Published Wednesday, April 26, 2023 | 5:08 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, April 26, 2023 | 5:41 p.m.
The skeletal remains of a Las Vegas man washed ashore 24 years and 11 days after he was reported missing, according to a Clark County news release.
Claude Russell Pensinger, 52, was reported missing on July 14, 1998, and he remained missing until a Lake Mead visitor found bones near the shoreline of Boulder Beach on July 25. More remains were found on Aug. 5 and Aug. 16 and later determined to be from the same person.
Clark County announced Tuesday that the remains have been identified as Pensigner by its medical examiner by DNA analysis.
The cause and manner of Pensinger’s death is undetermined.
Pensinger's remains are one of four found between May and October of last year at Lake Mead as the area saw a drought and water at the lake receded.
Remains found on Oct. 17 in the Callville Bay area have been identified as Donald P. Smith. The North Las Vegas man was 39-years-old when he drowned in the lake in1974, the release says. His remains were discovered by a contractor doing work near the marina.
He was identified through DNA analysis and reports from the original incident. His cause of death was determined to be a drowning and accidental.
Remains found May 7 were identified as Thomas Erndt who reportedly drown on Aug. 2, 2022.
Ernst was forty-two at the time of his death. His remains were found twenty years later on Aug. 2, 2002 in the Callville Bay area. He was identified by DNA analysis and reports from the time period. The cause and manner of his death is undetermined.
A fourth set of remains found on May 1, 2022 at Hemenway Harbor remain unidentified. The decedent was a male who died from a gunshot wound. The manner of his death was homicide.
The release says the remains have been identified through a process that includes examinations to determine gender and approximate age, height, weight of each descendant and collection of DNA samples. The quality of DNA staples can be affected by time and environmental conditions, the release says.
