Police were called to a family home in Mqabba on Thursday afternoon after reports of a wounded man outside the property. They found 74-year-old Ġanni Cassar with a chest wound. He is now in a stable condition. Inside the house was his wife, Mary Grace, 72, who had died. She is believed to have been attacked with a screwdriver.Police identified their son, 47-year-old John Cassar, as the main suspect. Hours earlier, police had summoned him to report over a domestic violence complaint filed by his estranged wife.They had been unable to locate him and told him to come in, where he would have been arrested. He did not turn up.CCTV allegedly shows Cassar entering the family home around the time of his mother’s death. He went to his own home in Ħal-Farruġ, where police negotiators spoke to him by video call, and he gave himself up about two hours after the killing. He was taken to hospital after reportedly taking crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin, and could only be questioned once doctors cleared him.In the hours around the attack, Cassar posted messages on Facebook mentioning his mother, other relatives and a woman he claimed owed him €7,000. Police believe that dispute may be linked to the attack.On Saturday he was arraigned before Magistrate Nadia Helena Vella, charged with murdering his mother and attempting to murder his father. He was also charged with threatening his ex-wife and others electronically, causing her to fear violence, and drug possession. The court heard that he sent a voice message to a woman saying he had killed both his parents, and warned his ex-wife not to take their children to their grandparents’ house because of a “macabre scene,” as reported by the Times of Malta.He pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody. A protection order was issued covering four people, including his father and ex-wife. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lovin Malta (@lovinmalta)Cassar was arraigned again on Tuesday, before Magistrate Kevan Azzopardi, over messages and Facebook posts about his wife on the 13th and 14th of October, allegedly in breach of a court order barring contact. She reported him at the Santa Luċija domestic violence hub on the 14th, the day before the killing. A risk assessment classed the case as “increased risk”, which police described as medium.Cassar is the brother of Roderick Cassar, who is serving 40 years for the murder of his wife, Bernice Cilia. A magisterial inquiry led by Magistrate Renata Farrugia is under way.Watch the Lovin Malta video on the Mqabba murder. •