FBI to Aid Probe of Spiro Family Deaths

FBI agents will assist local sheriff’s homicide investigators to determine if five members of a Rancho Santa Fe family were killed by international terrorists, or if Ian Stuart Spiro killed his wife and three children and later committed suicide by swallowing cyanide.

San Diego County sheriff’s officials announced the FBI’s involvement in a brief written statement. Local authorities insisted that Tuesday’s announcement does not suggest that the high-profile case has taken a new or dramatic twist.

Ron Orrantia, FBI spokesman in San Diego, said his agency’s role will be strictly “supportive.” He said FBI agents have been involved in the investigation from the beginning in “an informal fashion.”

In addition to helping sheriff’s investigators analyze forensic evidence, FBI agents will investigate leads “across the United States and abroad,” the sheriff’s statement said.

Gail Spiro, 40, and the couple’s children--Sara, 16; Dina, 10, and Adam, 14--were found shot to death on Nov. 5 in separate bedrooms of the posh home they rented in the wealthy enclave of Rancho Santa Fe. Each victim was shot in the head.

Sheriff’s homicide Lt. John Tenwolde said the murder weapon has not been recovered.

Ian Spiro, 46, a British businessman, was found dead Nov. 8 inside his leased 1992 Ford Explorer in a canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, about 70 miles from Rancho Santa Fe. An autopsy revealed that Spiro died from cyanide poisoning.

British press reports have identified Spiro as a spy with connections to the CIA and British intelligence services. Several newspapers in England have reported that Spiro was involved with Oliver North and Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite in seeking the release of hostages held in Lebanon by Muslim fundamentalist groups.

These press reports have also alleged that Spiro and his family may have been killed by international terrorists. San Diego sheriff’s officials, however, say their investigation has failed to produce any evidence that the family was killed as part of an international conspiracy.

“We have no evidence to date that leads us to believe that any of that is true, or that any of this had anything to with the deaths of the Spiro family,” Tenwolde said. “But these allegations are so serious we can’t discount them. To that end we have enlisted the support of the FBI to assist us in probing them.”

Meanwhile, Spiro’s brother-in-law says Spiro feared for his life because he was named in a recently published book about the kidnaping of Terry Waite and release of Western hostages in Lebanon.

According to the 1991 book, “Terry Waite and Ollie North: The Untold Story of the Kidnaping--and the Release,” by Gavin Hewitt, Spiro had contact with Shiite Muslims and worked with Waite in his attempts to secure the release of the hostages.

The book alleges that North introduced Spiro to Waite in 1987 and goes on to detail Spiro’s alleged involvement in the negotiations. Ken Quarton, Spiro’s brother-in-law, said Spiro called him in England from his Rancho Santa Fe home two weeks before the deaths.

According to Quarton, Spiro said “he was very worried” about his name appearing in the book and added that he “was getting very disturbing phone calls.” However, Quarton said Spiro did not elaborate.

He also said it was “totally inconceivable” that Spiro would kill his family and then commit suicide.

Tenwolde said the only indisputable facts in the case are that Gail Spiro and the three children were killed in their home and that Spiro died from cyanide poisoning.