2 Men Found Dead in Car on Desert Road

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives are investigating the apparent murders of two men whose bodies were found Thursday in a car on a dirt road in the eastern Antelope Valley desert near the San Bernardino County line, authorities said.

The two men, both about 30, have not been identified, Sheriff’s Deputy Dean Scoville said.

The car with the bodies was spotted by deputies patrolling in a sheriff’s helicopter about 9:50 a.m. Thursday.

The body of a white or Hispanic man was in the front passenger seat of the 1978 Oldsmobile, and the body of a black man was in the back seat, Scoville said.

The men appeared to have suffered multiple gunshot wounds from a handgun or rifle, according to a source close to the investigation.

But Scoville would not say whether the men had been shot or bludgeoned, confirming only that both suffered head injuries.

The men appeared to have been dead between one and two days, but it is not clear where they were killed, Scoville said.

The car was parked on Black Butte Basin Road, a dirt road amid desert buttes north of California 138 and about three miles west of the county line, Scoville said.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the car belonged to one of the victims, Scoville said.