Police solve 1989 murder

The police have made a significant breakthrough and solved a murder case dating back to April 1989. Three men are very shortly expected to be arraigned in court and charged with the murder, sources said yesterday.

The victim was Nazzareno Ebejer, 66, of Birkirkara, who lived alone in a house close to the old railway station. He had returned to Malta a year before, after spending a long time in Wales.

Mr Ebejer was found dead, sprawled in a room without a door at L-Ahrax tal-Mellieha by three hunters on April 10, 1989, at about 6.30 p.m., but the autopsy had established that he was killed some 12 to 18 hours earlier.

The victim had been fatally hit in the face by shots fired from a shotgun at very close range. When found, he was wearing underpants and a shirt. Press reports of the time had said that the victim's watch, shoes, socks and trousers were found in the same room.

The room was spattered with blood and the man's face was very badly disfigured by the shots. It had taken the police two days to establish his identity and only after his photograph was shown on the 8 o'clock news on TVM.

The police had suspected that the motive behind the murder could have been theft. It was suspected that his killers had taken his house keys and went to burgle his house, as he was believed to be quite wealthy.

But investigations at that time had not revealed signs that people had actually gone into the house after he was killed.

Mr Ebejer had gone to Wales after being released from prison in 1958. He had been sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment after being convicted of the murder of Nina Galea, a 36-year-old mother of nine, at Il-Laqxija, in Birkirkara.

On July 20, 1952, Mr Ebejer had had an argument with his brother-in-law, Vincent Saliba, whom he tried to shoot, but Mr Saliba had ducked and the bullet hit Mrs Galea, who was sitting on her doorstep. The bullet had gone through her chest and out of her back, killing her instantly.

In a trial by jury he was found guilty by seven votes against two. But he had only served six years out his 18-year jail term because of an amnesty given in 1958. He left Malta very shortly afterwards. He had returned to Malta in 1988 and ironically he too ended up being killed.

Over the past few days, intensive investigations by Assistant Commissioner Emanuel Cassar, Superintendent Pierre Calleja and Inspector Christopher Pullicino, led to the arrest of three men in their 50s and 60s.

Solving such a case after such a long time is a significant achievement for the police and proved the long felt need of having a homicide squad.

There have been two other cases in which the police solved and successfully prosecuted people for murder cases after many years.

In one case, the police had solved the murder of Francis Grixti, killed on October 26, 1905 some 22 years later. In the other, the killer of Mikiel Camilleri and his son Carmelo, who were murdered in their farm outside Zejtun on August 21, 1911, was brought to justice 18 years later - in December 1929.