Lisa Govan's Disappearance: WA Coroner Unable to Solve Mystery After 26 Years

One of Western Australia's most enduring missing person cases remains unsolved, after a coronial inquest failed to find out what happened to Lisa Govan. Ms Govan was 28 when she disappeared in suspicious circumstances. She was last seen at a bikie gang clubhouse in the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie in October 1999. Nobody has ever been charged in relation to her disappearance and her body was never found.

A coronial inquest held 25 years on was marred by the reluctance of witnesses to provide information, amid discussions about the 'bikie code of silence'. Coroner Michael Jenkin said there was an 'information vacuum' around the case. Coroner Jenkin handed down his findings on Wednesday afternoon, saying although police believe Ms Govan died at the Club Deroes building, no admissible evidence relating to her death has ever been put forth. The coroner said he was unable to determine the manner of her death, and ruled the case an 'open finding'.

Ms Govan was last seen walking into the Club Deroes clubhouse with gang member Andrew Edhouse and associate Trefor Atkinson. One witness testified he was told Mr Edhouse jumped on a woman's head as she lay unconscious in a clubhouse on October 8, while Mr Atkinson watched on. When the inquest began in November last year, the whereabouts of Mr Atkinson were unknown, so he testified in April. Both men denied the incident. Coroner Jenkin acknowledged there was evidence that the pair had a 'proclivity to violence' at the time.

Ms Govan's family, including her elderly parents, sat through the entire inquest. On the final day, her mother Pat Govan said outside court: 'We'll always hope we'll get some result in the end, somehow, somewhere.' In his findings, Coroner Jenkins wrote Ms Govan's family deserved answers and urged anyone with relevant information to come forward. 'This is clearly a frustrating and wholly unsatisfactory state of affairs, and I cannot imagine the additional grief and sadness that Lisa's family and loved ones have had to endure since her disappearance in the face of this information vacuum,' he wrote.