Las Vegas authorities have identified a murder victim whose remains were placed in a rusted barrel and dumped in Lake Mead more than four decades ago, police announced Thursday.
Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse said the victim was Edward Lelburian Jackson, an Arkansas man in his 50s who died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Although the killing remains unsolved, investigators were finally able to determine Jackson’s identity through advanced genetic genealogy after decades of uncertainty.
“We were able to confirm that the remains were in fact Edward Jackson,” Rouse said.
Boaters discovered the unidentified remains in May 2022, reviving speculation that the case could be linked to Las Vegas’ violent organized-crime past.
The discovery of a body inside a barrel has long been associated with mob killings, particularly given Las Vegas’ extensive history of organized crime.
Jackson had been involved in criminal activity in Salt Lake City during the 1980s. However, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Robert Price said investigators have found no direct evidence connecting his death to the mob, although that possibility has not been eliminated.
Jackson’s relatives told authorities that he enjoyed traveling, but said they were surprised to learn he had been in Las Vegas.
Investigators say they are continuing to pursue the case.
“It will never be closed until we solve it,” Price said.
Authorities believe Jackson was shot sometime in the early 1980s before his body was placed inside the barrel.
He was wearing a short-sleeve button-down shirt, light blue jeans, a silver wristwatch and blue-and-white sneakers when he was killed.
Jackson’s family never reported him missing at the time.
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“They knew that he had traveled the country, would show up when he showed up, just to say hi,” Price said.
“But they didn’t think anything other than that. They just figured he was out and about.”
Before Jackson was identified, the Mob Museum in Las Vegas suggested the remains might belong to one of several underworld figures: George “Jay” Vandermark, a cheat gambler who monitored slot machines at the Stardust casino; William Crespo, a drug runner who became a federal informant; or Johnny Pappas, a casino insider who owned a boat on Lake Mead.
All three men disappeared, and their bodies were never found.
The investigative genetic genealogy method used to identify Jackson also helped identify a second victim of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks in New York City this week. The same technique was used in the investigation that led to the arrest of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann.
Investigative genetic genealogy compares a person’s DNA profile with information available in public ancestry databases.
Meanwhile, Lake Mead’s water level has fallen to historic lows amid prolonged drought, extreme heat and ongoing overuse. As the 90-year-old reservoir continues to recede, it has exposed long-hidden evidence and renewed interest in the secrets beneath its surface.
Historians predict more bodies will emerge from the receding waters.
Several other finds surfaced at Lake Mead in 2022 — including a May discovery of skeletal remains later identified as a 2002 drowning victim.
Another set found in August of that year belonged to a 52-year-old Las Vegas man who vanished in 1998, while remains discovered in October 2022 were tied to a 1974 drowning accident, according to county officials.
And yet more human remains were uncovered as recently as this August.
Lake Mead and upstream Lake Powell stand as the largest man-made reservoirs in the US, anchoring a vast system that fuels Colorado River water to over 40 million people across eight states and into Mexico.
The plummeting waterline exposed Las Vegas’ main drinking intake in 2022, forcing regional authorities to activate a deep-lake reservoir built in 2020 to supply the region’s 2.4 million residents, suburban sprawl and 40 million annual tourists.
With Post wires
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