Edward “Buddy” Lelburian Jackson, an Arkansas native in his 50s, was fatally shot, and investigators say his homicide remains unsolved.
LAS VEGAS — Authorities have identified the man whose remains were found inside a rusted barrel at Lake Mead in 2022 as Edward Lelburian “Buddy” Jackson, an Arkansas native believed to have been killed in the early 1980s, ending a yearslong effort to give a name to the homicide victim.
The identification answers one of the biggest questions surrounding a case that gained widespread attention after falling reservoir levels exposed the barrel near Hemenway Harbor. Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse said Jackson was in his mid- to late 50s when he died. Investigators previously determined that he had been shot once in the head and classified his death as a homicide. Police still do not know who killed Jackson, why he was killed or why he was in the Las Vegas area before his death.
Boaters found the barrel on May 1, 2022, as Lake Mead’s declining water level exposed shoreline that had been underwater for decades. Investigators recovered clothing with the remains, including a short-sleeve button-down shirt, light blue jeans, a silver wristwatch and blue-and-white athletic shoes. The clothing helped officials estimate that the man had died sometime around the late 1970s or early 1980s. Authorities later narrowed their focus to the early 1980s.
Investigators spent more than four years trying to identify Jackson. Rouse said a bone sample was submitted for genealogy profiling, while investigators also circulated facial reconstructions and information about the clothing found with the remains. The forensic work eventually produced a family lead that allowed authorities to compare genetic information and confirm Jackson’s identity. “We were able to confirm that the remains were in fact Edward Jackson,” Rouse said at an Oct. 15 news conference.
Jackson was believed to be from Hot Springs, Arkansas, and investigators found evidence that he had also lived in California and Utah. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Robert Price said Jackson lived with his wife in California in the early 1970s. He later had a brief criminal history in Salt Lake City in the early 1980s that included an aggravated arson charge and a conspiracy-to-commit-fraud case. Authorities have not said those cases had any connection to his death.
Jackson had not been reported missing. His relatives told investigators that he traveled frequently and sometimes disappeared for long periods before returning without warning. His family last remembered seeing him in Arkansas in the early 1980s, according to police. Because his traveling was not unusual, relatives did not initially conclude that something had happened to him when they stopped hearing from him. Investigators have not established what brought Jackson to Southern Nevada.
The manner in which Jackson’s remains were found fueled years of speculation about a possible connection to organized crime in Las Vegas, where mob figures were involved in the casino industry for decades. Police said they have found no evidence directly tying Jackson’s death to an organized criminal group. Price said investigators have not ruled out that possibility but emphasized that nothing uncovered so far establishes such a link.
The barrel was one of several discoveries made as Lake Mead receded during years of drought, heavy water use and rising temperatures. Several sets of human remains surfaced around the reservoir in 2022. Authorities later identified some as people who had drowned or disappeared years earlier, including a drowning victim from 2002, a Las Vegas resident who vanished in 1998 and a person whose death was linked to an accidental drowning in 1974. Additional human remains were found at the reservoir in August 2026.
The barrel case was different because authorities determined early in the investigation that the man had been killed. Lake Mead stood much higher during the period when investigators believe Jackson died, leaving areas now exposed along the shoreline under deep water. The falling reservoir eventually brought the barrel within reach of the boaters who found it, giving detectives physical evidence from a homicide that had apparently gone undetected for decades.
With Jackson now identified, homicide detectives can focus on reconstructing his movements, relationships and activities before his death. Police have not publicly identified a suspect or motive. “It will never be closed until we solve it,” Price said. Investigators continue to examine the decades-old case as they try to determine how Jackson reached Las Vegas and who was responsible for killing him.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.