Nearly four months after three San Diegans were murdered, the case remains a mystery.
Salvatore Belvedere and Ilona Flint were shot to death on Christmas Eve 2013 in the parking lot of the Mission Valley mall. Three weeks later, the body of Gianni Belvedere—Sal’s brother and Ilona’s fiancé—was discovered in the trunk of a car in Riverside County.
Now, loved ones who are desperate for answers are taking action to find who’s responsible.
On Sunday, they hosted a fundraiser and silent auction at the Eastbound Neighborhood Grill in Lakeside. Proceeds from the auction items and a portion of food and drink sales went toward the reward fund.
“Hopefully that sparks an interest for somebody that knows something,” said Antoinette Belvedere, Sal and Gianni’s sister. “Call in and we'll get the ball rolling.”
Family, friends and even complete strangers joined the fundraising efforts to help solve the case.
“We just want to help out in any way we can,” said family friend Carlos Carrera, who donated an item for the silent auction. “We feel the pain of what happened, and we just wanted to be here to support everybody.”
For Antoinette, the pain of losing her brothers and future sister-in-law hasn’t gone away.
“They took half of my family, three people out of one family,” she said. “There’s no words. I have no words to explain what it feels like to lose half of my family.”
Crime Stoppers is offering $10,000 for information that leads to an arrest in the case. The family started a website to increase the reward, which has raised $1,600 to date. They hoped to make another $5,000 at Sunday’s fundraiser.
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“We want to get this guy or these guys off the street,” Antoinette said. “We don’t want anybody to go through this.”
