Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, Jun 1997 #3

[Brejay53]

Maybe she abruptly returned to Australia because she was forced too by someone she had been seeing..
Manipulated her and she changed her name to make him happy maybe? To show her commitment to him..
I believe it was Marion taking the money out of the account..
I also am now swaying towards her coming to some harm once she returned..
If she was alive she would know by now Sally is looking for her. So surely she would get in contact with police and state she doesn’t want contact again.. the fact this hasn’t be done makes me think she has passed away..

 

[Meligator]

I have another theory—that she got into a relationship with a man in Australia and was untruthful with him about her life (e.g., said she didn’t have kids, not a 3 time divorcee, etc). As the relationship progressed, the only way to keep him without confessing to the lie was to make her old life disappear. This would explain her efforts to hide him from Sally at the McDonalds. Maybe she told this man her real was Florabella N Marion Remakel. When she returns from U.K., the two marry and she takes on his last name.

 

[Deleted member 249471]

I’m trying to understand it… please let me know if I got something wrong… or if you see it differently…

In this potential scenario, she meets a man by the surname of Remakel in Australia. He’s charming but controlling and manipulative.

Although Marion’s never shied away from introducing men to her family before, she does not introduce Remakel because he forces her not to. If she even hints to her kids that she is seeing someone, he will end the relationship!

He tricks her into having a pretend marriage ceremony before moving to Luxembourg. So someone else is complicit in this scenario.

As she thinks they are married, she changes her surname to his surname. She also changes her entire name because it sounds more ‘Luxembourgish’. He might've forced her to change her name, the man is controlling and Marion will do anything for love. Yet, she did not show signs of being in love, but stressed and acting unusual according to family and friends.

But first, they go on holiday together to England with the goal of journeying on the Orient Express. But it never happens.

They return to Australia together with the intention of informing family, withdrawing cash and sending shipping container to Luxembourg where they will finally get to live! Yet on the passenger card, she says she’s already a housewife living in Luxembourg.

So did they live in Luxembourg for 6 weeks? Or was she vacationing in England? Did she lie on postcards and phone call? Or did she lie on passenger card? As far as we can tell, she hasn't 'moved' to Luxembourg yet.

Once in Australia, she only intends to stay for 8 days to visit family as stated on passenger card. However, from 2 Aug to Sep when she last used her Medicare in Grafton, she does not visit family. He forced her not to. Then he did something to her.

He has since taken her money and either stayed in Australia or went overseas. Either way, his name isn't actually Remakel.

According to the podcast, there are no other Remakel’s in Australia. I can’t remember the precise words of Gary on it, but something along the lines of, apart from Florabella, no other Remakel’s have entered or left Australia around the time Marion did.

So, Marion’s potential fake husband made her change her name to a name that wasn’t even his, nor on his passport. This was a con all along.

I only wonder why the police kept saying someone had spoken to Marion and insisted they did in the months leading up to July 2007. This is evidenced by an email obtained via FOI. I still believe the con man scenario could be true AND someone involved either feed police bad info, or someone in the police was involved and made up the bad info.

Whatever happened, I feel terrible for Marion and her family

 

[Sparkles5777]

I have another theory—that she got into a relationship with a man in Australia and was untruthful with him about her life (e.g., said she didn’t have kids, not a 3 time divorcee, etc). As the relationship progressed, the only way to keep him without confessing to the lie was to make her old life disappear. This would explain her efforts to hide him from Sally at the McDonalds. Maybe she told this man her real was Florabella N Marion Remakel. When she returns from U.K., the two marry and she takes on his last name.

Ohh that's an interesting theory. It would explain why she was weird about the man at the petrol station and the podcast also mentions the night Marion didn't come home and told Lesley she was with Sally, when she wasn't and no one seems know where she was.

 

[Deleted member 249471]

I am coming around MrsEmmaPeel! Although there are a few little inconsistences, no one (including myself) has yet come up with a theory without them. This is one of the rare potential scenarios posted on here that fits the entirety of the timeline, not just part of it. The most plausible yet MOO

 

[KateM]

Maybe she abruptly returned to Australia because she was forced too by someone she had been seeing..
Manipulated her and she changed her name to make him happy maybe? To show her commitment to him..
I believe it was Marion taking the money out of the account..
I also am now swaying towards her coming to some harm once she returned..
If she was alive she would know by now Sally is looking for her. So surely she would get in contact with police and state she doesn’t want contact again.. the fact this hasn’t be done makes me think she has passed away..

I agree.

 

[Seriallyaddicted]

So the police reportedly contacted Marion around the time of the bank withdrawals in order to establish if she was in fact missing and Marion said she didn’t want her family to contact her.
Is that right that she queried the policeman about how he found her?

How do we think he found her to call her?

Do we know if the policeman at the time knew about her Remakel name change?
If he did, is it possible the policeman did a Remakel search and found the F. Remakel number in the phone book (Lennox head or nearby) and called that thinking it might have been Florabella Remakel?

or if the policeman didn’t know about the name change, did he find it through Marion using her credit card and booking accommodation?

 

[Sophie-Renee]

I have another theory—that she got into a relationship with a man in Australia and was untruthful with him about her life (e.g., said she didn’t have kids, not a 3 time divorcee, etc). As the relationship progressed, the only way to keep him without confessing to the lie was to make her old life disappear. This would explain her efforts to hide him from Sally at the McDonalds. Maybe she told this man her real was Florabella N Marion Remakel. When she returns from U.K., the two marry and she takes on his last name.

This is all possible and of course all unlikely and very possible all at the same time. Nothing can be verified it seems as to what happened to Marion upon her return other than fact someone withdrew from her bank in 3 locations and someone used her medicare card for something. That's about it. The first thing surely would be to determine if someone was with her upon return and if so who. They need to be investigating all checked in names at novotel with a 2 person occupancy and cross referencing those names with a passenger list for her return flight. Surely they can now obtain this and surely once they did those checks could be done relatively quickly. And if payment details for flight and hotel could also somehow be obtained and cross referenced, even better... because the problem is someone could give any name to book a hotel and cover their tracks... but name on a credit or debit card would be a bit more tricky to fake.

 

[sunnynz]

So the police reportedly contacted Marion around the time of the bank withdrawals in order to establish if she was in fact missing and Marion said she didn’t want her family to contact her.
Is that right that she queried the policeman about how he found her?

How do we think he found her to call her?

Do we know if the policeman at the time knew about her Remakel name change?
If he did, is it possible the policeman did a Remakel search and found the F. Remakel number in the phone book (Lennox head or nearby) and called that thinking it might have been Florabella Remakel?

or if the policeman didn’t know about the name change, did he find it through Marion using her credit card and booking accommodation?

Interesting point to ponder. I imagine there wouldn’t have been time for her new name to make it into a printed phone book by that time (she would have had to have a phone account registered at an address too). But I’m presuming she maybe gave the bank some contact details when she withdrew the cash and they found her that way.

 

[KiwiNZ]

So the police reportedly contacted Marion around the time of the bank withdrawals in order to establish if she was in fact missing and Marion said she didn’t want her family to contact her.
Is that right that she queried the policeman about how he found her?

How do we think he found her to call her?

Do we know if the policeman at the time knew about her Remakel name change?
If he did, is it possible the policeman did a Remakel search and found the F. Remakel number in the phone book (Lennox head or nearby) and called that thinking it might have been Florabella Remakel?

or if the policeman didn’t know about the name change, did he find it through Marion using her credit card and booking accommodation?

According to the podcast the bank contacted Marion not the police, and the name change wasn’t known by police at the time

 

[KiwiNZ]

does anyone know if this is the only timeline for the case, or is there a more up to date / detailed one ?

https://7news.com.au/original-fyi/t...line-of-marion-barters-disappearance-c-200848

 

[Itsapuzzle]

Today I'm thinking might be worth looking into the brethren, Exclusive Brethren and the like .... with the brethen connection to TSS at the time it's possible Marion met someone connected to it through LG or other teachers there. Just a thought for today .... h'mm, seems to be associated with Tunbridge Wells, Los Angeles, will have a bit of a look when I've got some time this week.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

So the police reportedly contacted Marion around the time of the bank withdrawals in order to establish if she was in fact missing and Marion said she didn’t want her family to contact her.
Is that right that she queried the policeman about how he found her?

How do we think he found her to call her?

Do we know if the policeman at the time knew about her Remakel name change?
If he did, is it possible the policeman did a Remakel search and found the F. Remakel number in the phone book (Lennox head or nearby) and called that thinking it might have been Florabella Remakel?

or if the policeman didn’t know about the name change, did he find it through Marion using her credit card and booking accommodation?

We now know Marion had a mobile phone at the time, so that number would/could have been recorded with the bank, you'd think. Wondering if anyone from Marion's family tried ringing that number when it was discovered she had apparently returned to Australia. Was the number no longer connected, or did it ring out? That'd be interesting to know.

 

[KiwiNZ]

Today I'm thinking might be worth looking into the brethren, Exclusive Brethren and the like .... with the brethen connection to TSS at the time it's possible Marion met someone connected to it through LG or other teachers there. Just a thought for today .... h'mm, seems to be associated with Tunbridge Wells, Los Angeles, will have a bit of a look when I've got some time this week.

we must think alike, that was my last nights investigation lol Exclusive Brethren / Tunbridge Wells - trying to finds examples of other peoples experience with them, especially around name changing, but so far nothing.

There is a Australian website that helps people escape from cults, was going to email them and ask if there was a cult that they knew of that had people change their names, but I assume the podcast has already spoken to them ?

Also asked on a Aircrew forum if they knew which hotel Cathay used for staff in Brisbane in 1997 , no response yet.

 

[KiwiNZ]

We now know Marion had a mobile phone at the time, so that number would/could have been recorded with the bank, you'd think. Wondering if anyone from Marion's family tried ringing that number when it was discovered she had apparently returned to Australia. Was the number no longer connected, or did it ring out? That'd be interesting to know.

Must of missed this !! she had a mobile phone, I did realise this, is there anywhere we can see the number ?

 

[Kelliepat]

We now know Marion had a mobile phone at the time, so that number would/could have been recorded with the bank, you'd think. Wondering if anyone from Marion's family tried ringing that number when it was discovered she had apparently returned to Australia. Was the number no longer connected, or did it ring out? That'd be interesting to know.

How do we know that Marion had a mobile at the time?

 

[Itsapuzzle]

How do we know that Marion had a mobile at the time?

H’mm, I had always thought Marion only had a landline until it was either mentioned in the podcast by Sally as in “mum had a mobile phone”, or I’ve read it somewhere. Am I wrong? Quite possibly am, err, nothing new there, hee hee. Is that a mobile Marion is holding in the 1997 photo? Could be, not sure. Will see if I can find where I got it from, or if anyone knows out there? Cheers

 

[KiwiNZ]

H’mm, I had always thought Marion only had a landline until it was either mentioned in the podcast by Sally as in “mum had a mobile phone”, or I’ve read it somewhere. Am I wrong? Quite possibly am, err, nothing new there, hee hee. Is that a mobile Marion is holding in the 1997 photo? Could be, not sure. Will see if I can find where I got it from, or if anyone knows out there? Cheers

I can ask on the FB page if you like ?

 

[Itsapuzzle]

I can ask on the FB page if you like ?

That's very kind of you KiwiNZ, thank you, that would be great .... I just haven't got time to search through everything at the moment. Indebted

 

[Seriallyaddicted]

According to the podcast the bank contacted Marion not the police, and the name change wasn’t known by police at the time

Ok thanks I wasn’t aware, I must have got mixed up. So Marion said to the bank the comment about Sally not giving her the money for her car? That’s a weird thing to say to the bank...