Eatery Manager, Cousin Slain, Left in Refrigerator : Crime: The execution-style Santa Ana killings were discovered after the wife of one victim alerted police.

The night manager of a Wienerschnitzel restaurant and his 18-year-old cousin were killed execution-style by robbers and their bodies left in the restaurant’s walk-in refrigerator, police said Wednesday.

The bullet-riddled bodies of Andres Bello, 29, and Antonio Cabral, 18, a cook at the restaurant, were discovered after Bello’s wife called police. She had gone to the restaurant after she awoke at 2 a.m. Wednesday and realized that her husband wasn’t home, police spokeswoman Maureen Haacker said.

It remained unclear what time the murders took place, but police surmised that Bello and Cabral were slain at about 11 p.m. Tuesday as they were closing the store, Haacker said. The restaurant is at the intersection of Bristol Street and MacArthur Boulevard, several blocks away from South Coast Plaza.

Police concede that they have little to go on. They have neither identified any suspects nor found any witnesses to aid their investigation, Haacker said.

Haacker said Bello was last known to be alive at 10 p.m., when he telephoned his wife and told her that he and Cabral would be home soon. The two victims lived together in Costa Mesa.

His wife then fell asleep, Haacker said. After she realized that they were not home, the wife called a friend to drive her to the Wienerschnitzel, Haacker said. When they got to the restaurant, she spotted her husband’s car and noticed that the lights were still turned on inside the restaurant.

Fearing the worst, the wife and the friend rushed across the street and called police, who found the bodies and discovered that an undetermined amount of cash had been stolen, Haacker said.

It was the third armed robbery at the restaurant this year, Haacker said, and the second that involved Bello.

Bello survived a frightening armed robbery on March 20, Haacker said. That night, he was mopping the floor at about 9:30 p.m. when a lone gunman walked in and stuck a gun in his back.

After taking money from one register, the robber then demanded that Bello hand over his own money. When Bello said he was broke, the gunman frisked him but found no cash. He fled and was never identified.

Eleven days before that, another gunman ran into the store and confronted an employee named Saul Bello. Pointing a handgun at Saul Bello’s head, the robber took cash from a register and then fled. Haacker did not know the relationship of the two Bellos.

Haacker said that investigators are taking a hard look at the two previous robberies but stressed that there was no immediate indication that the three incidents are related.

“The investigation is ongoing,” Haacker said. “Obviously, the past robberies are a big part of that investigation.”

Bello, who emigrated from Mexico five years ago, was described by family, local merchants and restaurant patrons as a conscientious man who worked hard to support his family and get ahead in his new life in the United States.

While Bello’s wife remained sequestered in her Costa Mesa apartment, family members gathered to make funeral plans and console her and her two young daughters.

They were reluctant to talk at length about Bello and Cabral.

“It’s just too soon now,” said Bello’s brother, who would not give his name.

His brother did say that Bello came to the United States seeking “the good life, the work . . . to start a better way.” Bello met his wife after he moved to California, his brother said.

As for the murders, he said: “It’s horrible--we still don’t believe it. . . . But what can we do?”

Local merchants and patrons of the restaurant mourned the deaths of the two men and considered increasing security in their own shops.

“You couldn’t believe what a good egg that Andy was,” said one longtime patron who asked that her name not be used.

She and a friend were shocked to tears Wednesday morning when they arrived at the store and learned of Bello’s death. “What a beautiful, wonderful man he was.”

Throughout the morning, grim-faced investigators wandered in and out of the fast-food store, depositing bloody garments and other evidence on a curb near the drive-in window. The restaurant was closed for the day.

“If you work somewhere near where a murder happened, you feel something inside,” said Anthony Lopez, a store clerk at a nearby stationery store. “We were all shocked to hear this.”

“We’d go in there every morning for coffee and breakfast and (Bello) was a real nice guy, a great guy. . . . You wouldn’t ever think he had any enemies.”

Dennis Tase, president of Wienerschnitzel’s Newport Beach-based holding company, the Galardi Group, said the company was contacting Bello’s family to offer sympathy and support.

“I’ve never been through this before as long as I’ve been here,” Tase said. “It is a tragic situation. “I want to make darn sure the families are taken care of.”

“All they want to do is work and live a good life,” he continued. “And then you have someone who takes it away from them.”

Tase said that all 336 Wienerschnitzel restaurants in the state are instructed in security measures. He said he did not know what type of precautions Bello and his cousin took Tuesday night.

He also did not know how much cash was taken from the register.

Law enforcement officials said robberies at fast-food restaurants are on the rise. They noted that such restaurants stay open late and have far fewer security systems than all-night gas stations and supermarkets.

“These places that are open late at night are easy targets,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Rivas, adding that the majority of fast-food robberies are conducted by teen-agers or young adults who want fast, easy cash.

Rivas advised operators to install alarm systems and employ other security measures, such as locking doors and walking outside in groups. “There’s a lot of things they (fast-food operators) can do to make it safer,” Rivas said.

Local business owners expressed concerned about the rise in crime in the area.

Bill Pollard, owner of Mane Objective, a hair salon in the same complex as the restaurant, said his business was burglarized overnight about three weeks ago. About $800 in cash was taken.

Noting the rise in graffiti and other crime in the immediate area, Pollard said he is growing more worried each day.

“We picked this area because it’s wide open and it’s a nicer area of Santa Ana,” Pollard said. “But the crime is getting worse. It’s escalating.”