Key takeaways:
- DNA genealogy helped identify the Lake Mead barrel victim as Edward Lelburian Jackson, believed to have been in his mid- to late 50s.
- Jackson died from a single gunshot wound to the head; investigators have not identified his killer or found evidence linking the homicide to organized crime.
- Police are seeking information from people who knew Jackson because relatives contacted so far had limited details about his life.
The man whose remains were found in a barrel at Lake Mead as its waters receded in 2022 has been identified as Edward Lelburian Jackson, authorities said Thursday. His name resolves one part of a decades-old mystery. Who shot him in the head and left him in the reservoir remains unknown.
Jackson, who also went by “Buddy,” was believed to be in his mid- to late 50s, Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse said at a news conference. The remains were discovered May 1, 2022, in a deteriorated 50-gallon drum near Hemenway Harbor, according to NBC News and The Guardian. An autopsy found a single gunshot wound to the head.
Police believe Jackson was killed in the early 1980s based on clothing remnants and interviews with his family, NBC News reported. The Guardian reported that investigators had placed his death between the mid-1970s and early 1980s, initially using the style of his clothing to estimate when he died.
The discovery drew widespread attention and prompted speculation about a connection to organized crime in Las Vegas. Investigators have found no evidence of one, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police homicide Lt. Robert Price said.
“At this point of our investigation, we don’t have any information to support those theories,” Price said, according to The Guardian.
Jackson was from Arkansas and traveled around the country, Price said. Detectives have found no connection between him and Las Vegas, and no information that he gambled, according to NBC News. Records place him in California, where he lived with his wife, and in Utah, where he faced charges of aggravated arson and conspiracy involving fraud in the early 1980s, the outlets reported. NBC News said he had lived in Los Angeles and had been married in the early 1970s. Price said Jackson had no known children.
To identify him, investigators searched databases and sought a genealogy profile from bone samples, The Guardian reported. A team at Oklahoma State University developed a strong lead this year. A DNA sample from a possible relative matched Jackson’s remains, Rouse said.
The identification has not yet revealed much about Jackson’s life. Price said the relatives investigators reached were several degrees removed and knew little about his work, personality or associates. “They only knew, like, brief about him being Uncle Buddy,” he said, according to NBC News.
Police are asking anyone who knew Jackson to come forward. Such information could help establish whom he associated with and what happened before his death, Price said. “It’s an unsolved case. It’ll never be closed until we solve it,” he said.
Jackson was among several people whose remains surfaced at Lake Mead in 2022. The coroner’s office identified two other sets as those of Thomas Erndt, 42, of Las Vegas, who was reported to have drowned in 2002, and Donald P. Smith, 39, of North Las Vegas, who was reported to have drowned in 1974, NBC News reported. Remains identified in 2023 belonged to Claude Russell Pensinger, 52, who disappeared in 1998; no cause or manner of death was determined.
Lake Mead’s water levels have fallen amid a drought lasting more than 25 years. Increasing temperatures and low snowpack have also played a role, according to the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
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