One of the first clues that investigators had found the missing woman was the discovery of a gold pendant in the shape of a bowling pin, embedded into the victim's charred body.
Silvia King, 36, a social worker, had won the national bowling championships just four days earlier.
"The car was still very hot when we arrived. It was totally burnt,” said forensic expert Anthony Abela Medici, who was the one who pulled Ms King's charred body out of the back seat of the car set on fire in Kunċizzjoni, limits of Rabat, on the night of April 3, 1993.
The sheer cruelty of the crime was incredible, certainly one of the worst I've seen in my career
Ms King had been abducted near the Sant' Antnin plant and bundled into a car, shortly after she left the Lemon and Lime Bar she owned in Marsascala. Her killers first took her to a dump near Għaxaq, but investigators believe plans changed when they saw children playing in the area.
Instead, they drove Ms King to Kunċizzjoni, where she was burnt alive in a car.
"The sheer cruelty of the crime was incredible, certainly one of the worst I've seen in my career," said Dr Abela Medici, who investigated cases like the bloody EgyptAir hijacking in 1986.
Investigators realised they were dealing with a female victim when they turned the body over to find a burnt bra strap.
Parts of the vehicle's shattered window, which melted with the intense heat, were found underneath her head, suggesting she was struggling after the fire started, Dr Abela Medici told Times of Malta on Tuesday.
Their suspicions were confirmed when an autopsy revealed soot in the victim's windpipe. She was found with two heavy blows to the head, possibly knocking her out unconscious. The victim's bag, including her personal diary, together with pistols, presumably used in the abduction, were later found in a field in Żabbar.
It took police hours to net the killers. The mastermind was Joseph Harrington, a man with psychopathic tendencies, who wanted to know the whereabouts of his estranged wife. Back then, Ms King was involved in an organisation that supported people in need and had become friends with Ms Harrington, who feared her husband.
Evidence also led the police to drug addict Tony Baldacchino, who admitted with investigators he was involved in the murder.
Mr Harrington was convicted of the murder in 2000 and was jailed for life. He died in 2014.
Mr Baldacchino who had been convicted in a separate trial in 1997, was released from prison in 2002, and was found dead the following year at his flat in Buġibba.
