A coronial inquest into the suspected murder of a woman in Western’s Australia’s Goldfields 25 years ago will not hear from a bikie group member she was drinking and socialising with before she disappeared.
Lisa Govan was 28 years old when she was last seen at the headquarters of bikie group Club Deroes in Kalgoorlie-Boulder — about 600km east of Perth — on the morning of October 8, 1999.
Her body was never found and no charges have ever been laid.
Missing witnesses
A six-day inquest into her disappearance began in Perth on Monday, but police have failed to locate two main players.
Coroner Michael Jenkin told the court prominent Club Deroes member Andrew Edhouse, who was one of the last men Ms Govan was seen with, will not testify.
The inquest is being held in Perth over six days. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
Coroner Jenkin told the court the whereabouts of Mr Edhouse was unknown and that he may have travelled overseas.
The court is also not expecting to hear from Ms Govan’s then-partner Timothy Hammel, who was the first to report her disappearance to police the next day after searching for her around the city.
Lisa’s last night
In her opening address, counsel assisting the coroner Sue Markham told the court Ms Govan was out drinking with her close friend in Kalgoorlie-Boulder on the night of October 7.
After attending a number of venues, her friend went home but Ms Govan stayed at the Safari Night Club until it closed at 4:30am.
Grainy CCTV footage showed Ms Govan walking down a laneway outside the club with Mr Edhouse and embracing him.
Club Deroes associate Trevor Atkinson approached the pair and appeared to attempt to strike Ms Govan’s neck before she threw what looked to be a cigarette butt at him as he walked away.
The court heard Mr Edhouse intervened after Mr Atkinson approached her in a “menacing way.”
Ms Govan ended up in a taxi with Mr Atkinson and one other person and arrived at the Club Deroes’ clubhouse at about 5am on October 8.
Ms Markham told the court “if there had been some hostility between them it certainly hadn’t lingered.”
Final sightings
Ms Govan joined several others drinking, playing pool and listening to music at the bikie clubhouse.
“Several of those present recall that Lisa appeared obviously intoxicated. Her speech was slurred, and she was unsteady on her feet,” Ms Markham said.
The court heard one witness claimed Mr Edhouse was flirting and getting cosy with Ms Govan, which the witness said she was participating in.
Ms Govan was last seen at the headquarters of the Club Deroes bikie gang on in Kalgoorlie. (ABC News: Sam Tomlin)
Everyone else left the headquarters at about 7:30am leaving Ms Govan, Mr Atkinson, Mr Edhouse and one other man, who was asleep on the couch at the time, at the property.
Ms Markham told the court the last “credible” sighting of Ms Govan was as she walked back into the gates of the clubhouse with Mr Atkinson and Mr Edhouse, who were reportedly messing about drunkenly out the front.
Both men have been arrested on suspicion in the past, but the inquest heard insufficient evidence meant neither have been charged.
Investigation delay
The inquest heard from Detective Senior Sergeant Timothy Lines who was assigned to the cold case in 2022 to prepare a report for the coroner.
Detective Lines was asked why it took police five days to search the clubhouse after Ms Govan was reported missing.
Detective Lines told the court “it’s not clear from the file why.”
He said in hindsight it “would have been ideal” for the premises to be searched earlier.
The court heard by that time, a section of the floor had been re-painted and the carpet removed.
The inquest was told swabs taken from a section of the clubhouse’s carpet did not confirm Ms Govan’s presence at the site, but Ms Markham said that did not necessarily mean nothing happened to her there.
Family plea
Ahead of the opening address on Monday, Ms Govan’s mother Pat said she was apprehensive and nervous about the inquest.
“In 2017 [her husband] wrote to the coroner’s office and asked about an inquiry, but because it was an on-going investigation they couldn’t do anything,” she told ABC Radio Perth.
Pat Govan says the family are feeling apprehensive about the inquest. (ABC News: Grace Burmas)
She said she was worried people would be scared to give evidence.
“A lot of water has gone under the bridge,” she said.
“A lot of people have moved on, moved to places, you forget things. We just hope something will come out of this inquiry.
“Our main aim is we want to bring Lisa home.”
The inquest continues.
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