Updated | Killed by a parcel bomb 40 years ago, Karin Grech's murder remains unsolved

It was 40 years ago to the day that Karin Grech opened a colourful, wrapped parcel at home that was nothing more than a bomb addressed to her father - gynaecologist Edwin Grech.

The murder was one of the most high-profile cases of the 1970s, yet still remains unsolved to this day. The 40 anniversary comes just three months after journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered in a car bomb. 

Karin Grech was murdered in 1977 when she opened a letterbomb sent to the family house. The 15-year-old opened the package in the presence of her 10-year-old brother, thinking that the package covered in wrapping paper was a present.

The bomb exploded, and Karin died half an hour later at St Luke’s hospital due to severe burns on various parts of her body.

At her funeral Mass, Archbishop Mikiel Gonzi described the murder as "the first terrorist act in the country".

On the same day that the Grech family received the bomb, another bomb was also sent to doctor and Labour MP Paul Chetcuti Caruana, but it did not detonate.

The case became infamous as it remains unsolved, the perpetrators unknown, and the magisterial inquiry still ongoing.

Speaking in 2011, Prof. Grech said he had information that the explosive device had been planned by fourth and fifth-year medical students who hired a criminal to make the bomb that was delivered by a carpenter with missing fingers. His claims, however, never yielded any suspects.

At the time of the murder, doctors at St Luke’s hospital were taking industrial action following disagreement between the government and the Medical Association of Malta.

While doctors were locked out of hospitals during the strike, Karin’s father was labelled a strike-breaker, after agreeing to work during the industrial dispute. Grech had also been socially excluded by doctors obeying the strike directives.

Grech, who was then working as an obstetrics and gynaecology consultant in the UK, had agreed to return to Malta to head the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department. 

Despite there being no forensic evidence linking the bomb to the doctors’ strike, the dispute was widely blamed for the horrible murder.

In 2009, the newspaper It-Torċa reported that the police were suspecting a small number of Maltese doctors, residing in England, who were known to have close ties with the Nationalist Party at the time of the 1977 doctors' strike. The same newspaper reported that articles which appeared in the British Medical Journal in 1977 were also being investigated.

Just seven years ago the Civil Court awarded compensation of €419,000 to the Grech family. The court ruled the murder was politically motivated.

In 2017, the Grech family filed a judicial protest formally holding the Attorney General, the Police Commissioner and the Director General of Courts responsible for the disappearance of a crucial piece of evidence: pieces of the envelope which contained the explosive, which had apparently gone missing from the courts. However, it proved to be a false alarm.

Two candles have been lit at the foot of a monument dedicated to Karin Grech in San Gwann

Grech’s murder remains one of the most prominent political murders in Malta, alongside the killing of PN activist Raymond Caruana in 1986, who was gunned down while having a drink inside the Gudja PN club.

Back in 2007, former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami said that he wanted to see the murder, along with that of Raymond Caruana  solved.

"I don't understand why the police at the time were not able to investigate the murder. I think the necessary investigations were not carried out then. When I was made prime minister [in 1987], I instructed the police to do all necessary investigations, and the case is still open to this day. We need to know the truth of why this girl was murdered," Fenech Adami told presenter Andrew Azzopardi in an interview on Radju Malta.

Various Maltese public figures have commemorated her death on social media this morning. 

Insellem il-memorja ta' Karin Grech li nqatlet bl-aktar mod barbaru 40 sena ilu. pic.twitter.com/eHOFHkewm0

— Adrian Delia (@adriandeliapn) December 28, 2017

#OTD 40 years ago #Malta was rocked by the horrific murder of 15-year-old Karin Grech, who was killed when she opened a letter bomb, cruelly disguised in Christmas paper, addressed to her father.

Her killers have never been brought to justice.

We remember her - today & always. pic.twitter.com/JBtHzZgpdZ

— Roberta Metsola MEP (@RobertaMetsola) December 28, 2017

Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika pay tribute to Karin Grech

On Thursday evening, Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Joseph Muscat, as well as Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Carmel Cacopardo laid wreaths on a monument in honour of Grech in San Gwann.

Muscat described Grech as an innocent victim, who had been senselessly killed, as had happened in the case of Rayomnd Caruana.

Turning to the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia in October, Muscat said that contrary to Grech and Caruana’s murder, suspects had been arraigned in court, insisting that justice should not be allowed to take its course.

The state, he said, wanted to find out who was behind these killings.

Cacopardo stressed the importance of remembering “such tragic parts” of the country’s history, and to do so as a nation.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat laid a wreath on Karin Grech's monument in San Gwann

“It would be best if such instances are commemorated together. A clear message against intolerance is necessary. These tragedies are not only tragedies for the families involved but for all of us as a nation,” he said.

Cacopardo said that AD’s presence at the ceremony was a message against intolerance, adding that AD had also been present at the commemoration of Raymond Caruana’s murder in Gudja.

“Political and ideological differences are solved through dialogue and discussion - which should always remain central to the democratic process. Violence and actions leading to violence should be resisted."