Nenu Pace, the 63-year-old Qrendi farmer who was reported missing earlier this week, had headed off to seek justice after his farm was ransacked, and after he was dissatisfied with the authorities’ response, according to his son.

Although the missing man told his son that he would be going to the police when he last saw him on Tuesday afternoon, David Pace told this newspaper that he fears that instead, his father opted to confront the people he suspects carried out the crime.

His elderly father was in a good state of health – “he works harder than I do,” his son, who is also a farmer, remarked – and although he has hit retirement age, he has continued to work at his farm in the hamlet of Hax-Xluq, limits of Siggiewi.

But his work was disrupted when this farm was broken into last week, with burglars making off with a substantial amount of agricultural tools and other equipment, as well as various assorted items such as pillows. The stolen goods were worth at least €8,500.

Adding insult to injury, David Pace said, “what was not taken was smashed.”

It was David Pace who reported the burglary to the police, at his father’s request, but the police’s response fell short of the family’s expectations.

Among other things, David Pace recounts that the police insisted on receipts for the stolen goods, including items which had been bought well over a decade ago, adding that many would have recognised the tools his father used. At one point, the police inspector told David Pace that it was “best not to add more things” to the list.

David Pace last saw his father when he told him of the police’s response, on Tuesday afternoon.

“It made him angry, and he told me that he would go talk to the police himself,” the younger Mr Pace said.

He adds that his father’s fears that justice would not be served were compounded by a past experience in the law courts, concerning a land dispute with his neighbour at Hax-Xluq. His father lost that case despite providing all the necessary evidence showing that he owned the disputed portion of land, David Pace insisted.

Coincidentally, that dispute came to the fore when the farm was ransacked, according to Mr Pace. His father’s neighbour has installed CCTV cameras, which may have captured the perpetrators on film: but the neighbour refused to cooperate and provide footage to the police.

In any case, Nenu Pace left home soon after his son got back from the police. Friends saw him passing through Hal Farrug Road later that day, but no sighting has occurred since.

While police investigations into the burglary – as well as into Nenu Pace’s disappearance – are ongoing, David Pace said that he and his father were practically certain about who had carried out the crime: a group of people they were familiar with, and who they knew had been involved in similar thefts.

“I fear that he may have met them, and that they did something to him,” he added, anxiously.