The remains of Edward Lelburian Jackson were first discovered in 2022, and an initial autopsy revealed he was killed decades ago. After four years, a piece of the haunting mystery uncovered in the waning waters of drought-stricken Lake Mead has been solved.
Discovery of Remains
Since the remains of an unknown homicide victim were discovered stuffed inside a barrel in 2022, Las Vegas investigators have been searching not for his killer – but for his identity. At a press conference on Thursday, Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse shared his name publicly for the first time: Edward Lelburian Jackson.
““He also went by the name ‘Buddy’,” Rouse said, as a grainy picture of a smiling and bearded man holding a baby flashed on a screen behind her.
Investigators believe he was in his mid to late-50s. The decades-old murder sparked nationwide attention after the remains were discovered in the shallow waters by boaters in 2022 near Hemenway Harbor at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. An initial autopsy revealed the man had been killed by a single shot to the head.
Investigation Details
Investigators determined he was likely killed in the mid-1970s to early 1980s – an era when organized crime ran rampant in Las Vegas – due to the style of his clothing. In the years since he was found, authorities revealed he had been wearing:
- A button-down short-sleeve shirt
- Light blue jeans
- A silver wristwatch
- Blue-and-white tennis shoes
They also released composite renderings of what he may have looked like, in the hopes that someone might come forward with information. Behind the scenes, they searched for his DNA in crime databases, uploaded his description into a national missing persons database, and sent bone samples to a lab to obtain a genealogy profile.
