Two unsolved murders added to VPD cold cases website

The unsolved murders of Lisa Gavin and Glenna "Dusty" Sowan have been added to the Vancouver Police Department’s cold case website, with hopes someone will come forward with information to solve the 34-year-old killings.

"No homicide case is ever closed until it’s solved, and we know there’s someone out there with information that can help solve these two murders," says Sergeant Steve Addison. "Even the smallest bit of information could lead to a break in these cases and help us catch the killers."

Gavin and Sowan were friends when they were killed just six weeks apart in 1988.

Gavin was last seen alive just before midnight on August 12, 1988, when she left a friend’s apartment near Broadway and St. Catherine’s Street, in East Vancouver. A sex-worker who struggled with addiction, Gavin told her friend she was going to work and would be back in an hour. She never returned, and her partially clothed body was discovered hours later in a lane near Knight Street and East 49th Avenue.

Sowan, also a sex worker, was just 25 years old when last seen, on September 29, 1988, inside an apartment near East 6th Avenue and St. George Street. She’d been struggling with the loss of Gavin, and went out sometime between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Her body was discovered the following day in some bushes near West 24th Avenue and Willow Street.

"For years, VPD investigators have pursued leads, followed up on tips, and re-examined evidence, but the killers have managed to evade arrest," adds Sergeant Addison. "But, even the smallest piece of evidence is all we need to crack these cases."

VPD’s Cold Cases website was created in 2014, and it currently includes profiles of 15 unsolved murders, dating back to 1958. For more details about the murders of Lisa Gavin and Glenna Sowan, including photos, maps and news clippings, visit www.vpdcoldcases.ca