LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A set of human remains found floating in Lake Mead last summer are not an Army veteran who drowned while saving his wife, his family confirmed to the 8 News Now Investigators.
On June 19, 2004 – the day before Father’s Day – Kenneth Funk was on a pontoon boat with his wife, Annette, and two other family members, when a wave hit. The force threw Annette from the boat and into the depths of Boulder Basin.
Minutes before, Annette had removed her life jacket to change her shirt, her daughter, Jessica Condon, told the 8 News Now Investigators last year.
“He put his head back, he closed his eyes, and he went under,” she said. Condon believes her father suffered a heart attack. He was 56.
“My dad knew, he knew there was no way out for him, and he knew that if she held on to him, she would go down with him,” Condon said last year.
Funk’s body was never found.
In July of last year, swimmers discovered the floating remains near Swim Beach. The swim area is along the shore in the part of the lake where Funk drowned.
A family member provided a DNA sample to the Clark County coroner’s office, which did not match the remains, Condon said.
Following the discovery of a jawbone several years ago, Condon also provided a DNA sample to the coroner’s office in Arizona. She never heard back, she said.
The family installed a cross on an island nearby, hoping others think about who it represents.
The coroner’s office continues to work to identify the remains of a man found in a barrel in May. Another set of remains discovered in August is believed to be contacted to the floating remains found in July, investigators said last year.
The coroner’s office identified a set of remains discovered near Callville Bay in May as a 42-year-old Las Vegas man who drowned in 2002.
Tips can be submitted anonymously through Crime Stoppers by calling 702-385-5555 or at crimestoppersofnv.com/report-a-crime. Information can also be sent via text by sending “CRIMENV” and then your message to “CRIMES” (274637). Crime Stoppers offers a reward for information that leads to an arrest.