BOULDER CITY, Nev. (KTNV) — With record-breaking low water levels at Lake Mead National Recreational Area, visitors have discovered many things.
This includes human remains.
It was nearly a year ago when Lindsey Melvin and her sister, Lynette, came out to Callville Bay for a day of paddleboarding, but what started off as a fun day at the lake, turned out to be a shocking discovery.
"I texted my sister, 'do you want to go to the lake and look for bodies'?" she said.
However, her joke became a reality.
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Melvin and her sister arrived at the bay that morning, got on their paddleboards and headed to the peninsula where Melvin said she saw Beaver activity on a previous visit.
"Within a couple of minutes of walking onto the sand, we found the skull," Melvin said.
At first, the two sisters were unsure if it was an animal or human.
"We dug around it a little bit, trying to remove the sand away from the bones, it was when we saw the jawbone we knew for sure it was a human," she said.
"We dug around it a little bit trying to move the sand away from the bones, it was when we saw the jawbone we knew for sure it was a human."
Three months after their discovery, the Clark County coroner identified those remains as 42-year-old Thomas Erndt.
"I had anticipated that more would likely be found because of the extremely quick water level drop we experienced last summer," she said.
However, this was not the first discovery of human remains at Lake Mead. Just six days before, boaters found human remains inside of a corroded barrel near Hemenway Harbor.
On July 25, a third set of remains was found and confirmed to be human by Clark County officials.
On October 17, a diver found human bones at Callville Bay, the coroner identified those remains as Donald Smith of North Las Vegas.
"I am surprised there hasn't been more," said Henderson native, Bain Bridge.
Bridge visits Lake Mead regularly. With the significant drop in water levels, these findings have come as no surprise. Back when Bridge was a teenager in the 1970s, he says he made a discovery of his own.
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"It was only about 8-feet deep and there was a body underneath the water," he said. "We looked around and there was a bag of black and white clothes, we thought it was a casino worker."
As the water continues to drop, what is expected to be found on the shore remains a mystery. Many like Melvin say they have to pay close attention to where they step.
"I've found cellphones, watches, and keys, but this was definitely the first time I found human remains," Melvin said.
Melvin also told KTNV that she is glad to make the discovery to provide the family with some closure, but she also said she is not surprised if more remains are found during the summer at Lake Mead.
