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The son of a man whose bones were identified this week as those recently found in a Nevada lake said the revelation has him reliving memories of his dad.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office said Wednesday that Thomas Erndt’s bones were the ones found May 7 near a former marina in Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam. Coroner Melanie Rouse said investigators used DNA and reports of Erndt’s disappearance for the identification.
A cause of death has not been determined. Erndt’s son, also named Tom Erndt, told local media that his father jumped in the water and began to struggle during a nighttime family outing on a boat on Aug. 2, 2002.
NASA IMAGERY SHOWS LAS VEGAS’ LAKE MEAD’S WATER LEVELS LOWEST SINCE 2000
The bones of Thomas Erndt were found along the newly exposed shoreline of the receding Lake Mead. Las Vegas authorities identified the remains of the 42-year-old man who was missing for two decades.
(AP Photo/John Locher)
“It is going to take a lot of time for me to move forward and remember this,” he said.
He recalled that he spent a lot of time with his father at his job as an aircraft mechanic. He said he wanted to remember his dad as a person, not bones found in a lake.
His aunt, Julie Erndt, now living in Kentucky, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal she was thankful her brother’s remains were finally identified after two decades.
Lake Mead has seen several discoveries of human remains as water levels continue to decrease amid drought conditions. On May 1, the body of a man was found in a barrel that was previously underwater.
He was killed by a gunshot wound but has not been identified. Other remains were found on July 25 and Aug. 16.
That discovery prompted speculation about watery graves and renewed interest in the lore of organized crime in the early years of casino development on the Las Vegas Strip — about a 30-minute drive from the lake.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
