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

[TootsieFootsie]

It’s a stunning vindication of the dedication of Marion’s daughter, Sally Leydon, and the small team at 7NEWS working on this global investigation.

“I’m quite elated… you know, I have a tear in my eye… it’s a big sigh of relief, it’s something that I have been fighting for by myself for a very long time I feel and it’s a very sad story and a very intriguing story which most of our listeners on the podcast have also said,” Sally told 7NEWS.

https://7news.com.au/news/crime/the...n-into-missing-teacher-marion-barter-c-370076

 

[sunnynz]

• 
  Bryan Seymour
  @BryanSeymour1

Major Breakthrough! NSW Police have today confirmed they are reopening their Investigation into the disappearance of Marion Barter, adding her to the Missing Persons Register and will refer her case to the Coroner. Congratulations to Marion’s daughter Sally and the 7NEWS team

This is fantastic! And speaks volumes about the fact that the police obviously don’t have solid proof that Marion walked away of her own accord.

 

[sunnynz]

Listening to episode 12 of the podcast right now. What a result for Sally and hopefully now we can see some real action on the case.

The admission that despite many avenues of enquire the police have been able to find no trace of Marion is huge.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

• 
  Bryan Seymour
  @BryanSeymour1

Major Breakthrough! NSW Police have today confirmed they are reopening their Investigation into the disappearance of Marion Barter, adding her to the Missing Persons Register and will refer her case to the Coroner. Congratulations to Marion’s daughter Sally and the 7NEWS team

Completely brilliant news!! Kudos to Sally, her family, the Lady Vanishes Team and all the sleuths around the world ..... hope the long searched for answers are found soon.

 

[natural sagacity]

I still think she is alive and living another life. People do not go to the trouble of changing their name and lie about their trip for no reason. If she was coerced as some people think, I really doubt the person doing the coercing would of 'agreed' to her changing her name to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Maybe Marion did choose to disappear, who knows.

Her daughter has the right to try and find out what happened to her.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

I still think she is alive and living another life. People do not go to the trouble of changing their name and lie about their trip for no reason. If she was coerced as some people think, I really doubt the person doing the coercing would of 'agreed' to her changing her name to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel.

She may very well be alive and living out her days under a different identity, all quite possible. No-one knows what the true story is, it's all speculation and there is no right or wrong theory at this point, Natural Sagacity, just theories and dum de da ....... I love that we all have differing opinions and thoughts, makes it interesting, and how very dull it would be if we all thought the same!!! Myself, h'mm, I have been able to come up with reasons why someone would change their name on their passport without telling anyone, oooh (I cite Itsapuzzle's top 10 name change list, thus to wit) hee ... but I can't really come up with ideas why someone who has chosen to disappear would take out $5000 a day for three and a half weeks from Byron Bay? Am open to ideas and would be very interested to hear any thoughts on the topic, completely interested

 

[natural sagacity]

She may very well be alive and living out her days under a different identity, all quite possible. No-one knows what the true story is, it's all speculation and there is no right or wrong theory at this point, Natural Sagacity, just theories and dum de da ....... I love that we all have differing opinions and thoughts, makes it interesting, and how very dull it would be if we all thought the same!!! Myself, h'mm, I have been able to come up with reasons why someone would change their name on their passport without telling anyone, oooh (I cite Itsapuzzle's top 10 name change list, thus to wit) hee ... but I can't really come up with ideas why someone who has chosen to disappear would take out $5000 a day for three and a half weeks from Byron Bay? Am open to ideas and would be very interested to hear any thoughts on the topic, completely interested

No one has produced the bank statement to verify if Marion withdrew $5000 per day? Withdrawing the cash, whether it is $5000 per day or over $100k would be to eliminate a paper trail, for someone disappearing this would be ideal and it would also give Marion time to arrange delivery of her belongings and seek medical attention. I think it is very strange that no one has found where these belongings went to. Maybe there was a man involved but it does not necessarily mean he forced her to disappear. Hopefully the police file may contain details of this and other interesting info. The strangest detail is that not one person has sighted her which makes me think she is overseas.

 

[natural sagacity]

Now police investigating again I wonder if they will be able to find details regarding the flight to and from the UK and who Marion travelled with. If police can get this info (or already have it) Marions whereabouts/ fate will finally be solved.

 

[sunnynz]

Hoping that one of the first things that can be done now is to get Sally's DNA submitted to databases in Australia, UK and Luxembourg to match with Jane does. Is there a Europe wide database or is it country by country?

 

[Cliff Hardy]

Listening to episode 12 of the podcast right now. What a result for Sally and hopefully now we can see some real action on the case.

The admission that despite many avenues of enquire the police have been able to find no trace of Marion is huge.

What were the police playing at sending someone to the hearing who hasn't even read the file properly, let alone actually spoken to the officer in charge of the case? So what if the guy has a fancy rank (superintendent?) it was just plain embarrassing.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

No one has produced the bank statement to verify if Marion withdrew $5000 per day? Withdrawing the cash, whether it is $5000 per day or over $100k would be to eliminate a paper trail, for someone disappearing this would be ideal and it would also give Marion time to arrange delivery of her belongings and seek medical attention. I think it is very strange that no one has found where these belongings went to. Maybe there was a man involved but it does not necessarily mean he forced her to disappear. Hopefully the police file may contain details of this and other interesting info. The strangest detail is that not one person has sighted her which makes me think she is overseas.

How does withdrawing the $5000 a day eliminate a paper trail? Wouldn't transferring it to an overseas account in someone else's name be a better way? Not sure, I don't know about financial shenanigans, but am interested. Yes, that shipping container, where the heck did that go? Was it odd back then to place your furniture and things in a shipping container, or was everyone doing it? I'd never heard of it, thought it was always storage sheds and garage things, so maybe there weren't that many using the shipping containers and maybe easier to track down? Might have a look around Trove for some info.

 

[natural sagacity]

How does withdrawing the $5000 a day eliminate a paper trail? Wouldn't transferring it to an overseas account in someone else's name be a better way? Not sure, I don't know about financial shenanigans, but am interested. Yes, that shipping container, where the heck did that go? Was it odd back then to place your furniture and things in a shipping container, or was everyone doing it? I'd never heard of it, thought it was always storage sheds and garage things, so maybe there weren't that many using the shipping containers and maybe easier to track down? Might have a look around Trove for some info.

If it money were transferred then it would leave an obvious trail ie account number and bank and name of account holder where as once cash is withdrawn, what happens to it after that no one knows.

 

[Intriguedbyintrigue]

How does withdrawing the $5000 a day eliminate a paper trail? Wouldn't transferring it to an overseas account in someone else's name be a better way? Not sure, I don't know about financial shenanigans, but am interested. Yes, that shipping container, where the heck did that go? Was it odd back then to place your furniture and things in a shipping container, or was everyone doing it? I'd never heard of it, thought it was always storage sheds and garage things, so maybe there weren't that many using the shipping containers and maybe easier to track down? Might have a look around Trove for some info.

The financial transactions reporting act is legislation which targets tax evasion, money laundering and people living under aliases. Transactions of 10k or more and all overseas transactions require reporting under the act.
Cash withdrawals give no indication of destination of the funds -the bank only have trace details for the debit (the source). Whereas electronic transfers link the debit/source and credit/destination transactionally - it shows where the money went. Those $5k cash withdrawals allowed Marion to prevent her former life/identity being linked to her new life/identity. Perhaps the $80k was for her to cash purchase a residence? Or maybe she was just shifting her money somewhere else (perhaps in another name).

 

[Intriguedbyintrigue]

Yes, that shipping container, where the heck did that go? Was it odd back then to place your furniture and things in a shipping container, or was everyone doing it? I'd never heard of it, thought it was always storage sheds and garage things, so maybe there weren't that many using the shipping containers and maybe easier to track down? Might have a look around Trove for some info.

I'm interested in the shipping container too. From what has been said in the podcast Sally doesnt know much more than her Mum put her things in storage. I'm not sure if they know it was a shipping container (as opposed to other forms of storage).
You'd have to think that regardless of the type of storage and how Marion paid for the storage (up front or periodically) that there would have been monthly receipts issued from the company - and those would have gone to Lesley as part of the mail redirection. The mail redirection is another area not given enough focus by the podcast.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

I'm interested in the shipping container too. From what has been said in the podcast Sally doesnt know much more than her Mum put her things in storage. I'm not sure if they know it was a shipping container (as opposed to other forms of storage).
You'd have to think that regardless of the type of storage and how Marion paid for the storage (up front or periodically) that there would have been monthly receipts issued from the company - and those would have gone to Lesley as part of the mail redirection. The mail redirection is another area not given enough focus by the podcast.

Have had a bit of a look on Trove and it looks like the three big ones at the time were Kent, Grace and Wridgways, they all had shipping containers. Now these containers are all easily distinguishable to their brand too, a bit like a designer handbag, all got their identifying logo's and container colours.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I was trying to think of a reason to use a shipping container, and came up with either of two reasons.

One is that the shipping container was meant to be shipped overseas, the other was that at arrival at a destination here, like a commune for example, the container could be used to live in.

 

[Intriguedbyintrigue]

I was trying to think of a reason to use a shipping container, and came up with either of two reasons.

One is that the shipping container was meant to be shipped overseas, the other was that at arrival at a destination here, like a commune for example, the container could be used to live in.

Oh yes! The storage container would have given Marion the opportunity to have her stuff transported to her in the UK if she decided to stay there or wherever she ended up in Australia when/if she came back.

 

[Intriguedbyintrigue]

Have had a bit of a look on Trove and it looks like the three big ones at the time were Kent, Grace and Wridgways, they all had shipping containers. Now these containers are all easily distinguishable to their brand too, a bit like a designer handbag, all got their identifying logo's and container colours.

I wonder if Sally ever spoke to her Mum's neighbours to see if they remembered the truck coming to collect her Mums things??

 

[Itsapuzzle]

I was trying to think of a reason to use a shipping container, and came up with either of two reasons.

One is that the shipping container was meant to be shipped overseas, the other was that at arrival at a destination here, like a commune for example, the container could be used to live in.

I don't know, but I thought these shipping containers would remain on the premises of the company renting them out, just like the storage sheds? Would be interesting if you could move them to your own location for the year or so though. If it was one of three big companies like Kent, Wridgway, Grace, I'm sure if they rang them they would be able to tell them how they disposed of uncollected goods back in 1997/98, which auction house they used for the business, and you could probably trace the items back to a catalogue, that is, if they were uncollected goods.
I wonder if it would be worthwhile giving hypnosis a try to get the memory back of what brand the shipping container was, hey, could work .... someone great like Rick Collingwood could be worth a try .... I guess you get to the point where anything's worth trying.