Luggage, Papers of Spiro Support Suicide Theory

Found in a heap in a desert ravine, two dust-covered green-and-gold suitcases and a battered black briefcase lend substance to the theory that mysterious British businessman Ian Spiro killed his wife and three children and then killed himself, authorities said Monday.

The bags--apparently filled with bills, bank statements, mail, passports and other Spiro family documents but no clothes--were tossed into a remote gully by someone who felt no need to destroy all traces of the contents but wanted to make the paper-stuffed bags hard, if not impossible, to find, San Diego County Sheriff’s Department officials said Monday.

That someone is more than likely Spiro, officials said. His body was found last month in his white Ford Explorer in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, just 3 miles away from where the bags were discovered over the weekend by hikers.

“If something else (besides a murder-suicide) was going on,” Sheriff’s Capt. James Marmack said Monday, “I doubt we’d find these suitcases in the Borrego desert. They’d be in an incinerator, or otherwise lost forever. I don’t think you’d ever see them again.”

Spiro’s death, and the brutal slayings of his family, have sparked a stream of sensational murder theories spiced with rumors of angry business partners, hired assassins, even international terrorists.

On Nov. 5, neighbors found the bodies of Ian Spiro’s wife, Gail, 41, and the couple’s three children--Sara, 16; Adam, 14, and Dina, 11--at the family’s rented house in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe.

Gail Spiro and the children died the same way, with a bullet to the head on Nov. 1 or 2, authorities have said.

Spiro, 46, a self-described commodities broker, was found dead Nov. 8 in the desert, three hours away from Rancho Santa Fe. The county medical examiner’s office said he died from cyanide poisoning.

British tabloids have reported that Spiro had business and intelligence contacts in war-torn Lebanon. Some reports suggest that he may have played a role in introducing hostage negotiator--and eventual hostage--Terry Waite to the Shiite kidnapers of U.S. and British hostages in Beirut in the 1980s.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has declined to rule out any possibilities. But detectives, who quickly labeled Spiro a suspect in his family’s deaths, have focused on the likelihood of murder-suicide amid speculation that financial pressure drove Spiro over the edge. He was falling behind on car payments, grocery bills and the $5,000 monthly rent.

It’s unlikely the two suitcases and the briefcase will resolve the mystery, detectives said Monday. Marmack called them “pieces to the puzzle.”

Still, he said, “We’re trying to figure out a motive for murder in these cases. We’re hoping there is something in these suitcases that will leave us with no doubt in our minds that Ian Spiro committed these murders and then committed suicide.”

Detectives have had only a brief look inside the bags, finding a slew of documents in some sort of order and “not in disarray,” and plan this week to inventory the three bags, document by document, Marmack said. The gun used to kill Gail Spiro and the three children has not been found, he said.

Both suitcases--green with gold stripes, black straps and gold-colored combination locks--bear the “Bond Street” label. Each case is covered with patches of dust.

The larger bag, 30 inches by 20 by 10, was cracked open at one zipper, enough to reveal a Rancho Santa Fe Community Center newsletter but no more. The smaller case, 25 inches by 18 by 10, was zipped shut. It carries a United Airlines Red Carpet club ID tag personalized with Spiro’s name.

Detectives said Monday that they had blacked out a number on the ID tag but declined to say more about it.

The suitcases weigh 40 to 50 pounds each, Marmack said. The black briefcase, covered with dust on the top and on one side, has black locks and a broken handle. It measures 18 inches by 13 by 8 and weighs about 30 pounds, detectives said.

Four hikers found the bags about noon Sunday, 20 feet down a ravine off Calcite Mine Road, 1 mile north of San Diego County Highway S-22 in the desert park and 3 miles east of the canyon where Spiro’s body was found.

Calcite Mine Road is accessible only by a four-wheel drive vehicle such as the one Spiro was driving, Marmack said. “We feel Ian Spiro threw the bags into the gully,” he said. “When he did it, we’re not sure.”

Interest in the case is so vivid that the Sheriff’s Department received 40 phone calls from media outlets by 8:30 a.m. Monday, all inquiries about the bags. A couple of hours later, detectives invited reporters and TV crews to take a look at--but not touch--the evidence.

In yet another twist in the investigation, Marmack said Monday that detectives are searching for a man who stopped for a few seconds in front of the Spiro residence on Nov. 4, before the bodies were found there, and took a picture or photos of the house.

Detectives learned of the picture-taker from an anonymous source and consider the tip reliable, Marmack said. The photographer is not considered a suspect, Marmack said, adding that investigators simply want a photo of the house as it appeared before the bodies were discovered.