Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, June 1997 #9

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MrsWattle said:
Ballina Coins Pty Ltd is a business The Aka family set up. I don't believe RB suddenly ceased to have an interest in coins and antiques. His good friend Barry Cooper books and coins. His accountant Vernon Ware. At the inquest RB mentioned an office in Tamar st. Ballina. He mumbled about that. A bit dismissive. Ballina Coins had a name change to Clarendon Hills Investments Pty Ltd. All of these recent businesses could lead to a money trail as to what he does, if he has set up a FamilyTrust fund and how many properties they have bought with the ill-gotten money from his Romance scam and coin sales. The disappearance of Marion Barter is my main interest.
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Good point! For me understanding RB (the man and the MO) is the way to understanding the interaction with Marion and thus understanding what has happened. I delve into the history/ backstory and then keep relating back and asking myself “how does this help understand what might have happened to MB?”. The MO is becoming clearer…criminal history staring after (or maybe the reason for leaving if he was kicked out for committing some sort of crime?) the Gendarmerie. What follows is an escalating in the seriousness from minor traffic offences to more serious frauds refining strategies and skills over time. The stumbling point for me is: if it escalates as far as “killing/ murder”, why continue with that MO for (a known 2 cases) after MB (i.e. GGB and JO). A number of other sleuths on this forum have said this and speculated and although I do have a vignette/ theory forming, it doesn’t hang together logically as yet.
 
MF Partners Chartered Accountants with offices in Ballina 95 Tamar st, Ballina. and Armidale, and affiliates in Sydney and Melbourne, pride ourselves in being friendly, accessible accounting specialists who make it our business to make your business successful.

Vernon Ware
Partner
Taxation and Business Services

Vernon joined MF Partners in 1994 and became a partner in 1998. Vernon has a varied client base, both industry wise and geographically, and handles complex taxation issues for both individual and corporate clients. He has achieved major gains for clients through effective tax planning and a thorough knowledge of Capital Gains Tax concessions and business rollover relief. Vernon specialises in advice on business taxation, sale, acquisition and restructuring. Vernon is a Chartered Accountant.
 
gymtonic said:
Good point! For me understanding RB (the man and the MO) is the way to understanding the interaction with Marion and thus understanding what has happened. I delve into the history/ backstory and then keep relating back and asking myself “how does this help understand what might have happened to MB?”. The MO is becoming clearer…criminal history staring after (or maybe the reason for leaving if he was kicked out for committing some sort of crime?) the Gendarmerie. What follows is an escalating in the seriousness from minor traffic offences to more serious frauds refining strategies and skills over time. The stumbling point for me is: if it escalates as far as “killing/ murder”, why continue with that MO for (a known 2 cases) after MB (i.e. GGB and JO). A number of other sleuths on this forum have said this and speculated and although I do have a vignette/ theory forming, it doesn’t hang together logically as yet.
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This is exactly what I have struggled with.. IF he killed/murdered.. Why scam again after that? Generally looking through other romance swindlers murder doesn’t come into play.. BUT that’s not say if you’re entire existence and a life of lies was about to crumble that it would not escalate to that. Desperate people do desperate things.
 
Eyespywithmylittleeye said:
Yep I was down the hole most of yesterday and most of it is head scratching..

the $8000 coin is the only one that shows the ownership line, all other ex Coppenolle coins don’t say that. It says grandmother so we are assuming it was RB son/ daughter but perhaps RB realised $8k is a bit much to hide from Centrelink so he has listed as though it is a grandchild.
The date of death of is interesting and no name even more No Name. Is it actually Maria’s Desire?

As for Alice 1963… divorce.. that’s really weird. And still cannot find a death date for the other Don Juan Desire.

Could he truly have still been alive in 63? It’s possible but why would Alice stay married to him?

did she have a child with him? (I haven’t found any children yet for Don Juan)..

So many marriages, it seems unlikely that there would be not even one child.
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Long time follower. First time post.
Don Juan Desire Date of Death: 15 nov. 1972 (15 Nov 1972)

Web: France, Death Records, 1970-2018 - Ancestry.com.au
upload_2022-2-26_10-43-45.png
 
centred said:
Aha Now things are starting to make a bit more sense , good find !
But where did everyone go haha , A bit of background work going on ;)
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Ok so this maybe the reason RB identified himself as a Coppenolle , If you were to claim legitimacy from Don Juan no doubt your schemes would be guilty by association and the gigs up . He has if so ,
diverted attention away from his connection to a famous artist akin to his talent and what are the chances he has had a mentor the whole time . Or he isnt related to any of them but has based his anonymity and alias on these names after learning of Don Juan
 
Eyespywithmylittleeye said:
This is exactly what I have struggled with.. IF he killed/murdered.. Why scam again after that? Generally looking through other romance swindlers murder doesn’t come into play.. BUT that’s not say if you’re entire existence and a life of lies was about to crumble that it would not escalate to that. Desperate people do desperate things.
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What if...just pure crime fiction speculation...our protagonist died due to an unrelated accident (car crash - Jane Doe unidentified?) and being an opportunistic, con artist, (and with all the ID mechanisms in place) the villain takes advantage? He can't report it due to implicating himself; lack of a moral compass means he doesn't believe that he has done anything wrong; and hopes the mystery is never unravelled?

An alternative plot scenario = our protagonist discovers the scam and is so angry that she stages her disappearance but leaves a breadcrumb that links to and implicates the villain.

If I were a crime fiction novelist (which I am not but maybe I should be!) those are plots/ story arcs I would entertain! Of course in this case, with truth being stranger than fiction, it probably happened just as it currently looks with no need for plot twists!

Apologies to the real victims here as I should not really be trying to make light of it and not my intention to offend. Sleuthing requires throwing out some alternative hypotheses.
 
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Estelle said:
Wasn't he making tapestries too?
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I discovered a link that the art of designing Belgian wall tapestries (which were traditionally a thing in that part of the world) made a resurgence in Belgium in the 1950s and there was even a world exhibition held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1962! I posted this in one of my previous posts. His assumed birth mother MC was also a "Piqueuse" or lace maker/ designer so this could feed into his embellished stories.
 
I discovered a link that the art of designing Belgian wall tapestries (which were traditionally a thing in that part of the world) made a resurgence in Belgium in the 1950s and there was even a world exhibition held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1962! I posted this in one of my previous posts. His assumed birth mother MC was also a "Piqueuse" or lace maker/ designer so this could feed into his embellished stories.
MrsEmmaPeel said:
He said he worked as a draftsman designing tapestries. I took that to mean, maybe, a designer of fabrics, which sounds grand. Draftsman, not so much.
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centred said:
Aha Now things are starting to make a bit more sense , good find !
But where did everyone go haha , A bit of background work going on ;)
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The birth/ marriage records are for Isere which is in the region of France close to the Italian and Swiss border, and the death is for the border region with Spain, both of which are a fair way from Belgium. I haven't really been following up on all the ins and outs of the Don Juan investigations, but is the suggestion that this is the "real" birth father? and if so he is born, married and dies a long way from Belgium, which makes a difficult link...or am I missing something?.
 
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centred said:
Ok so this maybe the reason RB identified himself as a Coppenolle , If you were to claim legitimacy from Don Juan no doubt your schemes would be guilty by association and the gigs up . He has if so ,
diverted attention away from his connection to a famous artist akin to his talent and what are the chances he has had a mentor the whole time . Or he isnt related to any of them but has based his anonymity and alias on these names after learning of Don Juan
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Hmm..
There’s a few scenarios that are possible IMO

His mother is perhaps one of the many women Don Juan played and she ended up pregnant, ripped off and embarrassed, had the child and later in life RB has discovered who his birth father was, researched him and decided to follow in dads footsteps.

Or

Similar to above however as an unmarried women he is placed in an orphanage and through a connection of either birth mother or Don Juan he ends up being raised by Coppenolle and the other Desire?

or

Coppenolle is his mother, Desire is his father and He has heard of the distant relative Don Juan who was the infamous fraudster. And modelled himself on that.

or… he is told the truth of who is father is and goes searching..

Alice and Don Juan divorce in 1962 what if a mystery son appears knocking on their door around 62… hi dad!

Alice leaves, he gets to know his true birth father and dear old dad teaches him his tricks of the trade.

And so begins the life of Fraud..
 
gymtonic said:
Good point! For me understanding RB (the man and the MO) is the way to understanding the interaction with Marion and thus understanding what has happened. I delve into the history/ backstory and then keep relating back and asking myself “how does this help understand what might have happened to MB?”. The MO is becoming clearer…criminal history staring after (or maybe the reason for leaving if he was kicked out for committing some sort of crime?) the Gendarmerie. What follows is an escalating in the seriousness from minor traffic offences to more serious frauds refining strategies and skills over time. The stumbling point for me is: if it escalates as far as “killing/ murder”, why continue with that MO for (a known 2 cases) after MB (i.e. GGB and JO). A number of other sleuths on this forum have said this and speculated and although I do have a vignette/ theory forming, it doesn’t hang together logically as yet.
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What if Marion's death was the intended end to the con? What if JO escaped that fate by the skin of her teeth, aka her Manchester cousin? What if GGB escaped because her children got involved and helped steer her away? So RB pushes the limits on what a "confidence trick" (love that old fashioned phrase from the AUS NAA file) means. After Marion and two failures, perhaps he dialed back his MO. Also, what if Wife Diane was never privy to the murder part? What if he used her up to a certain point, and what she's learning now is how far things actually went.

One big cataclysmic shift occurred. The internet quickly made conning harder, just as DNA has made serial killing harder. I think RB had to shift his MO to something he could manage, as an old guy with limited computer skills.
 
Some interesting things I’ve come across, not sure of their relevance but thought I’d share in case others are interested.

Im still stumped by the Florabella name. I came across a “Florabella Ballet School” in the UK. If our man of many names liked ballet so much, maybe he knows of it somehow.

Also, a civil case in the NSW district court (DdH v Coles). I can’t find a judgement for it though so it’s possibly unreported.
 

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brjakj said:
Some interesting things I’ve come across, not sure of their relevance but thought I’d share in case others are interested.

Im still stumped by the Florabella name. I came across a “Florabella Ballet School” in the UK. If our man of many names liked ballet so much, maybe he knows of it somehow.

Also, a civil case in the NSW district court (DdH v Coles). I can’t find a judgement for it though so it’s possibly unreported.
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Wow coles is interesting.. maybe they needed some cash and she slipped and sued hahah
 
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