Vancouver police have added two women to their cold case website, as they renew an appeal for tips into their 34-year-old murders which took place just weeks apart.
Lisa Gavin, 21, and Glenna ‘Dusty’ Sowan, 25, were friends when they were killed in 1988.
“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,” Sgt. Steve Addison said in a media release.
“For years, VPD investigators have pursued leads, followed up on tips, and re-examined evidence, but the killers have managed to evade arrest … but, even the smallest piece of evidence is all we need to crack these cases.”
Police say Gavin was last seen alive around midnight on Aug. 12, 1988, leaving an apartment near Broadway and St. Catherine’s Street, when she told friends she’d be gone for an hour.
Her partially-clothed body was found hours later in an alley near Knight Street and East 49th Avenue.
Sowan was last seen on Sept. 29, 1988, in an apartment near East 6th Avenue and St. George Street. Police say she had been grappling with the loss of her friend when she went out between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Her body was found in the bushes near West 24th Avenue and Willow Street the following day.
Gavin was five-foot-two and weighted 123 pounds, had brown eyes and brown hair with bleached tips. She was found wearing a black short-sleeved T-shirt with “Gerry’s Country Inn, Calgary” printed in blue on the front.
Sowan, who was Indigenous, was five-feet-two-inches tall and 92 pounds, with shoulder-length black hair.
Police say both women worked in the sex trade and had struggled with addiction.
The Vancouver police created their cold case website in 2014, with the aim of soliciting tips to help solve historic murders.
The site currently includes the profiles of 15 unsolved homicides dating back to 1958.
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