Marital Trouble Cited in Spiro Slayings : Crime: An audiotape made by Ian Stuart Spiro reveals that his wife had threatened to leave him. Investigators believe he killed her and their three children, then himself.

Gail Spiro had threatened to leave her husband before she and their three children were found shot to death in their Rancho Santa Fe home, reinforcing investigators’ belief that Ian Stuart Spiro committed the murders and then killed himself, law enforcement sources said Tuesday.

Sources familiar with the case said Spiro talked about the couple’s impending breakup in a rambling audiocassette recording recovered last month along with documents stuffed in two suitcases and a briefcase belonging to Spiro.

The suitcases and briefcase were found by hikers in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park about three miles from where Spiro’s body was found.

Sources familiar with the tape said Spiro talked about his wife’s plans to leave him. He also talked about being distressed over mounting financial problems. One source said that Spiro, 46, talked about himself and his family in the third person and that the recording was made over a period of days.

“He said (on the tape) that his wife had informed him she was getting ready to leave him. Apparently, his financial problems were breaking the marriage apart. This all but convinced the investigators that Spiro did (kill) his family,” said one source.

In December, Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Marmack confirmed that investigators had recovered the tape but declined to discuss the contents. Marmack declined to comment on the latest revelation about the tape. He said the investigation is continuing.

Gail Spiro, 41, and the three children--Sara, 16, Adam, 14, and Dina, 11--were found shot to death Nov. 5 in separate bedrooms of the family’s $5,000-a-month rental home in Rancho Santa Fe. Sheriff’s officials said they were each shot once in the head as they slept in their beds.

Spiro was missing when the bodies were discovered. He was found dead three days later inside his leased 1992 Ford Explorer in a desert canyon about 70 miles northeast of Rancho Santa Fe. An autopsy revealed that Spiro died from cyanide poisoning.

A law enforcement source said Spiro alluded on the tape to demands from investors who wanted to recoup money they had invested in Spiro’s failed company, which operated a 900 number. A business associate told The Times in November that Spiro’s only apparent source of income was investments in the company, which included dating and psychic lines. The associate said Spiro “stayed one step ahead of the game,” paying old investors with money received from new ones.

The revelation about the Spiros’ marital problems contradicted earlier reports from friends and family members who said the couple were tightknit and dedicated to each other. In an interview in November, Ken Quarton, Spiro’s brother-in-law, and other family members discounted the police theory that Spiro may have murdered his family. Quarton said the family had endured financial problems in the past and managed to stay together.

Meanwhile, officials from the county public administrator’s office said lawyers will file a petition by Friday to authorize the county to administer the Spiros’ estate. In December, officials estimated the estate at $16,000.

Public Administrator Don Billings said Tuesday that the estate’s value has been revised to $60,000. He said the estate is still cash poor. At the time of the slayings, the family was three months behind on rent, owing $15,000 to a landlord.

Some press reports linked Spiro to U.S. and British intelligence services. British press reports said he was involved with Oliver L. North and Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite in obtaining the release of Western hostages from Lebanon.