Skeletal human remains that emerged from Lake Mead as the reservoir suffers through a historic megadrought have been identified as those of a 42-year-old man who went missing two decades ago, Nevada officials said Thursday. The man, Thomas Erndt, was reported to have jumped from a boat and vanished on Aug. 2, 2002, with authorities at the time presuming he’d drowned. “The identification was based on investigative information, DNA analysis and reports from the original incident,” a Clark County spokesperson said, adding that the cause and manner of Erndt’s death remained officially undetermined. Erdnt’s remains were found by two sisters out paddle-boarding in the lake’s Callville Bay area on May 7. The siblings said they reported the discovery when they recognized a jawbone with teeth still attached as human. The remains of five people have been uncovered in Lake Mead since May, including the grim May 1 discovery of a body stuffed into a barrel.
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