Vegas cops identify remains found in barrel in Lake Mead after water levels dropped
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Authorities in Las Vegas say that a body discovered in a barrel floating on Lake Mead has finally been identified.
The body was discovered more than four years ago, back in May 2022, after Lake Mead’s water level dropped. At the time, the Clark County Coroner said that the victim appeared to have died 40 to 50 years ago after suffering a gunshot wound.
At a press conference on Thursday, Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse finally identified the body, naming the man as Edward Lelburian Jackson.
Jackson, an Arkansas man also known as “Buddy,” is believed to be in his mid-to-late 50s at the time of his death. He lived in Los Angeles and traveled around the country, marrying in the 1970s and being charged with aggravated arson and conspiracy involving fraud in the 1980s, records reviewed by officials stated.
The identity of the gunman remains unknown, although authorities confirmed at the conference that the victim is believed to have been killed in the 1980s, due to his style of clothing and interviews with his family.
During the 1970s and 1980s, organized crime held a great deal of power in Las Vegas before the FBI cracked down on crime families operating in the city. Prior to Jackson’s identification, some suggested that those criminal organizations were responsible for his death given the city’s proximity to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam.
“There has been speculation in the past that the homicide had ties to an organized criminal group,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Lieutenant Robert Price told reporters. “At this point of our investigation, we don’t have any information to support those theories.”
The discovery of Jackson’s body in Lake Mead was one of four sets of human remains found at the site in 2022. Two of the other sets of remains were named that same year, with the third being identified in 2023.
The bodies were discovered amid falling water levels in Lake Mead, due to the Colorado River basin facing increased pressures amid prolonged drought, warmer temperatures, a lack of snowmelt and overuse.
At the time, Las Vegas local Shawna Hollister told NBC 3 that her husband found the body inside a corroded barrel.
“My husband heard a woman scream and then he went to look and found the body in a very deteriorated 50 gal (sic) drum,” she said. “He found a man that was mostly bones, except for some of his shirt and belt showing.”
Jackson’s identity would remain a mystery for years to come, although an FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, was able to construct three composites of his face, which were made public. He was finally named through genealogical testing when a match was found after a DNA packet was dispatched to a potential relative, Rouse says.
Investigators soon began interviewing Jackson’s relatives, although they were several degrees removed.
“They only knew, like, brief (sic) about him being Uncle Buddy,” Price told reporters. “It was very limited information in reference to what he did as far as work and what kind of personality he was.”
However, although Jackson has now been named, authorities say that the probe into his mysterious death is far from over.
“It’s an unsolved case. It’ll never be closed until we solve it,” Price said. “It’s a piece of the puzzle.”
