Officials released facial approximation images of a homicide victim whose remains were discovered in a barrel at Hemenway Harbor at Lake Mead on May 1, 2022. The decedent is a man who died from a gunshot wound.

Officials with Clark County’s Office of Coroner/Medical Examiner and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Section hope the release of the images to the public will help investigators identify the victim. The images, showing three angles of a composite face, were created by the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Va., based on remains recovered by Coroner’s Office investigators. The images have been shared with National Missing and Unidentified Person’s (NamUs) System, which is a centralized repository and resource center for missing and unidentified person cases in the United States. The images and information about the case are posted on the NamUs website at https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/UP94847.

Anyone who may have information that may help authorities identify the victim should email the Clark County Coroner’s Office at coroner@clarkcountynv.gov. The case number is: 2022-02725.

This homicide case was one of four cases involving several sets of remains found at Lake Mead in 2022. To date, the Coroner’s Office has been able to successfully identify decedents in three of the four cases.

The process for identifying remains includes examinations to determine the gender and approximate age, height and weight of each decedent; the collection of DNA samples; and comparing findings to information about people who have been reported missing over the years. Below is a summary of the four cases.

• On July 25, Aug. 6 and Aug. 16, 2022, skeletal remains were discovered by park visitors near the shoreline of Boulder Beach at Lake Mead, all in the same general area. During the course of its investigation, the Clark County Office of Coroner/Medical Examiner confirmed that the three sets of remains belonged to the same person. The remains in this case have now been identified by the Coroner’s Office as Claude Russell Pensinger of Las Vegas. Mr. Pensinger disappeared July, 14, 1998. He was 52 years old at the time of his disappearance. The identification was based on DNA analysis. The cause and manner of Mr. Pensinger’s death is undetermined.
• On Oct. 17, 2022, skeletal remains were discovered in the Callville Bay area at Lake Mead by contractors doing work near the marina. Additional remains were found on Oct. 19, 2022, which were determined to belong to the same person as those remains found on Oct. 17. The remains in this case have been identified by the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner as Donald P. Smith of North Las Vegas. Mr. Smith was 39 years old at the time of his reported drowning in April 1974. The identification was based on DNA analysis and reports from the original incident. The cause and manner of Mr. Smith’s death was determined to be drowning and accidental.
• On May 7, 2022, skeletal remains were discovered in the Callville Bay area. Those remains have been identified by the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner as Thomas Erndt of Las Vegas. Mr. Erndt was 42 years old at the time of his reported drowning on Aug. 2, 2002. The identification was based on investigative information, DNA analysis and reports from the original incident. The cause and manner of Mr. Erndt’s death is undetermined.
• On May 1, 2022, remains were discovered in a barrel at Hemenway Harbor. The decedent was a male who died from a gunshot would. The manner of his death was homicide. The decedent is unidentified at this time. Anyone with any information about this incident is urged to contact the LVMPD Homicide Section by phone at 702-828-3521, or by email at homicide@lvmpd.com. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers by phone at (702) 385-5555, or on the internet at www.crimestoppersofnv.com.

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