Police forensic officers yesterday returned to the Marsalforn Valley, in Gozo, where a woman’s body was found on Sunday afternoon. Photo: Marlon George

The police are treating the death of a woman found naked in Marsalforn valley on Sunday as “suspicious” but are still trying to establish whether foul play was involved.

They believe the woman is a 72-year-old Danish tourist who was holidaying in Malta for the first time and who was reported missing by relatives on July 24, when she went shopping and never returned.

Assistant Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta said yesterday that the Danish tourist was the only person currently missing in Gozo but a DNA test would determine whether the body found was actually her. In light of this uncertainty, he did not want to divulge her name as yet.

He said an autopsy carried out yesterday was inconclusive. Although it revealed that the woman had a blow to the head, bruising to the chest and a broken rib, none of those injuries were deemed fatal. Besides, the injuries could be compatible with a fall.

Further tests were being carried out to establish the cause and time of death, he said.

Mr Valletta was speaking during a crime conference at the police headquarters in Floriana, organised to quell reports in the media that the woman found dead in the valley had been mugged and murdered.

Flanked by Superintendent Dennis Theuma, he said the police were not ruling out foul play at this stage but it was too early to jump to conclusions.

He said the Danish woman reported missing had come to Malta, for the first time, with her son-in-law, his brother and her two grandchildren.

They were staying in a rented house in Marsalforn. They arrived on July 17 and were meant to leave on Sunday afternoon but they have remained in Malta and are assisting police with their investigations.

On June 24 the family went out together and, at one point, the woman distanced herself to go shopping. But three hours later she had not yet returned and the son-in-law filed a report at the Marsalforn police station at about 6.30pm.

Body may be missing Danish tourist

The police, together with members of the Civil Protection Department and the Armed Forces of Malta, launched a search for the woman but did not find her.

Mr Valletta said relatives told the police she had a handbag at the time and they did not mention that she suffered from any particular medical condition.

She was in an advanced stage of decomposition

On Sunday, at about 1.30pm, a man who was walking his dog near the valley known as Kapuċċini, in the limits of Rabat, spotted the body of a woman face down in a puddle.

She was naked and in an advanced stage of decomposition.

Yesterday, police continued searching the area for clothes or any other items that could identify her.

Police have asked anyone who has information on the matter to call, confidentially, on 119.