EXCLUSIVE Welcome to Lake Mead, dubbed 'Dead Body Soup,' the US park more dangerous than Yosemite or the Grand Canyon

Daily Mail​

03-05-2025

When a Nevada veterinarian faced viral backlash for being caught on camera kicking a horse, he vanished into America's deadliest park.
Facing felony animal abuse charges, Dr. Shawn Frehner disappeared on April 6, leaving his keys, cell phone and wallet inside his truck behind at the water's edge.
Eleven days later, on April 17, his body was discovered in the park's strikingly blue waters – grimly nicknamed 'Dead Body Soup' by visitors – and was identified solely through dental records.
He is not the first human life that Lake Mead has claimed. Declared the country's first National Recreation Area in 1936 it has also become a place where death is a way of life.
'You'd be amazed by the number of people who show up asking where are all the bodies,' said Emily Montague, who has worked for nine years greeting visitors to the park.
From 2013 to 2023, the park officially averaged about 21 deaths a year, far surpassing those at the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, which rank as the second and third deadliest parks with an average of 13 and 11 fatalities each year, respectively.
But the real number is likely way higher as some people are never reported missing and it can take decades for a corpse to be found in the water, washed up on shore or spotted in the wilderness.
Dr. Shawn Frehner faced severe backlash online after he was caught on video kicking a horse named Big Red in the head
The lake is actually a reservoir – the largest in the US, formed after the federal government built Hoover Dam on the Colorado River about 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas.
Now part of the National Park Service, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area includes lakes Mead and Mohave, along with 1.5 million acres of mountains, canyons, valleys and shoreline in Southern Nevada and Northwestern Arizona.
In the lead-up to his death, Frehner posted his final Facebook post defending his actions in the video, taken by the horse''s owner Shawna Gonzalez, claiming it was misleading while also apologizing for his actions.
Investigators have yet to say whether they believe Frehner took his own life, met with an accident or suffered foul play.
But if Frehner's death is confirmed a suicide, as suspected, it would be just one in a long string in the park.
The bodies of bankrupt gamblers, cuckolded spouses, depressed teens and terminally ill patients have been found in its water and along its shoreline. Several people have also jumped to their deaths from Hoover Dam and off a bridge next to it that's 1,500 feet from the lake.
A tour guide leading a group on that bridge Saturday told DailyMail.com that suicide is the main topic of many customers' questions.
'They read the news, they see the bridge, the gigantic dam, the huge body of water and they wonder, who's offed themselves here,' he said. 'It's like a weird fascination.'
Other deaths have also piqued visitors' curiosity, especially those involving four sets of human remains discovered in 2022.
Investigators were able to identify the second, third and fourth sets found as those of Donald Smith of North Las Vegas, who drowned in 1974; Claude Russell Pensinger of Las Vegas, who disappeared in 1998; and Thomas Erndt of Las Vegas, who was reported to have drowned in 2002.
But it is the first set that most fascinates visitors.
Stuffed in a metal barrel, the remains are believed to be those of a homicide victim who died of a gunshot wound in the mid-1970s or early '80s. His body parts were badly decomposed, making DNA difficult to extract and leaving the victim unidentified and known to locals three years later simply as 'barrel guy'.
Investigators say the drum in which his body was found was probably dropped hundreds of yards off the shore, but exposed in 2022 when the water dramatically receded.
His mysterious killing has triggered speculation about possible mob involvement.
'Every time we come, we joke that we'll find a barrel,' said Sheena Hernandez while visiting the Lake Mead Marina with friends on Saturday.
A woman with a yacht at the marina told us that when she's alone on the lake, she sometimes hears voices speaking to her from the water.
'I don't normally believe in that stuff like things being haunted,' she said. 'But the bodies have me spooked.'
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department expects more remains to turn up in the lake as the Colorado River flows continue to wane from overuse and climate change and as the shoreline keeps receding.
The water is now 1,062 above sea level, down from the lake's full pool at 1,229 feet. That 167-foot drop is visible on discoloration along canyon walls known as the 'bathtub ring' and can be seen in shocking detail by satellite images.
Scientists, water planners, politicians, climate activists and student groups from around the world make trips to Lake Mead, snapping pictures of the ring as glaring proof of climate change and visible evidence of urgent flaws in Western water policy.
Receding lake water has exposed other objects of interest, including a World War II Higgins landing craft believed to have sunk in the lake in the 1940s.
Also now visible are the ruins of St. Thomas, a frontier town founded by members of the Mormon Church that was covered by 60 feet of water after river flows started filling up behind the dam.
Sunken fishing boats, discarded tires, rusted methamphetamine lab equipment, camping, fishing and snorkeling gear, liquor bottles, even Pringles cans and sunscreen tubes also have been laid bare as water levels have dropped, rangers say.
A diver for the Parks Service, who asked not to be named, told DailyMail.com he is most creeped out by the occasional sight of a single dress shoe in the water.
'You'll see a man's oxford or a woman's high heel and wonder who wears shoes like that to a reservoir and how in the hell did they lose it,' he said.
At least 300 people have drowned at Lake Mead, and those accidents aren't slowing down despite declining water levels.
Gregory Bell, a 58-year-old real estate agent, went paddleboarding last August with his wife and two other couples. It was a Saturday evening and they wanted to watch the sunset from the water when a sudden storm blew in.
Five in their group struggled to stay afloat as fierce winds and heavy waves slammed down on them. Bell, a strong swimmer and accomplished athlete, was the only one who didn't drift to shore.
A search crew found his body four days later near the Boulder Islands, the same place Frehner's body was discovered last week.
Bell's widow, Serena Bell, told DailyMail.com that she and her friends spent at least two hours calling for help that night before a rescue team arrived. She said there were no rangers on duty nearby nor warnings by the Parks Service about the storm.
'There's not enough resources out there, not enough processes in place. That's why it's the deadliest national park in the country,' she said.
Several visitors have drowned while trying to save others. Kenneth Funk jumped into the lake to rescue his wife, Annette, after she was washed overboard when a wave struck the front of the family's 20-foot pontoon boat in 2004.
A decomposing torso found in the lake 18 years later was believed to be his, but DNA tests ruled out that possibility, and his body still hasn't been found.
Many other drownings and accidents stem from people swimming, paddleboarding or boating while drunk or high on drugs. Some have involved people with little or no experience operating watercraft.
Bryce Verhonich of Arizona was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison last year for a reckless jet skiing accident that killed his 22-year-old passenger, Lily Hatcher. Her body was missing in the water for about a week.
Some visitors have died or even killed others by jumping from cliffs on to friends and family members already in the water.
'If you want to see how absolutely stupid people can get, come on down to the lake,' said Kendal Bennett-Jordan, a server at the marina's Boat House Bar and Grill.
On Father's Day Weekend in 2023, one person died of an apparent suicide, two by drowning and three in a car accident over the same two days that park rangers rescued 23 people and responded to multiple criminal incidents, including drug use, theft and assault.
A few weeks ago, rangers had to close multiple trails after a hiker died and 33 others were rescued amid extreme heat over the course of two days. Among those rescued were 18 students, including three with special needs, in a group that was not prepared for the conditions.
Rangers are especially worried about short-staffing this year in light of the Trump administration's workforce reduction.
DOGE efforts are believed to have eliminated at least a dozen Lake Mead workers since February, although the Parks Service has not yet responded to DailyMail.com's questions about the specifics of the layoffs.
DOGE efforts are believed to have eliminated at least a dozen Lake Mead workers since February, although the Parks Service has not yet responded to DailyMail.com's questions about the specifics of the layoffs
Meanwhile, park personnel say they are distracted with other tasks such as breaking up fights on campgrounds or between boaters and intervening in domestic disputes in which one partner is booted from a car driven by another and forced to walk alone in the heat.
Last year, a fire at one of the lake's main marinas burned 37 boats, many of which sank and needed salvaging.
Park personnel are asked to give water to thirsty visitors, sunscreen to those with sunburns and shade to those experiencing sunstroke. They're expected to warn swimmers not to submerge their heads in hot springs known to host brain-eating amoeba.
And they're supposed to bust visitors who break park rules, which happens often. Last year, park staff was tasked with identifying two men videotaped at a popular hiking spot pushing red boulders off an iconic rock formation.
'Why would you even do something like this, like why on Earth would you do this?' John Haynes, then the park's spokesman, told Fox5. 'It takes millions of years for these rock formations to form and then you get a couple idiots out there that are destroying all that work of nature.
'It's pretty appalling – kind of disgusting.'
The vandals, Wyatt Fain and Payden Cosper, were ultimately identified and arrested. A jury found each guilty this month of injury and depredation of government property.
They face a maximum penalty of one year in prison, a $100,000 fine, or both when sentenced in July.
On her way home after the interview with DailyMail.com, Montague was hit by a driver turning toward the lake. The other driver's car flipped over, but the park worker was able to get away with only a few injuries
As Emily Montague, the park attendant, tells it, some visitors show a surprising lack of civility when she asks for their $25 entrance fee. She said she gets called an a**hole and the c-word on a regular basis.
Part of Montague's job involves consoling family members while rangers conduct searches for their missing loved ones.
'They come crying, desperate, wondering where their people went. It happens a lot and it's so hard to deal with. I really feel for them,' she said.
After our interview, Montague hopped in her car and was about two minutes into her drive home when she was hit by a driver turning toward the lake for some alone time and reflection.
Both cars were totaled, and the other flipped on its side, trapping that driver inside for the hour it took for the emergency crew to arrive, saw open her door and release her.
Montague walked easily away from the wreck despite a few minor injuries but was still shaken.
'Now I'm the one who needs consoling,' she said.