Local
DNA genealogy identifies man found in Lake Mead barrel as Arkansas native
Las Vegas investigators identified Edward “Buddy” Lelburian Jackson, whose remains were found in a Lake Mead barrel in 2022. His killing remains unsolved, and police say they have found no evidence tying it to organized crime.
Edward “Buddy” Lelburian Jackson, an Arkansas native whose relatives last saw him in the early 1980s, has been identified as the man found shot to death inside a barrel at Lake Mead, authorities said Thursday.
Jackson was in his mid- to late 50s when he died, Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse said. Investigators estimate he was killed in the late 1970s or early 1980s. He had been shot once in the head.
A boater discovered his mostly skeletonized remains in May 2022, inside a corroded 55-gallon drum partly buried in mud near Hemenway Harbor. Receding lake waters had exposed the previously submerged lakebed. Jackson was fully clothed, and his clothing and watch helped investigators estimate when he died.
The identification came through forensic genetic genealogy. A bone sample sent for DNA profiling in 2024 produced an initial lead, but not a close enough match to confirm his identity. Investigators later worked with forensic scientists at Oklahoma State University, who used information from a law-enforcement section of GEDmatch to identify a living relative. Follow-up testing confirmed the match, authorities said.
The investigation showed Jackson had family roots in the Hot Springs area of western Arkansas. Relatives told police he traveled widely and would visit from time to time, but they did not know much about his life or report him missing. “He would show up when he showed up,” Metro Police homicide Lt. Robert Price said, describing how the family remembered “Uncle Buddy.”
Police said they have found no known ties between Jackson and Las Vegas. He lived in Los Angeles with a wife for a time in the early 1970s and had no known children, Price said. His record included early-1980s charges in Utah involving arson and conspiracy to commit fraud.
The way Jackson was killed and his body disposed of in a barrel prompted speculation about a possible organized-crime connection. Police have not established one. Price said investigators have no information at this point that points them toward organized crime, while cautioning that they are not ruling it out.
Jackson’s case was one of four sets of human remains exposed by falling water levels at Lake Mead in 2022. The other three victims were identified as men who disappeared in 1974, 1998 and 2002. Jackson was the last of the four to be identified.
Rouse said Clark County has hundreds of unidentified-remains cases and urged people to report missing relatives so investigators have a chance to resolve them. Jackson’s identity has been established, but his homicide remains open and unsolved.