Woman’s Body Found; Police Jail Suspect

The body of a 23-year-old Huntington Beach woman was found in the desert outside Victorville on Saturday, and a former boyfriend was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Gerald Lee Bishop Jr., 22, of Westminster was placed in Huntington Beach Jail after San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies were led to the body of Marina Garcia, said Sgt. Carl Vidano of Huntington Beach.

Garcia, a file clerk, did not show up at work Friday morning in Anaheim, Vidano said, and did not arrive home that evening.

Before Garcia was reported missing, however, a woman driving her car was pulled over in Los Angeles by a sheriff’s deputy. The woman, identified as a transient, Ella May Bowman, 25, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

When police determined that the car belonged to Garcia, Vidano said, Bowman claimed a man she didn’t know had given it to her.

Police in Huntington Beach went looking for Garcia, and then took a missing person report from her parents, who were concerned because they hadn’t seen her for at least a day.

Huntington Beach Police Lt. John Foster said officers were led to the body by an “accomplice” whom he would not identify except to say that it was “somebody who knew where the place was.”

Detective Greg Foster of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said it appeared that Garcia was dead when she was brought to the desert, but he would not provide details about the condition of the body or how officers were led to Bishop.