The heirs of murdered taxi driver Matthew Zahra have filed a judicial letter asking the Police Commissioner to explain how a €25,000 gold chain he was wearing when he was killed went missing from the police strongroom.
Krystal Grixti, Mr Zahra’s partner, with whom he had three children, also called on the commissioner to give compensation for the necklace, which she claimed had been stolen as a result of negligence in the way evidence was stored.
In the judicial letter, filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court, Ms Grixti – also on behalf of her children – said that when her partner was murdered in 2012 she ended up having to cope alone financially. The disappearance of the chain was of serious prejudice to her.
Apart from the financial value of the chain, police had also allowed a crucial piece of evidence in the murder of her partner to be stolen, she said.
Mr Zahra’s family is seeking explanations about the chain, which police say was deposited in the strongroom, where exhibits are held, on August 25, 2012, and could not be traced when they went to retrieve it on May 16, 2013.
Last November Police Inspector Fabian Fleri testified that no surveillance cameras were in-stalled at the strongroom at police headquarters.
Although cameras monitored other areas of the headquarters in Floriana, there were none outside the quartermaster’s stores at the time that the €25,000 gold choker vanished.
It had been stolen as a result of negligence in the way evidence was stored
Inspector Fleri was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Jason Galea, 39, of Marsa and Ronald Urry, 49, of Paola, who deny murdering Mr Zahra in August 2012.
Mr Zahra’s remains were found buried in a field in Qajjenza last year.
Alfredo Attard testified in court that before burying the victim and covering his body with soil, Mr Urry took a gold necklace from around Mr Zahra’s neck but Mr Galea asked him to put it back.
The necklace was eventually found on someone who claimed to have bought it from Mr Galea.
Lawyer Stefano Filletti signed the letter.