The past few days have been a roller-coaster beginning to the new year, but it would be unfair not to comment on the terrible deaths that occurred last Sunday just because of the political mayhem that erupted on Friday.

It is true that after days of wild speculation and a rumour machine that went into overdrive, many sane voices appealed for silence to shroud the event and allow the dead a silent consigning to the afterlife, and for silence in respect of the people who are grieving.

But over and above all this, the nation was in deep shock not just because one never expects New Year’s Day to be a day of blood and sudden death but also at the few details that emerged.

One grieves for the victims and also for their relatives, especially the young widow and the two children.

This was violence at its most extreme. As violence goes, one can kill from a distance or even in a split second, through the use of a firearm. But death by knife entails violence of action and of intent that is difficult to envisage, let alone to physically do.

It is a crime that not only shocked the nation but also that requires thorough investigation. All through the past week, the country has been fed selective morsels either by sections of the media or by relatives of the bereaved.

Neither of these was right.

It was not right for members amongst the investigating officers to leak details to the press. And it was not right, on the contrary it was counter-productive, for relatives to try and give their take on events at which they, ex admisso, were not present.

As days went by, and as the whirlwind of speculation mounted and rose, many people’s real anger was directed at the media. Even before any of this happened, the media in Malta is often portrayed as venal, partisan (not in this case) and unscrupulous. Without in any way trying to be ‘holier-than-thou’, this was all in all a very bad week for the media.

But then, the media speculates when it is given morsels to speculate with. Had the door remained closed to all bar the investigative officers, and had these not leaked tasty morsels to the select press, most of the speculation would have been avoided.

It was nevertheless impossible that such a tragedy would remain uncommented upon when the nation woke up in such a shock last week.

There is a pattern to grieving and after days of wild abandon it is somewhat reassuring, given the dire circumstances, to note that other issues, notably politics, have replaced the violent deaths in people’s conversations.

As the Police Commissioner said yesterday, it is important to allow proper investigations to be carried out by those whose difficult task is to ensure the truth is found out and any responsibility, if there is one, is carried.

Actually, while in this event much mention was made of the scene of the crime being tampered with, conceptually the tidal wave of speculation, either fomented or spontaneous, can also be construed as tampering with the scene of the crime, certainly predisposing the public’s mind as to who is the guilty party.

Crime as heinous as this requires not just clarity as to what may lay behind it but also a general reaction by society to protect itself from such violence, to tackle violence at its roots. Whatever caused the mayhem, whether this was a case of wanton and senseless violence or whether there was something behind it, should make us reflect on what could lie behind so many facades - of people, of houses, of families even. There is much in our society that is good, honourable and worthy, but there is also much that lies submerged and that can at any point emerge to threaten the wellbeing of us all. And we are not referring to this specific tragedy here.

At the two funerals that have taken place, society has come together in support of the grieving relatives. That, already, is a worthy reaction. When the truth is found and analysed, society will be in a better position to react to protect itself. Violence, especially extreme violence of this sort, corrodes society.