Police looking for a car suspected of having been linked to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder have drawn a blank.

“Based on what we knew, we managed to narrow down the search but when it came to identifying the exact car, the eyewitness information was inadequate,” sources close to the investigation said.

Times of Malta reported earlier this month the police were closing in on a rental vehicle seen at a vantage point overlooking the road where the journalist was killed in a brutal car bomb on October 16.

Investigators suspected the car was used by the person who detonated the powerful explosive device. According to information that reached the police, it was seen parked in the middle of a country lane some distance from nearby buildings and attracted the attention of some motorists.

We narrowed it down to a few dozen cars but the information was inaccurate, so it’s back to thousands again

A description of the vehicle was given to the police by a person who recalled the first three letters of the registration plate. Tracing it, however, proved difficult, because it was a “particularly popular model”, the sources said. A detail investigators thought could prove crucial was a sticker on the back of the car.

“When the search for the car started, we were looking at thousands of possible suspect vehicles. Then we narrowed it down to a few dozen. But it turns out the information was inaccurate, so it’s back to trawling through thousands of cars again,” the sources said.

They pointed out that even if the car were found, its relevance to the investigation would still need to be established. DNA sampling and examination of CCTV footage and documents would have to follow.

The area where the car was spotted was cordoned off by the police and combed by a team of forensics experts. Cigarette butts and other items that could serve as evidence were collected from the area and sent for DNA testing.

The sources said that triangulation of calls made in the area was still under way, with the assistance of experts from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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