Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Vancouver police add two unsolved murders to its cold cases website

VPD have been investigating the two homicides since 1988
Glenna Sowan Cold Case murder from 1988
Vancouver police have added the murders of Lisa Gavin and Glenna "Dusty" Sowan to the VPD Cold Cases website after investigating since 1988

The Vancouver Police Department has added two unsolved murders to its Cold Cases website with the hope someone will come forward with information.

The victims were two friends, Lisa Gavin and Glenna “Dusty” Sowan, killed six weeks apart in 1988, according to the VPD.

Gavin was last seen alive on Aug. 12, 1988 when she left a friend’s apartment near Broadway and St. Catherine’s Street just before midnight. She told her friend she would be back in an hour, but her body was found hours later in a lane near Knight Street and East 49th Avenue.

Sowan was last seen on Sept. 29, 1988 inside an apartment near East 6th Avenue and St. George Street. She went out sometime between 1 and 5 p.m. and her body was discovered the next day in some bushes near West 24th Avenue and Willow Street. 

Both victims were sex workers and Gavin was struggling with addiction. 

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

VPD’s Cold Cases website currently includes profiles of 15 unsolved murders, dating back to 1958.

Details about Lisa Gavin and Glenna Sowan’s murders, including photos, maps and news clippings, can now be found on the Cold Cases website.