Below The Surface - the Unsolved Mysteries of Lake Mead - Part 2

Episode #86: Below the Surface: Unsolved Mysteries of Lake Mead Part 2

[Shaun] 

When people think about Lake Mead, they picture sunshine, water, and long weekends. But the stories we’re telling in this episode don’t end up in a photo album. They end in silence, suspicion, and grief.

[John] 

A missing mother. A woman whose name no one knew. A Marine who never made it home. A child left to drown. And a young immigrant weighed down in the water.

These are stories the lake didn’t hide. They're stories we’ve chosen not to see.

(Music - Pause for 8 seconds)

[Shaun] 

Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I’m your host, Shaun

[John] 

And I’m your co-host, John

[Shaun] 

Welcome to Part 2 of our 3-part series on Lake Mead and the disappearances, unsolved cases, and stories about the national park where victims and families are still seeking justice. 

Last week, we shared 4 stories with you, and this week, we have 5 more, and thank you to everyone who took the time to share the photos and stories we posted on our social media. We refuse to give up hope that we could someday have answers about the man found in the barrel, known as the Hemenway Harbor Doe, the murders of Christopher Scott Huffman and Nicky Constanza, or the disappearance of Robert Rowe, the man accused of murdering his wife Jeanette Rowe and her son, Bradley Schweitzer. 

Please continue to share those stories and the ones you hear about in this episode. Like we say, someone knows something. 

[John] 

This week, we want to start with a missing persons case that’s fairly recent.  Anique (uh nee kay) Beauregard, also known as Nikki Knox, has been missing since August 31, 2019. She was 41 years old at the time, making her 47 years old today. It’s been almost six years, and there are still no answers, just a family still searching for the truth.

Nikki is a mom, with two daughters and three granddaughters who love and miss her. She loved dogs, and someone who knew her described her as a “fireball” which tells you right away she had a big personality, someone vibrant and bold, the kind of person who leaves an impression.

[Shaun]
Nikki was originally from Utah, but around 2016 she moved to Northern Nevada. According to a GoFundMe started by her father, she was living in Reno, but some sources report she was living in Fallon. 

The last week of August 2019, she and her boyfriend came down to Las Vegas to spend some time at Lake Mead with friends. Just a quick getaway, nothing out of the ordinary.

The two of them were last seen together around 11:30 a.m., at a Shell Station at Los Feliz St & East Lake Mead Boulevard, on their way to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. 

This gas station is on the far northeast edge of Las Vegas, near Frenchman Mountain, and that Shell is the last gas station on East Lake Mead Blvd. before the Lake Mead toll gate, which is about 8 miles away. 

Anique was wearing a white bathing suit with pink accents, probably a bikini, a swim cover-up, and flip flops. She was riding in a black pickup truck that was towing two jet skis. 

There’s surveillance footage from the gas station that confirms both of them were there. But, just twenty-two minutes later, her boyfriend returned to that same Shell, and that time, he was alone.

[John]
According to the GoFundMe, her boyfriend explained that a friend they were meeting up with at the lake, called the couple and reminded them to be sure to fuel up the jet skis before they got there. Even though they had just left the gas station, they had to turn around. 

Nikki’s boyfriend made a U-turn near Pabco Road, which is about 5 miles from the gas station. He said that during the turn, one of the jet skis shifted on the trailer. He says he pulled over to check the straps and make sure it was still secured.

When he got back in the truck, Nicki was gone. 

Based on later news coverage, authorities seem to believe she might have decided to walk to the lake. To me, that doesn’t seem very likely. She didn’t take her phone. She didn’t have her purse or any water. 

August of 2019 was a record-setting month of high temperatures in Las Vegas, and the high was a scorching 109 degrees that day. 

The Lake Mead admission gate was 3.5 miles away, but the lake shore would be another 6 miles from there, or more. 

She was in flip-flops, walking alone through the desert, at noon during the hottest August on record. 

That’s what he told police when he reported her missing the next day, that she had walked away or otherwise managed to disappear from his sight. There’s no mention of anyone else or any other cars or vehicles around in his statement. 

[Shaun]
According to Nikki’s dad’s GoFundMe, her boyfriend was interviewed by police more than once and reportedly took and passed multiple polygraph tests. 

When the reporting came out about her disappearance, Metro described Nikki as endangered and in need of medical attention. To this day, there’s still no confirmed trace of her. 

Red Rock Search and Rescue got involved early on, and they’ve gone back to that same area of the desert over and over again trying to find Nikki. 

Bryan Zink, one of their spokespeople, said, “We do the best we can with the information that we’ve been provided with. It’s one of the only clues we have, so that’s the area where we are going to go out and focus our attention on.”

[John]
Over the years, together with volunteers and Nikki’s father Richard, they’ve conducted at least seven separate searches. One of the larger ones happened on March 28, 2022, when thirty volunteers went out on four-wheelers to canvas the terrain around East Lake Mead and Pabco. But still, no sign of her.

Bryan of Red Rock Search and Rescue has said, “She’s out there somewhere, or possibly, she was picked up and she may be somewhere else, alive and healthy, and has just not made contact with the family. Just because we go out and do a search doesn’t mean that person is in the area we are searching.”

When he shared the details of Nikki’s disappearance, he said, “There was a recreational event happening (at the lake), and they got separated for whatever reason, and she started walking alone and unfortunately has not been located since that time.” 

While we have unanswered questions about the idea that she just walked away, it seems the team at Search and Rescue and the authorities have accepted that story as their best lead. 

[Shaun]

However, that story has raised questions for some members of her family and anyone I’ve seen online who’s followed the case. Given everything, it’s very hard not to wonder if there’s more to it than that.

Behind every missing persons report is a real human being with people who love them and are desperate for answers. Anique - Nikki  - is a daughter, mom, and granddaughter, and the silence and unknowns surrounding her disappearance are devastating.

If you know anything about what happened to Anique Beauregard, also known as Nikki Knox, or perhaps saw her in the Lake Mead area on August 31 or September 1 of 2019, please contact Las Vegas Metro Police at 702-828-3111, or reach out anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or crimestoppersofnv.com

Even the smallest tip could help bring a family the answers they’ve been waiting for for far too long.

[John]
The second case we have this week is the death of Lily Hatcher. It’s another story of a woman and another summer day at Lake Mead. This happened almost exactly 3 years ago, and until all the facts were known, we were confused about what happened that day. 

When the news first broke that Lily was missing, her name and her identity were unknown. The public was asked for help in identifying a woman who was lost at Lake Mead, and the photos that were plastered on the evening news were pixelated photos from a convenience store surveillance camera. 

We assumed maybe she was a tourist, a woman from out of town, but it was odd to hear that someone had reported her missing from Lake Mead, and whoever was making this report didn’t know her name, who she was, or where she was from. 

How do you report someone missing that you don’t even know?

[Shaun]

On the morning of June 30, 2022, authorities were called out at around 6:15 to an area near the Boulder Islands, close to Lakeshore Road and Boulder City Parkway. 

What they found was one man, alone, reporting that he and a woman had fallen off a jet ski. The two weren’t wearing life jackets. He didn’t know the woman he was riding with, just that her first name was Lily. 

His name was Bryce Tyrone Verhonich, and given that he didn’t know Lily’s last name or much about her, it sounds to me like this might have been a casual meet-up or a chance encounter. 

Lily was spending time near the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, reportedly staying on a houseboat, when the two of them decided to go for a ride on a jet ski and head out towards the Hoover Dam. 

Bryce said he made a sharp turn, and both of them fell into the water. But when he resurfaced, Lily didn’t. She was gone. And without a name to give the authorities, she was a missing person, but also a missing identity. No one knew who she was visiting, where she had come from, or even how to contact her family or loved ones. The police did what they could to try to identify her, they asked the public for help. 

Six days later, on July 6th, Lily’s remains were recovered, and she was finally identified as 22-year-old Lily Hatcher, from Boulder City. The Clark County Coroner ruled her death an accidental drowning. 

[John]

Once she was identified, Ivy Neal, one of Lily’s close friends, shared memories with reporter Dani Masten at Fox 5.

She said Lily was funny, adventurous, and the kind of person who would push you outside of your comfort zone. Ivy described her this way: “She made you a little uncomfortable, but you were always so grateful for it.”

She remembered how they once walked five miles just to get a milkshake. She shared how they’d sit in restaurants and talk for so long, they knew the waitress probably wanted her table back. That’s the Lily her friends knew: bold, a firecracker, and an adventurer. 

[Shaun]

And yet, despite all that life and energy, she became just another nameless woman in the headlines for nearly a week, as the news kept asking us if we knew who this woman was.

Bryce was ultimately held responsible for the actions that had led up to her death. He was charged with three federal boating safety violations: operating a vessel in a negligent manner, failing to wear a personal flotation device, and not using an engine cut-off switch lanyard.

For anyone who’s unfamiliar, that last one is a safety device - a lanyard that attaches the operator to the engine. If the operator is thrown from the jet ski, the lanyard disconnects and shuts the engine off immediately, preventing the jet ski from circling and hitting someone.

[John]

His case went to a two-day bench trial overseen by Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts. On April 29, 2024, Bryce, who was 47 at the time, was found guilty on all three charges. He was sentenced to six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release.

He later appealed, claiming there wasn’t enough evidence to prove he hadn’t been wearing a life jacket or using the safety lanyard. But that appeal failed. 

In fact, in the most recent ruling I could find, from April of 2025, the court pointed out that Bryce had shown a lack of remorse for Lily’s death. The judge concluded that the sentence, six months behind bars, was entirely appropriate. He is currently incarcerated in a federal prison, but will be released in September of 2025. 

[Shaun]

So that’s what justice looks like in this case, and it is a stark reminder of what we talked about last week. The lake can be dangerous. 

When I was reading about Lily, I couldn’t help but feel that she deserved more. I’m thankful for Dani’s interview with her friend, Ivy, but with no other coverage of her, it’s hard to feel like her loss was given the care and respect it deserved. 

In reading about all of these stories, the feeling becomes overwhelming that the news and the community reacts with shock and horror about “a body recovered” from Lake Mead, but once the identity of the person is known, these stories seem to just fade away. 

We wanted to tell her story to make sure her name is not forgotten.

The next two cases we have are unsolved, and both happened back in the 1990s. Many of our listeners might have noticed that many of the cases we’ve talked about on Sins & Survivors occurred during that decade: Ron Rudin,  Dana MacKay and Mary Huffman, Camille Dardanes Dotson, Jean Moore, and Linda Sue Anderson,and last week we covered Nicky Costanza, Chris Huffman, Jeanette Rowe and Bradley Schweitzer. 

1995 was a record year for homicides in Las Vegas. On January 2, 1996, the Review-Journal had an article on the front page of the Nevada section, detailing that 1995 had been one of the most deadly years in Las Vegas. The article continued on page 3B, taking up nearly the full page, and included a list of every homicide victim in Clark County from the previous year, 150 names in total. 

Among the names on that list was a 24 year old Lithuanian immigrant, (Dah roos) Darius Kavalyauskas (Kah-vuh-LOW-skiss), whose murder remains unsolved 30 years later. 

This is one of those cases where even the murder itself didn't get a lot of press coverage, and sadly, despite our best efforts, we know very little about the victim. 

In order to learn more about him, we used a hail mary pass via Reddit, trying to reach out to the Lithuanian community overseas and in Chicago. John and I talk more about that in Swing Shift this week, so be sure to subscribe so you can hear more. 

[John]

On August 4, 1995, a man walking his dog found Darius (Dah Roos) Kavalyauaskas (Kah-vuh-LOW-skiss) floating face down in Lake Mead near Horsepower Cove. He was wearing blue Nautica swim trunks and Rockport leather sandals. 

Strapped to his back was a gym bag filled with about 90 pounds of rocks. 

The coroner determined he had been in the water for between 3 and 5 days. His cause of death was listed as forced drowning. 

Darius (Dahroos) was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, and was one of 10 children. He sadly lost his father at a young age. 

In 1991 or 1992, he moved to the US, settling first in Chicago, which has one of the largest populations of Lithuanians in the US. A few years later, he decided to move to Las Vegas, where he worked as a busboy. The RJ also reported that he had recently started a business with 2 other Lithuanian friends, exporting clothes and household goods back to Lithuania. 

At the time his remains were found, the police were looking for his blue 1987 Honda CRX with Illinois plates. 

We are so grateful for the help of the folks on Reddit. They were able to educate us that (Dah Roos) Darius Kavalyauaskas (Kah-vuh-LOW-skiss), is in fact a very common Lithuanian name, which made the search for information even harder

Also, one user pointed out that his last name was absolutely mangled by Las Vegas Metro, so finding original records without knowing his last name had been spelled wrong in the newspaper had also affected our research. 

We are so grateful for the user who was able to find an article about Darius (Dahroos) written in Lithuanian that was published in a Chicago based newspaper, and translated it for us. 

The article states that (Dahroos’s) Darius’s family was deeply grateful to the Lithuanian community in Chicago, who supported Darius (Dahroos) when he arrived there three years earlier—offering him care, shelter, warmth, and help getting established.

They are also thankful to the Lithuanians in Nevada, who, though fewer in number, provided both financial and moral support during this tragedy, especially when it came time to cremate Darius’s (Dahroos’s) remains and send them back to Chicago.

Darius’s (Dahroos’s) case is still listed as an unsolved homicide on Las Vegas Metro police’s website, and now that 30 years have passed, we know it’s unlikely that someone out there might have a tip to pass on to the police, but we remain hopeful. 

Anyone with information about Darius (Dahroos), please call LVMPD Homicide Section at 702-828-3521, and as a reminder, you can always contact CrimeStoppers to remain anonymous. 

[Shaun]

Our next case is from 1997. It involves a Marine, a mysterious spur-of-the-moment trip to Las Vegas, and a body discovered in the waters of Lake Mead. To this day, it remains unsolved.

His name was Staff Sergeant Ron Parkhurst. A 12-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Ron was a recruiter based out of Huntington Beach, California. 

He was 36 years old and known for being the kind of guy who showed up early, stayed late, and always followed through. His coworkers said he was dependable, honest, and meticulous. They said he first one into the office and the last one out. He was a serious professional, not the kind of person who would play hooky. 

[John]

It was Monday, June 16, 1997, when Ron failed to show up for work. His commanding officers at the recruiting office immediately found it strange. He had told his coworker, Sergeant Alex Brooks, that he’d see him that Monday morning, so when he didn’t show up or call, his coworkers became concerned. 

Originally from Peoria, Illinois, Ron had family who cared deeply about him, including his sister Diane. That’s who got the call when something didn’t feel right. Diane remembers the moment clearly. In her own words:

“I received a call at work from my older brother, indicating he received a call from the USMC Recruiting Office in Huntington Beach, CA. They advised him our brother, Ronnie, did not show up for work, and wanted to know if he had heard from him. 

That phone call with my older brother kicked me into action. I called the police, I called the manager of the apartment complex, I called hospitals, I called my brother’s recruiting office. I talked to the local police who told me he probably just ‘ran away.’ Really? A 36-year-old man with a promising career in the Marine Corps just up and ran away? I don’t think so.”

[Shaun]

Her instinct was right, sadly.  Five days later, on the morning of June 21, scuba divers found a body in Saddle Cove, a rocky and remote area of Lake Mead that’s mostly only accessible by boat. Technically, it’s possible to hike to it, but it’s not easy. The man in the water had been there for an estimated three days. 

It was Ron. 

Ron has suffered a gunshot wound to his head. While we don’t have extensive details about the wound, it has been described as being in the back of his head. 

He had been just one week away from taking leave to visit his family.

The investigation got stranger when Ron’s family began looking into his financial records. His father discovered a very unusual transfer between Ron’s bank account in Peoria and his Marine Corps account that stood out to him because the contact number on the transaction wasn’t Ron’s phone number. The contact number listed for that transaction was actually a fax line registered to a Motel 6 in Las Vegas.

[John]

A clerk at that Motel 6 confirmed that Ron had checked in on June 15, checked out the next day, and then checked in again later that day. He left for good on June 17 and never came back.

During those same days, Ron made multiple cash withdrawals:

June 16: a $200 withdrawal at an ATM at Las Vegas’ MGM Hotel

June 17: a $200 withdrawal at the Las Vegas Bank of America

Later that same day, an $80 withdrawal from an ATM at the MGM 

And the next day, June 18th, two more withdrawals from the MGM ATM, totaling another $200. 

No surveillance footage was recovered from any of these ATM transactions; as a result, it’s unknown if Ron himself made those withdrawals or if someone else had access to his cards. 

[Shaun]

Then came another clue. On June 18, just three days before his body was found, Ron’s black Ford Mustang was discovered abandoned outside the Lake Mead Marina, about two miles from where his body was eventually recovered at Saddle Cove. The car was unlocked, the keys were still in the ignition, and there was barely any gas left in the tank.

Inside the car, police found his wallet and registration paperwork. But something was missing: his CDs. That might sound trivial, but his coworkers said Ron always kept a set of CDs in the car console. He never drove without music. That detail stuck with them. It was out of character, and it probably made them wonder if someone else had been in his car.

[John]

There’s one more piece of the puzzle. Ron didn’t own a gun, but he had borrowed a Norinco .45 automatic pistol from Sergeant Brooks a few months before his death. Brooks told police he didn’t believe Ron had ever bought ammunition for the weapon, and it was never recovered. It’s unknown whether that gun played any role in his death.

What we do know is that the police have never charged anyone with his murder, and for 28 years, his case has remained unsolved. 

[Shaun]

For Diane, and for the rest of Ron’s family, the loss has been crushing. She said:

“This tragic event disrupted and forever changed our family dynamics. It felt as if someone reached in and tore a piece of my heart out of my chest. My entire family was devastated.”

If you have any information about the murder of Staff Sergeant Ron Parkhurst, you can contact Las Vegas Metro’s Cold Case Unit. Even after all these years, tips can still make a difference.

[John]

The next case takes us back to 1986, when 7-year-old Darren was killed by his mother, Sara Catherine Harder. What happened next raised a lot of questions about justice, accountability, and how this case was handled. 

It happened on Saturday, November 15, 1986. That morning, very early, around 3:30, Sara’s boyfriend, Don Andrew Smith, noticed that both she and Darren were missing from the house. They hadn’t said anything about going anywhere.

There was a note left behind. In it, Sara said she intended to take her own life and, in her words, she was “going to take her son with her.” 

[Shaun]
A few hours later, around 12:15 p.m., officers with the National Park Service located Sara’s car submerged in a cove in the Back Bay area near the Lake Mead Marina. When divers went down to investigate, they found 7-year-old Darren deceased in the back seat of the car.

At the time, they didn’t know if Sara had gone down with the car or escaped. Rangers and police launched a full search with helicopters and ground teams. About two hours later, they found her alive. She was hiding behind some brush, not far from where the car had sunk. She had managed to escape as the vehicle went under, leaving her son behind to drown.

Sara was arrested and charged with open murder. Prosecutors immediately asked for no bail, pointing out that she had already confessed to the crime. Her bail was ultimately set at two million dollars.

[John]

When she appeared in court, she reportedly covered her face and spoke softly, barely audible to those in the courtroom. It was a shocking, devastating case, not just for how Darren died, but also for what it revealed about mental health, desperation, and the criminal justice system’s limited ability to address both.

This was nearly 40 years ago, and I’m not sure we’ve made much progress. 

[Shaun]
By January 1987, Sara agreed to a plea deal. She pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for the state agreeing not to seek the death penalty.

The hearing took place on January 28, 1987, and news reports said she was wiping away tears as she entered her plea. The prosecutor told the judge that Sara had chosen to plead guilty simply to avoid execution.

It was then up to the judge to decide whether her sentence would be life without parole or life with the possibility of parole.

In the end, she received the lighter of the two options: life with the possibility of parole after 10 years. In the end, she was released almost exactly ten years to the day after she killed her son.

This case later drew comparisons to Susan Smith, who drowned her two sons in a lake in South Carolina in 1994. But unlike Smith, whose case was high-profile and nationally scrutinized, Sara Harder’s crime faded from the headlines.

Notably, in clear contrast to Susan Smith, Sara never tried to lie about who was responsible for her son’s death. 

[John]

There were no protests or memorials that made national news, just a quiet courtroom, a grieving boyfriend, a young child killed, and a mother who, after a decade, walked free.

Whether you believe in rehabilitation, mercy, or second chances, it's hard to look at this case without asking whether justice was served. Darren never had a chance to grow up. And whatever pain Sara was feeling that night—whatever despair led her to that cove—it ended her son's life, and changed the course of everyone else's forever.

We’re left with the question we always seem to come back to: Who is the system really for? Because if justice is meant to protect the most vulnerable, then what happened to Darren was a profound failure.

And that has a lot in common with the case we have for you in our third episode - another story of a child lost, and another moment where the justice system failed to honor the life that was taken.

[Shaun]

If you have any information about the disappearance of Anique Beauregard, or the unsolved murders of Darius Kah-vuh-LOW-skiss) Kavalyauskas or Staff Sergeant Ron Parkhurst, please contact Crime Stoppers of Nevada at (702) 385-5555 or visit crimestoppersofnv.com. 

Tips can remain anonymous.

And don’t forget to check our Instagram, Facebook, or website for photos and case summaries, and share them. Someone always knows something. 

Next we were are taking a break and bringing you an episode from our friends at PNW Haunts and Homicides. But we will be back with the final episode of our Lake Mead series the following week. 

Thank you for listening—and remember, what happens here happens everywhere.