Forty years after teenager Karin Grech was murdered, crucial evidence has gone missing.

In a judicial protest filed today, Edwin Grech, his wife Pearl and son Kevin formally held the Attorney General, Commissioner of Police and the Director General of Courts responsible for the disappearance of a crucial piece of evidence.

Karin Grech was killed by a letter bomb in 1977, and the inquiry into her death is still ongoing. She was just 15 years old. 

Excerpt from the Times of Malta of December 29, 1977

The Grech family said the defendants were responsible for the lack of progress of the investigation - more so now that they have been made aware that pieces of the envelope which had contained the explosive, have apparently gone missing from the courts.

The plaintiffs argued that these could have shed light on the crime, thanks to new techniques of forensic science developed in the 40 years since the murder.

In 1977, Edwin Grech was working as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in the United Kingdom. He had obeyed a request to return to Malta during the doctors’ strike to provide services as a consultant and head of department in St Luke’s Hospital.

Less than three months after his return, on December 28, 1977, a large brown envelope containing a packet in Christmas wrapping paper was received at Grech’s home. It was a letterbomb. His daughter, Karin opened the package and was severely wounded in the ensuing blast, dying later that same day. Her brother, Kevin Mark Vincent Grech, was also grievously injured and had to be treated abroad.

“While a magisterial inquiry into the murder is still ongoing, despite the indications, assistance and cooperations of the Grechs, there has been no positive outcome and those who perpetrated this barbaric and shocking act have to this day not been brought before a court,” reads the protest.

It goes on to say that Edwin Grech was recently informed that one of the most important pieces of forensic evidence - pieces of the envelope that had contained the explosive - had gone missing.

The Grechs said they were formally protesting against the lack of progress and were holding the AG, Commissioner of Police and the Director General of Courts liable for damages and costs.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Amadeus Cachia and Yanika Vidal signed the judicial protest.