Vegas police: Body found in barrel was of man who was shot

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas police believe a body found inside a barrel in the newly exposed bottom of Lake Mead was that of a man who had been shot.

Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer also said Tuesday that shoes worn by the man were manufactured in the middle and late 1970s, indicating that the killing likely occurred between the middle 1970s and early 1980s, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Police previously said they thought the remains spotted Sunday in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area by boaters probably dated from the 1980s.

Drought has dropped the water level of Lake Mead on the Colorado River in southern Nevada and northern Arizona so much that Las Vegas’ uppermost water intake became visible last week.

The Clark County coroner’s office will try to determine the man’s identity.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell upstream are the largest human-made reservoirs in the U.S., part of a system that provides water to more than 40 million people, tribes, agriculture and industry in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and across the southern border in Mexico.