Authorities in Las Vegas say they have confirmed the identity of a man whose remains were discovered inside a barrel that surfaced in Lake Mead in May 2022, closing in on a homicide case that is more than four decades old.
The Clark County Coroner's Office and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department homicide detectives said they have a positive identification: Edward "Buddy" Lelburian Jackson, who investigators believe was in his mid-50s when he was killed. Officials reached the identification through DNA profiling, taking a bone sample from the remains and ultimately matching it to a surviving relative earlier this year, according to Good Morning America.
The remains were first discovered on May 1, 2022, after boaters spotted a 55-gallon barrel near Hemenway Harbor as the reservoir's water level sank to historic lows amid a prolonged Southwestern drought. National Park Service rangers recovered the barrel, which contained skeletal remains along with a watch, Kmart-brand clothing and sneakers -- items investigators say point to a killing sometime between the mid-1970s and early 1980s.
The Clark County Coroner determined at the time that Jackson had died of a gunshot wound and ruled the death a homicide. The barrel's appearance, more than any one clue, reflected how dramatically the lake had receded: boaters and park officials had already warned that falling water levels were likely to expose additional remains, and Lake Mead has for years served as a grim time capsule of unsolved Las Vegas-area deaths, some linked by investigators to the city's mob-era past, as reports at the time of the discovery noted.
The identification is one of four Lake Mead remains cases opened in 2022; three others have since been identified through DNA testing. Investigators say the case remains open and are asking anyone with information about Jackson's death to come forward.