Family says decomposed dead body in truck of car in California is Gianni Belvedere, part of Christmas triple homicide

A third body has been found in what may have been a Christmas Eve triple murder in Southern California, police said.

Family members are claiming that the decomposed body was found in Riverside, Calif., in the trunk of a 2004 Toyota Camry belonging to Gianni Belvedere, age 24, whose fiancé and younger brother were found shot in a San Diego mall parking lot on Dec. 24.

Police haven’t identified the body, but family members told San Diego’s NBC 7 that the body was Gianni, who’d been missing for nearly a month.

The investigation involves the deaths of Belvedere’s brother, Salvatore, and fiancé, Iona Flint, who were shot in the head in a parking lot near a Macy’s at the Westfield Mission Valley mall at around 1:15 a.m. on Christmas Eve.

Flint, 22, who managed to call 911, died at the scene, while Salvatore, also 22, died at a hospital two days later.

Riverside police discovered the body on Friday after someone reported a foul smell coming from a car parked in a lot next to a Jack in the Box, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.

The Riverside County coroner would only say the 24-year-old male was victim of homicide, and an autopsy was scheduled for later this week.

“We won’t know [the cause of death] until the autopsy,” San Diego Police Det. Mike Hastings told the U-T San Diego newspaper. “Obviously, there is significant evidence in that car.”