As part of a renewed appeal to find answers to the 44-year-old cold case of Lisa Marie Mott, the Western Australian Government—together with the WA Police Force and Crime Stoppers—is offering the public a $1 million reward for information regarding the 12-year-old’s disappearance.

At approximately 6:45pm on Thursday 30 October 1980 Lisa left home to attend a local basketball competition at the Collie Basketball Courts on Throssell Street, Collie, 200km south of Perth.

At about 8:45pm, she went to a pizza shop opposite the courts with a friend, returning to the basketball courts a short time later, where she met a young girl (eyewitness) for the first time.

At about 9:00pm, the two girls left the courts and walked westward along Throssell Street, turning right and heading northward along Harvey Street to the railway crossing. Lisa’s friend stopped and told her she would watch her until she got past Coles, a location just down from the Collie ‘Hot Spot’ shop on Forrest Street.

Lisa walked across Forrest Street and behind a yellow panel van, stopped on the footpath opposite the ‘Hot Spot’ and paused as if an occupant had spoken to her. Her friend watched her walk to the passenger side of the panel van and get in. The interior light came on before a male person drove the van off.

From the eyewitness account, and information provided some years later, the yellow panel van appears to have been a Holden HQ, HJ, HX, or HZ model built between 1971 and 1980. The eyewitness described it as having a “tradie”-type roof rack and no windows.

In August 2024 cold case investigators reviewed Lisa’s disappearance, released a podcast and, in November 2024, travelled to Collie with a mobile police facility stationed on Forrest Street.

Acting on information received from the public during that deployment, detectives reinvestigated a yellow Holden panel van abandoned in the bush area of Hoddell Road in Collie, which had previously been reported and investigated by police in 1996.

As all vehicle identification had been removed, investigators forensically retrieved a “chassis number” and inquiries are continuing to ascertain this panel van's owner.

The case is still under active investigation.

In March 2025 cold case investigators—with the assistance of the Emergency Operations Unit and recruits from the WA Police Academy—searched the bushland area in the Mumballup State Forest, Collie.

Operation Scoris investigators are seeking additional information that may assist their inquiries.

EDITORIAL

In every police jurisdiction in Australia, there are open and unsolved cases.

In an ongoing series, the APJ will highlight different cases from all over the country in the hope of uncovering a clue – a lead that helps end the mystery and bring some form of closure for the victims’ loved ones.

It’s hoped the nationwide circulation of the APJ will give these cases broader coverage; someone, somewhere, may know something.

If you have a case that you believe may benefit from exposure in 'Unsolved' please email Bouda@apjl.com.au.