I haven't posted on here in such a long time, but I was talking to a friend about this case today and doing some googling and found the thread. I worked as a sex worker for a period of time. I was not around during the same era as Revelle, but the friend I was talking to worked in Sydney at the time. I don't have any specific information, but there are things that jump out at us that may not jump out at everyone so I thought I'd bring them up here.
So the first thing is that when Raquel privately extended the booking after the initial 2 hours, I would assume she felt relatively safe. It's hard to judge exactly how safe, because I don't know her financial circumstances (ie how desperate she may have been for money at the time). But the fact that she was able to call her friend Kate at 7:15pm suggests to me that had she been concerned when she did the extension she would have called someone so at least there was a person who knew what was going on. Every worker has ways of doing this if they need to, without alerting the client.
This brings me to the phone call with Kate, which I think is absolutely crucial. Kate clocked that she was likely with a client. She could have been just leaving Samer, or she could have been extending with him for another hour based on her "I'll call you in an hour" comment to Kate. Did she say "I'll call you in an hour when I'm home" or "I'll call you in an hour when I'm done"? It would be easy to confuse those two. Either way, I would presume that at 7:15pm she felt relatively safe. Kate has given no indication Revelle gave her cause for concern, and again I am sure Revelle would have been able to do this if she needed to.
So that leads me to the conclusion that either she stayed with Samer and something changed in the next little while or she left as Samer said. While I don't rule out that people can be unpredictable, it would be unusual for a client to be fine for three hours including a private hour and then suddenly go crazy or execute something pre-planned, especially given Revelle had multiple opportunities to leave before then. This is also most likely to occur due to crystal meth use, and that wasn't really around in 1994. It's not impossible, of course, and speed was around, but I'd put it at the lower end of likelihood. An alternative: did they canvass the possibility that something went wrong as part of a kink session?
As an aside, it annoys me that there seems to have been no examination of whether Samer saw other escorts and, if so, what they thought of him. That would tell us quite a lot.
Then we have Samer's story that he drove her to a local pub (both his place and the pub were in Kingsford). I find this chain of events bizarre. Why would Revelle have him drive her anywhere, let alone just a couple of kilometres away? It is really unusual for a sex worker to have a client drive them somewhere at the end of a booking. You are more vulnerable in a car, and the last thing most of us want is to have to continue entertaining a client after the time is up. Even if she was in a problematic situation financially, she should have had the cash from that booking to get a taxi, and in any case being driven a couple of kilometres away is not really cutting down any taxi fare.
Again, it's not that it doesn't happen; it does. What I am getting at is that there seems to have been an acceptance in the examination of this case that something like this happening made sense (even if he is not believed) whereas the fact that it would have been unusual makes it worthy of examination. The first possibility is that he's just made it up. But the other possibility is that it did happen and, given it was odd, that there was a specific reason for it that might provide clues to what happened. Was she meeting someone near the pub? Was she concerned about someone watching/following her? Did she extend for an hour without payment up front and he was going to get the cash from an ATM?
I can see why Samer has been the primary person of interest. His story sounds stupid and there's also the possibility she stayed with him for another hour after 7pm and something happened in that hour, but I do think he was focused on too much perhaps at the expense of other possibilities, and an examination of the situation with a proper understanding of sex work was lacking.
There are certainly some inconsistencies in the stories from Zoran, the owner, that raise my eyebrows, and I agree with PeterPenelope that there are questions to be asked about the logistics of the end of the booking with Samer and the later apparent booking with the Yugoslavian friends. There might be nothing in this at all, because agency logistics are not exactly a well-organised and oiled machine. I have been expected to wait at the end of a booking for a driver for an hour (no thanks, I'll sort it out myself); have been told a driver is literally on their way only to then be told ten minutes later to make my own way to a job; have been on the way to one job and diverted to another; have been told one driver is coming only for another to turn up. Sometimes the drivers wait at the bookings, sometimes they don't; sometimes you have one driver all night, sometimes you have different ones. They may have made specific arrangements for the evening with the Yugloslavian friends but equally they may have been planning to make those at the time depending on the circumstances. There appears to have been a significant time gap between Revelle finishing, even at 7:15pm, and when she was supposed to see the Yugoslavian friends, because according to the testimony at the inquest, "Kelly", the escort who actually saw them had an hour booking at 7:15pm then went home then went back out to see them. (Although the inconsistencies as to the location of the Yugoslavian friends raises questions about the legitimacy of testimony, the timeframe has been consistent.) However, regardless it is important to fill in those gaps.
But I would be surprised if the money she owed the agency and her annoying habit of not turning up to bookings and her seeing clients on the side was the motive for anything. This happens ALL THE TIME. Workers have run off owing thousands, have used brothels and agencies as a literal mine to develop their private work, and flake out on bookings as a matter of course, and they don't turn up dead. Too much has been made of all this, and if there is a motive it would be something else.
Jane's commentary about how she managed Revelle's tendency to disappear rings true. The managers know the ones who have a penchant for that and in fact they'll often have a backup in mind when they book someone unreliable for an important job. It sounds perhaps strange that Revelle would get away with being so unreliable and, according to Jane a bit cold, but she was 22 years old and a stunner. She could have gotten away with almost anything, and she would still be offered premium jobs. What we do know is that Revelle had no intention of taking the job later that evening, and probably only agreed to it so she could get the earlier one as well before finishing her time with the agency. Yes, owners have spied on workers who they think are poaching clients, so Zoran may have had an inkling and gone to Kingsford, but the workers don't turn up dead as a result. Again, there would have to be another motive.
I just really wish the police had consulted with a few sex workers at the time to get a better insight into this matter. I am sure there would be disagreements about the likelihood of certain things, but it's looking at it all through the right prism and with the right understanding that ensures the veracity and accuracy of an investigation.
Personally I feel that there has never been enough of an examination of whether Revelle had any involvement in the alleged drug side of Zoran's world, which we have now become aware of. I am not saying this judgementally and nor am I equating sex work and drug use or supply. This is based on the specifics of what we now allegedly know about Zoran, coupled with the rambling comments allegedly made by Coulton at the time, which could have been just rumour and gossip, but which could also have been prompted by some truth, especially given what we know about him. Revelle may have had nothing to do with drugs, but if she did, or even if she was being pressured into doing something, this may provide more of a motive for something happening to her. The sex work itself may have been a red herring, yet it became the sole focus.
