The police today issued a fresh call for help from anyone who may have any information on the New Year's Day double homicide in Sliema as the motive of the crime remains unknown.

Father-of-twins Duncan Zammit and Nicholas Gera died of multiple stab wounds in the early morning of January 1 in the former's penthouse

Assistant Police Commissioner Pierre Calleja told a press conference that no link had been established between the Zammit family, which was asleep in its bedroom when the incident took place, and Nicholas Gera, who entered their home.

He explained how Mr Gera had entered the penthouse from the door leading to the roof. There was no forced entry and the door may not have been locked.

Mr Calleja said that Claire Zammit, who witnessed the double murder, had phoned her father and the emergency services in quick succession and the first people who arrived on the scene were the first responders.The call to the emergency services took some seven minutes.

He denied that anyone had arrived on the scene before the first responders.

Mr Calleja said toxicological analysis and some forensic tests are still in process and samples will have to be sent abroad. Some 35,000 phone calls and SMSs going back several months were analysed. The police also examined computer data  and a number of people were questioned to find if there was any link between Mr Gera and Mr or Mrs Zammit. Travel patterns were also studied. No links, of any kind, including sexual, were found.

Neither did it result that Mr Gera was familiar with the penthouse. The penthouse was not ransacked.

The probable chronology established by the police was that Mr Gera grabbed a knife he found in the kitchen and attacked Duncan Zammit. The fight appeared to have started in the bedroom and continued in the corridor close to the bedroom. It was not known how long Mr Gera was in the penthouse before the stabbing.

Mrs Zammit witnessed the fight and immediately informed her father and the police. Issues such as whether Mrs Zammit's fingerprints were on one of the knives are still being investigated. It could be that she acted to defend her husband.

Mrs Zammit has so far been questioned three times by the police. Like her husband, it did not appear that Claire Zammit had any connection with Mr Gera or his family. No details on the interrogations could be disclosed. She was interrogated as a witness, not a suspect at this stage.

Prior to the incident Mr Gera was in a bar in St Julian's. He then went to another bar, returned to the first bar and subsequently went to another bar in Sliema, shortly before the incident. He appeared to have had an argument in Muddy Waters, the bar which he visited twice. The police have interviewed the people he had the argument with.

It resulted to the police that Mr Gera had some drinks although that did not mean he was drunk.