Lisa Mott cold case detectives receive more than 190 new reports from public
Lisa Mott disappeared from her home town of Collie, in WA's south-west, in 1980 at the age of 12. (Supplied: WA Police)
In short:
Detectives are unable rule a yellow panel van from their investigations into missing Collie schoolgirl Lisa Mott, last seen in 1980.
Police have received 190 new reports from the public, off the back of a recent search of bushland where the panel van was found.
What's next?
Investigations continue and a $1 million reward for information leading to an arrest or conviction in the case remains unclaimed.
Detectives investigating the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl near Collie more than 40 years ago say fresh search efforts have generated more than 100 new reports, but no clear breakthrough.
Lisa Mott was last seen getting into a yellow panel van on Forrest Street in Collie, 200 kilometres south of Perth, around 9pm on October 30, 1980.
It was only the third time her mother had let her go out at night without an adult.
A renewed effort to engage the public sparked a search of bushland near Collie last week, focused around a similar yellow van.
Cold Case Squad detectives said the search — to be the first of several around the town — yielded an "amazing" community response, but no case-solving evidence.
"They've 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."
Van still in focus
While last week's search located an external exhaust pipe, it was not connected to the van, which was dumped in Mumballup State Forest and first reported in 1996.
But the vehicle remains a point of interest, due to the ongoing similarity to the van Lisa was seen getting into.
Sergeant Dowding said police remained keen to identify its owner, and unrelated reports generated by the search were still being looked at.
Last week's search involved an abandoned yellow panel van found in bushland. (ABC South West: Jacqueline Lynch)
"There are other things they [the public] might know of … or haven't reported before," he said.
"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.
Police have been scouring busland near Collie. (ABC South West: Jacqueline Lynch)
A $1 million reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction in the Lisa Mott case remains unclaimed.
Police will continue investigations in Collie, but are yet to identify other areas of interest.