Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, Jun 1997 #5

[Itsapuzzle]

I probably shouldn't have pushed my nose into this case because I'm quite handicapped, my resources mainly being for the northern hemisphere [Not a choice, but what is available to me]
UK newspapers 1997-2021 don't mention the case. I searched in both the UK & US archives. The name only arises with a Marion Barter of English Heritage [i.e not her pedigree but an organisation that restores crumbling old ruins] Even in the Australian newspapers available, the only snippet I found was this, which almost certainly has nothing to do with the case, but I'll post it on the faint chance that someone else might see a connection

Nice to have you here Foxinbox, that's an interesting snippet you've found - Marion didn't have a middle name as Marion Barter, but I reckon it's worth looking into for sure seeing it's April 1998 and NSW. Good find.
Edit - whoops, just read it was answered before about no middle name - may this be stricken from the record.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Thanks, that is actually a pretty good find. I've never seen it before, and who knows, with changes by Deed Poll etc, it could possibly be Marion, back in the country or someone using her name.

Welcome to Marions' thread!

I probably shouldn't have pushed my nose into this case because I'm quite handicapped, my resources mainly being for the northern hemisphere [Not a choice, but what is available to me]
UK newspapers 1997-2021 don't mention the case. I searched in both the UK & US archives. The name only arises with a Marion Barter of English Heritage [i.e not her pedigree but an organisation that restores crumbling old ruins] Even in the Australian newspapers available, the only snippet I found was this, which almost certainly has nothing to do with the case, but I'll post it on the faint chance that someone else might see a connection

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I keep bumping into that UK Marion Barter company whenever I do a search.

 

[KiwiNZ]

... and that darn name clark again lol

 

[FOXINBOX]

I have no idea how Australian law works, but possibly similar to the UK and US, where you are entitled to call yourself whatever, no Deed Poll needed, providing you are not using the name to defraud [? Marion] but nothing to stop you adding the odd middle name etc. and there is a good deal of legalese, especially in a will, where it is especially important to identify the correct person, no matter what name they are going by. Has anybody traced this Marion Ann's birth & so forth to make sure she's genuine? I would have almost zero chance of anything myself. At least Barter, as opposed to Barton, seems to be a much more unusual name, so an easier search.

I will do some empirical research i.e ask a contact , possibly involving a drink of some sort - who has been a head teacher in Kent, but my own feeling is that non-UK teaching jobs are usually filled on an exchange or invitation basis, to avoid any abuse of the system, but I'll double check. I know things are more...elastic...in the private sector.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

I have no idea how Australian law works, but possibly similar to the UK and US, where you are entitled to call yourself whatever, no Deed Poll needed, providing you are not using the name to defraud [? Marion] but nothing to stop you adding the odd middle name etc. and there is a good deal of legalese, especially in a will, where it is especially important to identify the correct person, no matter what name they are going by. Has anybody traced this Marion Ann's birth & so forth to make sure she's genuine? I would have almost zero chance of anything myself. At least Barter, as opposed to Barton, seems to be a much more unusual name, so an easier search.

I will do some empirical research i.e ask a contact , possibly involving a drink of some sort - who has been a head teacher in Kent, but my own feeling is that non-UK teaching jobs are usually filled on an exchange or invitation basis, to avoid any abuse of the system, but I'll double check. I know things are more...elastic...in the private sector.

I found a Marion Anne Barter mentioned three times in the 1969 NSW Government Gazette - however, she was a Mrs Marion Barter back in 1969 - our Marion only became Marion Barter in 1985. Anne with an "e", wonder if it's the same lady.
Trove

 

[Bagpus]

On that subject, do you know what the general employment rules of school staff were like in 1997?

Even before Soham, you had to have a CRB check. That in itself takes some time. It's hard to imagine you could casually be offered a job.

Possibly more tactics by MB?

My personal opinion is that she was sick and tired of being called "Marrying Marion". She wanted her fourth marriage to be off the radar of her family.

She was perfectly ripe then to be exploited. Someone could harness her own emotions to make her disappear.

None of that helps find her though.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if it was all her? And she was living quietly with some nice man?

 

[Curiosity Cat]

Marion mentioned the relief teacher offer on a postcard depicting Strand Gate, Winchelsea, postmark Tonbridge, so maybe a preparatory school for boys in that area. Just a thought.

I can't see how Marion could work in the UK anyway. She had no entitlement as far as i can tell. Exchange teaching positions would need to be arranged in advance, too.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Unless it was off the record and she was being employed as a private tutor.
Perhaps to teach English to a child or children in a wealthy family from a non English speaking background.

I can't see how Marion could work in the UK anyway. She had no entitlement as far as i can tell. Exchange teaching positions would need to be arranged in advance, too.

 

[Curiosity Cat]

I have no idea how Australian law works, but possibly similar to the UK and US, where you are entitled to call yourself whatever, no Deed Poll needed, providing you are not using the name to defraud [? Marion] but nothing to stop you adding the odd middle name etc. and there is a good deal of legalese, especially in a will, where it is especially important to identify the correct person, no matter what name they are going by. Has anybody traced this Marion Ann's birth & so forth to make sure she's genuine? I would have almost zero chance of anything myself. At least Barter, as opposed to Barton, seems to be a much more unusual name, so an easier search.

I will do some empirical research i.e ask a contact , possibly involving a drink of some sort - who has been a head teacher in Kent, but my own feeling is that non-UK teaching jobs are usually filled on an exchange or invitation basis, to avoid any abuse of the system, but I'll double check. I know things are more...elastic...in the private sector.

Unless it was off the record and she was being employed as a private tutor.
Perhaps to teach English to a child or children in a wealthy family from a non English speaking background.

Unless it was off the record and she was being employed as a p

Unless it was off the record and she was being employed as a private tutor.
Perhaps to teach English to a child or children in a wealthy family from a non English speaking background.

rivate tutor.
Perhaps to teach English to a child or children in a wealthy family from a non English speaking background.

I certainly agree with this, tutoring and a cash arrangement or some thing similar. Or a quaint little B and B.

Personally I think Marion did come back and she is /was living a long way from South East Queensland or anywhere she lived before. Perhaps South Australia or Western Australia?? Tasmania?

 

[Tintenbar]

Beaucoup de personnes s'interrogent sur le choix du prénom Florabella. Je ne sais pas si cela a encore été publié ou même si cela peut faire avancer l'enquête, mais j'ai trouvé cette histoire intitulée "Florabella; Or The Missing Heir, Sir Roderic Roughbones". L'histoire est signée Europa.
FLORABELLA; Or THE MISSING HEIR, SIR RODERIC TOUGHBONES. - CHAPTER I. - The Telegraph, St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra Guardian (Vic. : 1864 - 1888) - 23 May 1874

 

[Tintenbar]

Dans la preuve d'enquête de Bronwen, il est écrit « Ma sœur cadette et mon mari
proposé d'engager un détective privé. Sally a rejeté leur offre d'un détective privé"
Pourquoi Sally a-t-elle refusé cette offre ?

 

[Tintenbar]

Don't you think Bronwen's answer to the question she was asked is illogical?
"Assume you know your sister is back in Australia, would she deliberately miss her daughter's wedding?
Yes. If that's what she wanted to do, she wasn't gonna be around, she was going to be
away for a couple of years. I don't think it would be unusual at all."

 

[Tintenbar]

[CITATION]Ms Wilsons' statement also made mention of a TV show segment about The Brethren at Byron Bay. How there was a woman in it that she thought was Marion. The segment was recorded but not kept. [/CITATION]

In addition to saying this, Browen does point out the town of Buderim where Marion would have liked to settle in the prospect of working at the Sunshine Coast Grammar School. But this school is not located in Buderim but in Mons. On the other hand, many religious communities are installed in Buderim.

[CITATION]Because of where it was she thought she could come up and live in Buderim and was excited about the prospect of that. I don’t know if she was unhappy about TSS at that stage.

She said she believed Marion had been planning to sell her Gold Coast home for some time.

Well, all I can say is I thought it was because of Buderim. It was because of the job up at Buderim because she was getting prepared for it and she wanted to move. I thought she sold the house in 1996 so she could buy something if she was gonna take up the job in '97. [/CITATION]

 

[Tintenbar]

What about this information?

The Lady Vanishes: Missing mum may have joined a cult

 

[FOXINBOX]

I presume a fifth marriage has been ruled out? I'm taking a break from one of the California missing cases, and to say that has been muddied by repeat marriages would be an understatement. I'm hoping I haven't jumped out of the frying pan...into another lot of complicated relationships!

 

[SaintGertrude]

Marion mentioned the relief teacher offer on a postcard depicting Strand Gate, Winchelsea, postmark Tonbridge, so maybe a preparatory school for boys in that area. Just a thought.

The school I was thinking of in Tunbridge Wells is Huntleys secondary school for boys as I got the wrong name of the school before. The school was in Culverden Down, Tunbridge Wells and closed in August 1992. One of the other websleuths did contact the two teachers at Huntley's who also owned a B&B in Tunbridge Wells but they had no recollection of Marion.

 

[SaintGertrude]

What about this information?

The Lady Vanishes: Missing mum may have joined a cult

Hermes Far Eastern Shining was one of the suggestions alongside the Scientologists.
After some sleuthing I found out that Marion did spent a weekend away with an offshoot of the Worldwide Church of God a few years before she went missing. (This is mentioned rather vaguely in a lady vanishes episode and there is a clip they have in the archives of Marion dancing) Some may also see this particular group as a cult but it just seems to me more like a lifestyle with some theological differences from mainstream Christianity.

 

[SaintGertrude]

Marion mentioned the relief teacher offer on a postcard depicting Strand Gate, Winchelsea, postmark Tonbridge, so maybe a preparatory school for boys in that area. Just a thought.

Itsapuzzle when you mention a preparatory school for boys in that area there is always Icklesham Primary School and an Oast House is very nearby as well.

 

[KiwiNZ]

another piece of the puzzle that doesn't make sense is the trip to the "east" - she flew to Korea but looks like she went to Japan as well ( from the letterhead) The hotel (nikko) was an Airport hotel, I actually stayed there in December 1999, I was flying JAL - London to Auckland and had a 16hr layover so the room came with the flight.

Typically you would stay at an airport hotel, if you had an 12+ wait between flights and that would be organized by the airline, you had an early flight out and the place you had vacant was a long journey to the airport, or you had a middle of the night arrival and you stayed their before travelling on to your destination. I cant imagine Narita airport is a good place to base yourself for a trip to see the sights.

No one even knew she was holidaying in the East ? Not even her friend she was living with before she left seems to have enquired about her trip, not her family, collogues or friends ? I though maybe she had keep it secret and avoided conversation, but why then mention her trip to the east in the letter ?

The impression I have built from her sisters, and extended circle is they all seem pretty consumed with their own feelings, life, and well being not so much of others .. The fact that know one seems to have enquired about her trip is pretty sad.