The unexpected discovery of a vintage nightclub sign during a Coquitlam home renovation has unearthed haunting memories of one of Vancouver's most tragic unsolved crime stories from the early 1980s.
A Startling Discovery in the Carport
Ilia Boutoma made an unusual find while renovating his carport shortly after moving into his Coquitlam home. As he took apart some wooden shelves, he noticed designs on the bottom of the plywood pieces. When he assembled them, they formed the complete sign for Marvin's Discotheque, a popular Vancouver nightclub from the 1970s that was connected to a double tragedy.
Boutoma told Postmedia that the sign consisted of four pieces of one-inch plywood that the previous homeowner had repurposed as shelves. Intrigued by his discovery, he began researching the establishment's history and uncovered a story far darker than he anticipated.
The Nightclub Owner's Violent Death
According to Vancouver Sun archives from July 19, 1982, the nightclub's owner, Starvin' Marvin Goldhar, died at age 29 after being stabbed repeatedly in the heart in a Kitsilano apartment on Cornwall Street. The murder occurred just one day after Goldhar's former residence at 1906 West 25th Avenue had been firebombed with two gasoline-filled beer bottles.
Newspaper reports from the time indicated Goldhar had been involved in a dispute over money. Police quickly identified a suspect and charged Paul Bogdanovich with second-degree murder. However, Bogdanovich fled before he could face trial, with one retired police officer later indicating he was believed to be in Italy.
One source with direct knowledge of the case revealed that police had come looking for Bogdanovich at his Gastown residence above the Blarney Stone bar at 214 Carrall Street at 3 a.m. the night of the murder. The source also stated that police told their landlord the dispute was related to a drug deal.
Double Tragedy Strikes
The story took another devastating turn just two weeks after Goldhar's murder. On August 3, 1982, Goldhar's fiancée, Kacey Cohen - an heiress to the Army and Navy department store fortune - died in a high-speed crash on the Stanley Park causeway.
Cohen, 28, had been returning from a tree planting ceremony held in Goldhar's memory in Deep Cove. She was driving her Ferrari with Goldhar's former wife, Marie Similia, as a passenger when the sports car swerved into oncoming traffic.
Cohen died from head injuries at Vancouver General Hospital. Police estimated the Ferrari had been traveling at speeds up to 145 km/h, though Similia disputed this, telling The Sun that Cohen "could handle the car" and wasn't going that fast when the accident occurred.
Similia provided a harrowing account of the crash's final moments: "It was not until we were skidding that I realized what was happening and I reached for her. She had her seatbelt on, it broke, and she came flying across to my side smashing against the window. I held her up so she was not swallowing the blood that was pouring down her throat."
Cold Case Resurfaces Through Social Media
Boutoma posted images of the restored sign and newspaper clippings on Facebook, asking for public help in piecing together the complete story. His post attracted significant attention, with many Vancouver residents sharing their own memories of the nightclub and the tragic events surrounding its owner.
"The deeper I went searching up the story of that fellow's establishments and his death … the more interesting it kept getting!" Boutoma wrote in his social media post.
The discovery serves as a tangible connection to Vancouver's nightlife history and one of the city's most poignant unsolved crimes. Four decades later, the mystery of who killed Starvin' Marvin Goldhar remains officially unresolved, though the case file remains open with Vancouver Police.
