Lisa Marie Gavin was a funny kid who loved horses and showed no fear. Her foster sister, Sharon Tuerlings, remembers Lisa as a child walking right up to their horse, Shadow, and holding onto his leg as the old horse walked her around the corral. Born in a prison hospital in 1966, Lisa lived with a foster family in Richmond, British Columbia, from the time she was a few months old until she was nine. Her foster sister recalled it as a "wonderful happy childhood." As a young woman, Lisa Gavin, 21, stood five-foot-two, weighed 123 pounds, and had brown hair with bleached tips. By 1988, however, she was struggling with drug addiction and working in the sex trade in Vancouver.
Just before midnight on Friday, August 12, 1988, Lisa left a friend's apartment near Broadway and St. Catherine's Street in East Vancouver. She told her friend she was going out to work for an hour and would be right back. She never returned. Hours later, at 6:50 a.m.
on August 13, a resident discovered her partially clothed body in a back alley near Knight Street and East 49th Avenue. An autopsy revealed she had been brutally beaten, raped, and strangled to death. When found, she was wearing a black short-sleeved T-shirt with the words “Gerry’s Country Inn, Calgary” printed in blue on the front.
The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) immediately launched a homicide investigation. Lisa’s murder was one of several that occurred in a similar fashion, leading to suspicions of a serial killer. These slayings came to be known as the "Alley Murders." The victims were often women involved in sex work who were found dumped in lanes and alleyways around the city. In response to the string of killings, the VPD and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) formed a joint task force called E-Alley to investigate the connected cases.
Tragically, Lisa’s death was not the only loss her circle of friends would endure. Just six weeks later, in late September 1988, her close friend Glenna "Dusty" Sowan, 25, was also murdered. Sowan, who had been struggling with the loss of Lisa, was found strangled and beaten behind a house on West 24th Avenue. The similarities between the murders of Lisa, Glenna, and at least four other women between 1988 and 1990 were striking. The other victims were identified as Rose Minnie Peters, Tracey Leigh Chartrand, Francis “Annie” Grant, and Karen Lee Taylor.
For years, investigators pursued leads and re-examined evidence in the Alley Murders. Retired detectives who worked on the E-Alley task force later stated they were certain they had identified the man responsible for the killings, but he died of poor health in 2007 before he could be charged. Because he was never convicted, his name was not officially released to the public, and the cases, including Lisa's, remain officially unsolved.
Decades have passed, but the search for justice continues. In March 2022, the Vancouver Police Department added Lisa Gavin’s and Glenna Sowan's profiles to its online cold case portal, hoping to generate new leads. "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," said VPD Sergeant Steve Addison at the time. "Even the smallest bit of information could lead to a break in these cases and help us catch the killers."
As of June 2023, Lisa Gavin's homicide remains an open and active cold case with the Vancouver Police Department. Her story, and those of the other women killed, serve as a painful reminder of a dark period in the city's history. Investigators still believe that someone in the community may hold the key to formally closing the case and bringing a measure of peace to the families who have waited for answers for more than three decades. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Vancouver Police Department Homicide Unit or Crime Stoppers.
