I truly suspect she was the victim of a romance scam with a side of identity theft and extortion.
As no Remakel entered or left Australia since Florabella, I wonder if a MAN named M Barter did? I wonder if he assumed her initials and fudged ID in order to get around undetected?
The name Marion could pass as a French (or Luxembourgian) man’s name. He could have withdrawn money as a male Marion, claiming the gender was a typo, if the bank even noticed. Those typos happen frequently. It would explain why no one recalls seeing her.
I also think the message passed on to Sally that her mum didn’t want to be found and was angry she didn’t deposit the car sale money, is classic manipulation.
Whoever stole Marion and her money was a master manipulator with a lot of charm and a lack of shame, fear or boundaries. It would also explain why they could turn up to bank every day for 3.5 weeks without worry.
I suspect the reason they gave bank why they were only taking out $5k a time was that it was how much they were able to carry discreetly.
The real reason was probably serial numbers. I don’t know much about banks so please help me out if you do… I suspect taking out smaller sums meant the money could come from till. It was well worn cash with a random assortment of serial numbers. Perhaps larger sums would require going out the back where the money is fresh and serial numbers are in order. That range of serial number would be listed once it left the vault and easier to track. Can anyone shed light?
This all reminds me so much of Frank Abagnale Jr from Catch Me If You Can.