How a bone sample and a social media post helped identify Lake Mead barrel victim

Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse announced on Thursday that the man found in a barrel at Lake Mead in May 2022 has been identified as Edward Lelburian Jackson, who went by the nickname 'Buddy' and was believed to be in his 50s at the time of his death. Authorities say he was likely killed in the early 1980s, shot in the head, sealed in a barrel, and dumped in the lake.

Rouse said investigators obtained a DNA sample from the body early on, but it did not match any records in the system. In September 2022, the FBI lab in Quantico created three composite facial images, which were released in late 2023 and uploaded to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database along with photos of the clothing Jackson was wearing.

In early 2024, a bone sample was sent to DNA International for genealogy profiling, yielding possible matches. The coroner’s office then enlisted the Forensic Sciences Department at Oklahoma State University, which requested and received its own bone sample to create an independent profile. Jason Beaman, chair of the School of Forensic Sciences at Oklahoma State, described the effort as one where investigators 'turned the world upside down' to solve the mystery.

Beaman explained that the university’s Human Identity Testing Lab partners with law enforcement and coroners nationwide to identify John and Jane Does, offering to test samples to confirm or rule out suspected identities. In this case, with no initial leads, the lab processed the bone sample directly to build a genetic profile from scratch, ultimately contributing to Jackson’s identification.

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal