Body Found May Be Man Who Killed 4

SAN DIEGO —  A body and the vehicle owned by a man being sought in the shooting deaths of his wife and three children were found by hikers Sunday in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, authorities said, but it remained unclear whether the body was that of the suspect.

Hikers came across the truck--a white Ford Explorer--about 4 p.m. off county Highway S22 in northeast San Diego County, between dry Clark Lake and the Imperial County line, San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Phil Brust said.

A spokesman for the San Diego County medical examiner’s office said a body was found in a dry lake bed in the area, but authorities refused to say whether it was that of the British murder suspect and purported spy, Ian Stuart Spiro, or if it was found in his truck.

Homicide investigators believe that Spiro--a 46-year-old international businessman--fired the shots that killed his family members last week as they slept in their posh Rancho Santa Fe home.

Gail Spiro, 40, her daughters Sara, 16, and Dina, 11, and son Adam, 14, were found dead Thursday in separate bedrooms of the rented home. All had been shot in the head as they lay sleeping.

The discovery of the truck and body came after a flurry of statements in the U.S. and British press that Spiro was a spy for both countries, and may have been linked to the Lebanese hostage crisis.

Spiro was identified as a suspect after an extensive search of the Rancho Santa Fe house by detectives Saturday, Deputy Victoria Reden said. At least one foreign police agency had been asked to assist in the search for Spiro, she said. Another Sheriff’s Department source said Scotland Yard officials had called to inquire about the investigation.

Detectives are investigating published reports suggesting that Spiro had worked for British and U.S. intelligence agencies and that his family may have been killed in retaliation for his alleged involvement in the Lebanese hostage crisis, Reden said.

Several media sources, including the Oceanside Blade-Citizen, have quoted Cornelius Coughlin, a reporter for the Sunday Telegraph in London, who alleged in his recently published book, “Hostage,” that Spiro was a spy for Britain and the United States.

But Spiro’s links to the hostage negotiations remain sketchy.

Former hostage Terry Waite on Sunday termed British newspaper reports that he had worked with Spiro during the hostage crisis “half-informed” and dangerous.