On December 28, 1977, a 15-year-old girl opened a package addressed to her father. She thought the package was a Christmas present. It turned out to be a letterbomb.

Saturday marks the 47^th year since Karin Grech was killed, and leaders from across Malta’s political spectrum all paid solemn tribute to her memory as they vowed to never again allow political hatred to spill into violence.

For Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech, the murder was especially personal: Karin Grech was his cousin. Grech was just five years old when she was killed.

“I met you for the first time on Christmas day 47 years ago,” he wrote in a public post addressed to his cousin on Facebook. Three days later, a coward took your life.”

Grech, who visited his cousin’s grave at the Addolorata Cemetery on Saturday morning, noted that the perpetrators had never been caught and brought to justice.

Bernard Grech visited Karin Grech's grave on Saturday morning. Photo: PN

“Although time has passed, I believe this chapter in Maltese political history which tore apart a family forever will only ever be closed if this murder, like all other political ones, is solved and those responsible face justice,” he said.

Grech's father, Edwin Grech, was a medical doctor who flew back to Malta from the UK at the government's request to provide medical services in the midst of an acrimonious doctors' strike. 

Another doctor labelled a strike-breaker, then-Labour MP Paul Chetcuti Caruana, also received a letterbomb on the same day as the fatal one sent to the Grech household. However, that parcel failed to detonate. 

At Grech's funeral, Archbishop Mikiel Gonzi described the murder as "the first terrorist act" in Malta's history. 

The case has never been solved. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela also paid tribute to Grech’s memory, laying flowers at a memorial dedicated to her in San Ġwann. Abela was accompanied by members of the Labour Party administration as well as some MPs.

Grech was killed because of hatred, he said, and the country needed to work to ensure peace and respect for each other to avoid such division along political lines. Grech’s father, professor Edwin Grech, had made great sacrifices as a doctor and was repaid for that with the murder of his daughter, he said.

Edwin Grech died last year, aged 94. 

Abela looks towards the Karin Grech memorial during a tribute event held on Friday evening.

The prime minister also alluded to the unsolved nature of the murder case, saying “we must remain firm and send a strong message that no one should escape justice.”

Ralph Cassar and Sandra Gauci at the Karin Grech memorial. Photo: ADPD

ADPD leader Sandra Gauci also placed flowers at the Grech memorial in San Gwann and said the murder was a reminder of the importance of upholding the rule of law and keeping open channels of political communication.

Gauci, who was accompanied by ADPD secretary general Ralph Cassar, said the country urgently needed to move away from the blue-versus-red tribalism that encouraged nepotism, clientelism and violence.

The murder was, along with others like that of Raymond Caruana and Daphne Caruana Galizia, a stain on the country’s history and part of Malta’s collective memory, she said.