A retired forensic expert shed light on the gruesome murder of Lino Cauchi when testifying in a lawsuit instituted by the heirs of the victim, who are still awaiting justice almost four decades after that yet-unsolved crime.
Former director of the police forensic laboratory, Anthony Abela Medici, was testifying via video conference on Wednesday in the constitutional proceedings filed by Cauchi’s widow and son after their 38-year call for justice went unheeded, with no progress ever being registered by the authorities in solving the “barbaric political murder”.
After Cauchi’s mysterious disappearance in 1982, his dismembered body was discovered three years later inside four plastic bags that had been dumped in a well at Buskett.
Abela Medici recalled the phone call on November 15, 1985, from then-magistrate (now retired judge) David Scicluna summoning him as scene of crime expert to the site known as “il-Bosk” close to Dingli cliffs.
The gruesome discovery had happened by chance when a man, drawing water from a well to wash his car, had stumbled across the suspicious remains after his bucket slipped down into the well.
Once the water, eight to 10 feet deep, had been drained, four plastic bags came to light, three of which were partly hidden under a mound of stones.
The first bag contained a badly fractured human skull, fragmented into 28 pieces, along with a sledgehammer.
The other bags revealed other human bones, some attached to ‘soap-like’ tissue.
A first autopsy had proved inconclusive, and local experts had consulted a well-known English pathologist, Ian West, who subsequently participated in a second autopsy on November 20.
Forensic studies concluded that the victim, a man, aged between 30 and 40, and five feet six inches tall, had first been hit on the head with a sledgehammer then dismembered by means of a saw, normally used by butchers, as well as an electric saw.
The body must have been disposed of immediately, since the brain was intact inside the cranium, the expert explained.
“They cut him up at the spot they killed him,” Abela Medici said, when answering questions by family lawyer Peter Fenech, adding that the job must have been carried out by a professional, such as a butcher or a person familiar with ritual Arabic animal killings.
Given the limited technology at the time, it was difficult to determine the victim’s identity.
In August 1987, deputy prime Minister Guido DeMarco had green-lighted Abela Medici’s trip to Vancouver where he had met Australian expert, Kenneth Brown, at a conference on their field of specialisation.
That encounter paved the path to further forensic tests on the remains in Australia in 1988 and the ultimate identification of the victim as Cauchi.
“Did the police ever send for you again since then?” asked Fenech.
“Not to my knowledge,” came the final reply.
During Wednesday’s marathon session, medialink communications journalist, Dione Borg, who had carried out in-depth investigations into the yet-unsolved murder, also testified at length.
After speaking to the victim’s family and various players linked to the shady property deals which Cauchi had been called upon for tax advice, Borg concluded that this murder was linked to corruption and politics.
Back in the eighties, there was no state authority to regulate land permits, which depended on ministerial approval, said Borg, making reference to then minister Lorry Sant and members of his close clique, including land dealer Piju Camilleri.
“Unless a plot of land was handed over to Piju Camilleri, no permits were granted,” said Borg, adding that there were threats too, such as two bombs at the door of one property dealer, Joe Borg.
The last time Cauchi was seen alive, he had left his Valletta office and met two persons.
The case is being presided over by Mr Justice Francesco Depasquale. Lawyer Peter Fenech represented the heirs, who were not present in the courtroom. State Advocate Christopher Soler and lawyer Maurizio Cordina assisted the respondents.