Residents at Falcon House in High Street, Sliema said they had never seen Nicholas Gera, one of the two men stabbed to death in the penthouse of Duncan Zammit, on their property.
The face of the 26-year-old, who also lived in Sliema, in Blanche Huber Street, and is suspected to have slipped into the building from the roof early on New Year’s Day, was not familiar to them and they had never seen him around.
Those who spoke to The Times said they heard nothing on that fateful morning, which resulted in the death of the two young men from multiple stab wounds in Block C.
The fatal struggle that started in the bedroom, where Mr Zammit was asleep near his wife and two newborns, happened at about 6.30 a.m. and the police were called in at 7.15 a.m.
One of the neighbours, who arrived home at about 6.15 a.m., said he did not see or hear anything. His bedroom is close to the scene of the crime as both apartments overlook the same shaft.
“It is so quiet at night you do not hear a sound. We even hear the generator of the nearby private hospital when it is turned on, so it is strange we did not hear anything,” said another, who can even recognise footsteps in the drive below.
Others who returned home at 4.15 a.m. also said they did not hear anything until they were woken up by the heartbroken yells of Mr Zammit’s mother when she arrived at 8 a.m.