Body Found in Desert Believed to Be Missing Car Salesman

A body discovered Saturday in the desert north of Palm Springs is believed to be that of Charles Washington, a Los Angeles car salesman who apparently was kidnaped earlier this year while on a demonstration drive with a prospective customer, Riverside County sheriff’s deputies said.

Homicide detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Division went to the scene to help identify the body.

A man who claims that he killed Washington, Yale Booska, 21, was arrested near Grand Island, Neb., four days after the car salesman disappeared on April 17. Booska reportedly told Nebraska sheriff’s deputies that he killed Washington and dumped his body somewhere near Interstate 10 “between L.A. and Palm Springs.”

The body discovered Saturday was in an isolated area known as Painted Hills, north of Interstate 10 and west of California 62, the main road between Palm Springs and Twentynine Palms.

“It is believed the victim may be Charles Washington,” said a press release issued by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, although no positive identification has yet been made.

Before his arrest, Booska led Nebraska officers on a wild chase that spanned about 75 miles and at one point reached speeds of about 130 m.p.h. He was driving the $21,000 sports car in which he and Washington disappeared.

Officers searched the desert along Interstate 10, but were unable to locate the body.

A hiker reportedly spotted the dead man about 8 a.m. Saturday. Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Sebastian said the body appeared to have been dumped and was “pretty well intact. It was partially mummified” by heat and sand, he said.

Washington disappeared from Barrish Chrysler-Plymouth on La Brea Avenue in the Mid-Wilshire area, apparently while taking Booska on a test drive in a 1989 Chrysler Conquest sports car. As a result of Washington’s kidnaping, the Greater Los Angeles Motor Car Dealers Assn. urged dealers and sales people to be more cautious with test drives, to obtain a copy of the customer’s driver’s license before allowing anyone to drive a car and to try to have two sales people go on each demonstration drive.