$1m reward for Denise Govendir cold case information

NSW Police are offering a $1m reward to anyone who knows anything that might finally solve the 25-year-old Denise Govendir murder case.

Denise Govendir.

For 25 years, Aaron Govendir has declined offers to appeal for information about the murder of his wife, Denise. Now homicide detectives are doing so on his behalf, offering a $1m reward to anyone with information that might solve the case.

Police will announce the development on Friday at a press conference being attended by family members seeking ­answers for Denise, whose body was discovered by her husband at their home in Sydney’s Dover Heights on the morning of March 9, 1998.

Am inquest concluded there was “significant circumstantial evidence” linking Mr Govendir to the crime, but not enough to identify the perpetrator or perpetrators beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Despite extensive investigations by police at the time, no one has been charged in relation to her death,” a statement to be released by police on Friday reads.

“The matter currently remains under investigation by the Unsolved Homicide Unit under Strike Force Gulak and, as inquiries continue, police are renewing their appeal for information with a $1m reward.”

Aaron Govendir in Blaxland, NSW, in 2021.

Denise’s cousin Michael Freedman said he was delighted that police had offered a substantial reward and that they were continuing with their efforts to find the perpetrator of this “terrible crime”.

“Denise was a wonderful, warm and generous person whose life was brutally cut short in the most horrific of circumstances,” he said.

“The effect on her family, her friends and her community has been profound. Her murder continues to impact us 25 years on. If anyone has any information that may assist police in finding justice for Denise our family urges them to come forward now.”

Police began their investigation into Denise’s murder with a pool of leads, later narrowing their inquiry towards an examination of Mr Govendir, noting that his wife was preparing to divorce him at the time, and that this would have resulted in a substantial division of their assets.

Witnesses spoke of the extensive psychological abuse Denise had suffered during the marriage, and insisted she was a beloved member of the community with no enemies, making her murder, with a blunt object, all the more puzzling.

Denise Govendir, executive director of the Jewish charity Beth Wizo, was murdered in her Dover Heights home.

There were also inconsistencies with Mr Govendir’s account. He claimed that he answered a knock at the door in the early hours of the morning and was knocked unconscious by a hit on the head. He woke to find his thumbs and toes in cable ties. He managed to free himself before calling an ambulance, only then checking on his wife.

The coroner noted that the delay on the welfare check of his wife was “unsettling” and that the injuries, amounting to two scratches, were inconsistent with the blow Mr Govendir described in his statement.

The lead detective, meanwhile, submitted to the coroner that “at the time of writing, Aaron Govendir still lives in the house where his wife of 30 years died a brutal death, and still drives the motor vehicle in which it is ­alleged his wife’s killer, or killers, made good their escape”.

Peter Glass, another cousin of Denise, said that “25 years after poor Denise’s murder, there’s a huge amount of circumstantial evidence pointing to one person in particular”.

“We’re hoping that the reward offered by the NSW Police will produce the final evidence that will allow the police to arrest this person and charge them with Denise’s murder,” he said. “This will bring some degree of closure to the family, following this callous and cowardly murder.”