Police hunting the killers of a couple murdered in their Sliema home are searching for a stolen getaway car with plates that were also stolen from another vehicle.

Investigators think a 9mm pistol was probably used in the shocking murder of former investment banker Chris Pandolfino and art collector Ivor Maciejowski on Tuesday night.

Further details are beginning to emerge about the murder as their killers remain at large.

Police sources say the white getaway car had number plates that had been stolen from another vehicle earlier this year. The car, a Tiguan, is believed to have also been stolen two years ago.

Camera footage lifted by the police on Wednesday showed three men, believed to be the murder suspects, enter the couple's house on Locker Street at 10.19pm. They left just four minutes later, at 10.23pm, exiting the property and escaping in the white car. 

Police have yet to establish a motive for the double murder and are keeping an open mind as forensic results are still pending. The autopsies on the two bodies were expected to be carried out on Thursday afternoon. 

The couple's home on Locker Street, Sliema where the shocking murder happened on Tuesday. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

'Hours of CCTV footage'

The murder of the couple shocked the island on Tuesday night, rocking the quiet residential street they lived in.

They were both art collectors and the men were known to have an extensive collection inside their house though investigators say it was too early to say whether anything had been taken from the house. 

Police are also in the process of putting together a list of items in the house in an attempt to establish whether anything was stolen before or after the murder. 

This is proving to be a challenge for investigators because of the large quantity of goods inside. The police are attempting to compare their findings to an inventory of the couple’s belongings but it has yet to be established who might be able to corroborate such information.

Investigators also face the mammoth task of poring over hours of CCTV footage in search of any piece of evidence.

Many of the neighbouring houses had cameras installed, some of them having even more than one but some of the film quality is understood to be poor and the angles not facing the scene.  
 
Meanwhile, speculation that the white car that was used by the killers had caught fire in Iklin on Wednesday afternoon has been dismissed.

A spokesman said the car involved in the Iklin incident belonged to a woman who was in no way linked to the murder. Foul play has already been ruled out and the car burst into flames after its engine developed a fault. 

The couple met in the UK and had family visiting at the time of the murder.

It has also emerged that Pandolfino’s sister and her sons were staying with the victims while holidaying in Malta from the UK, though they were not at the house at the time of the murder.