In the icy depths of Lake Mead, a single silver Timex watch languished for fifty years. An emblem of its era – South Korean manufacture, a classic late-’70s design, and etched with a now painfully ironic “water resistant” label.
Yet, it is not the watch that has piqued the interest of the public and law enforcement alike, but the wearer. The details of the garments clad on the late victim have been meticulously documented and shared by NAMUS.gov; the official website of the US government’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. The mystery man wore a button-down Idletime short-sleeve shirt, a product of South Korea sized 2X, snug blue jeans boasting a Vidal Sassoon-style pocket design in a 46″ x 30″ size, and rather inconspicuously, a pair of Size 11 Trax tennis shoes.
Over the span from May to October 2022, a grim redemption played out as Lake Mead, now receding under the harsh glare of a historic two-decade megadrought, offered up four sets of remains contained within its once hidden depths. Of these gruesome discoveries, three have been definitively identified, unlike the burdened soul tied to the infamous Timex timepiece, who continues to elude identification despite being at the epicenter of this chilling mystery. This particular case has been singled out for investigation as a homicide by the Las Vegas police.
The chilling saga escalated on May 1, 2022, when boaters navigating the lake identified a corroded metal barrel, stranded in what was once a 100-foot-deep underwater expanse of Lake Mead’s Hemenway Harbor. This discarded receptacle hosted a grisly tableau, cradling the remains of an adult male, revealed to have met a brutish end by a gunshot wound to the head.
The timelines intersected in a morbid intersection within the menacing reign of fabled Las Vegas mafia boss Anthony Spilotro, making him the potential architect behind the crime. Known by his intimidating moniker, ‘Tony the Ant’, he served as the inspiration for Joe Pesci’s character in Scorsese’s 1995 film, “Casino”. Spilotro himself met a grizzly end alongside his brother Michael on June 14, 1986.
Basing their information on the findings by NAMUS.gov, the victim was estimated to be between 27 and 61 years old, and stood somewhere between 5′6″ and 6′1″.
Over two painstaking years, an unyielding ensemble consisting of the Clark County Coroner’s Office, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and the FBI tirelessly probed for leads, managing to piece together a digital reconstruction of the victim’s face based on the skeletal remains recovered. Yet despite their valiant efforts, the name of the mystery victim remains unclaimed.
The turning of the lake’s fortunes in 2022 revealed more than just the Timex-adorned victim. Other remains unearthed in the depths belonged to identified individuals. Thomas Erndt, a resident of Las Vegas who tragically drowned was discovered on May 7, 2022, and Claude Pensinger, another city dweller who disappeared on July 14, 1998 was identified in April 2023 as the remains found on July 25, 2022. Then on Oct. 17, 2022, Donald P. Smith was recognized as the recovered remains; a 39-year-old North Las Vegas resident missing since April 1974, and another heartbreaking victim of drowning. As the media, law enforcement, and public dissect the fragments of these tales, the mystery of the man with the Timex watch remains unsolved.
