New look at Denise Govendir murder case

A review by NSW Police of the 1998 murder of Denise Govendir may shortly lead to the investigation being reopened.

Aaron Govendir in Blaxland this week. Picture: Ryan Osland

The submission to the coroner ran to 52 pages, describing in meticulous detail the case police had built against Aaron Govendir, and the possibility that he had murdered his wife, Denise, on the night of March 9, 1998.

There were witness statements attesting to the psychological abuse she had suffered during three decades of marriage, and an impending divorce that stood to divide their assets.

There was Mr Govendir’s ­account of the evening, which ­always sat uncomfortably with detectives. He told them intruders had knocked at the door of their Dover Heights home, struck him on the head, and murdered his wife as he lay unconscious, his thumbs and toes bound with cable ties.

A hardware store attendant would later tell police she had seen Mr Govendir inspecting a packet of cable ties approximately one week prior to the murder. The coroner, too, noted that his injuries – two scratches on the scalp – were not consistent with the blow described in his story.

“Finally,” the lead detective submitted, “it is worth noting 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.”

Mr Govendir, aged 79, has ­remained the case’s likely suspect for the past 24 years, the ­investigation having long run cold despite the many wrinkles in his account of the crime.

But developments are imminent.

A two-year review of the case file is currently being finalised by NSW Police, with authorities to determine shortly whether they will reopen the investigation using fresh leads and statements obtained from witnesses.

There is also pressure building from some family members to offer a financial reward in exchange for further information.

“We are hugely disappointed and disillusioned that no charges have been laid by NSW police,” Denise’s cousin, Peter, told The Weekend Australian, asking that his surname be withheld.

“We’ve been advised that the circumstantial evidence surrounding this case is more than strong enough to ensure a conviction. Our family can only hope that justice will be done, because NSW police have certainly had more than long enough to ensure such an outcome.”

A NSW police spokeswoman declined to comment.

Mr Govendir has never spoken publicly about the death of his wife save for a press conference given in the days after the murder; it was cut short when he appeared overcome with emotion. He has declined previous requests from this journalist and hung up the phone when contacted on Friday.

“Sorry, not interested,” he said, when told the call related to the murder of his wife.

In findings delivered in 2008, acting state coroner Jacqueline Milledge cited the “significant circumstantial evidence” implicating Mr Govendir in the murder of his wife, and said it remained “unsettling” that, having freed himself from his restraints, he called an ambulance before checking on Denise.

“Given the assault on him, it would be reasonable to expect him to immediately run to her assistance prior to any phone contact with police,” she said.

A litany of inconsistencies was cited with Mr Govendir’s account, but Ms Milledge concluded there was “insufficient evidence” to identify a perpetrator beyond a reasonable doubt, a finding taken by detectives as a warning the case could fail if it proceeded to trial.

Relegated to the Unsolved Homicide Squad, the case file lay dormant for more than a decade until an independent review was prompted in 2019 by media reporting of the case.

One woman, spoken to recently by detectives, told them of a meeting she held with Mr Govendir in the days after the murder, in which she sought assurances that he was not involved with the crime.

“I said, ‘I just need you to tell me you didn’t do this, I need to hear that you didn’t do it’, and he said ‘I’ll tell you whatever you need to hear’, which was an odd answer,” she said, asking that her name not be published.

When pressed further, Mr Govendir allegedly “got up, ran to the toilet, and proceeded to throw up”, she said.

Denise Govendir.

Denise Govendir was not known to have enemies, rather the opposite, making her demise in such a violent death so puzzling to detectives. A victim profile would determine that she was adored by colleagues, held loving relationships with her mother and adult children, and that she was held in high regard by members of Sydney’s Jewish community.

At the time of her death, the 53-year-old had worked as the executive director of the Women’s International Zionist Organisation, a welfare body that fundraised for women and children living abroad.

Detectives would quickly rule out any link between this work and her murder, turning their minds instead to robbery as motive.

But this, too, seemed implausible. The house in Dover Heights, while high in value, was unremarkable in appearance and not suggestive of wealthy occupants. And, while the interior had been clearly ransacked, camera equipment, binoculars, mobile phones, wallets and cash were found untouched in the bedroom.

Aside from the family car – found parked with its doors locked a few streets away – no items of significance were missing.

“At this stage of the inquiry it was becoming increasingly difficult for investigators not to seriously consider the possibility that Aaron Govendir may well have been responsible for the death of his wife,” police told the coroner.

It troubled officers that a medical examiner found no swelling or bruising associated with the strike that allegedly knocked Mr Govendir unconscious. The matter of the cable ties had also become a focal point of inquiries. Sold under the brand name “Landia”, detectives learned they were available through a hardware franchise with 146 outlets nationwide, not all of which sold them.

One of these outlets was located a short drive from the Govendir family home, in Rose Bay, where a female attendant recalled assisting a customer around the same age and build as Mr Govendir. While she was unsure of the man’s identity, the witness said another attendant greeted the man a few minutes later, saying: “Hi Aaron, how are you going?”

One final twist would continue to intrigue detectives. It involved the near-identical murder of a young mother, Eva Webel, which bore striking similarities and links to the Govendir case.

In each case, the women were fatally injured with a blunt object. Both crimes involved a ransacking of their home, with no items stolen. And both women were in the process of divorcing their husbands, each of whom stood to benefit financially from their deaths.

Remarkably, Ms Webel’s husband, George, counted himself as a long-time friend of the Govendir family, and when he went on trial for the murder of his wife, in 1985, it was Aaron Govendir’s crucial alibi evidence, placing Mr Webel away from the crime scene, which bolstered the case.

Mr Webel was found not guilty by a jury.

Asked by this journalist during a 2019 interview if he wished to appeal for information to solve his wife’s murder, after 36 years, the Hungarian-born pensioner declined. It had been the only question over the course of an interview spanning hours that he was uneasy to discuss.

“No, thank you,” he said. “Call me selfish if you like, but nah. I worry that if I start making waves perhaps that bastard that did it finds me and then my life’s in danger too. I’ve got kids, I’ve got grandkids. I have to think of them.”