Friday, April 26, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Dirty cars by the dozen are what David Turner and his UNLV classmates are hoping for Sunday as they kick off a second car wash to raise money to find his mother.
Chief Auto Parts is volunteering its parking area and supplies for the event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 3480 S. Rainbow Blvd. near Spring Mountain Road.
A $5 minimum donation is being asked for cars, and an extra donation for trucks and vans. All proceeds raised will be used to pay for a private investigator recently hired to find Barbara Turner-Elliot, 58.
"I was very happy to get involved because this is something that has really hit close to home for me," said Ford DeRenard, Chief Auto Parts manager, who also helped with the first fund-raising car wash April 6.
"My wife and I have been foster parents for years. We've seen the effects displaced families have had on kids, and the pain these children go through without a family."
But what touched his heart the most, DeRenard said, was David Turner. "I see in him the strength of the human spirit," DeRenard said. "I just wish that if something like that happened to me, that I would be as emotionally strong as David and have the support he has from his friends. They are a good bunch of people."
Since his mother disappeared 10 weeks ago, Turner, 31, has been canvassing a shopping center at Rainbow and Flamingo Road where his mother was last seen, handing out fliers and talking to anyone who will listen.
His mission is to find the person who knows what happened to his mother Feb. 18 after she picked up a prescription at a Sav-On pharmacy about 5 p.m.
Her car was found at 10 p.m. several miles away, abandoned in a deserted parking lot at Angel Park Golf Course.
Metro Police homicide investigators suspect foul play and say they have diligently followed up every lead with no success.
A private investigator is Turner's next hope.
"Someone must have seen something that night," Turner said. "I'll do whatever it takes to find that person. I just want my mother back."
Turner-Elliot
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