Las Vegas police identify decades-old cold case shooting victim whose remains were found in a barrel at Lake Mead

Clark County coroner and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police have identified the man whose remains were found sealed inside a barrel at Lake Mead in May 2022 as Edward Lelburian Jackson, solving a cold case stretching back over four decades. Jackson was shot in the back of the head and his body dumped in the lake, believed to have been killed sometime between the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Investigators had spent more than four years using DNA analysis and forensic techniques to establish his identity. The killing remains unsolved, and no suspect has been publicly named.

Detectives have long suspected a mob hit — the barrel disposal method was a known signature of Las Vegas organised crime during that era.

The barrel only surfaced because drought dropped Lake Mead to historic lows, with experts warning more remains could yet be exposed as water levels continue to fall.

Retired Las Vegas police lieutenant Randy Sutton described the mob-era method as 'Two in the back of the head — bury them in the desert or Lake Mead if they didn't want them found.'