Lino Cauchi murder: Forensic conclusions were given cold shoulder

An investigation into Lino Cauchi’s mysterious disappearance only turned into a murder probe four years after his dismembered body was found in a Buskett well.

The delay was partly attributed to the time it took to identify the remains.

And yet, just eight months after the gruesome find, a foreign forensic expert roped in to assess the remains had suggested the victim was Cauchi.

Cauchi, an accountant, went missing on 15 February 1982. He never returned back to his Santa Venera home from his office in Valletta.

Two days later, Cauchi’s briefcase was found abandoned and forced open in the vicinity of Chadwick Lakes. It was empty.

But then, on 15 November 1985, human body parts were discovered wrapped in black plastic bags in a well in the area known as Il-Bosk in Buskett.

In July 1986, forensic pathologist Iain Eric West from Guy’s Hospital in London had concluded that the remains were those of a man aged between 30 and 40, whose body had been dismembered by the use of hand and electric saws.

Cauchi was 32 when he disappeared three years earlier.

West had concluded that the victim was killed after receiving two blows to the sides of the head when still alive. The blows by a mallet that was also found in the well, fractured the man’s skull. The pathologist could not determine whether the victim was alive when he received a third blow to the face.

The cause of death was given as cerebral lacerations and fractured skull.

Pathologist’s report

But West’s report, seen by MaltaToday, added that from the facial reconstruction carried out at the time, the skull was “consistent with the facial features of a man named Paul Cauchi”. Lino’s actual name was Paulinos.

West, however, said identification of this nature was “not ideal” and suggested dental confirmation to improve accuracy.

“But there is a clear resemblance between the photograph of Cauchi and the reconstruction which has been carried out on the deceased’s skull,” West concluded.

West’s report from July 1986 was not enough to direct investigations and the magisterial inquiry into a murder probe into Cauchi.

It was only two years later that further forensic tests carried out in Australia confirmed beyond doubt that the remains found in the well belonged to Cauchi.

In March 1989, then magistrate David Scicluna, concluded his inquiry into the discovery of body parts at Buskett, identifying the victim as Cauchi.

A month later, Cauchi’s funeral took place and in July 1989, the Attorney General asked magistrate Scicluna to continue with the inquiry, which now had to delve into the disappearance and murder of Cauchi.

It was only four years after his body was found and seven years after Cauchi’s disappearance that investigations turned into a murder probe.

Nobody has ever been charged with the brutal murder and Cauchi’s case remains a mystery to this day.

His widow, Anna, and their now 38-year-old son Paolo, whom Cauchi never saw, are now seeking compensation from the State.

In a constitutional case filed last week, they claim Cauchi’s murder was facilitated by the violent political climate of the time.

But they also claim there was a lack of willingness to properly investigate the case over the years.

The fact that West’s report appears to have been given the cold shoulder, is one instance flagged by Cauchi’s relatives as a sign of the authorities’ reluctance to go deep enough.

Who was Cauchi?

Cauchi was an accountant to Piju Camilleri, the right-hand man of then minister Lorry Sant, the only politician to ever be charged with corruption – a case that ended up being time-barred.

Court testimony had placed Cauchi in at least two stormy meetings before the December election in 1981 where corrupt land deals were being discussed.

When Cauchi disappeared two months later, he was in possession of potentially incriminating documents that were never found.

There is no evidence to link Cauchi’s disappearance with these corrupt land deals or the people involved in them.

Camilleri has always denied any link with Cauchi’s murder, insisting he only got to know of his disappearance from the newspapers.

However, an investigation carried out by MaltaToday in 2002 revealed how the day after Cauchi’s disappearance, a man from the Inland Revenue Department had gone knocking on Anna Cauchi’s door, asking for some important files.

The man was later revealed to be a certain Charles Zammit, an acquaintance of the Cauchi family, who had been doing the bidding of a top official at the department, a certain Micallef, known as ‘Il-Mulej’.

In a renewed effort to carry on the investigation, in 2002, the police interrogated Zammit but the man who sent him had by then passed away.

Nobody knows what information those files contained and why was it so important for an Inland Revenue official to go and pick them up, less than 24 hours after Cauchi went missing.

Cauchi’s relatives claim in their constitutional application that this incident involving a tax official was never investigated properly by the police.