Coroner: Lake Mead body found in 2022 was 1974 drowning

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities in Las Vegas say they have identified human remains found last October at shrinking Lake Mead as a North Las Vegas man who drowned in April 1974. The Clark County coroner’s office said Tuesday that Donald P. Smith was 39 when he was reported missing in the waters of the Colorado River reservoir behind Hoover Dam. His death has been ruled accidental. Coroner’s investigators are still trying to identify other remains discovered by boaters, divers and swimmers last year as the lake recedes because of drought. That includes those of a man who Las Vegas police say was shot in the head and stuffed into a barrel, maybe in the 1970s or 1980s.