For two years the body of the doctor Aco Trpovski was one of those stories that slowly slip off the front pages - found stabbed in a car park in Avtokomanda, a case with no names, no turning point. Now the prosecution says there are names: a married couple from Skopje, for whom detention is being sought on suspicion that they organised and carried out the murder in cold blood and with intent.

According to details laid out by the prosecution, the woman under suspicion arranged with the victim to meet at a pre-agreed spot. Shortly after she got into his car, the male suspect arrived, dragged the doctor out and, after a verbal argument, inflicted several stab wounds on him. The two then, according to the reconstruction, moved the body together and wiped away the traces. The motives, the prosecution says, are still being investigated.

The public prosecutor submitted a request for the detention of the two suspects to the pre-trial judge at the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje. The doctor was a family GP, and his sons found him after he had not returned from work for a long time.

If the charge holds up in court, this will be a case solved with a two-year delay. The question left hanging is why it took so long. A murder with intent, a planned meeting, an agreed spot - this is not a crime that leaves no trace. Somewhere between the first day and today, the evidence either was not there, or it was waiting for someone to sit down and piece it together.

For the Trpovski family, two years are two years too much silence. The court now has to show whether the prosecution really has a case - or just wants to close it.