One of the bodies unearthed by Lake Mead drought has been identified

Discovery came on 7 May amid severe drought at United States’s largest reservoir

One of four bodies found in the receding waters of Lake Mead has been identified as a 42-year-old man who authorities believe drowned 20 years ago.

On Wednesday, Clark County authorities said the remains found in the Callville Bay area of the lake on 7 May belonged to Thomas Erndt, whose cause and manner of death in 2002 has not been determined, Clark County officials said.

Erndt’s remains were identified by investigators with the help of DNA analysis and reports of the original incident. According to CNN he was believed to have died by drowning in the lake on 2 August 2002.

The body had remained beneath the surface of the lake for 20 years before it was discovered earlier this year amid record low water levels caused by a prolonged “megadrought” affecting the American West.

The remains were in fact the second to be uncovered by receding water levels at Lake Mead, which as a result of severe drought reached a record low water level of 1,043ft above sea level, or 27 per cent capacity, in July.

Satellite images released by Nasa last month showed how far Lake Mead’s water levels had fallen from 2020, when the reservoir was at nearly 1,200ft above sea level and 20ft from a high not seen since 1999.

That was when Lake Mead last reached full capacity of 1,220ft, Nasa said of the images which were “a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the US West in 12 centuries”.

Rising global temperatures have caused both a reduction in rainfall and increased demand from households and businesses for water in the Western US and elsewhere, leading to the gradual shrinking of water bodies such as Lake Mead, which was created in 1937. As has a prolonged drought continued beyond the usual summer months.

Three other remains have also been discovered among other items in Lake Mead this year, including a body found inside a barrel on 1 May in what Las Vegas police called “a homicide as a result of a gunshot wound”, dating back to the mid-70s and ‘80s.