Sliema murders investigation ‘not closed’ – Police

Investigators probing the New Year's Day double-murder in Sliema, insist the case is still not closed, and a Magisterial inquiry is still ongoing with experts conducting further analysis on evidence gathered on the scene of the crime.

But questions remain unanswered as to what happened on the fateful day that left father of two Duncan Zammit and his alleged assailant Nicholas Gera dead.

The autopsy of both bodies had revealed that Zammit, 32, and Gera, 26, suffered multiple stab wounds, both to the front of their upper torso and necks.

Zammit's wife Claire Zammit Xuereb - the daughter of entrepreneur Anglu Xuereb - claimed that Gera, whom she said she had never known, was allegedly armed with two knives when he attacked her husband in their bedroom early on New Year's Day.

In a radio interview on Saturday's Ghandi X'Nghid, veteran expert Anthony Abela Medici told presenter Andrew Azzopardi posed the question that many are making: "I cannot understand why it is taking so long... unless there are other issues involved."

His comments were reminiscent of an apparent disagreement on the interpretation of evidence between forensic experts and police CID investigators.

Magistrate Edwina Grima, who is heading the inquiry, had returned to the crime scene on 22 February, accompanied by forensic experts, practically re-opening the investigation after forensic experts disagreed with the theories so far touted by CID investigators.

Sources privy to the investigation claimed Magistrate Edwina Grima did not even have the details that police initially divulged during a press conference which was held weeks after the murder, in particular the findings related to telephone and computer analysis of the two victims.

Forensic experts insisted on returning to the scene of the crime because they believed they might have evidence that proves the way events unfolded on the tragic night, contrary to CID investigators' theories.

They also deployed the use of a Quasar machine, which illuminates fingerprints in a fluorescent glow so photos are taken of these prints with specialist equipment.

Court-appointed experts insist until today that important leads were discounted by police investigators. Questions are being asked, for example, as to whether a third party could have been instrumental for investigators to shed light on the so far discarded link between the two victims.

On 23 January, Assistant Commissioner Pierre Calleja made an appeal to the public to come forward with any information that could shed light on the motive behind the double killings.

The crime conference was perceived to have come three weeks too late, as the harrowing details of the alleged assault became the subject of wild speculation regarding Gera's motive.

The police analysed the traffic, but not content, of some 35,000 voice calls and mobile phone messages made by Zammit, his widow Claire Zammit Xuereb and Gera over the past nine months but nothing connected the two parties. Even personal computers and travel plans were investigated.

Zammit and Gera died of multiple stab wounds, after Gera entered the penthouse after jumping onto a terrace from the roof of an adjacent apartment block. A fight then broke out in the bedroom where the Zammits slept with their twins. The two knives used in the fight were taken from the kitchen.

Police have not confirmed whether Claire Zammit Xuereb's fingerprints were on one of the knives, possibly used to defend her husband.