Rachel Muscat's father, Joe Muscat, would have been the one to find his daughter's butchered corpse, lying in a pool of blood, had the owner of the residence in which she was found not told him that her former boyfriend, Walid Bazena, was no longer living there because he had sent him away.

The landlord, who has an outlet below the house in Bir id-Deheb, was sitting on a bench outside, when Mr Muscat went there in search of his daughter, who had failed to come home from work.

He also told Mr Muscat that he had not seen any girl in the company of the 22-year-old Libyan, Mr Muscat said.

Bazena is now wanted by the police for questioning in connection with 20-year-old Rachel's murder on Monday.

Mr Muscat, who claims he was misled by the landlord, is almost thankful for the misinformation, dreading to think of what would have happened if he had been the one to find his daughter - the victim of 15 stab wounds.

He believed that it would have been too late to save Rachel's life anyway, judging from the nature of the injuries.

A post-mortem has established that the time of her death was between 6 p.m. - when she was seen walking into the residence with Bazena - and 7 p.m., when he was seen leaving alone.

Mr Muscat went to the Bir id-Deheb house at around 7.15 p.m. after his daughter, a hairdresser, had failed to return home after finishing work at 6 p.m.

A close-knit family, undergoing some tension due to the situation Rachel was experiencing, Mr Muscat was immediately concerned about his daughter's whereabouts and suspected that she could be with Bazena at Bir id-Deheb, which was close to her place of work.

"Our hearts skipped a beat. But, of course, it never crossed my mind that she would be dead," he said.

At 7 p.m., his wife had called Rachel on her mobile and immediately panicked when she did not answer. The second time she called, the telephone was switched off.

Unaware of what he would find on the other side of the door, Mr Muscat said he had peeked through the letter box, but it was dark inside and he did not hear anything.

Mr Muscat had met with Bazena about a month before the murder when he had kept Rachel against her will, begging her to remain with him. Rachel had been trying to persuade him to return home to his family.

In love with Rachel, Bazena was possessive and could not accept that their relationship had to end, her father said.

Although no violence was exerted on his daughter, Mr Muscat, a Customs official, felt it his duty to meet Bazena to give him a soft warning about his actions.

He recalled that the 22-year-old Libyan reacted "sheepishly" to the reproach.

The family had decided not to take any action and refrained from reporting him to the police because they did not want to cause trouble for him.

Her father maintained that the only way the situation could have been avoided was if Bazena had been made to leave the country.

"Otherwise, one of them was destined to get hurt."

Meanwhile, the search for the 22-year-old Libyan has not yet yielded any results.

The police said Bazena had a clean criminal record. He would come and go from Malta and had no fixed employment.

He is six-feet one-inch tall, of medium build, with a dark complexion and was last seen wearing white trousers and a dark top, although he could have changed his clothing since.

Anyone with information about him is urged to contact the Zejtun district police on 2122-1111.