Bikie who was the last person to see Lisa Govan alive denies ever knowing heron April 24, 2025 at 6:21 am

An elusive bikie who for 26 years was thought to be the last person to see missing woman Lisa Govan alive has given extraordinary evidence at her coronial inquest.

By Rebecca Peppiatt

April 24, 2025 — 2.21pm

An elusive bikie who for 26 years was thought to be the last person to see missing woman Lisa Govan alive has given extraordinary evidence at her coronial inquest, claiming he does not remember meeting her, partying with her, nor spending the night with her.

Andrew Edhouse was once arrested on suspicion of killing 28-year-old Govan, but was never charged.

Govan went missing in 1999 in Kalgoorlie and an extensive police investigation revealed she was last seen with Edhouse, a Club Deroes Motorcycle Club member, and his friend Trevor Atkinson on the morning of October 8 that year.

An inquest began into Govan’s disappearance late last year, but was adjourned to allow Edhouse to be tracked down to appear as a witness.

On Thursday, Edhouse appeared via video link where he was peppered with questions about Govan and her final movements in front of her hopeful family.

They left court disappointed. Edhouse repeatedly denied even meeting Govan.

He did, however, acknowledge that as a current member of the Club Deroes, he was bound by a “code of silence” that meant he would never give police statements or interviews.

“I don’t talk to anyone who has done wrong by my friends or my family,” he said, repeating that he had no intention “now or in the future” of helping police after they had “screwed over” people close to him.

“You don’t talk to police about club members do you?” Coroner Michael Jenkin asked.

“That’s the general theme, yes,” Edhouse said.

“That extends, doesn’t it, to your associates not speaking to police for fear of retribution from the club?” Jenkin continued.

“So if another Club Deroes member spoke to police that would be outside the rules, the code?”

“I wouldn’t be happy about it,” Edhouse responded.

“What would happen?” Jenkin asked.

“I wouldn’t be happy about it and nor would many other people,” Edhouse said.

Atkinson – whom Edhouse on Thursday said remained a “good friend” – gave evidence at the inquest last November, also telling the court he remembered very little about the night or morning that Govan disappeared.

The inquest was told police received an anonymous tip-off in 2007 from a man named Ross Edwards, who claimed his boss – Kevin Smith – had sold cocaine to Edhouse on October 8, 1999 and the pair had driven to the Club Deroes clubhouse in Kalgoorlie that morning to hand over the drugs.

Edwards claimed the pair drove back to the clubhouse later to pick up a nail gun before heading to work, which is when Smith is alleged to have told him he had seen Govan lying on the floor of the clubhouse motionless and saw Edhouse “jump on her head”.

Smith, who was arrested but not charged with being an accessory to murder, later told the inquest he saw no such thing.

Edhouse – who at one point was grilled over his nickname “Crowie” and whether it related to breaking peoples’ legs with crowbars – said the night the woman went missing was “like any other night”.

“What’s your memory like of this?” counsel assisting the coroner Sue Markham asked.

“Not real good. At the time it was just another night,” Edhouse responded.

“It wasn’t just another night, though, because a couple of days later everybody was looking for a woman who was at the Deroes bar because she was missing?” Markham asked.

“The night itself, I can’t even recall her being there or that particular night. Someone going missing is unusual I admit that,” Edhouse said.

It was big news in Kalgoorlie? Police were searching your residence and the Deroes nightclub looking for any evidence, you recall that? – Yeah.

I’m suggesting this event, rather than being another night on the piss, was something that would be seared into your memory, a bookmark in your memory? – Yeah something like that, if I was involved, it would be a night to remember.

If you were involved? – Yes. The accusations put out in the media or wherever else, in court.

No trace of Govan has ever been found despite a $1 million police reward.

A search warrant executed at the Deroes clubhouse a week after her disappearance found gaming machines which appeared to have been moved and an area of floor that was freshly painted, with a section of carpet removed.

However, forensic samples of the area yielded no relevant evidence.

The inquest was told that nearly two decades later, in 2017, another search warrant executed at the clubhouse saw core samples taken from the concrete floor and under sections of the painted floor – but still no useful evidence was found.

That same year, the court was told, Edhouse was arrested on suspicion of Govan’s murder but was never charged. Over the years, Atkinson has been arrested on three occasions on suspicion of Govan’s murder, but has never been charged.

At the conclusion of Edhouse’s evidence on Thursday, Jenkin asked the bikie if, as the last person to have seen Govan alive, there was anything he could tell her family about what happened to her.

“This is probably their last occasion in their life that they will be able to connect to you. Is there nothing you can tell them about what happened to her?” he asked.

“Unfortunately I cannot,” Edhouse replied.

Jenkin then told the family he would deliver his findings and assessment in written form as soon as he could, but that he wanted to leave them with “a bit of a heads-up” about his thoughts, telling them it would be unlikely he would be able to make a finding about what happened.

“In those circumstances it will be an open finding,” he said.

“Which means it is open that Lisa may have been murdered, may have taken an overdose, and or that she died of natural causes.”

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