It’s been so long since I’ve commented on this forum but I’m all caught up now!
Here’s my current thoughts-
Wow! It does seem likely that Marion met the Florabella she lived near as a child. That seems the most likely place she got the name from tbh! Great job tracking that down!
I want to preface my next statement by saying that I feel for sally and I want nothing more than for her to get answers. There’s been at least one instance where sally and/or representatives of hers have said that certain things have been fact and then they’ve turned out not to be fact, such as the Wagga teachers college stuff. Given that there’s no concrete evidence saying that phone call a) took place on the first and b) was made from Tunbridge Wells, I think there is a big possibility the date is incorrect. I can barely remember what I did last month, let alone what I was doing in August 1997 so I’m in no way blaming sally if she did make a mistake in remembering the date of the call or which bank she visited or where her mum went to college.
If the handwriting was in fact hers, then it was her on the plane. The call must have taken place on a different date or at the very least from a different location.
Next thing I wanted to say was that I agree with everyone who is outraged about the treatment of Fernand. Yikes. The ball was certainly dropped with him. Also I have said this before but it’s completely impossible that it was him that placed the ad. He just couldn’t have done it because of what police confirmed re no Remakels entering or leaving the country with reference to the 1990 date. It’s MUCH more likely that some catfish has used the name of a famous football player to try and pick up chicks! Why is there not more investigation being done into the art centre or the pilot or the dentist? Why are they so obsessed with Fernand? Is it because the conflict in the podcast makes for good listening?
Now, I have to confess I had to turn conversations 17 off because it made me really angry! I will admit I’m biased because I work within the legal industry in Australia (not affiliated with NCAT at all I don’t work in that field). Bryan sounded so self entitled raving on about how it’s not fair they haven’t got an NCAT decision yet and about how they’re waiting for it. Guess what Bryan? There’s about 6363726263 other people waiting for court/tribunal decisions too, you’re a number in a queue and just because this case is affiliated with a media organisation doesn’t give them the right to queue jump or expect special treatment. It really irritates me. You’ll get a decision when one is available, yes the legal system is slow, that’s just the way it is, there’s not enough resources allocated to it to make it go faster unfortunately. In my jurisdiction, it’s not uncommon to be waiting in excess of 6 months for a decision, in fact it’s pretty standard. Yes that sucks, but it is what it is.
Also, it wasn’t possible for her to be married in the UK but what about in another European country such as Luxembourg? I’ve tried to look into the marriage requirements before but it’s pretty hard to find info from back in that time period. There’s no reason to suggest she didn’t travel in Europe from the UK. If she didn’t get married legally, due to visa/other restrictions, maybe she had some sort of commitment ceremony and from that she considered herself married? I have family members who consider themselves married, despite not having a legal ceremony and only a commitment ceremony.
Could she have returned to Australia to apply for some sort of alternate visa? There are visas that you need to be in Australia to apply for right?
My theory at the moment is that she was having some sort of mental health issue that caused her to do some strange things and stage this disappearance.