Body at lake prompts search of old cases

Ed Koch and Mary Manning

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2003 | 9:27 a.m.

A Metro Police sergeant and the department's five missing persons detectives began a round-table discussion early today to determine whether human remains found at the bottom of Lake Mead on Monday could be any of their cases.

However, while Metro currently has between 50 and 70 open missing person cases -- 15 to 25 of them adults -- and about 650 cold cases, officials are not optimistic that the rib cage and other bones discovered in the mud beneath 68 feet of water is one of theirs.

"In the three years I've headed up the unit, none of our missing persons have been found in Lake Mead," Metro Sgt. Thomas Wagner said. "Also, very few of these (Lake Mead) cases turn out to be homicides. Most of the bodies found in Lake Mead turn out to be boating accidents or other drownings."

National Park Service spokeswoman Roxanne Dey said there have been 22 confirmed drownings over last four years and one homicide in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area. She said last year one homicide and eight drownings were recorded. This year there have been five known drownings, she said.

Dey said based on information immediately available in the data base, it is not known how many of those bodies were not recovered.

"When something like this happens, the rangers and Park Services special investigators go though cases to help determine the identity of the victim," Dey said. "For example, last winter, a Taiwanese couple was missing from Boulder Basin. We found some of their belongings, but we never found them."

The Clark County coroner's office has received the skeletal remains that National Park Service divers recovered around 11 a.m. Monday.

Two recreational divers at Lake Mead on Sunday discovered the remains, Dey said, noting that Park Service divers searched the area that day and found nothing. They resumed their search around 9 a.m. Monday and found the remains about two hours later in the area that is a popular fishing spot.

Tests wee scheduled to begin today to determine more characteristics of the remains, possibly leading to an identity of the victim and the cause of death, a coroner's spokeswoman said.

Dey said, "Based on the condition of the remains, it's not a recent incident."

She said she did not know whether the remains were those of an adult or a child.