This is the exact spot
in the Maltese countryside
where political journalist
Daphne Caruana Galizia
was assassinated
on the 16 October last year.
That afternoon, Daphne left her home
in the village of Bidnija
just before 3pm.
As she drove down this hill,
a remote-controlled bomb
detonated under the driver’s seat -
hurling the vehicle off the road
in a deadly explosion.
I heard her screaming.
But as soon as she screamed
she became a ball of fire.
Six months on,
police investigators
have been painstakingly piecing together
a detailed picture
of how they believe Daphne’s killers
carried out their gruesome task.
The first arrests in the case
occurred roughly 7 miles
from where Daphne was killed,
here, in the Maltese capital of Valletta.
In the early morning
of the 4 December 2017,
police and army units
raided these warehouses
in the port area of Marsa.
They arrested three men
widely reported to be known to police:
brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio,
and their associate Vincent Muscat.
It was here that police suspect
Daphne’s murder was planned.
Investigators assumed the bomb
had been triggered remotely
by a mobile phone;
so the question was:
who was making calls that day,
and from where?
Thousands of calls
had to be sifted
before investigators found
what they were looking for:
the phone numbers of two devices
that appear to have been used
to detonate the bomb.
The first device
was a basic Nokia handset -
this sent the bomb’s
activation code by text.
A second device
had a sim card installed,
which received the code
and then detonated the bomb.
Police called this “the God device”.
On the day of Daphne’s murder,
this is how investigators
believe events unfolded.
At 01.41am
the ‘God device’ was switched on -
sending a signal from Bidnija,
where Daphne’s car was parked
outside her home.
According to police,
Alfred Degiogio spent the night in Bidnija.
Police believe he was the ‘lookout’
and in the days before
had been obeserving her movements
from the ridge line
that overlooks the house.
Meanwhile, according to the police,
phones suspected to belong
to George were signalling
from Valletta’s Grand Harbour.
Investigators matched the locations
with CCTV footage
and identified a distinctive
small boat called the Maia.
At 2:55pm, the Maia came to a stop
and idled along
a sheltered stretch of water
beneath a war memorial
known as the Siege Bell.
Around the same time,
Daphne was getting in her car
to go to the bank.
Minutes later,
there were two phone calls to the boat -
both from Bidnija.
A text message is sent from the boat
to the ‘God device’,
detonating a bomb
placed under the driver’s seat
of Daphne’s car.
At 3:20pm phone data
shows the Maia,
heading back towards the Grand Harbour.
Ten minutes later,
George sends a message
from his personal phone
to his partner.
“Buy me wine, my love”.
She replied: “OK”.
This version of events is based on information
given to an examining magistrate,
who has yet to decide whether or not
the three men should stand trial.
The accused men have all pleaded not guilty.