Las Vegas police have identified human remains found in a barrel in Lake Mead, Nevada, after a four-year investigation. The remains are of a man believed to have been murdered in the early 1980s, sparking speculation about ties to Las Vegas’s mafia past. The barrel was discovered by watersports enthusiasts in May 2022 on a section of exposed shoreline of Lake Mead, a reservoir behind the Hoover Dam, with water levels historically low due to drought. The victim, identified as Edward Lelburian Jackson originally from Arizona, was killed by a single gunshot. Jackson's family had not reported him missing, as he was known for periods of disappearing. A DNA match through a public database enabled the identification, but a motive remains unclear, though the discovery evokes the city’s history with organized crime and illegal activities.