Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, June 1997 #13

[CoCo319]

Listening to RB's testimony, sometimes I wonder if he doesn't have some early dementia. His variable memory reminds me a lot of my dad. Sometimes very clear, sometimes very muddled. And my dad was an honest guy. Gotta be extra confusing for a pathological liar. I know he could be pretending and he's obviously lying a lot, but he could also have something else going on.

 

[Bibno]

On whether she was seeing anyone else:

"She told me that the relationship she had was with someone at the school and that she also told me that she had many nights to employ a term of bacchanalia with the korean parents teachers and their friends where she was having asian food banquets." HUH? What on earth?

Do you remember when he said this? I heard it and it amused me, but I think I heard it a bit differently. I wanted to listen to it again, but can’t remember roughly when it was.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Why call it a 'big removalist company' when it was one 'old guy' in his 50s, small guy, who did all the lifting alone?

Two things:

- I'm in my 50s and am not happy to be 'old' and at that time, wouldn't it still have been YOUNGER than WW was?

- Here in the UK, we call 'one old man' on his own with a van not a 'big removalist company' but 'a man and van'. Assume it's the same in Aus?

Note the detail 'he went outside to relieve himself' !?

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Do you remember when he said this? I heard it and it amused me, but I think I heard it a bit differently. I wanted to listen to it again, but can’t remember roughly when it was.

It was in the first third of the Inquest before the first break - during much discussion about how many times WW actual saw Marion 3, or 4, once a month, etc, at her home etc and when he noticed a motorbike outside and assume there was another man.

I typed it verbatim as he said it, although had to replay it several times as I couldn't work out what he was mumbling. My very best estimate was that he said 'korean students parents and teachers' run together very quickly but was struggling to figure out what it was but it would fit in with 'asian [food] banquets'. I should have noted the time, I'll try find it. I don't know about Aus private schooling but perhaps there are many wealthy korean students attending? (I am British)

 

[ruby925]

It was in the first third of the Inquest before the first break, I typed it verbatim as he said it, although had to replay it several times as I couldn't work out what he was mumbling. My very best estimate was that he said 'korean students parents and teachers' run together very quickly but was struggling to figure out what it was. I should have noted the time, I'll try find it. I don't know about Aus private schooling but perhaps there are many wealthy korean students attending? (I am British)

IMO this is to try and implicate an unknown Korean boyfriend as it is in evidence that MB's departure card showed her first destination as Seoul (although I haven't listened to the latest inquest day yet).

 

[Pineconemind]

Hi All! Just wanted to say thanks for the commentary, updates & overviews. As I live in Europe it's so handy to be able to jump on here and see what has happened. Going to try and watch the playback on youtube now. Seems like it was an intense day!

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Listening to RB's testimony, sometimes I wonder if he doesn't have some early dementia. His variable memory reminds me a lot of my dad. Sometimes very clear, sometimes very muddled. And my dad was an honest guy. Gotta be extra confusing for a pathological liar. I know he could be pretending and he's obviously lying a lot, but he could also have something else going on.

Agree but also I have closely known people who are compulsive liars / narcissists / controlling people and a key tactic they deploy is to refuse to be pinned down to any clear statement or answer. They take power by with-holding facts at all costs and depriving anyone to have any agency over information. Also avoiding any accountability. They do it when it even seems pointless.

WW swears black is white, then black, then white, then says yep I did originally say it was black but I was mistaken it's white, then when the questioner says so we agree now you are saying it is white, he says yes I agree it is definitely black. Infuriating!!

He's probably been doing this to his wife, children, and associates all his life, pathalogical swerving so extreme and habitual his neural pathways have set that way and breaking down with age - maybe he couldn't tell the truth if he wanted to! He has no 'truth'. His word means nothing, literally. I suspect if he had good representation, they could have this questioning called off on psychiatric grounds - his inability to answer questions is pathalogical to the point of clinically insane.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Hi All! Just wanted to say thanks for the commentary, updates & overviews. As I live in Europe it's so handy to be able to jump on here and see what has happened. Going to try and watch the playback on youtube now. Seems like it was an intense day!

Hi! If you get to the bit about the 'bacchanalian' banquets, please do let me know what time it was at ? and what you think it says ?

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

IMO this is to try and implicate an unknown Korean boyfriend as it is in evidence that MB's departure card showed her first destination as Seoul (although I haven't listened to the latest inquest day yet).

Aha! That would figure.

 

[F.Knab]

A couple of thoughts...

If you are on an international flight that is leaving at 6am you need to be at the airport at least 2 hours prior to departure. Blum said he caught the mini bus transfer up there. I call BS on this, no way was a transfer company running trips at like 12 at night from northern NSW to get to BNE airport - that service just didn't exist back then.

I've always thought he kept something of Marion's that was unique that the kids would know about/grew up with and that information would be supplied to the police. Nothing makes sense about his tea chest story.

The 2 car issue is highly suspect - different stories from Blum and his wife.

The bank deposit timing - so interesting.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Just like the mini bus not running overnight back then, the being at the airport two hours early most likely didn't either, 25 years ago.
I certainly don't recall having to be at an airport two hours early in those days.

 

[F.Knab]

thinking about this early flight a bit more, I think it more likely he caught one the buses that runs between syd and bne, I've done this a couple of times in the early 90's. The bus would arrive into Roma St Transit Centre (right in the middle of brisbane city) and I believe at the time there was a Novotel hotel close by - the next day he could just get a cab to the airport. I don't think the train was built to the airport then and no buses running at the time of the morning.

 

[F.Knab]

Just like the mini bus not running overnight back then, the being at the airport two hours early most likely didn't either, 25 years ago.
I certainly don't recall having to be at an airport two hours early in those days.

I flew out of brisbane airport to london a few months prior to Marion in 1997 and you definitely had to be at the airport at least 2 hours prior to check-in - it was printed on your flight itinerary

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

At the inquest video 4:38:00-4:39:00 - 'Fernand bought a _ _ _ _ from me when I moved from Luxembourg' - a what?

 

[F.Knab]

a lounge

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Oh right, maybe because it was an international flight.
I flew out of Brisaane airport back then, but just to New South Wales.

I flew out of brisbane airport to london a few months prior to Marion in 1997 and you definitely had to be at the airport at least 2 hours prior to check-in - it was printed on your flight itinerary

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I'm glad others heard the word bacchanalia, because when I was listening to him, I thought, aha, here comes an attempt to blacken Marion's name.
I thought next thing he'll say she enticed him with a bacchanalian feast which included her dancing naked.

Sorry but that's just where my mind went and I wonder if that was his intent.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

And the "she slept with the gardener. Said by him as though it was supposed to be a scandal or something shocking.

Shades of Lady Chatterly's Lover.

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Do Forum Members here believe that Marion's belongings, in tea chests, were ever at his family home? As he says, in the garage along with the washing machine, gardening equipment, and items from his wife's mother's estate. A crowded garage? High risk to take possession of an ex lover's boxes then have her round the family home to collect them? More so, when she didn't have his home phone number. Were they ever there at all in everyone's opinion? Did Dianne say they were?
IIRC, Marion's family member(s), was it Sally and her husband perhaps, stated Marion's belongings were taken at some point by a professional moving company? That being the case, did they go somewhere else? To a shipping container facility that stored / took them overseas perhaps? To a European port? Or to a storage facility within Aus that WW then plundered? Or they actually went to WW's garage?

He said several times they contained 'didactic material' that Marion wanted for starting her school in England. So, clearly the scam lure was that he would buy a school in England for her to run / teach at with him ?

What I've always wondered is this: if the Wonkas moved as often as you all say they did, then I can't believe their house was chock full of stuff. That happens when you live in one place a long time. If they had, I could see Wonka "storing Marion's things" at his place. Amidst the hoardings. So no, I don't think he did store her things. He said that in case something of hers was found there!

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

a lounge

What's a lounge please? A lounge chair? Like a recliner? Chaise longue?

Here in the UK, a lounge is the sitting room of a house.