Updated 12.45pm, adds ADPD statement

Forty-five years after the murder of Karin Grech, there seems to be “no tangible effort” to conclude the unresolved case, according to her cousin, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech.

There are “no real significant developments – unless someone is brought to justice”, he said.

Grech was commenting on the 45th anniversary on Wednesday of his cousin's brutal killing at the age of 15 by a letter bomb, which arrived at the door of her San Ġwann home three days after Christmas on December 28, 1977, at 12.30pm.

The parcel bomb – a brown envelope containing a package in Christmas wrapping – was addressed to her father, Edwin Grech, and was motivated by the medical-political unrest at the time.

His teenage daughter opened it up and the bomb exploded in her face in front of her 10-year-old brother’s eyes. She died in hospital shortly afterwards.

The murder happened at the height of the doctors’ strike, during which Grech continued to work at St Luke’s Hospital when he was asked by the government to run its obstetrics and gynaecology department.

Among the few Maltese doctors who refused to strike, he was working as a consultant in the UK at the time and had agreed to return to Malta to fulfil the role until the industrial dispute ended.

To date, the crime that rocked the nation remains unsolved. No one was ever charged and convicted of Karin’s murder and the crime turned into a political football.

A memorial to Karin Grech in San Ġwann. Karin Grech was killed by a letter bomb sent to her home 45 years ago.

This was despite the fact that evidence was “lying in voluminous documents”, according to the opposition leader, who on Tuesday expressed “serious concern” about the way some of it had been handled along the years.

“To my knowledge, although officially it is declared that the investigations are still ongoing, there seems to be no tangible effort to conclude the case,” he said.

“The country has not done enough to solve several high-profile murders, including Karin’s,” Grech added.

On a personal level, as a close relative of the victim, he said it was “very frustrating to live through an unresolved saga that affected the family to the core.

“Hearing the adults within the family uttering words of distrust in the system along the years added to the resolve to fight for justice and what is right,” Grech continued.

The opposition leader said several potential suspects were not investigated at the time and “this further fuelled the anger at what could have been. When we fail to carry out justice with one individual, we fail a whole nation,” he said.

Edwin Grech is still awaiting justice for his daughter's murder.

In 2010, the civil court ordered the state to pay €419,000 in damages to the murdered girl’s family, stating the crime was motivated by medical-political reasons, stemming from the climate related to the doctors’ industrial dispute.

A year later, her father, who was the real target of the letter bomb, said he suspected the explosive device had been planned by fourth- and fifth-year medical students, who hired an expert to make it.

Former police officer Charles Demicoli, who had investigated the case for several years, maintained, on the other hand, that the plan was probably hatched by a single medical student – the main reason why the crime had not been solved.

In 2017, the Grech family filed a judicial protest against the attorney general, the police commissioner and the director general of courts after crucial evidence – pieces of the envelope that had contained the bomb – allegedly vanished.

This seems to be the last development in the public domain.

Being a magisterial inquiry, it was not known whether any progress has been made on the case. The girl’s father, who went on to become a Labour MP and social security minister in the 1990s, had said he had little hope that the case would be solved and had felt abandoned by the police.

A garden in San Ġwann and a rehabilitation hospital near St Luke’s were named in honour of his slain daughter.

Victim of intolerance still evident today - ADPD

Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said Grech was a victim of intolerance that was current during her time and is still evident today.

After laying flowers at the foot of Grech's monument in San Ġwann, he said such intolerance was mainly due to the political tribalism that still divided the people and led to verbal and psychological violence.