Commissioner explains how Karin Grech murder was re-investigated

Police Commissioner John Rizzo said today that the investigation into the parcel bomb which killed Karin Grech in 1977 was one of the biggest ever made by the Malta police, and the case remained open.

Giving evidence in court in a case instituted by the parents of 15-year-old Karin, who are seeking compensation from the government, Commissioner Rizzo said that in 1996 he was asked by then Commissioner George Grech to join the investigation team to re-examine all the evidence.

The process had taken three months during which they 'lived and breathed' the case, starting in the early morning every day and continuing into the night.

They had started from scratch and gone over every person involved in their previous investigation, as well as following new leads. He could not say how many people they had spoken to, but they included medical students.

He said that there was a doctors' strike at the time of the bombing, and there was a group of medical students who were abroad. The investigation followed them up but a number could not be traced.

While there were various suspects among the students, none had been singled out.

A lot of the students had nothing but praise for Karin's father, Prof Edwin Grech.

"There were new things we discovered from forensic evidence we sought from overseas laboratories as technology moved forward," Mr Rizzo said. They had examined fingerprints and DNA and the investigation was not closed.

"Even if a new lead is to become know today, I will look into it personally, Mr Rizzo said.

He said that when he became Commissioner he assigned an inspector specifically to investigate homicides, old and new. Since then they had solved between six and seven cases going back at least 20 years.

If this case was ever closed, he would be very happy, Mr Rizzo said.

He said that one of the lines of investigation was based on a similar bomb, placed outside the residence of Dr Paul Chetcuti Caruana in Mosta, which failed to go off.

They even investigated gynaecology patients of Prof Grech to see if there was some sort of connection, but nothing had resulted.

The case was put off to May for final submissions.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091229/local/time-does-not-ease-the-pain

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081023/local/police-still-probing-1977-karin-grech-murder