SAN DIEGO, Oct. 18 -- Investigators closed a mysterious murder case Wednesday and blamed a commodities broker allegedly linked to espionage circles in the Middle East for killing his wife and three children in 1992. San Diego Sheriff Bill Kolender said Englishman Ian Spiro, 46, rather than an assassin, shot his wife, Gail, 41, and his children Sara, 16; Adam, 14, and Dina, 11 in their beds and later killed himself in the desert with a dose of cyanide. 'It is a case of murder-suicide,' Kolender said after two of his veteran detectives spent months re-evaluating evidence and re- interviewing some 50 people. After much public outcry locally and in England, Kolender brought back retired detectives Ed Stevens and Tim Carroll to take a second look at the case. The two detectives concluded that Spiro found himself and his family in a desperate financial situation before the Nov. 1, 1992 murders and suicide that followed. His business was failing and debtors were hounding him for money, detectives said. He owed at least $5 million to various banking institutions, businesses, credit card companies and private individuals. Utilities at the family's home were also being discontinued because the bills were not being paid, the detectives found. Spiro first shot his wife to death in the master bedroom with a .357 revolver borrowed from a friend, sheriff's officials said in an afternoon news conference. He muffled the sound with a pillow. The father then shot his son Adam and daughter Sara, using a livingroom cushion, to muffle the sound.
The detectives said the third child woke up and was shot twice without a pillow. Blood consistent with Dina Spiro's was found on Ian Spiro's robe, which also contained gunshot residue. After the murders, Spiro drove around eastern San Diego County for several days, detectives said, then drove to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park where he committed suicide by taking a dose of cyanide he had purchased from a jeweler. His body was found in his car seven days after the murders, along with a book titled 'Final Exit,' which details the easiest, most painless way to commit suicide by injesting cyanide. The murder-suicide case has created controversy among family and friends, some of whom speculate that assassins or terrorists carried out the murders at the Spiros' upscale Rancho Santa Fe home because of Spiro's background as an intelligence operative. The theory was fueled by the fact that no murder weapons were found, and people who knew the couple said they appeared to be happy and in love. But police have said the diaries of Spiro's wife indicate they were having marital problems. Spiro's brother-in-law, Greg Quarton, has said he does not think Spiro committed the murders, that they were possibly linked to his knowledge of the torture and murder of William Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, by Shiite Muslim extremists in 1984. British journalist Gavin Hewitt also asserts in his book 'Terry Waite & Ollie North: The Untold Story of the Kidnapping and the Release, ' that Spiro knew North and Waite and had contacted Shiite Muslims to release Western hostages. Police acknowledge Spiro's involvement from 1981-86 as a 'low-level conduit by United States government intelligence agencies and the United Kingdom's MI-6.' All other suggested motives were investigated, police said, including Spiro having a videotape depicting the torture of Buckley by Iranian terrorists. Investigators said they aggressively interrogated family members, government agents, business associates and friends in the United States and abroad regarding this theory. Police do say there are strong indications that Spiro considered moving to the Middle East, his only remaining option with his financial woes. However, the CIA had no interest in him as a prospective operative, thus no reason for him to move to the Middle East, detectives said.
