month as those of Donald P. Smith of North Las Vegas, who reportedly drowned in 1974 at the age of 39. The identification was based on DNA analysis and reports from the original incident, the coroner’s statement said.

“The process for identifying the remains includes examinations to determine the gender and approximate age, height and weight of each decedent; the collection of DNA samples, the quality of which can be greatly affected by time and environmental conditions; and comparing findings to information about people who have been reported missing over the years,” the statement read.