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

[centred]

After he said he went to the Villeroy & Boch factory with MC I’m fairly certain now the Florabella name came from this. So wish they had picked away at his obsession with MC at the inquest. It’s his Achilles heel.

Can’t wait to listen to the MC interview and JOs cousin. Aka said he only spoke to him by phone and not JO. Will be fascinating to find out the truth.

Would that obsession include encouraging women to change their hair color to blonde ?

 

[BonnieB]

Would that obsession include encouraging women to change their hair color to blonde ?

And cutting it short! All the photos circulated of Marion show her dark hair long. A short style (possibly blonde) would make her less likely to be recognized back in Australia. Now that we know the extent of his "poetic" love bombing, I can imagine him saying something creepy along the line of "My little Florabella would look like a delicate flower with hair the colour of the sun"

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

I remember something because I searched and found that V and B have the contract to supply dinnerware for the Orient Express and one of the V and B patterns was called Florabella. I couldn't get a strong connection that this specific pattern was used at that time or not.

@BonnieB said the same thing back in February!

Just throwing it out there...
Marion Barter loved florals and fine china
Marion changes her name to Florabella
Villeroy & Boch made a china pattern called Flora Bella
Monique Cornelius had connections to the Boch Factory in Luxembourg

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Please take the following for what it is: my own imagination filling in the details of this case. I go out on a limb with my thoughts. Here is what I see in my mind:

Marion responds to an ad placed by a Mr. Remakel. RB notes her details and eventually he gets around to contacting her. He love-bombs her for weeks/months. Marion is swept up in romantic possibilities. Because RB is a nasty little AH, he causes Marion distress by way of her beloved profession. Then leans on her to make good with all their romantic plans because it is “you and me against the world.”

In a hurry Marion sells her house for less than she paid, walks away from her career position, (commits to the relationship by changing her name and passport-I believe she did this on her own without RB’s knowledge-the fact is this action led to finding RB and he is too devious to have allowed this breadcrumb trail).

RB sets up flights in tandem. They will never be connected to each other. Then the luggage storage trick at the airport, his usual m.o. He has her documents. He has control. Marion goes to the UK and waits for him, filling in the lonely hours with shopping, driving around a small area, and writing postcards.

But! Disaster for RB. He gets to the UK and discovers she has changed her name. The papers he possesses use the Barter name. He meant to transfer her Australian bank accounts to Europe under her Barter name. He considers using her new Remakel identity to get the money. It’s convenient, he has to admit. But very dangerous. He is too cautious to let this kind of unpredictable event slip him up.

RB feels extremely angry by this foolish woman and her silly romantic notions. In the UK his mask drops and he shows Marion that he is not to be trifled with. He is angry and frustrated but he sees a way it could work. He announces he is returning to Australia, with or without her. If she really loves him then she knows where he is. He leaves Marion behind but he has her documents.

Marion is utterly miserable and has to make yet another fast decision, without time to really think about what is happening to her. It’s all so overwhelming. She is also beginning to feel that she might have a bit of a mess with her closest and dearest relationships back in Australia. Yes, she will return to try to make things good with RB again. But she will have to deal with the problem of trying to explain to her family the process which she has undergone in the last few months. It’s all happened so fast, and she can barely explain it to herself. Truthfully, she feels confused, befuddled, lost at sea. It is kind of embarrassing. She usually lives her life carefully, pursuing her dreams but in an ordered progression.

She decides to follow RB back, because he has instilled in her an insecurity which can’t be ignored; her lifelong dream of taking The Orient Express can’t be enjoyed anymore and all of her plans of travelling were with him.

She is not quite ready to tell anyone what she is suffering. She instinctively knows that if she were to divulge her situation to someone close then her relationship with RB would effectively end. It just would. And he has impressed upon her that his affection is contingent on her discretion, that he is very private, etc. So being a decent person, Marion doesn’t want to betray him. Not yet.

On her way back to Australia, Marion makes contact with Sally. She doesn’t want to talk about her situation, she just wants to hear her daughter’s voice.

Marion makes her way down to Byron Bay, the nearest town to RB with decent accomodation. Here, they will work things out, she hopes. RB convinces Marion to withdraw cash, the maximum allowed every day.
But Marion discovers Diane. Diane, who has made her bed long ago and knows what she’s got. What a disgusting revelation for Marion. She is shocked and devastated.

Marion confronts RB. No more money for him, she says. Or: what have you done with the money I have already given to you?

He is knee-deep in illicit funds, yet too much is never enough. He can see the finish line and has other prospects he needs to get on to. There is also the question of her name change and new passport. It nags at him. A rare loose end. He has an encyclopaedic memory for details and he knows this one thing is going to haunt him if he doesn’t do something.

Marion loved her family, her friends, and her chosen profession. She wouldn’t leave them without explanation. I feel she was moving herself back to her family and eventually would have moved on from RB.

What happened to Marion?

And on a personal note I lived on the Gold Coast at the same time as Marion and wish I’d known her. I really want to see Justice done for Marion.

Thanks, @Ooohm, for writing this out. I may not agree with every detail, but it's simple and neat and beyond plausible and I like it. I might lean more to RB losing his temper and then creating a means whereby Marion can redeem herself-- making the money situation right by returning to Australia. But either way, I firmly believe she did return. I'm swayed by the prosecutors in the US podcast recap of the case, who say that masquerading as Marion was just too risky and complex. In their minds, the simplest solution is usually right, and that's Marion doing the withdrawal. They also believe Marion DID tell authorities/bank that she did not want to be contacted, even if she only meant it temporarily until she straightened things out.

 

[BonnieB]

@BonnieB said the same thing back in February!

Just throwing it out there...
Marion Barter loved florals and fine china
Marion changes her name to Florabella
Villeroy & Boch made a china pattern called Flora Bella
Monique Cornelius had connections to the Boch Factory in Luxembourg

Thanks @MrsEmmaPeel
As the Flora Bella design was only released in 1990 I checked my timeline again.
On Oct 6th 1992
RICHARD LLOYD WESTBURY departed for Europe, returning 3/11/92
Q: Did he continue/reignite his affair with Monique because shortly after his return to Australia he purchased a house at MIDWAY POINT, Tasmania and Letters and cards were sent to Monique Cornelius from Tasmania.

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Thanks @MrsEmmaPeel
As the Flora Bella design was only released in 1990 I checked my timeline again.
On Oct 6th 1992
RICHARD LLOYD WESTBURY departed for Europe, returning 3/11/92
Q: Did he continue/reignite his affair with Monique because shortly after his return to Australia he purchased a house at MIDWAY POINT, Tasmania and Letters and cards were sent to Monique Cornelius from Tasmania.

I think you're on to something. If she worked at V&B, chances are she owned their china, and the Flora Bella pattern is the perfect pet name, as someone else suggested. My beautiful flower!

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Flora Bella by Villeroy & Boch 1990-1994 From the Replacements Ltd website. (Clearly I have no idea how to post a photo here. Sorry.)

 

[ruby925]

I believe he genuinely can't remember. His mother/aunt, his step father/uncle, his brother/cousin, brother-in-law - these people mean nothing to him, along with his children from previous marriages. He has no feelings as we know them, no empathy or sentimentality. He said as much himself, "that was then, this is now".

I think RB probably does remember..after all, he was using his (FDs) passport....

 

[ruby925]

RB said in evidence that he didn't attend a family funeral because he found out too late, the funeral had to be on the third day. This is admittedly not verbatim but he definitely said 'third day'. This is in line with the Jewish faith. Also in evidence, RB said about going back to collect 'coupons' from the investment and this time he actually said 'shares', which suggest he was collecting the dividends on a regular basis. Only noting this because someone was musing about his early lifestyle, whether the family was wealthy etc.
On a lighter note and slightly off topic, I found myself coincidentally in the area today where RB lived in UK. So I drove through Burwash, Wadhurst, Ticehurst, Etchingham and visited Bateman's. I can confirm it is a lovely area, almost of a different era with antique shops and tea shops in the villages and that quintiessential 'Englishness' that you don't think really exists any more. I can def see why DDH would have wanted to live there.

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

After he said he went to the Villeroy & Boch factory with MC I’m fairly certain now the Florabella name came from this. So wish they had picked away at his obsession with MC at the inquest. It’s his Achilles heel.

Can’t wait to listen to the MC interview and JOs cousin. Aka said he only spoke to him by phone and not JO. Will be fascinating to find out the truth.

I thought his affair with MC was in the 80’s while he lived there? MC took him to various business’s because she was well connected? Flora Bella dinnerset wasn’t produced in the 80’s?

 

[Eyespywithmylittleeye]

Thanks @MrsEmmaPeel
As the Flora Bella design was only released in 1990 I checked my timeline again.
On Oct 6th 1992
RICHARD LLOYD WESTBURY departed for Europe, returning 3/11/92
Q: Did he continue/reignite his affair with Monique because shortly after his return to Australia he purchased a house at MIDWAY POINT, Tasmania and Letters and cards were sent to Monique Cornelius from Tasmania.

@BonnieB I wonder if was it reignited or him just still obsessed with her?

 

[Itsapuzzle]

I think RB probably does remember..after all, he was using his (FDs) passport....

Yeah, I think there's something to it, especially as he says he was running the family business with FD and AW in Luxembourg in the '80s. At some point in the inquest he said FD passed first. MC passed in 1990, he says AW passed before her, maybe '89 (I think) then FD would have to have passed somewhere in the '80s .... it can't be that hard to nominate a year, or decade at least, in my opinion. FD was born in 1942, so he would have been in his 40's in the '80s. I find it odd. MOO

 

[BonnieB]

I think RB probably does remember..after all, he was using his (FDs) passport....

Sorry @ruby925 , I probably didn't explain it well, IMO once these people died, they were no longer of any use to him (for financial or other reasons). Remembering the date they died would not be important to him. We remember those anniversaries because we have fond memories of our loved ones. IMO he is incapable of love as we know it, just obsession in MC's case. He clearly does not love (as we know it) his wife, she is useful to him.
Perhaps, in the case of Freddy David there is more to his evasive answers, who knows.

 

[KiwiNZ]

They also believe Marion DID tell authorities/bank that she did not want to be contacted, even if she only meant it temporarily until she straightened things out.

I agree I think she did say this, I think she was under a whole heap of pressure at this point and things had not gone to plan for her, heavens know what he was telling her, that he was a spy and had been captured and a ransom was to be paid, don't talk to anyone, don't tell anyone etc... wouldn't be the first time he pulled the spy story. The story he created could have literally been anything.

 

[insanity]

R family is Diane’s sisters family

Thank you!

 

[insanity]

I think we all agree that MC, GGB, JO & Marion are not the only female victims of this psychopath's love scams (1995 trips OS after the Le Courrier ad in particular) I genuinely fear for the fate of others who may have confronted him or threatened exposure. IMO he is a very dangerous individual.

I completely agree. I posted earlier that we need to see older photos of him to spark peoples memories as relying on his name is pretty pointless. Imagine posters of him in younger years saying do you know this man. I suspect calls would flood in.

 

[KinseyFan]

I agree I think she did say this, I think she was under a whole heap of pressure at this point and things had not gone to plan for her, heavens know what he was telling her, that he was a spy and had been captured and a ransom was to be paid, don't talk to anyone, don't tell anyone etc... wouldn't be the first time he pulled the spy story. The story he created could have literally been anything.

This could also explain dear MB’s secrecy when spotted by Sally in car with a tall man and the sense of urgency when Sally’s hubby was helping MB pack? He’s a professional con artist with a large toolkit incl preying on vulnerable victims, isolating them from their support network, falsifying docs to support his endless lies, theft, gaslighting, abuse, the list is endless. Very cruel.

 

[gymtonic]

I thought his affair with MC was in the 80’s while he lived there? MC took him to various business’s because she was well connected? Flora Bella dinnerset wasn’t produced in the 80’s?

If you were obsessed with someone, and you have a trait of « researching » and collecting fascinating stories and facts to incorporate into your fantasies, maybe you would keep researching any aspect of their life and take note of things and remember. So he knows of V and B and of MC’s connection and maybe he goes back every now and again to research what V and B have done? Again this is projection and IMO (or I should say IOO - In Our Opinions Only not to take sole ownership!)

 

[mishy66]

I think the charge of involuntary injury relates to his car accident.

1965 FEB 12 Car accident in Kessel-Lo (near Brussels) The wives of both drivers were injured.

1965 APR 5 Charged at Tournai & Brussels with - Writing cheques without funds, larceny, false documents, various traffic offences, involuntary injuries and embezzlement. 20/6/66 Sentenced to 10 months gaol and 1300fr in fines. 5 year suspended sentence.

I have often theorized that his leg injuries could be related to a MV accident. He is however, in receipt of a Belgian pension (easily verified) from some incident or accident. (Maybe it's something he's too embarrassed to admit lol)

Agree 100% Bonnie
Always believed it to be from that car accident and it sits with his marriage to his 1st wife.

 

[mishy66]

Random curiosity. I don't understand why RB won't commit to saying when Freddy David passed .... "can't remember", doesn't know. It can't be that hard to remember ... it has picqued my curiosity. Why so resistant to commit to a date, year .... or did I miss it somewhere along the way?

Because I suspect he doesnt give a flying # about the Coppenolles / Davids/ Wouters
He used them for one purpose. To collect his 'inheritance ' .

He cant even remember his own kids names from previous relationships so that alone tells how much he cares about people in his life.

I found that death notice of Freddy back in late 60s I think it was now ( sorry not on pc atm) and was of the belief it was the Freddy because I thought he was using his alias after his death.
Now Im not so sure.
I found another death of Fredy which is much more fitting.
I sent it to TLV a while back - not sure that was wise.
Anyways Just waiting for a bit more research on that find and I will post up.
If my hunch is right, there is a valid reason why he didnt commit to what happened to Fredy David