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

[JLZ]

Did Marion know from Sally or from Jenny that Sally had delivered the scales?

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I wonder if Lesley Loveday then sent all Marion's mail to Sally ?

One thing I wondered about was Lesley Loveday’s statement about continuing to receive Marion’s mail which was redirected to her address. Lesley said she eventually opened one letter, saw it was a cheque, and contacted Sally. She then assumed Sally would have taken care of the mail redirection as she did not receive further mail but I wonder about that. Would Sally have had the authority to do that? Did Marion herself reorganise the mail redirection to elsewhere when she returned to Australia, with the timing being coincidental? I wonder if Australia Post keeps records of mail redirection? Or have I misunderstood something here?

 

[Itsapuzzle]

***spoiler alert, look away, spoiler alert ** I thought this comment from Greg E was simply magnificent about Marion's name change ..... "I had quite a chuckle about that - I couldn't believe it. She must have got a bee in her bonnet about something." A bee in her bonnet, hey, could the answer to the name change be as simple as that, a bee in her bonnet ..... love it, oh boy, this might just be spot on.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Lesley Loveday said she opened one letter.
So I don't think she could have known for certain what was in the other mail. She didn't say that she then opened the others.

*Potential spoiler* (but I think it was mentioned earlier in the podcast and I just forgot about it until now) -
Does anyone have any idea what the cheques sent to LL's house for Marion are likely to have been? If they were her wages from TSS (I know sometimes they get paid in instalments spread over the year), surely Marion would have made mention of that and asked someone to cash them for her? I find it really weird that there were just cheques being sent to her (Marion) that weren't being deposited. LL only opened one, from the sounds of it, but there is also an implication that the others that she sent back (to where?) seemed to come from the same source and were probably in the same vein.

 

[KiwiNZ]

I think that even though the passage of time will limit investigation, the one thing they do have assess to is the passenger cards and at worst could narrow it down to whom was on the plane and hopefully at least one passenger card will echo Marion's. Of course there is a chance if she was travelling with someone that they had also changed their name or using a stolen passport. And what if we find she was travelling alone, both ways ?

With the mail - it would have been interesting to know if the mail stopped after Marion had returned or before.

I do think she returned, I think she redirected her post , updated her contact details and this is why the bank was able to contact her, cancelled her insurance etc.., and I think her sister was correcting in think Marion may have come back had she not been caught out because by both Sally and hers sisters account she had set the scene for limited contact before she disappeared, like she was planning something but possible not forever.

 

[Lord Peter Flimsy]

My first obvious question about the latest podcast was who is Lesley L talking about when she said there was a guy staying with Marion next door and her behaviour was different when he wasn’t there. What was the car next door? Did she ever see him? Did he have an accent? It certainly wasn’t Greg as she knew him.

 

[Brissie Sleuth]

***spoiler alert, look away, spoiler alert ** I thought this comment from Greg E was simply magnificent about Marion's name change ..... "I had quite a chuckle about that - I couldn't believe it. She must have got a bee in her bonnet about something." A bee in her bonnet, hey, could the answer to the name change be as simple as that, a bee in her bonnet ..... love it, oh boy, this might just be spot on.

this really stood out to me made me think the name change could have been quite spontaneous

 

[KiwiNZ]

Did Marion know from Sally or from Jenny that Sally had delivered the scales?

I wondered that as well, I went back through the letters / postcards but couldn't see a reference to her saying "thank you for doing that for me, your a good Daughter" - I assume Sally was saying this was stated in the last call, and maybe as a response to Sally saying she had returned the scales ?

If it is in a letter it would mean someone had contact with Marion for her to know this, as there was only the 1 phone call and no contact after this.

 

[Brissie Sleuth]

My first obvious question about the latest podcast was who is Lesley L talking about when she said there was a guy staying with Marion next door and her behaviour was different when he wasn’t there. What was the car next door? Did she ever see him? Did he have an accent? It certainly wasn’t Greg as she knew him.

yes it would have been helpful if she could describe the man and the car, so it could be determined whethee this was Greg

 

[TootsieFootsie]

When Lesley Loveday said that, and then not long later mentioned Sally and Greg being together for two years, I thought maybe it was Greg she was talking about, but it took awhile before she knew who it was. That's the way it seemed to me anyway.
I'm not sure though, it could have been another man altogether.

After hearing Lesleys words, I quite like her. I think she's a bit like me in not wanting to be pushy and letting people tell her things if they want to. Not pushing them for information.
A kindred spirit in that regard.
Not that I wouldn't ask a friend if they were ok if I thought they were upset about something.

yes it would have been helpful if she could describe the man and the car, so it could be determined whethee this was Greg

 

[JLZ]

I wondered that as well, I went back through the letters / postcards but couldn't see a reference to her saying "thank you for doing that for me, your a good Daughter" - I assume Sally was saying this was stated in the last call, and maybe as a response to Sally saying she had returned the scales ?

If it is in a letter it would mean someone had contact with Marion for her to know this, as there was only the 1 phone call and no contact after this.

I thought I read a post where it was said she thanked her in a postcard but I can't find the post to check. If Sally said in a call that she'd delivered the items I'd expect Marion to have thanked her at the time, not to have put it in a postcard unless she was really casting about for things to say. On the other hand if she had it from Jenny, I wondered if Jenny had described the interaction for the podcast or for the inquest.

 

[Darlingels]

Maybe it was a refund cheque from cancelling the racq?

Possibly, but it seemed like there was more than one of them that came? LL said something like "they just kept coming".

 

[TootsieFootsie]

From the podcast
Lesley Loveday re the man, "He was there when Marion moved in"

 

[KiwiNZ]

I thought I read a post where it was said she thanked her in a postcard but I can't find the post to check. If Sally said in a call that she'd delivered the items I'd expect Marion to have thanked her at the time, not to have put it in a postcard unless she was really casting about for things to say. On the other hand if she had it from Jenny, I wondered if Jenny had described the interaction for the podcast or for the inquest.

Sally states - there is correspondence saying your a good daughter thank you for doing that for me ... the inquest : Part 4 at around 24 mins.

The only time Sally could have told her she had delivered the items would have been in the last phone call, because there was only 1 way communication up to that point, which was postcards from Marion, and there was no postcards to Sally after the phone call. If it is in a postcard or letter then someone must have been able to contact Marion while she was overseas, if it was someone from the school well that would raise eyebrows .... I thought it was very odd when I heard it in the inquest podcast because it was just not possible for Marion to know the scales had been returned unless someone from the school told her.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

From the podcast
Lesley Loveday re the man, "He was there when Marion moved in"

Yes, my take on that was that it may have been the married fellow,Jeff, from the school Marion last worked at, perhaps until it fizzled out. It was when Marion was a neighbour with Lesley in the rental. MOO

 

[JLZ]

Sally states - there is correspondence saying your a good daughter thank you for doing that for me ... the inquest : Part 4 at around 24 mins.

The only time Sally could have told her she had delivered the items would have been in the last phone call, because there was only 1 way communication up to that point, which was postcards from Marion, and there was no postcards to Sally after the phone call. If it is in a postcard or letter then someone must have been able to contact Marion while she was overseas, if it was someone from the school well that would raise eyebrows .... I thought it was very odd when I heard it in the inquest podcast because it was just not possible for Marion to know the scales had been returned unless someone from the school told her.

"There is correspondence saying . . . " is odd phrasing. As if either Sally wasn't the recipient or she wasn't confident that her mother was the sender.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

A correction to one of my posts. Lesley Loveday didn't send the letter with the cheque to Sally. She took it to her.

And re the other mail, they must have been all the rest that she sent back "return to sender"

So some person or business, or school ? had mail for Marion Barter returned to them.

Pity that it's such a long time ago now, there may been some clues in the rest of the mail.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

That could account for how she acted when he was around. Him being a married man I mean. Many would not have approved.

Yes, my take on that was that it may have been the married fellow,Jeff, from the school Marion last worked at, perhaps until it fizzled out. It was when Marion was a neighbour with Lesley in the rental. MOO

 

[vivienbee]

Possibly, but it seemed like there was more than one of them that came? LL said something like "they just kept coming".

This message was from me, somehow I logged out of my google account, relogged into the wrong one, and apparently at some point in the distant past I made another account that I forgot about.

 

[JLZ]

The met-a-Dutch-dentist story could be Marion covering herself in case it got back that she'd been seen with a man. Whereas the man was with her all along.