Possibility nails were hammered into young man's skull
Suspects released
The police are not ruling out the possibility that the six nails found in the head of Gaetano Romano, who was found dead in an industrial oven last week, were hammered into the 20-year-old's skull.
Investigators initially believed a nail gun could have been used to shoot the tacks into the young man's head but since the father's discovery of his son's charred body on Thursday such a weapon has not been found.
Given this, police sources said, investigators were not ruling out the possibility that no such gun was used.
As the circumstances of Mr Romano's gruesome death remain shrouded in mystery, the police were also open to the theory that his death could have been drug-related. The find of about 80 pills, strongly suspected to be ecstasy, in the young man's home pointed investigations in that direction.
The police were still awaiting toxicology results that would determine whether Mr Romano had drugs in his system, the sources said.
The sources also confirmed that Mr Romano was not known by the police to have a drug habit. He had a clean record.
Mr Romano's body was discovered one day after his 20th birthday in the oven of his father's gypsum workshop in Damascus Street, Buġibba.
His father, Nicola, was abroad with his Moroccan wife when the killing took place but flew to Malta when his son failed to answer his phone calls.
When the father entered his workshop he found the body locked in the oven. An autopsy failed to determine whether Mr Romano was still alive when his body was placed there.
The sources said it appeared Mr Romano had been killed after "an argument got out of hand" and ruled out rumours - sparked by the nature of the killing and because Mr Romano's father is Sicilian - that there was some kind of Mafia involvement.
Three suspects were held between Friday and Saturday. They included a relative of his father, a man in his 30s, as well as a Maltese and a "Yugoslav" who were close friends of the victim but were reported to have had a number of arguments with him recently. They have all been released following the lapse of the 48-hour legal time window during which the police could detain a suspect.