A Body Found With Truck of Killing Suspect : Slayings: Vehicle found in desert belongs to Ian Spiro, suspected in deaths of his wife and three children in Rancho Santa Fe.

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 they would not say 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 had also been found in a dry lake bed in the area, but authorities refused to say late Sunday whether the body 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; Sara, 16; 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, and investigators believe they had been dead for several days.

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 both 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.

The Sunday Telegraph and other newspapers said Spiro worked for the CIA and British intelligence before moving to San Diego last year. The Telegraph said Spiro helped arrange meetings for Waite with leaders of Islamic Jihad, a Muslim fundamentalist group, in an attempt to secure the hostages’ release. Waite himself was abducted while visiting Beirut in 1987 and held hostage until November 1991.

In a statement, Waite said he had met with “hundreds of people prior to my first face-to-face meeting with the kidnapers in Beirut.”

“Many contacts preferred to remain anonymous,” he said. “Most adopted a false identity. Some were helpful. The vast majority were not.”

Investigators returned to the Spiro residence on Sunday to search for additional evidence.

“This crime scene defies logic,” Sheriff’s Lt. John Tenwolde said after Saturday’s search. “The house was not ransacked. . . . There is no sign of forced entry. I can conceive of different scenarios that could have occurred here. There is the possibility of abduction.”

Among other things, investigators were trying to determine whether the house alarm system had been tampered with, he said.

While those scenarios had not been ruled out, Tenwolde and other sources in the Sheriff’s Department pointed to Spiro as the perpetrator.

“From all the evidence and information we’ve gleaned, we have concluded that Spiro is a suspect,” Tenwolde said, adding that no other suspects had been identified.

According to property records, the Spiros rented the Rancho Santa Fe home, on 1.7 acres, in April, after having moved to San Diego County in 1991 from Nice, France. Spiro worked out of the home, and his estimated monthly income was $20,000, according to records.

Johanna Zerboni of Solana Beach, a friend of Gail Spiro, said Ian Spiro described himself as an international commodities broker. She described Spiro as a devoted husband and father who wanted the best for his family. She said he also “was a very secretive person.”

“He always seemed preoccupied,” she said. “There were always deadlines to be met and phone calls to make. He didn’t tell his family a lot about his work and he tried to protect them.”

Associated Press reports were used in compiling this article.