The Disappearance of 12yo Lisa Mott - WA

[Kurve]

Lisa Marie Mott was born in May 1968, she was 12 years of age at the time of her disappearance and lived on Atkinson Street in Collie with her Mother and two sisters.

CASE DETAILS:

At 6.45pm on Thursday 30 October 1980, Lisa left her home address to go to the local basketball courts situated on Throssell Street, Collie. At the time she was accompanied by a friend and had her mother’s permission to attend the courts on the understanding that she would get a lift home with the mother of Lisa’s friend. This was only the third time Lisa had been permitted out at night time with all previous occasions; to attend the basketball courts.

Lisa shot some goals at the courts but spent most of her time talking and socialising with several friends. At 8.45pm Lisa and a friend went to a pizza shop opposite the courts and returned to the courts a few minutes later.

At 9pm Lisa decided to walk home, with a friend accompanying her part of the way. They walked along Throssell Street, turning right on to Harvey Street towards the railway crossing. Within this vicinity Lisa’s friend stopped as she had to return to the basketball courts, and watched Lisa cross the railway line to Forrest Street.

This was the last time Lisa was sighted and she has not been seen since. The person or persons responsible for Lisa’s disappearance have not yet been identified.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Lisa Marie Mott, please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

LISA MARIE MOTT • Crime Stoppers Western Australia

DESCRIPTION:

www.crimestopperswa.com.au

 

[metic]

Detectives probe Lisa Mott’s disappearance 40 years on

Cold case detectives visited Collie last week to gather more information about the disappearance and suspected murder of 12-year-old Lisa Mott, who vanished from the town 40 years ago on Friday.

www.bunburyherald.com.au

"Cold case detectives visited Collie last week to gather more information about the disappearance and suspected murder of 12-year-old Lisa Mott, who vanished from the town 40 years ago on Friday."

 

[metic]

I know Lisa Mott's face , i've known it for 44 yrs.
I was 8 years old, and my sister was 10, she looked similar to Lisa mott so it had a noticeable effect on me, I still remember somewhat looking at lisas smile like the girl next door.
I was located pretty close to Lisa ,(a two hour drive away) my mother warned us to be cautious of sus cars/ panel vans/ (yellow panel van perhaps) as we had to go 2km to school bustop.
A few years later I would meet Lisa's brother and share classroom in high school.
Sad case, pray it gets solved soon [emoji120]

 

[Del220684]

It's so so sad that know one here nor the Western Australian media seems to be interested in beautiful Little Lisa!

I did a 2 part documentary on the 40th Anniversary of Lisa's disappearance on YouTube if anyone is interested feel free to watch and share!

 

[metic]

It's so so sad that know one here nor the Western Australian media seems to be interested in beautiful Little Lisa!

I did a 2 part documentary on the 40th Anniversary of Lisa's disappearance on YouTube if anyone is interested feel free to watch and share!

Yep post it here please

 

[FTY1]

Hey Met

This is a good one.



I think they have based it on a show that was around the 40th anniversary that I remember seeing. If it doesn't start part way through it commences just after 6 minutes in. The only thing they got wrong was it was reopened in 2000 after someone witnessed the yellow panel van but we both know that was a lot earlier.

 

[Del220684]

Yep post it here please

Youtube or google the keywords Lisa Marie Mott and you'll find my videos Metic

 

[Albertonarmy]

It's so so sad that know one here nor the Western Australian media seems to be interested in beautiful Little Lisa!

I did a 2 part documentary on the 40th Anniversary of Lisa's disappearance on YouTube if anyone is interested feel free to watch and share!

They reckon David Birnie did it, was working in Collie at the time

 

[zedx]

They reckon David Birnie did it, was working in Collie at the time

Agree. I would like to see his partner/wife from that time interviewed again, now that he is dead.

 

[FTY1]

Yesterday was the 44th Anniversary of Lisa Mott's disappearance.

WA police published a new season of Cold Case Western Australia with Lisa Mott Part 1 interviewing her sisters Vicki and Bernadette and the ongoing affect it had on their family.

 

[Eaglette01]

Lisa Mott cold case: Cold case detectives open mobile police facility in Collie in fresh bid for clues​

November 6, 2024 8:40AM

Detectives in WA town to crack vanishing schoolgirl mystery

Cold case detectives have travelled to the South West town of Collie in a fresh bid for clues in their quest to crack the disappearance and suspected murder of schoolgirl Lisa Mott more than 40 years ago.

www.perthnow.com.au

Cold case detectives have travelled to the South West town of Collie in a fresh bid for clues in their quest to crack the disappearance and suspected murder of schoolgirl Lisa Mott more than 40 years ago.

Senior detectives from the cold case investigation section will be stationed at a mobile police facility on Forrest Street on Wednesday and urge locals with information about the 12-year-old’s disappearance to speak with them.

A $1 million reward still stands for information that solves the schoolgirl’s suspected murder, and now, police are hoping new leads will give her grieving family closure more than four decades on.

Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Dowding said losing a child without any explanation was “every parent’s worst nightmare”.

“We want to find that explanation and we believe that’s possible with the help of the community,” he said.

“Any small piece of information may be all we need to progress this investigation and find the answers for Lisa’s family.”

Police say that on the night of October 30, 1980, Lisa had journeyed to the local Collie basketball courts, on Throssel Street, to play with a friend but never made it back home.

She attended the courts before making her way to a nearby pizza shop and was last seen on her walk home crossing a railway line towards Forrest Street about 9pm.

At the time of her disappearance, Lisa was seen wearing a light-blue shirt and dark blue towelling shorts with a white trim around the legs. She is believed to have been wearing a pair of brown and fawn-striped sneakers with white socks.

When police travelled to Collie in 2020, Lisa’s mother said the first 10 years after Lisa’s vanishing were an “absolute despair”.

“There was nothing else but black,” she told The West.

“(But) I had other kids which needed a mother.

“I wasn’t any good at that for a while.

“Even now, it is a rough time for me. It’s been pretty hard.

“I was just sitting here thinking about what a lovely kid Lisa was. She was just gorgeous.”

The renewed call for information comes after the launch of the second season of WA Police’s Cold Case Western Australia podcast, which features Lisa’s case.

Anybody with information is urged to approach the mobile police facility or call crime stoppers on 1800 333 000.

 

[Fifty n Closing]

New article today in the West and also and new episode on the Cold Case Western Australia Podcast if someone tech savvy gets the chance to attach.

 

[zedx]

New article today in the West and also and new episode on the Cold Case Western Australia Podcast if someone tech savvy gets the chance to attach.

Similar to the article posted above.

Panel van could hold key to 44-year-old mystery of Lisa Mott

A yellow panel van previously disregarded as being linked to the suspected murder of Collie schoolgirl Lisa Mott has re-emerged as a central clue in the 44-year-old mystery.

thewest.com.au

.....Cold case police are again examining the 1970s Holden, decades after the car was ruled out as having anything to do with the 12-year-old’s fate.........
A yellow panel van previously disregarded as being linked to the suspected murder of Collie schoolgirl Lisa Mott has re-emerged as a central clue in the 44-year-old mystery.......A 10-year-old girl told police she watched Lisa get into a yellow panel van, likely a Holden HQ, HR, HT or HZ..........In 1996, detectives swarmed over an abandoned car in bushland near Hoddell Road.

Lisa Mott was last seen around a yellow panel van like this one in Collie October 30 1980. Credit: Unknown/South West Times
It matched the description given by the girl, except for the fact it had rear windows.

The young witness was adamant the vehicle she saw Lisa get into did not have windows at the back.

The metal plate listing the HQ Holden’s vehicle identification number was missing but police were able to cut out and preserve the number stamped into the chassis.......
The owner has never been tracked down.

By 2005, police had discounted the car’s relevance but a local man put it back on the radar when he said he saw both the witness and the car near where Lisa vanished.

The van’s relevance to the case came to the fore again in November when the cold case squad set up a police mobile facility in Collie as part of a fresh appeal for information.......
Officers at the scene were given information that made detectives re-double their efforts to find the owner of the car.

The emergency operations unit and recruits from the WA Police Academy are now preparing to search for more clues in the bushland on Hoddell Road, near where the car was found in 1996........

 

[stormbird]

ABC News, 25 March 2025

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...vestigation-yellow-panel-van-collie/105091974

"Lisa's sister Bernadette Mott was just three years old when Lisa went missing.

She said it would be hard to stop her mind racing with the renewed search.

"It's very difficult to stop hoping, especially when this has come about," Ms Mott said.

"I don't know how to feel to be honest, I'm just trying to get through it."

Ms Mott urged anyone that knew something about the vehicle to come forward, even if it meant ruling out it was the same yellow panel van Lisa was seen getting into.

"Somebody has to know other than the driver, they would have friends, family, suspicions maybe," she said.

"Someone out there has to know something surely."

 

[Mudman85]

The Birnie was link was always mentioned but could never be confirmed he was there at the right time from memory.

If this van was reported in 1996 and not thoroughly searched or investigated at the time other than ruling it out due to the windows that's pretty typical of WA police work during that period. Adding windows to a panel van is not a difficult modification(if the little girls recollection of the vehicle is accurate)

I wonder long did it sit in the bush before being reported.

 

[zedx]

The Birnie was link was always mentioned but could never be confirmed he was there at the right time from memory.

If this van was reported in 1996 and not thoroughly searched or investigated at the time other than ruling it out due to the windows that's pretty typical of WA police work during that period. Adding windows to a panel van is not a difficult modification(if the little girls recollection of the vehicle is accurate)

I wonder long did it sit in the bush before being reported.

Agree, also sometimes peoples memories are not quite correct. Its pretty gut wrenching that both the car and the area were not searched properly when it was first found. Who knows what they may have found.

 

[Eaglette01]

The dumped yellow panel van photo:

Based on information they received, detectives are reinvestigating a yellow Holden panel van that was found abandoned in bushland near Hoddell Road.

The vehicle was investigated at the time it was initially reported in 1996.

Abandoned panel van could hold clues to teen's disappearance 44 years ago

Police investigating the suspected murder of 12-year-old Lisa Mott in the WA town of Collie in 1980 appeal for help as they try to identify the owner of a yellow panel van previously found dumped in bushland.

www.abc.net.au

Someone has been using as bullet practice ? I'm no expert as to those holes !
IMO we need someone like the burger-boys (CSK) to crack open this case. A tip off.

 

[Mudman85]

The dumped yellow panel van photo:

Based on information they received, detectives are reinvestigating a yellow Holden panel van that was found abandoned in bushland near Hoddell Road.

The vehicle was investigated at the time it was initially reported in 1996.

View attachment 2261248

Abandoned panel van could hold clues to teen's disappearance 44 years ago

Police investigating the suspected murder of 12-year-old Lisa Mott in the WA town of Collie in 1980 appeal for help as they try to identify the owner of a yellow panel van previously found dumped in bushland.

www.abc.net.au

Someone has been using as bullet practice ? I'm no expert as to those holes !
IMO we need someone like the burger-boys (CSK) to crack open this case. A tip off.

They obviously got a tip last year that the person who owned the van was worthy of further investigation.

 

[Eaglette01]

Channel 9 news Tue 25 March 2025:

There is even a yellow panel van shown in the video where the Pizza shop was.
Police don't know the history of the panel van or who owned it (yet)

9News - Latest news and headlines from Australia and the world

Latest news and headlines from Australia and the world

www.9news.com.au

 

[BomberManU]

Pretty crazy that it sat there for 16 years before being reported. Presumably people came across it before then, but didn't think twice about it?

 

[Eaglette01]

Lisa Mott: Detectives locate car parts believed to have belonged to old yellow panel van during grid-search​

Jessica EvensenThe West Australian
March 27, 2025 10:03AM

Clues unearthed in search for Lisa Mott’s suspected killer

Police searching the Mumballup State Forest near Collie in the South West have found car parts they believe could be central to helping solve the case.

www.perthnow.com.au

Cold case detectives believe they have found an old exhaust pipe and muffler belonging to an abandoned yellow panel van that could hold the central clue to the suspected murder of Collie schoolgirl Lisa Mott.

Police on Thursday confirmed that they had found the car parts during an extensive grid-search of the Mumballup State Forest on Tuesday.

They also said they had received more than 100 calls to Crime Stoppers from members of the public.

Det-Sgt Dowding said police were desperate to find out who owned the van.

“We don’t know its history but that’s what we want to find out today,” he said.

“I’d ask if the person who abandoned the panel van today would come forward. Just give us a reason, so we know the history of it.

“We do have a lot of data from panel vans that were investigated in 1980, so we can match that data to see if that panel van was investigated.”

 

[stormbird]

From ABC News, 03 Apr 2025:

'[People] have never forgotten Lisa, they've never forgotten the family," Detective Sergeant Greg Dowding said.

"So, as long as we keep that information coming in then the closer we'll get." ...

"The amount of information we're getting has been amazing and that's a credit to the community."

Sergeant Dowding said the information came from across the state, buoying confidence that police would eventually solve the cold case.

"We always go in with the attitude that we’re able to solve an investigation, so that's the attitude we run with," he said.'

 

[mrskafoops]

Police call for information about man seen talking to Collie schoolgirl Lisa Mott​

Search on for man seen talking to missing schoolgirl 45 years ago

Lisa Mott, 12, was last seen in the WA town of Collie almost 45 years ago. Now, police say a witness claims he saw her talking to a man leaning on a yellow panel van.

www.abc.net.au