Grim TV clip re-emerges after husband charged with wife’s murder

Aaron Govendir has been charged with his wife’s murder after 25 years. Now a chilling clip of him at a press conference has re-emerged.

The husband of a woman who was killed in her Sydney home 26 years ago has been sensationally charged with her murder.

Denise Govendir, 53, was brutally bashed to death in a supposed home invasion in Dover Heights on March 10, 1998.

Her husband Aaron Govendir, now 81, told police that someone broke into the couple’s home and knocked him unconscious before tying him up with cable ties.

Govendir also told police that the attacker made off with the family’s 1997 Ford Laser sedan.

He even gave an emotional press conference in which he made a plea for information about the mystery assailant.

Aaron Govendir, the husband of Denise Govendir, giving a press conference appealing for witnesses in 1998 following Denise's murder. He has never spoken publicly since.

“Somebody out there probably knows something about what happened or who did it,” he said.

He was then overcome with emotion and was unable to continue, being led out by sympathetic police officers.

On Thursday, Govendir was arrested and charged with his wife's murder.

Homicide squad commander Danny Doherty said Govendir was “emotionless” when he was arrested by police.

Denise Govendir. Picture: NSW Police

Ms Govendir was 53 when she died.

Doherty said the arrest had been met with mixed emotions by the couple’s children.

“That family has been holding the burden of grief for some time but they’ve also kept a lantern of hope for the last 26 years and today we were able to give them the news that they’ve been waiting for,” Doherty said.

The house where Denise Govendir was allegedly murdered on March 10, 1998.

“At the end of the day, it’s never going to bring their mother back and we’ve now charged the man (who is allegedly) responsible, who is their father.”

Police will allege in court the 1998 robbery was “staged” by Govendir,

“What we’ll allege in the facts is that there was no break-in, there was no bogus police officer,” Doherty said.

A coronial inquest in 2008 found Govendir was the lead person of interest in the unsolved homicide but police did not pursue charges.