Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, June 1997 #14

[KiwiNZ]

Although i've dismissed it a long time ago i now have to admit that on this picture it looks like him. Maybe because he's older?
Afbeelding Nukerke: Eendracht Nukerke voetbal bekijken - Brakel

I cant see any names or a year, but I am wondering with those legs of his, would he be playing sports ?

 

[Carovb5]

I cant see any names or a year, but I am wondering with those legs of his, would he be playing sports ?

Oh, sorry! The guy on the left. He doesn't wear sportsgear Maybe he's their mascot or the football agent (we've had a lot of frauding football agents )

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Marion’s sister Deidre stated that when she returned from holiday in June 1997 Marion had sent her a little broach in a Celtic design with the letter D. This was for her birthday on Aug 7th and was sent from Tunbridge Wells.

A couple of things, does this not indicate Marion had no intention of returning before Aug 7th and did the broach come from a particular shop in Tunbridge Wells as I assume it was in a box and not just loose?

Yes, I assume that posting something from the UK to Australia back in 1997 would have taken a while - a week or so? But had she have been intending to return, she would have brought it in person.

By the same logic, would Marion not have been looking for a special present for Owen from the UK, maybe something 'cool' from London and have got that in the post in plenty of good time. So, missing his birthday is one thing but then add on an extra, what, at least 7 days postal time she would have accounted for in the UK (if in the UK).

Also, all the shopping and all the luggage. If Marion DID return to Australia for a quick hop over to sort out her finances and RB also headed back, where is all the UK luggage and shopping?

 

[mishy66]

The postcard of Strand Gate at Winchelsea postmarked in Tonbridge on the 7 Aug 1997 is interesting because you would have expected that to be postmarked Hastings in East Sussex as Strand Gate is between Rye & Hastings, but strangely its posted back in the Tunbridge Wells area in West Kent where Marion started out in June. Tonbridge’s (5 miles from Tunbridge Wells) Royal Mail sorting office dealt with the mail for Tunbridge Wells. It suggests ‘they’ returned to Tunbridge Wells by late July so the call received by Sally might have come from there?

It does seem as though the ‘con’ was the prospect of Marion setting up a school in the UK. Marion’s first letter home was already making reference to the number of private schools where she was staying and she had picked up the brochure to The Mead School in Tunbridge Wells. Incidentally this school is just a 5 minute walk from The Swan Hotel in The Pantiles where I believe Marion met up with him.

That postcard stamped August 7th is the most telling in what she was doing and where she was at the time.
I agree @Lord Peter Flimsy with your theory . The hotel I am not so sure, neither of them drank I think it was alleged. Marion by Sally and him by JO testimony. But for sure it doesn't mean it wasn't in that area of The Pantiles.

 

[mishy66]

I cant see any names or a year, but I am wondering with those legs of his, would he be playing sports ?

Nukerke: Eendracht Nukerke voetbal

 

[hoodunnit]

Those signatures look different to me. The first ones looks like someone has had to think about how they are signing, which would make sense if you had just changed your name and are only just coming to learn a new signature.

that second one looks more fluent, like someone has been signing it like that for a while.

moo

Also, the spelling is off on both. MB was a teacher, hard to believe, even if rushed, she would spell Luxembourg and Novotel incorrectly. And write "AustraliaN" for country of birth.

 

[mishy66]

Do those post Aug 2 postcards/letters still exist, or are those dates based on someone’s memory of the postcard? If they exist have they been made publicly available? Just that sometimes the date stamps are not perfectly clear/readable and if by memory it’s possible someone misread the date.

‎The Lady Vanishes: 4. Taken on Apple Podcasts
@6:10

Postcards postmarked 7th and 30th August to Marions family

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

Not only less common but "swiping" didn't exist at all in 1997.
RSVP was very popular, right from it's beginning.

Yes I know that swiping didn’t exist.. Lol
RSVP is not free and I doubt he would pay a subscription.

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

Unfortunately Marion is, at times, an unreliable witness. During the lead up to her disappearance, she did lie and kept vital information from Sally. Not simply because 'she thought it was the truth', but because something else was going on and she was likely being coerced.

For example, she did not reveal or tell the truth about:
- her name change
- the real reason she went overseas
- her overall plans for the next year
- her relationship with the man in the car
- where she slept that night
- her passenger cards
- her particular itinerary
- where she was and who she was with.

If she was with RB in the UK, then we can be almost certain she was being coerced over there too, and so we can't take everything she said in the UK as true and accurate. IMO.

Yes! 100%

 

[TootsieFootsie]

It hasen't been free for a long time but in the beginning it was and for quite awhile too.

RSVP is not free and I doubt he would pay a subscription.

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

Yes, maybe he was with her during the 'shop til you drop' phase?

What WAS Marion purchasing and why? She's a tourist on the other side of the world who has already brought too much luggage with her and is intending to go on the Orient Express shortly (ie not intending to acquire even more 'stuff').

What on earth would she wish to purchase? Is this the romantic 'grooming' phase by RB?

Did they maybe go looking at antiques, furniture, wallpaper? Interior design and art galleries?

Did he buy her some perfume, underwear, and jewellery? Maybe on a fake identity credit card or using stolen travel cheques?

The other thing is how do we actually know what was written in the postcards is truth. When there was not a lot of truth from Marion prior to leaving. Shopping til you drop makes no sense when you have had to leave luggage behind from having too much stuff

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

It hasen't been free for a long time but in the beginning it was and for quite awhile too.

Oh okay then it’s certainly possible

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

OR someone was with her. Interfering with her call. Telling her what to say. Telling her to get off the phone?

Heck she could have been held hostage and have a gun to her head in that type of scenario.

I don’t think she had a gun to her head on a public pay phone lol JMO

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

Great find again @Jamaha
That last one is the spitting image of his son.

The lips don’t appear to be full enough based on his passport photos IMO

 

[KateM]

Agree. As with JO 2 years later. He hires the car and drives round East Sussex & Kent with his victim.

Narcissists do tend to replicate behaviour with their victims...

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

The other thing is how do we actually know what was written in the postcards is truth. When there was not a lot of truth from Marion prior to leaving. Shopping til you drop makes no sense when you have had to leave luggage behind from having too much stuff

I always felt her postcards from UK sounded cliched, as if she were making touristy things up. Purely opinion. And if she was, what was she really doing? Boring weird things that RB wanted to do? Was she stranded in an out of the way hostelry? Waiting for the fun to begin?

 

[KateM]

Buses and rail are not so great in the smaller rural areas and if she was together with RB at this phase of car hire, it would explain maybe?

Exactly and that's the main reason that I believe that she was driving around with him in a car.

 

[KateM]

Yeah and you didn’t need an international license to drive around UK or many other European countries. My family and friends hired cars in UK, Ireland, Italy, Austria, USA and other places just with our Australian licenses (more than once with name discrepancies of some kind, sometimes with a stat dec to explain them)

sounds like maybe the international license was more for use as a form of ID for other purposes… ?

When I was living and working in London, I didn't drive the car belonging to the family I was working for, as the insurance would have been complicated and we all decided it wasn't worth the effort.

 

[KateM]

Second post of the day. If Willy Coppenolle is the real name of RB, could this be him as a child? Woesten: derde en vierde leerjaar in schooljaar 1950-1951

His ears don't stick out as an adult man, so I don't think it's likely.

 

[KateM]

I'm with scenario 1

Also, personally I don't necessarily think that the RACQ m'ship and Medicare use was someone trying to 'plant' proof of life.

I think someone knew that Marion was absolutely on the other side of the world and / or was no longer alive and was simply maximising and checking out the use of every facet of her identity for which they had documents.

By their way of thinking, the Medicare use could maybe come in handy. The RACQ m'ship was perhaps taking a monthly debit from the account so they wanted that stopped and maybe could find no use for it - or maybe during conversation with the bank, a helpful bank staff may have said 'if you're starting a new life overseas, would you like us to cancel all your outgoing monthly / annual payments?'.

I imagine if they did it with these two items, they did it with a whole lot more we don't know about.

Can someone tell me exactly what happened with Marion's RACQ membership?