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

[SaintGertrude]

Yes, good idea to compare, I enjoy reading them SaintGertrude - I was just having a giggle at how the guy was describing himself with "dazzling black eyes", I mean, who says that about themselves, haha, and black eyes actually don't even exist for humans, they're very dark brown.
Your mention of "brun" from the ad is interesting. It's been taken as meaning brown hair, but that's a good point because they don't mention eye colour straight after it, so h'mm, that's interesting. I mean, people say (like the other ad there) "blonde, blue eyes", no need for the word "hair", but to just say "brown" - yeah, excellent point.

If the person who placed the advert was of a mixed race they may still be from Luxembourg. However, I do think that we need to think outside of the box. Maybe look at other personal ads as it is unlikely the one and only advert he ever placed unless he met the person of his dreams after the first attempt.

 

[SaintGertrude]

“Staying in a old farm Oast with a nice family”. Family not couple. So I’m guessing the owners of this establishment had children. So we are probably looking for more than 2 people who came across Marion whilst she stayed there. Now the hard part. Where?

There is always the possibility that not all the places Marion stayed were a B&B. There are organisations like Cottages and Castles which appeared in small ads in Australia so she may have used one of these firms and rented.
I found an advert in the Sydney Morning Herald in January 1995 for this organisation and there are also similar classified ads to be found on a trove search.
The current website for Cottages and Castles appears to focus only on Scotland.

 

[SaintGertrude]

Maybe we need to look at mentions of places Marion sent postcards from in publications just to see if there is
any important snippet.
I just found a mention of Tunbridge Wells in the Canberra Times on 16th July but I doubt Marion would have crossed paths with the person mentioned as not the art centre near her home town. 1995. Book Two - SUNDAY FEATURES | CHAMPION OF THE CAMPUS Di Riddell, 'a facilitator who allowed the students to do what they wanted to do', reminisces with Helen Musa. - The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) - 16 Jul 1995

A few mentions of Tunbridge Wells in the Sydney Morning Herald archives.

Wayback machine is also a useful resource of informaton.
I typed in 'Rye' and it lists B&B places in 1999 only two year's after Marion's visit.
Furnace Lane Oast
Wayback Machine

 

[SaintGertrude]

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.

Well, I'm back on the Scientology bandwagon
Wayback Machine seems to have a whole list of scientologists in Australia in December 1998 so I am sifting through all the names and going down a large rabbit hole now.
http:/on-line.scientology.org
scientologists on-line
16,060 capture(s) from 1998 to 2016 |

 

[sunnynz]

I typed Remakel into the wayback machine and the only result that popped up was this site -
http://remakel.lu/ which is no longer live. It has results between 1998 and 2004.

When I clicked on it it took me to an 'enter' page for a different site synapse.lu (also not currently live).

Then when I hit 'enter' on that site and check captures from 1998 it seems to be some kind of internet consultancy business. The 'partners' page lists a lot of universities and education providers from Luxembourg.

It's confusing though, because I'm not sure why the original domain of remakel.lu takes me to the synapse.lu one. Maybe a website or business name change at some point? There is a contact name as per the screen grab of the contact page from the site.



I tried searching Who Is to find out who owned the remakel.lu domain name back in 1998 but they don't do historical searches. Anyone know how to search domain names historically?

 

[sunnynz]

I typed Remakel into the wayback machine and the only result that popped up was this site -
http://remakel.lu/ which is no longer live. It has results between 1998 and 2004.

When I clicked on it it took me to an 'enter' page for a different site synapse.lu (also not currently live).

Then when I hit 'enter' on that site and check captures from 1998 it seems to be some kind of internet consultancy business. The 'partners' page lists a lot of universities and education providers from Luxembourg.

It's confusing though, because I'm not sure why the original domain of remakel.lu takes me to the synapse.lu one. Maybe a website or business name change at some point? There is a contact name as per the screen grab of the contact page from the site.

View attachment 306233 View attachment 306234 View attachment 306235 View attachment 306236

I tried searching Who Is to find out who owned the remakel.lu domain name back in 1998 but they don't do historical searches. Anyone know how to search domain names historically?

Ok, so further research on the contact name on the synapse.lu site shows this was Luxembourg's leading jobs website at the time (early internet days, can't have been many around in 1998!).

Now trying to figure out why remakel.lu would be redirected to synapse.lu....

 

[sunnynz]

Now trying to figure out why remakel.lu would be redirected to synapse.lu....

This was all a dead end. Synapse seems like they also did domain name hosting, so this would have just been them parking the domain I'm guessing.

As you were, everyone.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

This was all a dead end. Synapse seems like they also did domain name hosting, so this would have just been them parking the domain I'm guessing.

As you were, everyone.

Oooh, I found that really interesting sunnnz, the links work and there's plenty about Luxembourg, I'll be poking around there for a while
monster.lu: vivre & travailler au Luxembourg

 

[SaintGertrude]

Oooh, I found that really interesting sunnnz, the links work and there's plenty about Luxembourg, I'll be poking around there for a while
monster.lu: vivre & travailler au Luxembourg

Itzig is the place the podcasters visited.

 

[SaintGertrude]

[QUOTE="sunnynz, post: 16964309

Then when I hit 'enter' on that site and check captures from 1998 it seems to be some kind of internet consultancy business.

Well sleuthed sunnynz. The attachments look like some kind of internet website in the early days of computers. Run by a "nerd" maybe like the person describes himself in Le Courier.[/QUOTE]

 

[Itsapuzzle]

The most consistent comment coming out of the inquest appears to be that Marion was going to ride on the Orient Express .... she seems to have told everyone that, and they specifically remember that. Did she board the Orient Express at some point, that is the question ..... so you'd think no way would she return to Australia without at least doing that. Very curious. Did they take group photos of Orient Express passengers back in the day? End of random Saturday thought.

 

[KiwiNZ]

The most consistent comment coming out of the inquest appears to be that Marion was going to ride on the Orient Express .... she seems to have told everyone that, and they specifically remember that. Did she board the Orient Express at some point, that is the question ..... so you'd think no way would she return to Australia without at least doing that. Very curious. Did they take group photos of Orient Express passengers back in the day? End of random Saturday thought.

I have searched for photo's "orient express 1997" and have found some on Facebook, posted by people who took a trip in 1997, but I cant see Marion in any picture - strangely there was an event on the orient express for an Agatha Christies trip in 1997 ... I almost feel like this is an Agatha Christies mystery in itself.

 

[KiwiNZ]

I am in the "it was Marion that came back" camp lol.. That handwriting was to close to her own IMO - the imposter would not have had the outgoing card to match the handwriting too, that would have been handed in on departure. The only one that look a little different to me is the signature, but she probably hadn't used it much, since even her Credit card would have still been Marion

I do wonder if after she had been contacted by the bank ( if it happened) if she thought her cover was blown, she wouldn't have realized the family didn't know about the name change, after all she returned on the remakel passport, did she then assume another identity.

Her sister pretty much said - she felt Marion would have come back at some stage had the family not involved the police or felt she her privacy was been invaded. follow by an odd statement that she thought good on her, I wouldn't want anything to do with them either. and ... If it was me that was doing what Marion was doing, I would never come back.

interesting her sister Bronwyn describes her own mother in a negative way " she felt she could say exactly what she liked" - I don't think that apple fell far from the tree and may explain Bronwyn bluntness

As much as I felt the sisters where quite blunt and in some cases unkind, I cant not ignore that fact they they knew her very well, and all seem to believe it was possible that Marion just didn't want to be with her family.

 

[KiwiNZ]

looking at another rabbit hole .. Can anyone remember what type of dogs Marion showed ? I remember a reference to her showing dogs, during the inquest (?)

 

[TootsieFootsie]

2019 article With photos.

The Lady Vanishes: Meet Marion Barter's family and friends

Ray Barter was younger than Marion and their marriage was also rocky.

Ray says her work came first and he particularly didn’t get along with her son Owen.

The couple eventually divorced and Ray remarried a woman he met through his hobby of showing dogs.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I just don't see Marion as someone who would have been interested in showing dogs.

 

[SaintGertrude]

looking at another rabbit hole .. Can anyone remember what type of dogs Marion showed ? I remember a reference to her showing dogs, during the inquest (?)

They were Satang Afghan Hound dogs at Championship Level.

 

[SaintGertrude]

No more former police officers expected to be charged in boiler room investigation
Operation Lima Violin II.

Could the above have any significance in Marion's missing person case.
The investigation seems to be much later around 2012 but police officers were found to be corrupt.
(There is a mention on the FB page lost boys of TSS allegedly linking TSS with a person charged)

 

[Lord Peter Flimsy]

The most consistent comment coming out of the inquest appears to be that Marion was going to ride on the Orient Express .... she seems to have told everyone that, and they specifically remember that. Did she board the Orient Express at some point, that is the question ..... so you'd think no way would she return to Australia without at least doing that. Very curious. Did they take group photos of Orient Express passengers back in the day? End of random Saturday thought.

Do many 51 year old women ride on the Orient Express alone? Especially someone like Marion? And to think ahead about the German floods in latter half of July 97 whilst supposedly busy visiting much of South East England by car. Were any Orient Express trains actually cancelled that Summer due to the Central European floods?

 

[SaintGertrude]

Deleted