Paulina Dembska’s body has been released for burial, with her funeral expected to take place in Poland in the coming days. 

Her relatives were in Malta recently to identify her body at Mater Dei Hospital. 

Dembska’s body was found on 2 January at the Independence Garden in Sliema after she was brutally killed while she was tending to the cats in the same garden early in the morning. 

20-year-old Abner Aquilina has been charged with her rape and murder.  He pleads not guilty. 

Upon the autopsy done on her body, it was established that she died of asphyxiation and was raped in the course of the brutal attack. 

Within a matter of days after her murder, the Maltese community raised a total of €36,219, in an initiative to help the family with funeral and legal expenses. 

Dembska was described by many of her friends as a positive-minded lovely girl. She was in Malta to improve her English; she was enrolled at the IELS English school.