Australia Australia - Lisa Govan, 18, Kalgoorlie, WA, 8 Oct 1999

Lisa Joanne has been missing for 17 years - pictures/ more info

• Missing since:​
  Friday, October 8, 1999
• Last seen:​
  Kalgoorlie WA
• Jurisdiction:​
  WA
• Year of birth:​
  1971
• Age now:​
  45
• Gender:​
  Female
• Height:​
  155cm
• Build:​
  Slim
• Hair:​
  Brown
• Complexion:​
  Olive
• Eyes:​
  Blue

Lisa's Doe Network profile.

[h=1]Reward of 250k to help solve Govan murder[/h]Updated: 6:47 pm, Tuesday, 31 October 2017







An increased reward of $250,000 has been posted for information that leads to solving the suspected murder of Lisa Govan in Western Australia almost 20 years ago.
The 28-year-old was last seen alive near Kalgoorlie's Foundry Hotel about 7.30am on October 8, 1999.
The Boulder Road hotel was at the time located next to the Club Deroes bikie gang clubhouse.
A $50,000 reward was posted a year after Ms Govan's disappearance, but her body has never been found. The state government has now boosted the reward following a request from cold case investigators.
Police Minister Michelle Roberts encouraged anyone who knows what happened to Ms Govan to clear their conscience and contact Crime Stoppers.
'We believe that this is a more realistic amount of money that might encourage people to come forward,' she told reporters on Tuesday.
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said Ms Govan's disappearance was 'highly suspicious' and detectives suspected foul play.
'Her disappearance is being treated as a homicide investigation,' he told reporters.
'We strongly believe there are people out in the community who know what has happened to Lisa.
'Ms Govan's family deserve answers (and) the community deserves answers to bring justice to this matter.'
Mr Dawson said despite the passage of time, evidence could still be found.
'We never close our minds, nor the possibility of fresh information being added to what we already know,' he said.
Raids in Perth and Kalgoorlie conducted on Tuesday were connected to the investigation, but Mr Dawson would not elaborate on the results.





http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/wa/2017/10/31/reward-of-250k-to-help-solve-govan-murder.html

Club Deroes bikie compounds in Kalgoorlie and Perth raided over Lisa Govan cold case

By Charlotte Hamlyn and Jacob Kagi
Updated about an hour ago

WA Police have raided two properties with links to an outlaw motorcycle gang in relation to a cold case murder investigation, after receiving "very credible information" regarding the disappearance of a Goldfields woman.

The raids on the Club Deroes headquarters in Kalgoorlie and the Perth suburb of Cloverdale come more than 18 years after Lisa Govan disappeared from Kalgoorlie.

Ms Govan's body has never been found but police are treating the case as a homicide.

Following the raids, WA Police announced they were increasing the reward for information about the case from $50,000 to $250,000.

Ms Govan was 28 when she vanished from Kalgoorlie in 1999, and was last seen on the morning of October 8 outside the Foundry Hotel bottle shop on Boulder Road.

Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said the Club Deroes' headquarters in Kalgoorlie was, at the time, adjacent to where Ms Govan was last seen.
But he would not reveal what police were looking for, or what if anything they found as a result of today's raids.

Commissioner Dawson urged anyone who knew anything about the case to come forward, saying people could do so anonymously.

"We strongly believe there are people out in the community who know what has happened to Lisa," he said.
"Ms Govan's family deserve answers and the community deserves answers."

Despite extensive inquiries by police and family, Ms Govan's whereabouts remain a mystery.

'We can only hope': family

Speaking after the police announcement, Lisa's father Ian Govan said he hoped someone would come forward with new information.

PHOTO: Lisa Govan's father Ian, mother Pat and sister Ginette Jackson say they have not lost hope. (ABC News: Emily Piesse)

"It's been a long time. A lot of people have moved on, out of town," he said.

"People have got knowledge with them.

"Hopefully, the announcement of this increase in the reward will bring somebody forward. We don't know. We can only hope."

"It doesn't get any easier with time either," Ms Govan's sister Ginette Jackson added.

At the time of her disappearance, police investigating the case said they were struggling with the code of silence synonymous with outlaw motorcycle gangs.

That prompted the then State Government to offer a $50,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension or conviction of those responsible.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-31/bikie-raids-over-lisa-govan-cold-case-disappearance/9104212

Hi all,

Fingers crossed there might be more developments soon. Thanks to Bohemian for linking me

This is an interesting case because of the time and context in which it occurred. In 2002 a Royal Commission (the Kennedy Commission - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Royal_Commission ) opened to investigate corruption in the West Australian police force. For US members, a Royal Commission is the equivalent of something like a cross between a Congressional Inquiry and Special Prosecutor (not a great description but the best I can think of). It issued it's final report in 2004 and was damning about the corruption within the force.

The Commission included in its investigations specific examination of activities involving corrupt police in Kalgoorlie, and taking place in 1998/9. This centred on drug theft and dealing by senior detectives and the evidence included references to the Foundry Hotel and the Deroes biker club. https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/publications/publications.nsf/DocByAgency/ABD86A4683483AD348256C54003685A8/$file/S021016.pdf is a transcript of evidence relating to the Kalgoorlie drug activity by police and references the Foundry, Deroes and names the corrupt police officers in Kalgoorlie. https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/publications/publications.nsf/DocByAgency/99F8CCBBA6DBBABE48256BE90030D1A8/$file/S020701.pdf gives further information and background.

It seems to me that if the police were intimately familiar with the Foundry Hotel and the Deroes in 98/9 then it is surprising if they had no knowledge relating to Lisa's disappearance. Either one or more of them may be involved (unlikely but I would not rule it out completely given their activities) or their ties with the local criminals and overlap with the drug activity of the Deroes would have given them wide knowledge of local criminal matters. Given these factors I come to two conclusions;

Firstly, it is probable that the corruption of the local police at the time of the disappearance would have compromised any investigation at the time.

Secondly, there may be merit in putting pressure on those former police officers who were implicated by the Royal Commission to disclose any information they hid at the time.

Great post alb1on


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There was an interesting exchange in the West Australian parliament in 2000. The representative for Kalgoorlie (Megan Anwyl) made the following statement (from http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard%5Chansard.nsf/0/cd960ea98440585fc8257570008022e5/$FILE/A35%20S4%2020001114%20p2823c-2835a.pdf page 3).

"On the issue of bikie gangs, I have made several appeals to the Premier to post a reward for information leadingto solving the disappearance of Lisa Govan, who disappeared from Kalgoorlie-Boulder and was last seen justover a year ago in broad daylight outside the Club Deroes motorcycle gang clubhouse. I have maderepresentations to the Premier in and out of the House, by letter to his staff and by telephone. As yet, a rewardstill has not been posted. That 26-year-old woman, in the prime of her life, went missing over a year ago. Ifindeed the Premier wants to have a war on bikies, can someone from the Government explain to me why areward has not been posted? Why is there a delay? I thought the Premier was the Treasurer. I thought he wouldhave some power over the rhetoric that is expressed in letters to me; yet still there is no reward. A whole townhas become derelict and people have lost their jobs. I am not talking just about Don Hancock; I am talking aboutother people who have lived and worked in that town and who had life savings tied up in real estate, which forthe large part is now vacant. There does not appear to be a lead in solving the apparent murder of the GypsyJokers gang member. As I speak, there is not one extra police resource in Kalgoorlie-Boulder to deal with all those issues, which are clearly related."

So the local MP believed the Govan disappearance was linked with the events surrounding Don Hancock, the owner of The Foundry. Don Hancock was the retired head of detectives in Kalgoorlie and notoriously bent. Earlier in 2000 he was reputed to be the sniper who shot dead a member of the Gypsy Joker bikies (Deroes rivals) which led to 3 of his properties being bombed and Hancock being killed in a car bombing a year later. He was also believed to be the man behind the corrupt prosecution of men, subsequently cleared, for the Perth Mint gold theft in the 1980s.

I am not sure what all this tells us, other than Kalgoorlie in the 1990s and 2000s was the nearest thing to the wild west since the 19thC. What it does do is shed light on the lawlessness surrounding Govan's going missing, especially given the links between the corrupt detectives in Kalgoorlie in 1999 and their former boss, the owner of The Foundry. It would be very interesting to hear from Megan Anwyl what she meant by these events being linked.

Bikies target at coronial inquest into murder mystery of Lisa Govan

Kate Campbell, PerthNow
November 5, 2017 2:45pm


BIKIES could be compelled to give evidence at a planned coronial inquest into the 18-year-old murder mystery of Lisa Govan, who vanished after last being seen outside the Club Deroes headquarters in Kalgoorlie.

Ms Govan’s family wrote to the WA Coroner earlier this year requesting an inquest into their daughter’s disappearance and suspected murder.

A spokeswoman for the Coroner’s Court said the “investigation into the death of Lisa Govan is currently being prepared for inquest hearing and is progressing as quickly as possible” although a date has not yet been set.

Ian Govan told The Sunday Times this past week his family still strongly supported having an inquest into his daughter’s case, despite a fresh appeal by police on Tuesday that saw the State Government quadruple the reward on offer for information leading to a conviction from $50,000 to $250,000.

Police also cut up concrete floors as part of raids on former and current clubhouses of the Club Deroes bikie gang this week. Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said new “credible” information received had led to this week’s developments.

The bikie gang has long been linked to the case, with Ms Govan, then 28, last seen alive outside the Club Deroes clubhouse in Kalgoorlie in the early hours of October 8, 1999, after she had been at a nightclub. Her body has never been found.

Mr Govan believed an inquest could provide answers his family desperately needed, as well as put the police investigation under the spotlight. But he said though people could be compelled to take the witness stand by the Coroner, it didn’t mean they would tell the truth.
“It will show up the downfall of the investigation in the early days,” he said.

The Govan family, which does not even have a death certificate for their daughter, has enlisted the services of a medium, private investigator and a documentary team in their long quest for closure.
“She would have by now been a mother and we’d have more grandchildren,” Mr Govan said. “This request to the Coroner’s office is like an outcry from us for help.”

​

A police spokesman said WA Police was aware of the Govans’ inquest request. “That is a matter for the Coroner, and if or when an inquest is scheduled the cold case homicide squad will prepare a report for the Coroner,” he said.

“Officers will continue exploring all investigative opportunities, utilising modern forensic methodologies, where possible, to bring the offender or offenders to justice.”

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wes...n/news-story/7380479609ac263a795be63e88044966

I hope I am wrong, but I fear the chances of any official help in resolving this case is now more likely to be undermined. The reason is the election of Kyran O'Donnell to the West Australian parliament in 2017 as member for Kalgoorlie. Whilst I have no reason to think he is personally corrupt, he was a policeman in Kalgoorlie for 34 years before his election and I find it impossible to believe he was unaware of the rampant corruption in the police around him during that time. The fact he said and did nothing says more about his character and the probability that he will be helpful in the Govan investigation than anything else.

Report on disappearance

Anna Hay

Friday, 15 December 2017 4:10PM
Lisa Govan's parents Pat and Ian Govan with investigator Amanda Nella and medium Claudia Renner.Picture: Mary Meagher / Kalgoorlie Miner

A documentary team hoping to solve the 18-year-old mystery of missing Kalgoorlie woman Lisa Govan handed in a 20-page summary report of their findings to two detectives in Perth on Tuesday.

Private investigator Amanda Nella and medium Claudia Renner were called in by the special crime squad detectives to present the report.

Ms Nella and Ms Renner are also generating another larger document for a coronial inquest on the case at a later unknown date.

Ms Nella said the detectives read the report “intently” and “did not give anything away”.

This comes after new evidence into the cold case of Ms Govan prompted police to raid the new and old clubhouses of the Dereos in Kalgoorlie on November 1 and increase the reward for anyone who has information on the disappearance from $50,000 to $250,000.

Police took samples from the concrete floor for forensic analysis but would not elaborate publicly on what was seized during that raid or the search of the Deroes’ new clubhouse on Hay Street.

Ms Nella said the police had not taken DNA from Ms Govan’s paternal relatives since she went missing in 1999.
“You would think they were looking for specific DNA,” she said.

“But they have never swabbed Lisa’s mother or sister, so there would be no way of matching Lisa’s DNA.”

Ms Nella said the documentary team was scheduled to return to Kalgoorlie on January 14 to continue filming.

Ms Govan went missing on October 8, 1999, after a night out drinking with friends at the Safari nightclub on Hannan Street.

A security camera captured her climbing into a taxi at about 4.45am with a bald-headed man on Boulder Road.

It is believed she went to the Foundry Hotel on Boulder Road, which was used as the clubhouse of bikie gang Club Deroes, where she was last seen talking to two men outside the building about 7.30am.

Anyone with information on this crime can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

https://thewest.com.au/news/kalgoorlie-miner/report-on-disappearance-ng-b88691894z

Investigation into missing Kalgoorlie woman Lisa Govan gets hundreds of leads after $250,000 reward
ABC News
BY JARROD LUCAS
UPDATED 29 MINUTES AGO (as at 15:12 AEDT 30 January 2018)

‘A massive reward has prompted hundreds of calls to cold case detectives investigating the disappearance and suspected murder of Kalgoorlie woman Lisa Govan nearly 20 years ago.

Police from the Cold Case Homicide Squad today returned to Western Australia's Goldfields region to retrace the movements of Ms Govan, who was 28 when she was last seen outside the Foundry Hotel bottle shop in Boulder Road on October 8, 1999.

It comes just three months after police raided two properties with links to an outlaw motorcycle gang, including the Kalgoorlie headquarters of the Club Deroes, revealing they had received "very credible information" regarding her disappearance.

Detective Sergeant Matthew Atkinson said police have received hundreds of phone calls delivering new leads to the investigation since the State Government's original offer of a $50,000 reward was increased to $250,000 in October.

"Because we've received a large volume of information from the public, we're trying to timeline the movements of witnesses to try and verify the time that Lisa was last seen," Detective Sergeant Atkinson said.

"We've had a number of people who were living in Kalgoorlie at the time come forward and provide us with times and their movements when they saw Lisa on the 8th of October, 1999.

"From that we've narrowed down the timeframe to 7:30-7:45 of that morning.

"What we're doing at the moment is trying to verify those times by timelining their movements from certain locations to where she was sighted on Boulder Road."

Ms Govan had been on a night out at Sylvester's nightclub in Kalgoorlie and caught a taxi to the Foundry Hotel before she disappeared.

Police have spoken with the taxi driver and dozens of people who saw her that night.

Detective Sergeant Atkinson said two men she was with have been identified and are assisting police with their investigation.

He would not be drawn on whether police had found any evidence during last October's raids.

"I am not in a position to comment on forensic testing at this time," Detective Sergeant Atkinson said.‘

Read more at:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-30/police-have-new-leads-in-lisa-govan-investigation/9374650

QUOTE=alb1on;13729965]This is an interesting case because of the time and context in which it occurred. In 2002 a Royal Commission (the Kennedy Commission - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Royal_Commission ) opened to investigate corruption in the West Australian police force. For US members, a Royal Commission is the equivalent of something like a cross between a Congressional Inquiry and Special Prosecutor (not a great description but the best I can think of). It issued it's final report in 2004 and was damning about the corruption within the force.

The Commission included in its investigations specific examination of activities involving corrupt police in Kalgoorlie, and taking place in 1998/9. This centred on drug theft and dealing by senior detectives and the evidence included references to the Foundry Hotel and the Deroes biker club. https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/publications/publications.nsf/DocByAgency/ABD86A4683483AD348256C54003685A8/$file/S021016.pdf is a transcript of evidence relating to the Kalgoorlie drug activity by police and references the Foundry, Deroes and names the corrupt police officers in Kalgoorlie. https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/publications/publications.nsf/DocByAgency/99F8CCBBA6DBBABE48256BE90030D1A8/$file/S020701.pdf gives further information and background.

It seems to me that if the police were intimately familiar with the Foundry Hotel and the Deroes in 98/9 then it is surprising if they had no knowledge relating to Lisa's disappearance. Either one or more of them may be involved (unlikely but I would not rule it out completely given their activities) or their ties with the local criminals and overlap with the drug activity of the Deroes would have given them wide knowledge of local criminal matters. Given these factors I come to two conclusions;

Firstly, it is probable that the corruption of the local police at the time of the disappearance would have compromised any investigation at the time.

Secondly, there may be merit in putting pressure on those former police officers who were implicated by the Royal Commission to disclose any information they hid at the time.[/QUOTE]

The documentary team gave the Police a comprehensive report in 2017 that contained credible information.

Claudia2 said:

QUOTE=alb1on;13729965]This is an interesting case because of the time and context in which it occurred. In 2002 a Royal Commission (the Kennedy Commission - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Royal_Commission ) opened to investigate corruption in the West Australian police force. For US members, a Royal Commission is the equivalent of something like a cross between a Congressional Inquiry and Special Prosecutor (not a great description but the best I can think of). It issued it's final report in 2004 and was damning about the corruption within the force.

The Commission included in its investigations specific examination of activities involving corrupt police in Kalgoorlie, and taking place in 1998/9. This centred on drug theft and dealing by senior detectives and the evidence included references to the Foundry Hotel and the Deroes biker club. https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/publications/publications.nsf/DocByAgency/ABD86A4683483AD348256C54003685A8/$file/S021016.pdf is a transcript of evidence relating to the Kalgoorlie drug activity by police and references the Foundry, Deroes and names the corrupt police officers in Kalgoorlie. https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/publications/publications.nsf/DocByAgency/99F8CCBBA6DBBABE48256BE90030D1A8/$file/S020701.pdf gives further information and background.

It seems to me that if the police were intimately familiar with the Foundry Hotel and the Deroes in 98/9 then it is surprising if they had no knowledge relating to Lisa's disappearance. Either one or more of them may be involved (unlikely but I would not rule it out completely given their activities) or their ties with the local criminals and overlap with the drug activity of the Deroes would have given them wide knowledge of local criminal matters. Given these factors I come to two conclusions;

Firstly, it is probable that the corruption of the local police at the time of the disappearance would have compromised any investigation at the time.

Secondly, there may be merit in putting pressure on those former police officers who were implicated by the Royal Commission to disclose any information they hid at the time.

Click to expand...

[/QUOTE]

I am a member of the documentary team involved with this case and our hands are 'seemingly' tied at the moment but I think this suggestion is a great idea.

There is some fascinating information and theories in this thread. Thank you alb1on for expressing the stuff to do with bikies and police in this area so well.

I agree with the fact that a lot points to potential bikie involvement, and this could have been ignored by police at the time, and difficult to unravel now.

However, I have also had another thought, which is that Lisa Govan's disappearance could be linked to the CSK. This is my train of thought:

The disappearance is consistent with the MO of the CSK: a woman, heading somewhere alone after a night out, having been drinking. Granted it was morning in this case and she had a partner, which is a departure from the CSK's other alleged victims. However, it was also a Friday night and there may have been a Speedway event in Kalgoorlie then (still trying to get confirmation on this), similar to events in Claremont on the night two of the CSK victims disappeared (SS & CG). It was not long after the disappearances in Claremont, and the CSK may have been scared away from that area.

The bikie connection could be a red herring, and it could be linked in so far as police assumed bikie involvement so didn't investigate. As in, they may not have had any evidence of that but given where she went missing they may have just basically gone "OK, hands off this one".

The crucial question to me there is whether there is other evidence that Lisa was somehow a target for the bikies, about which we are unaware.

JMO


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Given that the WA police have now charged Bradley Robert Edwards with the 3 Claremont murders (and a rape) it should be easier to rule in or out the theory linking Govan to these cases. I assume the police will be looking in detail at his whereabouts and movements since 1997 to see if he crosses paths with any unsolved cases. To me the Govan case looks different (not least because I would not expect a serial killer to look for a victim around a known trouble spot like the bikies clubhouse) - but I agree it should be looked at if only to eliminate Edwards.

alb1on said:

Given that the WA police have now charged Bradley Robert Edwards with the 3 Claremont murders (and a rape) it should be easier to rule in or out the theory linking Govan to these cases. I assume the police will be looking in detail at his whereabouts and movements since 1997 to see if he crosses paths with any unsolved cases. To me the Govan case looks different (not least because I would not expect a serial killer to look for a victim around a known trouble spot like the bikies clubhouse) - but I agree it should be looked at if only to eliminate Edwards.

Click to expand...

I agree with everything you are saying, especially the part about the Govan case looking different.

One of the reasons the possibility of it being the CSK (whoever that may be) goes around in my head is because I have never been sure how they linked Sarah Spiers to the CSK. I understood at the time that it was probably largely circumstantial, but wondered over time, and especially now they have charged the same person with all three, whether it remains circumstantial or there is something more. If it is circumstantial then that opens the possibility up of it being very difficult for them to link other cases, especially from other areas.

I do definitely assume they will have checked BRE's movements against other unsolved matters, but that might not give them anything if, for example, they couldn't ascertain some movements.

We will of course know more when evidence is finally presented, Macro having played their cards very close to their chest on this one.


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Hi all,
Before I go on, I'll disclose that I'm a sub-editor at The West Australian newspaper.
The State Government reward is now $1 million.
The West Australian newspaper has released a new 7-part web series about the case called Catching Lisa's Killer: Fear and Murder in Kalgoorlie.
There are a number of revelations in the series and never-before-seen CCTV footage of Lisa with a bikie on the night that she died. The series includes the detective hunting for Lisa's killer, an interview with a man who was shot at just days after giving police a statement saying he saw Lisa the morning she disappeared and details about messages on Lisa's phone that were apparently listened to and then deleted (remotely) when she went missing.
A synopsis and a link to the trailer follows....

An untamed town, an unsolved crime, a new investigation.

The ruthless bikie code of silence can’t hide the truth forever. The net is closing on Lisa Govan’s killer.

With the help of the Western Australian Police Cold Case Squad, veteran journalist Ben Harvey goes deep into the unsolved mystery of what happened the night 28-year-old Lisa Govan disappeared from the streets Kalgoorlie on October 8, 1999.

What he found will shock all Australians and tear apart the country’s underworld.

Watch the 7-part true crime video series now exclusively on thewest.com.au
https://thewest.com.au/features/cat...d-murder-in-kalgoorlie-trailer-ng-b881780454z

Murder in the Goldfields, a two-part special airing on Channel 7 on Sunday evenings, tells the stories of three Goldfields murders that defied homicide detectives and remain unsolved.

Charlie Park vanished into thin air, Ray and Jennie Kehlet went prospecting with another man and never came back, and Lisa Govan left a trail of evidence but still disappeared.

Catch Murder in the Goldfields at 8.45pm on Sunday night as Caroline Overington interviews family members, private investigators and key parties to unravel these three mysteries that still haunt the Kalgoorlie police and State detectives decades on.


Murder in the Goldfield Premiere Channel 7 8.45pm. Sunday 16th October 2022