Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, Jun 1997 #5

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TootsieFootsie said:
I did have a feeling before that everything wasn't like the brady bunch.

I'm starting to see some real family dynamics emerge now and it's left me feeling sad.
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H'mm, just had a listen to the new Inquest Part 5 episode. I found it really interesting and it really fills out the picture .... a lot more. Like the judge tells the jury members, "don't talk about the evidence with others because they will only have heard bits of information, whereas you are hearing ALL the evidence." It's so important to hear from all sides to get a balanced view and figure it all out.
Oh drats, I was trying to get that spoiler alert button to work (next to the "media" icon .... can't figure it out, anyone know how to use it ? Ah well .... so, it was interesting to hear "The B(*&%*n" mentioned, worth looking into I reckon.
 
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SaintGertrude said:
I just listened to the podcast (hopefully discussions won't be a spoiler and others have already listened). The family tensions mentioned gave a very different portrayal of family relationships than we have heard so far. Some of the remarks about Sally were cruel. Apart from this the only thing that stuck out to me was the melanoma in Marion's eye which brings to question the visit to an optometrist when Marion returned to Australia. Could Marion have had a illness she sadly kept from her family. In view of this and any diagnosis would Marion have maybe not really cared by what means she left the country. I think Marion was a law abiding citizen but when people are feeling under pressure they can act irrationally. On the other hand It is not easy to get false travel documents without known contacts.
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I was struck by the mention of the melanoma. This must be the ‘freckle’ that Sally mentioned her mum being concerned about.

I think this must mean that if it was an ocular melanoma, then Marion hadn’t told Sally about it.
 
The sisters said that Marion had little sense of humor which surprises me as Sally remarked on her huge laugh. One of my theories has been that Marion after three marriages had collected various bits and bobs. She comes across something about a particular footballer and decides to give herself a fanciful new name using his same initials. Not only this but to make things sound even more exotic she places the Le Courier advert herself so she can humour herself when reminiscing about her whole re-birth.
 
Bibno said:
I was struck by the mention of the melanoma. This must be the ‘freckle’ that Sally mentioned her mum being concerned about.

I think this must mean that if it was an ocular melanoma, then Marion hadn’t told Sally about it.
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I think with Sally having a wedding coming up at the time maybe she didn't want to worry her. Many mums may have made the same decision. It would be very sad if Marion did start a new life, drew out her life savings to avoid a paper trail then changed her name again as she had little time left on this earth :(
 
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Bibno said:
I was struck by the mention of the melanoma. This must be the ‘freckle’ that Sally mentioned her mum being concerned about.

I think this must mean that if it was an ocular melanoma, then Marion hadn’t told Sally about it.
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even stranger Marion's sister didn't seem to bother to tell Sally about it been a melanoma at any stage in the last 24years , Sally obviously didn't know.

They seem very cold people.
 
I don't know if the sisters and friends were interviewed or spoken to in the early days or by Detective Sheehan but I can see how the police could have consistently come to the conclusion that she left of her own accord by these accounts of Marion.

It's extremely sad because even if she had left of her own accord they didn't seem to care about the reason she did.
 
When Betty Brown was interviewed, she stated that she wouldn't have given out very specific details like Marion being mad about a car etc. Sally questions if the mad about car info really came from the Salvo's and I tend to agree. Sounds in the same vein as accusing Sally of just wanting wedding money/furniture. I do have an idea about who might invent such a heartless tidbit.
 
This sounds crazy but I’ve been thinking how there is another reason someone might go back and forth between countries over a relatively small period of time and may want to misdirect others of their whereabouts and even name.

Perhaps Marion was being blackmailed or had been coerced into some kind of drug smuggling? It would explain the clandestine meeting with the mysterious man in the car and maybe even her wanting to get rid of evidence like the scales? Maybe she got caught somewhere in the world and imprisoned.

Just putting it out there in case it sparks any new avenues to investigate or thoughts in anyone else.
 
If the eye issue was a melanoma Marion must have been told this by a medical DR, you would think this would have been on her Medicare information, so may have given police half a clue as to what the last visit was in relation and what sort of Dr they were looking for, rather than take almost 20 years to figure it out. Did they only ask for records from the date she returned ?

As for her sister thinking it would be normal for someone to take a 2 year holiday / trip and be in zero contact with anyone is the silliest thing I have heard. I travelled for 4 years and didn't cut everyone off, suggesting you would should have rang alarm bells that something was emotionally effecting that person in a very negative way and if you cared at all you would do your utmost to help or get to the bottom of it, not accept that they didn't want to have contact with anyone for 2 years while they travelled.
 
Well, I'm back on The Brethren bandwagon .... h'mm, quite a lot of magazines from back in the day ..... could that be the magazine found in LA library? This was discussed in earlier threads, I know, but now having heard it mentioned again in this episode, it does make me wonder. Would really like to see the television footage that the sister said looked like Marion.
 
SaintGertrude said:
I think with Sally having a wedding coming up at the time maybe she didn't want to worry her. Many mums may have made the same decision. It would be very sad if Marion did start a new life, drew out her life savings to avoid a paper trail then changed her name again as she had little time left on this earth :(
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Excellent theory Saint Gertrude about keeping it from Sally with her wedding coming up; sounds spot on.
 
KiwiNZ said:
As for her sister thinking it would be normal for someone to take a 2 year holiday / trip and be in zero contact with anyone is the silliest thing I have heard. I travelled for 4 years and didn't cut everyone off, suggesting you would should have rang alarm bells that something was emotionally effecting that person in a very negative way and if you cared at all you would do your utmost to help or get to the bottom of it, not accept that they didn't want to have contact with anyone for 2 years while they travelled.
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One million percent agreed. Either these two women are truly the coldest sisters of a missing woman to have ever been interviewed across the globe since the dawn of man, or they actually know more than they're letting on.

I think they come off as cold and just.simply.awful.

Calling Sally hysterical and even getting angry for worrying about her own mother's whereabouts? And still, to this day, not conceding at all that maybe they should have taken it a bit more seriously or, at the very least, shown even a modicum of emotional support for their niece in 24 years? This is a first for me...

And regarding Marion's absence from Sally's wedding, sister BW said: "I didn't attend. I didn't expect her to. She wasn't around to attend it."
AC (counsel for the coroner): "Assume you know your sister is back in Australia, would she deliberately miss her daughter's wedding?"
BW: "Yes, if that's what she wanted to do. She wasn't going to be around. She was going to be away for a couple of years. I don't think it would be unusual at all."
AC: "Why not?"
BW: "Because she didn't want to go. Obviously."
AC: "Was there any estrangement with Sally?"
BW: "Not that I know of."

This exchange on BW's part is simply nonsensical. How is it obvious she didn't want to go to Sally's wedding? If you're of the belief that she's traveling still, in 1998, point taken. But today in 2021 to make that claim and stand by it? Nothing about it is obvious, especially given her next claim, that there was no estrangement between Marion and Sally.

Something's way off with that one.
 
"KiwiNZ, post: 16920755, member: 236815"]even stranger Marion's sister didn't seem to bother to tell Sally about it been a melanoma at any stage in the last 24years , Sally obviously didn't know.

Can anyone clarify if the eye condition for sure was melanoma? A similar-- phonetically sounding condition is melanosis.

"Primary Acquired Melanosis (PAM) is newly formed brown pigmentation of the conjunctiva. People with white skin are more likely to get this. It usually affects one eye only." "PAM is most likely to be observed in fair-skinned individuals who are middle-aged or older."
"There are two different types of PAM: ‘PAM without atypia’ and ‘PAM with atypia.

"PAM without atypia is benign with no risk of transformation into melanoma.
PAM with atypia, however, can turn into melanoma."

"Malignant Melanoma. Presentation. Patients are typically 60 to 70 years old and present with a nodular mass..."

NHSGGC : NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde - Homepage of our official site
https://www.aao.org/eyenet/article/conjunctival-pigmented-lesions-diagnosis-management
 
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pains me to say this .. but if her sisters are that cold and detached could Marion be the same way ? Neither seem that concerned or bothered about the situation, or their sister, and have very little empathy for Sally, or have any concern over their words or actions on others .. in fact I feel they almost blame Sally for the situation. Was Marion cut from the same cloth ?
 
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My biggest question right now that still seems unanswered is why have the sisters only unearthed the latest postcards recently (I think it was late last year, from memory)? They have a huge significance to the investigation, IMO. Where have they been all this time and why weren’t they handed over to Sally or LE much earlier? Why does it appear that the sisters weren’t asked about this at the inquest or during their interviews? Evidence doesn’t usually just conveniently appear like this.
 
AStartoSteerBy said:
"KiwiNZ, post: 16920755, member: 236815"]even stranger Marion's sister didn't seem to bother to tell Sally about it been a melanoma at any stage in the last 24years , Sally obviously didn't know.

Can anyone clarify if the eye condition for sure was melanoma?
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I don't know if she actually had a melanoma but my point was more that her sister believed she did and I would have thought that would have been quite concerning to a "normal" person and that she would have been mentioned to Sally at some point in the last 20 odd years
 
Meligator said:
Yes, sometimes info comes so quickly in the podcast I often question my own understanding & interpretation. I could have totally misunderstood.
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@Meligator The facebook page confirmed it was Marion Barters name that used the Medicare card ... they had been looking under Florabella and that is why its didn't appear in their search ... does make you wonder how investigative these investigators are !!

The podcast was worded badly I was confused
 
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