Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, June 1997 #10

[BonnieB]

The use of MB’s Medicare card in late ‘97 is really strange to me and such a vital last clue to MB’s whereabouts in 1997.

What are the possibilities?

1. MB was in Aus and used it herself
2. Someone else uses the Medicare card… for the free bulk billing??!!
3. Someone else uses the Medicare card to leave a fake trail and create the illusion that MB is back in Australia. (But suggesting she’d be starting again so close to her old home where she’d likely bump into old acquaintances doesn’t seem like a great plan.)

This has always nagged at me also. I also noted the same possibilities:
1. MB was still alive & well in a Grafton shopping mall. She would not visit an optometrist if she was under duress, more likely just killing time waiting for someone and didn't realize she was leaving a clue by using the card. RB probably did not know the card was used at the time.
2. Free bulk billing? DdH was on a pension and received free consultations anyway so it wouldn't be her. There is the remote possibility that someone found the discarded card and used it for that reason.
3. The fake trail. Possibly to distract attention from the real location of MB but risky if followed up by police shortly afterwards when the optometrist could give a description of the person.
I have always leaned towards option 1. IMO it is the most logical assumption. Can anyone offer another possibility?

 

[gymtonic]

Going to Japan is just strange in general.. unless you are planning to stay a week or so and have a look around. Solo woman with way too much luggage IMO wouldn’t choose that route to fly to UK/Europe. So that has always been weird.

not getting driven to airport and insisting on bus is even stranger.

the secret name change..

the various stories of her plans of going to England..

To me personally the secretive way she was behaving.. seeing Sally in maccas and freaking out driving away.. who does that?

There was clearly something going on.. something that I believe involved RB.. they had a plan.. their ultimate end goals of plan I believe were extremely different.

she wanted adventure and love.

he wanted her bank account.

I’m also stuck with searches..not sure what to search atm that hasn’t already been searched by all of the amazing people on here’s.

Gosbell street interested me a few days back.. I did find a woman who came with her family born in Germany however was Polish..who had that address for her naturalisation record.. I wondered if that was ‘the friend’ ik had.

Her name is Karin Ina Ceglarski she arrived a lot earlier than IK or Rb though in 1950 on the Nelly ship. She was 13 years old at the time. A relative perhaps?? Naturalisation in 1957

Manfred Joachim Lehinger was there 1968 also naturalisation record in trove

T Sheppard - ‘Agents please note my flatettes - 6 Gosbell street Paddington have been sold and are withdrawn from sale - 1952

ad - B & B shared room suit Gent, - 1947

when I look at the property now it’s a terrace house but I’d say back in the day it was a boarding house.

Hi @Eyespywithmylittleeye
RE: Travelling via Japan
I am making no assumptions about whether you are from Oz or not, and this response is just based on personal experience regularly travelling the Brisbane to London route solo.
So this aspect of behaviour (travelling to the UK via Japan) is the least strange bit for me. If you do the long haul flight from Brisbane to London there were a few ways of doing it and transiting. Brisbane-KL-London; Brisbane-Singapore-London; Brisbane-Dubai-London; Brisbane-Nadi-Hawaii-Vancouver-London (Are just a few that spring to mind. Even Brisbane-Bangkok- London. My first long haul UK to Brisbane in 80s went Heathrow-Frankfurt-Kuwait-Bangkok-Sydney-Brisbane. And once Around this time late 90s/ early 2000s, because JAL had promotion price I went Brisbane-Tokyo-London. Because the flight took me north over Russia and the Arctic and approached The UK from the north it was also interesting! On the long haul flights, depending on how quick you wanted to get to the UK you wouldn’t necessarily do a stopover in any of the places en route, so you would transit and luggage would be transferred straight through….so it wouldn’t matter how many bags you had. If the connecting flights were not that close you could even stay in an overnight transit hotel for a while without all your luggage.
I’m not sure if this helps but it doesn’t appear that strange to me.
The South Korea connection is of interest though.

 

[CrossingToSafety]

I'm pretty sure that one of the sisters or Marion's friend mentioned in the earlier (non-streamed) part of the inquest that she thought 50 was her last chance to find a man and after 50 it would be too late.

This is something few people want to talk about but I think it's also an important factor that at around this time Marion was very close to the onset of menopause, which comes with a whole lot of baggage and stigma (and can also come with some nasty physical and emotional symptoms). Average age of menopause in Australia is 51. As well, Sally was in the throes of wedding planning at the time Marion disappeared. Marion had three failed marriages behind her and was beginning to think it was too late, and Sally's wedding could been an additional stressor as it reminded her of that. Please don't read this as blaming Sally, as I absolutely am not doing that!! But I think it could definitely have made Marion more emotionally vulnerable.

Yes, this is a great insight into how MB may have been positioned mentally!
Today there is so much more information, understanding, sharing and sympathy about the experience of menopause than was available in the 90’s. And if MB was feeling sad, anxious, or emotional she would be much more open to someone who wanted to love-bomb, then scam her.
Couple this with the feeling of things going pear shaped at work. Whether it was that a fake complaint was reported, or something else. She had worked hard building an enviable career and reputation, had also just won a prestigious award, then something happens at the school that crushes her confidence and threatens the career that was such a large part of her self-identity.

 

[auntywithflowers]

It’s tempting to think RB and this MJR might be the same person. I haven’t checked any dates to see if it’s feasible.

But, I compared the writing on the landing/departure cards and although I was initially excited that both, unusually, dot their capital “i”’s, and there is some similarity between their 2’s, 4’s and other letters, Reid’s “y”’s and “h”’s are quite distinctive. I doubt this is something RB would be smart enough to fake.

Posing as a butcher doesn’t ring true to me either. RB would always want to be something more important sounding, I think.

Remember he trained himself to be an expert forger of documents. The dot above the capital I gives him away. I think it's him. I can say the alphabet backwards, because I trained myself. He would have spent many days and nights practising different handwriting. IMO

 

[gymtonic]

Didn’t the discovery of Mad Cows Disease in the UK happen in 1986? So if he was living in the UK (Burwash) from approx 1983 why did he use that as an excuse to do his food shopping in Europe. Also if he was food shopping in Europe I assume he was using a car and coming over by ferry? So why mention that he lived in Burwash because it was close to Gatwick airport?

Another interesting point where RB elaborates either to confuse, throw investigators off the trail, but also maybe holding some inadvertent clues to untangle! To me it’s one of those “plausible deniability” episodes of his. “In the old days” it would be a plausible story that if you were Francophone and living in the UK and travelling backward and forward, you would do shopping at Carrefour to get “French” provisions. I would have chosen to say wine or cheese personally! In the UK even in the early 80s people were driving to the ferry, crossing to the “continent” , dining to Carrefour and driving straight back to the ferry. It wasn’t unusual behaviour.

 

[Newby171]

Remember he trained himself to be an expert forger of documents. The dot above the capital I gives him away. I think it's him. I can say the alphabet backwards, because I trained myself. He would have spent many days and nights practising different handwriting. IMO

In My opinion it is highly likely as the MJR passenger cards earlier in the thread had the same birthdate listed as the real FR.

 

[ChrysStevenson]

Remember he trained himself to be an expert forger of documents. The dot above the capital I gives him away. I think it's him. I can say the alphabet backwards, because I trained myself. He would have spent many days and nights practising different handwriting. IMO

If he is an expert forger, why would he leave in a distinctive personal idiosyncrasy like dotting capital “i”’s? That would be the first thing you’d change!

I think there’s a danger of giving RB too much credit as a criminal mastermind. He appears to be a conman and a petty thief with little to show for his ham-fisted efforts over a 60 year career.

 

[Roseberry]

If he is an expert forger, why would he leave in a distinctive personal idiosyncrasy like dotting capital “i”’s? That would be the first thing you’d change!

I think there’s a danger of giving RB too much credit as a criminal mastermind. He appears to be a conman and a petty thief with little to show for his ham-fisted efforts over a 60 year career.

Also: MJR has filled in Nationality :Kiwi . Immediately struck me as an authentically 'kiwi' thing to do (IM(kiwi)O!).

 

[Meligator]

Did we ever learn whose wedding it was in Byron Bay, that Marion invited her ex Greg to but he didn’t go. Did she go alone? Curious because it seems she didn’t frequent Byron Bay regularly but attended a wedding there & seemingly also spent time there upon returning to AU. Perhaps she met RB at that wedding? Or maybe when she returned to AU she stayed with her friend who got married there.

 

[car54]

Also: MJR has filled in Nationality :Kiwi . Immediately struck me as an authentically 'kiwi' thing to do (IM(kiwi)O!).

It’s tempting to think RB and this MJR might be the same person. I haven’t checked any dates to see if it’s feasible.

But, I compared the writing on the landing/departure cards and although I was initially excited that both, unusually, dot their capital “i”’s, and there is some similarity between their 2’s, 4’s and other letters, Reid’s “y”’s and “h”’s are quite distinctive. I doubt this is something RB would be smart enough to fake.

Posing as a butcher doesn’t ring true to me either. RB would always want to be something more important sounding, I think.

<modsnip: Removed duplicate quote.>

I concluded that it's unlikely that the NZ MJR's hand writing is the same as Mr AKA. I've now found an entry on Ancestry Public Trees at https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/7806591/person/312151204526/facts that has him as a butcher born about 1947 and dying before 2005. Parent's listed are Michael John R and Mary McCarthy. He had five siblings.

 

[LEO123]

And another thought about the Medicare card. Perhaps MB required new glasses? Not just a checkup of the distinctive freckle on her eye.

I wonder if the optometrist visited was an actual eyewear sales outlet as well? Or if they only supplied the eyewear prescription? You would then need to visit OPSM or SpecSavers to have the eyewear script prepared whether it was for just updated lenses or new frames as well. That may be another lead to follow if records of the eyewear script and purchase were retained on client records at an eyewear supplier outlet.

IF it was Marion, it’s plausible that she may have lost a pair of glasses while overseas or on the plane/at the airport, particularly if she was stressed and rushed to get back to Australia. I’d say in a shopping centre it was OPSM or similar. The Optometrist was at the 2021 Inquest and had no recollection of Marion or details/record of transaction unfortunately.

 

[gymtonic]

I can't seem to find any photos of her online which considering she was an actress in 1978 you'd expect it to be easy to find

There is this on IMDb
Monique Cornelius - Biography - IMDb
but no image. could watch the movie I guess?!

 

[Procrastinator]

IF it was Marion, it’s plausible that she may have lost a pair of glasses while overseas or on the plane/at the airport, particularly if she was stressed and rushed to get back to Australia. I’d say in a shopping centre it was OPSM or similar. The Optometrist was at the 2021 Inquest and had no recollection of Marion or details/record of transaction unfortunately.

Longshot scenario, what if allegedly MB was asked to sign paperwork by RB back in Australia and her glasses had mysteriously disappeared/been misplaced and she couldn't see the printing clearly/appeared blurry but signed anyways. Then went and got some new glasses.

 

[gymtonic]

Mr Aka was talking about importing container load of books to Australia or Europe. None of my research has led to much but here goes.
The Berkelouw family have an interesting bookshop history in Sydney, Rushcutters Bay possibly their home base and many of their bookshops in locations that Mr Aka has lived over the years.

There is also mention of FR in Luxembourg having a first wife with a bookshop there was that MC?

The Walker family "Cafe" could be a red herring, they seemed to be travelling quite a lot 70's.

Interesting. There is a Wouters import export international bv. business in Holland. Even though "Wouters" is a common name.

The Beef and import industry was taking off from Australia in 70's and by early 90's Queensland beef was exporting to Japan.

Good thought about the import/ export industries connection with Japan. I had also wondered about motor vehicle imports from Japan to Australia.

Also I was having a look at some of the aliases the other day and trying to search the one that crops up in the criminal record "WILSON Bross International Exports Pty LTD, 26 Elizabeth Street, Paddington 2026" (false insurance and registration in this name for a Volvo Sedan 244 DL between Sept 76 - May 77).

I came to the realisation that WILSON Bross could be a typo (as there was another typo with the dates too) and it could be Wilson Bros. or Wilson and Brothers. I didn't get very far but it might help others doing the company searches.

 

[gymtonic]

This has always nagged at me also. I also noted the same possibilities:
1. MB was still alive & well in a Grafton shopping mall. She would not visit an optometrist if she was under duress, more likely just killing time waiting for someone and didn't realize she was leaving a clue by using the card. RB probably did not know the card was used at the time.
2. Free bulk billing? DdH was on a pension and received free consultations anyway so it wouldn't be her. There is the remote possibility that someone found the discarded card and used it for that reason.
3. The fake trail. Possibly to distract attention from the real location of MB but risky if followed up by police shortly afterwards when the optometrist could give a description of the person.
I have always leaned towards option 1. IMO it is the most logical assumption. Can anyone offer another possibility?

4 The wallet stolen a few months before MB travelling contained her Medicare card? Correct me if I am wrong but there is no proof that the wallet was stolen by RB (as yet!) and could just be an unfortunate coincidence, and if so the thief could have used the card.

 

[gymtonic]

Also: MJR has filled in Nationality :Kiwi . Immediately struck me as an authentically 'kiwi' thing to do (IM(kiwi)O!).

LOL...yeah I saw that and thought:
(a) either this is a genuine Kiwi with an antipodean sense of humour and "disdain" for authority OR
(b) this is a very clever imposter who not only disguises handwriting but can also mimic subtle cultural mores!
The jury is out on that for me

 

[MrsWattle]

Any connections here ? https://be.linkedin.com/in/monique-cornelis-147004b3.

 

[Roseberry]

LOL...yeah I saw that and thought:
(a) either this is a genuine Kiwi with an antipodean sense of humour and "distain" for authority OR
(b) this is a very clever imposter who not only disgusts handwriting but can also mimic subtle cultural mores!
The jury is out on that for me

I cracked up when I saw it. Yes to (a) and (b) above, but to add to a) it looks as if MJR might've availed himself of excess onboard refreshments - the writing is messier than his other sample, he's not entirely sure of where he's going in Australia, or the official term for his nationality, and he's completely forgotten what he does for a living - someone else had to fill that in for him. As far as b) is concerned - we can pretty much discount that as it's fairly apparent there is a struggle with the vernacular that IMO might be the downfall.

I always avoided MJR's dilemma when I was doing a lot of OS travel by pre-filling a few departure and arrival cards with all the details but flight numbers and dates and keeping them in my travel wallet. Something I always think about when I return to FNMR's card and the discrepancies in the handwriting. Just a thought. All IMO.

 

[MrsWattle]

It’s tempting to think RB and this MJR might be the same person. I haven’t checked any dates to see if it’s feasible.

Have a look at the letter N. They almost look the same on all cards.

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

If he is an expert forger, why would he leave in a distinctive personal idiosyncrasy like dotting capital “i”’s? That would be the first thing you’d change!

I think there’s a danger of giving RB too much credit as a criminal mastermind. He appears to be a conman and a petty thief with little to show for his ham-fisted efforts over a 60 year career.

I agree and I disagree lol

I don’t think he’s a mastermind either most have been conman petty thief.

Marion is the one that is different… IF she has come to harm at his hand.

So I’m divided..

Some days I think he’s nothing more than a conman petty thief.

and other days..I think - Do we really know what he’s capable of.. when our base line is only his early criminal stuff??

I don’t believe we do.