The brother of Lino Cauchi – who was murdered, dismembered and thrown into a well 41 years ago – believes there are still people out there who know what happened and it is up to the police to make them speak.
“There are definitely people who have information, who were close to certain people and who know what happened,” Joe Cauchi says.
“I don’t think there is a valid reason why they should speak up now. It’s not in their interest as they might lose the millions they accumulated. But others might make them speak.”
The murder of his younger brother, Lino, remains unsolved.
Last month, Lino Cauchi’s heirs were awarded €615,000 in compensation for breach of rights. Through their lawyers Dr Peter and Elena Fenech, they had filed constitutional proceedings and a court found that there was a grave shortcoming by the police who repeatedly failed to open a magisterial inquiry in the aftermath of Cauchi’s disappearance – on February 15, 1982.
The family is now calling on the police to reopen investigations because they believe that someone out there knows the truth.
A police spokesperson said that “investigations regarding unsolved cases are never closed. Any new information received is analysed and worked upon accordingly”.
The family believe that the murder was committed by “the people of Lorry Sant”.
One of the Labour Party’s most controversial figures, Sant was a minister in the 1970s and 1980s who was known for his rough approach and was later held responsible for human rights violations.
People connected to Sant were among the clients of Lino Cauchi, who was among the handful of accounting practitioners in Malta in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In December 1981, days before a tense general election, Cauchi was called for a meeting at the office of the late Joe Pace, owner of the Magic Kiosk, in Sliema, when, according to court evidence, the accountant was instructed to draft various promises of sale agreements on the transfer of land to members of Sant’s clique.
The evidence also indicated that Cauchi had objected to what was being done and, after he had left the meeting, one of those present had remarked that Cauchi was a problem.
Two months later, on February 14, 1982, the 32-year-old accountant left his home in Santa Venera for his office in Valletta and never returned.
More than three years later, on November 15, 1985, the remains of a human body were found in a shallow well in the area known as Il-Bosk, near Buskett Gardens, in Rabat.
They were later identified as Lino Cauchi’s.
The day he went missing
The family has been searching for answers ever since. Lino Cauchi’s wife and son are not in a position to speak to the media. So, Joe, who has been serving as a spokesperson for the family for decades, spoke on their behalf.
“Lino was the youngest. He was a genius in football and represented Malta abroad... he used to play for Ħamrun but stopped after he graduated as an accountant,” says Joe, adding: “He had a foresight. When he died, he already had six studio flats in Swieqi. He spoke of wanting to retire early.”
They were five siblings – four boys and a girl – and Lino was the youngest in the family.
Joe recalls how Lino married Anna who got pregnant with their first child some four years into their marriage.
“Everyone was happy they were going to have a baby,” Joe recalls.
When Anna was three months pregnant, Lino went missing. The last day she saw him was on February 14, 1982. Lino had gone home for lunch then left to return to work.
With almost a sense of premonition, before he left home, he told his wife about the documents inside a briefcase he had at home and warned her not to give them to anyone.
That day, he attended a meeting in Old Bakery Street, Valletta close to his office, but never returned home although his car was found parked outside his home.
Joe recalls the desperation.
“It was the day of the opening of parliament after the elections – that’s when my brother was taken in. The following morning, Anna came knocking on our door. We started driving around to see if there had been an accident. I was pretty sure that if he did not turn up by noon he would never turn up.
“His wife remained optimistic but I was not,” he recalls.
The well in Buskett where Lino Cauchi’s body was found. Still shot from Evidenza.‘There was something troubling him’
But why did he think something went wrong? Did his brother mention anything to him?
“It wasn’t something he said. It was what he didn’t say. His body language – he was not at ease. There was something troubling him…. when he went missing his wife told us he had recently doubled his life insurance.
“She said he used to hear footsteps on the roof. He was under pressure,” his brother notes.
The day after Cauchi’s disappearance, a man claiming to be from the Inland Revenue Department turned up at his residence asking for some documents.
Anna obliged and handed them over.
Two days after his disappearance, the police found Cauchi’s briefcase dumped in a field close to Chadwick Lakes. The briefcase was empty. Despite all this, no magisterial inquiry was launched.
Years later, the family learned that, a few months before the elections, there was a heated meeting between Sant’s people at Pace’s office and he was threatened there.
The family waited for news.
“The first few months my wife and I would go to police headquarters almost daily. But there were never any answers,” he said.
“The situation was not easy. The hearsay was that it was the people of Lorry Sant who did this – even back then. Things were not going well. It was impunity all over.”
‘Don’t speak to The Times again’
The Cauchi case was being investigated by then Police Inspector Anġlu Farrugia, today’s Speaker of the House.
Joe recalls that Anna went to live with her parents in Ħamrun. One year after Lino’s disappearance, she was taken in for questioning by the police.
“When the police came to arrest her, they deceived her,” Joe recalls.
“She asked if they had news about Lino and they said: ‘Yes, come in the car’. They threw her in a cell and they told her: ‘[Dare to] talk to The Times again now.’
“What she said to The Times was so innocent. It was insignificant,” he added.
“The order to arrest her probably came from the inspector’s superiors. Her message to The Times was: ‘Send him [Lino] back home’.”
The Times of Malta article referred to, dated February 15, 1983, said that when reporters went to Anna’s father’s house to speak to the widow they were handed a note from her that read: “I know that he has been missing for a year and I think they played a joke on him which ended up in a serious way. May they send him back home.”
Joe believes that because of that note she was arrested for nine hours. She never spoke to the media again after that day.
When asked about this, Farrugia said that he investigated the case of Lino Cauchi for about a year and, at the time, it was a missing person’s investigation.
The wife’s arrest formed part of the investigations as the police had to follow all leads and they suspected she knew of his whereabouts.
Lino’s mother died day after news of his death
Then, three years after the disappearance, a body was found in the well at Buskett. Anna clung on to hope until, in 1989, an autopsy concluded that the body belonged to her husband.
Tests in Malta, the UK and Australia established the body parts belonged to Cauchi. Forensic experts had concluded that the 32-year-old had been killed by a violent blow to the back of his head by the same mallet found in the well because the crushed skull and the gaps found in it corresponded in size to the mallet.
His skull was fractured in 28 places as a result of the blows.
A saw was then used to dismember the body before it was dumped into the well.
“When the body was confirmed as Lino’s, the Church newspaper Il-Ġens published an article with a photo of Lino and his son who was about five years old,” Joe says.
“My mother had cataracts and thought it was one photo and said: ‘My son has found his son.’ She knew he was missing but the photo gave her hope. She was religious. She thought he was alive.
“We immediately told her the truth and, within hours, she died,” Joe says.
Lino Cauchi's wife Anna and their son Paolo attend the funeral in 1989.After that, life was tough for the family. Anna had to raise her son with the knowledge that his father had been brutally murdered. Paolo never met his father so, though he did not experience the loss that his mother did, he eventually felt the pain of the story he was born into.
“The case was so tragic that it was impossible not to speak about it 24/7. Paolo must have heard God-knows-what. Everyone was throwing missiles at him at a tender age. He feels lost more than angry. It’s impossible not to be angry,” he says.
Years passed and Anna and her son never forgot – they wanted answers. In 2002, they filed a court action seeking compensation from the state for what they claim was a murder facilitated by the violent political climate of the time and the lack of willingness to properly investigate the case.
Last month, the case was decided in their favour and they were awarded the highest compensation ever given in such cases. But that was not the end.
The family still want answers and have called for the police to reopen investigations.
“It will help with the closure. Psychologically, it is very important to his son, wife, siblings and friends,” Joe says.
We don’t want vengeance, we want justice.”