Body in Truck Found After Lake Powell Drops 20 Feet

Low water levels brought on by years of drought have revealed a submerged pickup truck containing human remains at Lake Powell near the Arizona-Utah border. Investigators say the truck belonged to a 54-year-old man who has been missing since December 2023. The identity of the remains hasn't yet been determined. The death is under investigation.

• People spotted the truck just below the water line over the Labor Day weekend at Lone Rock Beach, located in Utah within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Authorities pulled the truck out of the water Wednesday.

• As the lake has suffered from a yearslong drought, its water level has fallen about 20 feet since when the man was reported missing, Lt. Alan Alldredge of the Kane County Sheriff's Office in Utah says. "We have had several bad years," Alldredge says of the lake's water levels.
• Records show that the truck belonged to Dennis Keith Dillinger. He was last seen at the Family Dollar Store in Kanab, Utah, on Dec. 1, 2023. His family says he loved the outdoors, ABC4 reports. "I had a knowing in my spirit that he was at Lake Powell. He loved that place," Sheri Mersinger, his younger sister, says. "He loved Lone Rock. It was a place he said brought him peace, so I was not surprised at all that they did find him there."
• Human remains have also been discovered in recent years at another drought-stricken lake on the Colorado River system. Several sets of human remains were found in 2022 at Lake Mead, located at the Arizona-Nevada border, over 300 miles west of Lake Powell. Authorities still haven't identified the body of a homicide victim found in a rusted barrel at a harbor area at Lake Mead. Investigators say the person, who had been shot, was wearing clothes that were sold at Kmart in the mid-to-late 1970s.