Staff at an English language school have shared wonderful memories of Paulina Dembska, a Polish student at their school, who was murdered in Sliema early on Sunday.

“We love her and we have beautiful experiences with her,” a senior staff member at IELS said.

Saying they were stunned at the news of her death, the staff member recalled her being a very private person.

The 29-year-old murder victim had been shuttling between Poland and Malta for the past four years to study English and it appears like the island had fascinated her.

In January, 2019, Dembska shared a video promoting Malta on her Facebook page and wrote: “How can you not go back to such a beautiful place on earth?”

Dembska was an animal lover and one of the cat feeders at Ġnien l-Indipendenza, in Sliema where she was found dead close to the spot where she frequently fed a colony of cats.

Other cat feeders who spoke to Times of Malta said she would loyally and carefully lay food and water for the felines. Some believe she might have been out feeding the cats when the murder happened on Sunday morning.

Dembska’s Facebook account is peppered with pictures of Sliema cats and posts urging people to adopt pets from animal shelters.

On January 6, 2019, a few days before catching a flight to Malta, she also shared a post raising awareness about domestic violence.

Dembska was still studying at the University of Wroclaw when she first came to Malta.

Here, she lived at a hostel in Sliema but, when contacted, the management preferred not to comment for the time being.

Maltese cat feeders are trying to gather more information about Dembska’s colony of cats to provide a new feeder for the felines.

Meanwhile, the Real Animal Rights Foundation is appealing for funds for the cats and is also calling for a memorial statue to be placed at the site where she was murdered.