The investigation into the slayings of three San Diego residents continues, and now friend of the victims' family is trying to raise money for a reward to help find who killed the trio.
"At that point when someone is going through this you can't take the pain away,” said Brooke Bailey, a friend of the Belvedere family who's raising reward money for information on the case. “You can't help out in that kind of way."
Timeline of the Belvedere Homicide Mystery
Bailey has set up a reward fund to help find the person behind the mysterious killings of Ilona Flint, 22, Salvatore Belvedere, 22, and Gianni Belvedere, 24.
Salvatore and Gianni were brothers. Gianni and Flint were in a longterm relationship and engaged to be married. The three were originally from Utah but relocated to San Diego several years ago.
Flint and Belvedere were found shot in a parking lot outside the Macy's at Westfield Mission Valley mall at around 1:15 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Flint was pronounced dead at the scene. Salvatore died at a hospital a few days later.
A couple of days after the shooting, the Belvedere family and San Diego Police Department announced that Gianni had gone missing. He was last seen at his home in Tierrasanta on Dec. 23, 2013, around 10 p.m. -- just hours before the fatal shooting of his brother and fiancee.
For the next three weeks, police searched for Gianni while his family pleaded for his safe return.
On Jan. 17, the body of Gianni was found in the trunk of his car in Riverside, Calif., about an hour-and-a-half north of San Diego County.
Local
Though the grim discovery brought an end to Gianni's missing persons case, it also brought mounting, unanswered questions surrounding the triple homicide.
On Jan. 24, San Diego Police Department Lt. Mike Hastings revealed some new details on the case, including more information about a possible suspect.
Lt. Hastings said a man wearing a black hoodie with white bands in the biceps area of the sweatshirt, tan pants and white tennis shoes is believed to have been at the Mission Valley mall on Dec. 23, 2013, at around 11:15 p.m. -- about two hours before the shooting of Flint and Salvatore.
Investigators believe that same man returned to the mall at 12:15 a.m. on Christmas Eve, about an hour before the shooting. Police described the suspect as an unknown race, standing 5-foot-10 to 6-foot.
At that same briefing, Lt. Hastings went on to say that San Diego police have spent hundreds of hours on this case.
“If this case can be solved, this case will be solved,” he assured.
To date, police have not arrested a suspect in connection to the slayings. Information about a possible motive for the crimes has also not been released by investigators.
With many San Diegans following the developments of the unsolved case, Bailey is trying to collect donations to add to a reward fund for information leading to the arrest of whoever is responsible for the killings. Her goal is to round up $100,000.
Those who want to contribute to the reward fund can go to this website.
"I'm hoping people can reach out, and people who followed this case can reach out," said Bailey. "Even if they can't donate, at least share, so that we can get the word out there, even if it helps to find any information to who did this."
