Human remains that surfaced in the drought-stricken Lake Mead earlier this year have been identified as a man believed to have drowned 20 years ago.
The Clark County coroner on Wednesday said the remains, one of several sets recently discovered in the reservoir’s receding waters, belong to Thomas Erndt, a 42-year-old man from Las Vegas. He reportedly drowned on Aug. 2, 2002, but his official cause and manner of death are undetermined, officials said.
His remains were found in Callville Bay, on the Nevada side of the lake on May 7. They were identified based on “investigative information, DNA analysis and reports from the original incident,” Clark County spokesperson Dan Kulin said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
