Victim was shot and stabbed
Police hold second suspect, a male
Mother of three Theresa Grech, 50, of Mensija died of a bullet head wound and multiple stab wounds to her neck, a post mortem examination revealed yesterday.
Her 15-year old daughter was arrested and questioned by the police some time after the woman was found dead by officers. Another person, a male, was eventually held and is helping the police in investigations.
The woman was found lying in a pool of blood in the bedroom of her home, Villa Samara, close to a chapel in Is-Sebuqa Street, in the Mensija area, limits of San Ġwann at about 3.30 p.m. on Tuesday.
No weapons were found on the murder scene. In fact, at first it was not clear how the woman was killed but a close examination of the body at the hospital mortuary indicated she had been shot and stabbed. This was confirmed by the autopsy. Magistrate Antonio Mizzi has opened an inquiry into the homicide.
Although investigations are still in progress and then due court process has to take place, if it results that the girl held by the police was in fact involved in her mother's murder, it would be a first in the criminal history of Malta.
A matricide case is recorded in police historian Eddie Attard's book "Delitti F'Malta - 200 Sena Ta' Omiċidji 1800-2000. Nazzareno Abela, 24, was found guilty of killing his mother Carmela at their home in Żejtun on October 11, 1926.
The murder occurred during a quarrel allegedly over the sale of property by the mother after the death of her husband. Nazzareno Abela was executed by hanging at Corradino civil prisons on February 1, 1927.
A case of involuntary matricide took place in Gozo in 1842. In a quarrel with his father, Ġanni Cordina had thrown a stone at him but accidentally hit his mother who succumbed to injuries a few days later. No more details are available about the case.
Another case of involuntary matricide listed in Mr Attard's book was that of Andrea Caruana, 27, in December 1928. Andrea Caruana was handling a revolver when it accidentally went off and the bullet hit his mother sitting on a chair reciting rosary. He was acquitted.