Latest / Weeknight Mysteries Podcast / Ep. 85 She Was Supposed to Start a New Life... Then She Disappeared | The Marion Barter Case

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Ep. 85 She Was Supposed to Start a New Life... Then She Disappeared | The Marion Barter Case · Weeknight Mysteries Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Weeknight Mysteries podcast. My name is
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Juras and I am your host today and I am
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: here with my co-host Rain. How are you today, Rain?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Pretty good as always, as in every episode. And how
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: are you today?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I'm doing pretty good as well. Today we have a case. Oh,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: by the way, before we get going, I would like
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to also ask our listeners to comment, like and subscribe. Yeah,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: comment on the podcast, follow it on all of the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: podcast apps, on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to it. And please leave a review as it helps
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: us moving forward. And also, if you want to see
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: more images related to the topics we talk about, you
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: could also subscribe to our YouTube channel where we upload
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the podcast. But there also are like images related to
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the case. So, um, today we're going to be talking
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: about the case that has been suggested by a listener
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: who had left us an email, Kyla Davies. I believe
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it was at least maybe second or third time we're
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: talking about a case suggested by Kyla. Kyla left a
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: handful of cases for us to potentially talk about. One
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of them was actually the disappearance and death of, um,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I believe 51-year-old Australian woman, Marion Barter, who vanished and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: now is presumed to be dead under mysterious circumstances. Marion
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: is presumed to have died sometime in October of 1991, sorry, 1997.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: She had vanished in, I believe, August of that same year.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: If my memory is correct, we're going to get into
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the dates here as well. And Rain, we have an
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: absolute rabbit hole today.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: It is a rabbit hole. It's actually one of those
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: cases where it's too complicated, wasn't it? I actually gave up.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I was doing my own research and I was halfway done.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my gosh, this is too confusing. Thank you, Kyla,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: for the suggestion. But man, this was a lot.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I think it's not necessarily very complicated. It just has
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of information.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: No, but there's like potential identity thieves. You know what
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I mean? It's like just so interesting. And then also potential...
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: midlife crisis can you say it that way yeah.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: You can mention that but to me after digging into
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: this case for a few days um for me it
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: seems pretty obvious or i would say highly likely that
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: this is in fact a woman who had been in
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: some way or form, approached by a con man by
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the name of Rick Bloom. I believe he is a
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Belgian who had obtained Australian citizenship by fraud. And Rick Bloom,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: from the information that we have online, this man who
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: has approached the victim of our discussion, Marion Barter, He
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: had pulled similar con jobs on single women in the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: past while keeping his own personal family life a secret.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So the woman that he was conning out of money,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: they had no idea about his wife and children. And
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I believe that Marion... Barter is one of those victims, okay?
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is what I meant by complicated. What
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: is a Belgian man doing in Australia? And wasn't Luxembourg
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: also mentioned? Marion was supposed to go to Luxembourg. It's
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: kind of all over the place.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Fair enough. That is confusing, definitely. But to me, it
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: really feels like if we just get rid of the...
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: excessive the noise yeah excessive noise excessive details in this
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: case i believe that we are left with a pretty
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: clear question okay so the question in my opinion in
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: this case the only real question in my in my
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: opinion in this case is whether because the con happened
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: it looks like marion was conned out of her life
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: savings it looks like this is almost a fact the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: question is whether rig bloom then proceeded to murder this
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: 51 year old woman because at some point the the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: paper trail ends and we don't really know what happened
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: or whether or not marion barter one way or another,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you know, dies under different circumstances, under potential self-harm, which
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I believe is a possibility due to, you know, when
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: someone steals your whole life savings. I mean, that's definitely
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: an outcome that you at least consider for a second.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So we have to consider that one, you know, self-harm.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I agree with that, yeah.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Another one would be that some other individual or multiple
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: individuals are somehow responsible for her death and that maybe
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: there were even more mysteries than what the inquest in
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Australia had released. They had released the file on Marion's
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: case and there is... I believe close to 200 or
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: maybe over 200 pages of information that I tried to
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: sort out, grab the most important details for us today
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to talk about or to go over. If there's something
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: else that's not in that inquest, maybe that could also
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: explain what had happened to Mariam. The inquest in Australia
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: had established one important detail is that In their opinion,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Rick Bloom knows more. I believe that Rick Bloom could
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: still be alive to this day. He would be an
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: old man at this point. But I've read comments on
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Reddit that I didn't really look into it. Maybe it's
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: as easy as just Googling his name. Man, I didn't
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: even have time to do that. There's so much things
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: to sift through in this case. But Rick Bloom, at
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: this point, he might be alive. Actually, we might even
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Google this right now or something like that. But I
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: will say... They are saying that he knows more. He
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: knows more. He's withholding information from the investigation. And he
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: most likely actually even holds the answers in this case.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: But to me, yeah, sorry for this big overview. But
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: to me, it seems like this is what we have
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: with Marion Barter's case. A woman who's been conned. by
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: a professional con man, by the sound of it. Now,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: what happened to her? Did he kill her along the way,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: which I believe would be the first confirmed kill of
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: his career as a culprit, or Marion Barter then proceeded
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: to vanish under her own accord? So I think this
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: is the place where the real question is at.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: It's kind of sad, actually, because he was targeting specifically
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: women or maybe people who are in desperate situations. Not
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: really desperate in terms of money or whatsoever, but, you know,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: kind of lonely in life. And it kind of sounds
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: a bit like, oh, who would fall for that? But
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: this kind of reminds me of this... I read an article.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I couldn't remember as much, but it was... couldn't remember
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: when i read it but there was a french woman
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: who got scammed out of like 850k by brad pitt
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: someone imposing as brad pitt ai sending her ai pictures
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: and so on and if i remember correctly it also
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: happened to like some elderly woman in like thailand again
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: brad pitt yeah like ai ai brad pitt oh man Yeah,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: so it happens.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: It happens.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Like, some people are cruel enough to target, like, you know,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: lonely individuals.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I think I heard about the French incident, potentially, because
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: this does ring a bell.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: But I've not heard about the Brad Pitt con in Thailand.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: If I remember correctly, it was the culprit were, I believe, like, 90.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: students residing in Thailand and they had like student visas
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: trying to scam money out of like an older woman
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: I couldn't remember as much we.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Have a similar incident here in Lithuania where I believe
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: it was a guy who kind of looked like this
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: well-known basketball player locally he kind of looked like him.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: So would you say it's like handsome men in this.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Case no the basketball guys are just regular just regular
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: guys but he's a known guy and he he is
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: a known guy that you know he plays for a
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: good basketball team so he gets money and i think
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: i think he was asking online for this one girl
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: to send him 10,000 euros, which is roughly like, you know, $ 11, 000
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: or something like that for our American listeners. And she
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: actually did it. But in that case, the guy was
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: actually looking similar to the guy, just like a short
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: version of the basketball guy. But this is a con
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: that happens. Have you ever heard about anyone getting scammed
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: like that in your personal life?
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: No, actually, no. I've never heard of someone getting scammed
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Like personally, like in your close circle of people? Not
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: at all.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Trying to think of it, and it's a long haul game, right?
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: If you're trying to scam someone out of their money, sure,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: it's a big payout. And if you're cruel enough to
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: do that, of course. But it's not like a one-time,
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: one-day thing. You have to earn their trust, right?
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a whole system. Yeah, me neither. I can't
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: really think of anyone in my... personal experience.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: As well right but it seems like the prey at
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: least the ones who seem to fall as victims are
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: usually like the older individuals.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Not always necessarily I believe the not always my mentioned
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: example was with the younger girl getting scammed so I
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: think anyone's desperate who's desperate enough could fall for this trick.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: It's just really sad, though. It's really sad.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's quite sad. All right, so I think without
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: any further ado, let's start talking about the story about Marion.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Marion Barter was an Australian missing person, teacher. She was
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: apparently a very well-respected teacher, and she was a mother
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of two children. She disappeared on Sunday. Well, to be honest,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: we don't really know exactly when she disappeared, but if
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: you read Wikipedia, it will say that she disappeared on Sunday,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: 22nd of June, 1997. But I think this is the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: day when she left Australia for England. We do know
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: that she most likely came back to Australia. I think
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the following month, in August, but, or was it September?
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: We will get into it. But I know that this
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: is the last time that she had been in physical
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: contact with friends or family, which was, I believe, the
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: 22nd of June, 1997. At this day, she was dropped
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: off at a bus stop in Southport, Australia, to go
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: to the airport for a planned long-term vacation in England.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: and has not been seen ever since. For years, police
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: maintained that Marion's disappearance was voluntary, although their attempts to
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: locate her were unsuccessful. In 2019, her case was taken
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: over by the Unsolved Homicide Squad in Sydney, and authorities
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: are now handling it as an active homicide investigation. So
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: it took the authorities 22 years, To upgrade her case
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to a homicide investigation, Marion's case garnered significant speculation with
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: theories ranging from identity theft to mental illness and witness
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: protection and murder. So, to be honest, now that I've
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: been looking at the case, I haven't really seen anything
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: regarding necessarily mental illness or identity theft. For me, it
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: looks like murder is the key factor. key accusation especially
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: if you kind of take a look at this case
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: online and you see what the people are saying they
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: are kind of uh focusing on the rick bloom and
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: they are accusing him of murdering murdering um one of
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: his con victims which was marion she was a victim
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: of his con he was a con artist on 29th
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: of february 2024 so a couple years ago the new
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: south wales state coroner, announced that Marion Barter is deceased.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: This was the result in her inquest. However, there is
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: insufficient evidence to declare a place, cause, or manner of
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Marion's death. It declared her date of death as something
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: after 15th of October 1997. So why specifically 15th of October?
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: And I know I have this written down in my notes,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: but I believe that this was the last time it
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: was confirmed that Marion actually withdrew, I believe, a significant
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: amount of money from her account in October. And I
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: believe the amount was so significant that it would have
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: required the bank to actually physically withdraw confirm that it
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: was in fact Marion withdrawing the money.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Oh. Do you have any idea what's like, you know,
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: the minimum limit of that?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I have no idea what the limit was back in
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: the day, but I believe if I'm not mistaken.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: These days.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: These days? These days to withdraw money from the... I mean.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Where you have to physically be there. So I'm thinking
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: about maybe 20k.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Like maybe 10k.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Hmm. 10K? You can't withdraw it in ATM machines, right?
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I think in ATM, what is the limit? 5K euros here?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: I think so, yeah.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Per day? But even then, if you put together multiple
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: days of 5K, then it's probably going to be some
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: sort of an AML red flag.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Right? It will be a bit too weird.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: It will be weird. So this is why they're saying
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: that Marion was most likely still alive in... October 15,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I believe they have a very good reason to believe
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: that she was alive in October 15. At this point,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: as we will learn at this very point in the timeline,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: October 15, we will learn that she had been avoiding
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: family and friends for some time. You know, she has
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: not been contacting them. We have no real clue what
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: was taking place there.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: In her life yeah i wonder why is it what
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: out of shame maybe she wanted to you know fully
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: have a separate identity from who she was.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Well it looks like it could be somehow connected to
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: rick bloom potentially i'm not gonna be manipulated at that
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: time it looks like she could be manipulated um at
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: least i feel like this is where the investigation is
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: leaning Marion herself was born in 1945. Her parents were
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Jack Wilson and Colleen Wilson. She had three sisters, so
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the family in total had four children. In 1967, she
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: married a professional football player, Johnny Warren. Johnny Warren is
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: some sort of a really good soccer player, actually, because
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: he played for Australia. Oh, wow.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: They divorced in 1969.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Marion's daughter, Sally, was born in 1973. Sally is actually
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: the main force of the investigation, I would say, or
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: at least from the public side, because she is organizing
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. Wait, wait.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: So Sally, her daughter, was already a grown-up at the
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: time of Marion's disappearance.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. She was even supposed to get married, I believe,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the following year. And Marion knew about her daughter's upcoming marriage.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: I will say this. i can't confirm this but i've
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: seen things mentioned online so take it with a grain
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: of salt but i've seen people mentioning online that potentially
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: sally and marion had some sort of friction potentially we
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: don't know to be honest we can't really confirm.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Do you know at which age marion disappeared like when
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: everything went down so she.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Was 51 she was 51 okay yeah marion was 51
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Marion's son, her second child, Owen, he was born in 1974,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: so one year older than Sally. Marion married the two
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: of their fathers, Stuart Brown, in 1977. So it seems
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: that Stuart Brown and Marion, they were at some point,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: you know, they had children outside of marriage, but they
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: did get married. in 1977. At that point, Sally was
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: four years old. However, that marriage didn't last as they
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: already divorced in 1979. We don't have a lot of
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: information what happened between 1979 and 85, but we know
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: that in 85, Marion married a man by the name
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: of Ray Barter. This is where she received her name,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Marion Barter. However, that marriage also fell apart. They divorced
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: in 1990. According to some sources, I have this specific
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: information that Marion was married three times and has been
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: described by all who knew her as a romantic type
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: who liked the finer things in life, antiques, art, opera,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: She has also been described as a good friend, but
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: desired a man in her life. In 1994, this is
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: four years after her last divorce, and I believe the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: last official marriage of her life, 1994, she purchased a
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: home for around $ 180, 000 Australian dollars, which would be the
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: equivalent of, I would say, nearly $ 400, 000 American dollars in Australia.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: modern day age so a pretty hefty amount you know
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: you could definitely buy a nice piece of you could
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: buy a nice house for that money and she bought
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: it in mirinda court southport which is uh in queensland
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: australia and she started working as a teacher in the
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: southport school she was awarded the queensland teaching excellence award
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: in 1996 apparently she was regarded as a really good
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: teacher uh another piece of information i have is that
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: she was very good at her job and was working
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: at a private independent school there is good evidence that
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: she was not happy in her job from late 1996
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: i don't know what exactly that means but it seems
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: that Something, by 1996, something changes in Marion's life to
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the point where now she doesn't enjoy working in this
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: specific school. I think there was some sort of school
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: politics that she didn't enjoy.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: I must say, though, her pictures, maybe she was way
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: younger here, but she does have that teacher face, if
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, that kind teacher face. Because,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe... Maybe I'm being very biased here.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's all wrong. But sometimes you could tell that
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: a person is a teacher and then a really good
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: one at that. You know what I mean?
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I know what you mean. I know that she does
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: have a teacher face. I have a different opinion about
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: how I feel when I look at her face. To me,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: it looks like she is a teacher that I would
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: be scared not to do homeworks for. Doesn't she look
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: like she's the type of teacher where it's like, if
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: you don't do homeworks, you're going to be in bad shape?
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Now I'm sensing that you're a bad student. No, no, no.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: But I think she looks like she could be a
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: strict teacher. What do you think?
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: I don't know. In my end, I could see how
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: she's just so kind. Like, she gives out free pencils
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: or something.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe you're right. But yeah, I could also.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: See that like, oh, you didn't do your homework today.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Like, she's gonna.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: A little bit on the stricter side. Let's put it
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: that way.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: She's gonna make your life... Terrible if you don't follow
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the rules. That's the, you know, because sometimes actually looking
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: at people's faces, it might make sense to kind of
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: establish how they are because, you know, sometimes a face
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: does indicate a person's personality, right? So that's what I'm
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: thinking when I'm looking at her face specifically.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, now I can see it.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: This is a good picture that you're showing. this picture
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: makes me.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Have to show it on the youtube channel.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Oh i'll be showing this some pictures.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: She looks like a really really kind teacher kind of
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: also like loves books and um yeah it would give
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: you free lunch or something but i understand what you
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: meant some of her picture looks like she's more.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Strict yeah like you're gonna be in trouble if she
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: didn't do homeworks.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Maybe not maybe she's a completely nice person completely nice
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: teacher we're just Basing our opinions based on our experiences.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Maybe Joris back in the day was not a very
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: good student.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I had some teachers that looked like Marion.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Trauma over there.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Not real trauma, but yeah. That's my observation. It could
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: be that we're talking complete nonsense here as well. So
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: now something changed. You know, last thing I mentioned is
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: that in 1996, it seems that she was already not
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: happy with her job at this particular school. Something started
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to change in a pretty dramatic way for Marion. And
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: it all started, in my opinion, on the 25th of April, 1997.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: this is leading up to her disappearance and her death,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Marion sells her home for a quick turnaround sale. She
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: sells the home after, what, like three years of ownership
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: for less. She sells it for $ 165, 000 Australian dollars. That's
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: roughly $ 320, 000, I believe, American dollars in modern days. So
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: she takes a cut now I don't know the you
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: know the real estate trends in Australia during the 90s
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: but it to me it still seems like this is
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: a a uh a very maybe rushed maybe rushed thing
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: that she does because you know she takes less money.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: After Selling the whole thing.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, after owning it for a while and not really
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: enjoying the compound value gain of the property. It's three
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: years unless there was a real estate crash in the 90s.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Potentially, yeah.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: If that wasn't the case, then it looks like she's
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: taking a pay cut here or like a cut in
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the profit.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: How old was she during this time?
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: So she was 51.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, she was 51 when the whole thing happened, like everything.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she sold it.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: She sold it. She met this person whatsoever. Everything went down.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Rick Bloom, we don't know when she met exactly.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: We don't know because I've seen some strange things mentioned
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that Rick Bloom apparently knew her in the 60s. and
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: already in the 90s doesn't make much sense i think
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: maybe it could be a thing where it's unverified when
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: exactly the myth and maybe he's lying about the 60s who.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Knows it is a very interesting thing that marion sold
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: her place and got a little bit lower.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah it's a it's a hasty it's a hasty.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Decision but so far with all of the information we
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: have i could see how she would do it in
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: hopes of like starting.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Over Yeah, she really kept doing some interesting things because
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the next thing she does is 15th of May, 1997.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: We're getting closer and closer to her disappearance. She changes
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: her name from Marion Barter to Florabella Natalia Marion Remichel.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: So she changes her name to... Yeah, Florabella. And Remichel. Yeah, Romical.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: And she obtains a passport under this new name. However,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: she continues to use her original Marion Barter name for
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: work and in correspondence with her family and friends. She
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: never mentions that she changed her name to anyone. No
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: one knows about this. A month later, on June 20th,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: she resigns from work. citing in her resignation letter her
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: desire to travel and find a new job teaching in
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: england the letter also made the request to renew her
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: teacher's certification for the next school year so it seems
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: like she planned to return after a year or something
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: i don't know in june of that same year and
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the days leading up to her leaving australia Sally, which
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: was her daughter, and her daughter's fiancé, Chris, actually spotted Marion,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: who now was officially Florabella. They spotted her with a man,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: an unknown man. When Sally later asked her mother, who
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: is this man that I've seen you with? She said
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: it was someone she had met at the art center
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: and she did not provide many details. We have this
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: information that prior to leaving, Marion changed her name but
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: did not tell anyone. She obtained the passport and that
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: new name. The surname Remekil that she was now using
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: is most unusual, and apparently the Lady Vanished, which is
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: a podcast based on the disappearance of Marion Barter, This
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: podcast identified one man who resided in Luxembourg with that
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: same name. One man. No more information about who this
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: man is or how that information could connect to Marion's disappearance.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: It is a pretty unique last name. It's not something
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: as common as Smith. Let's put it that way.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but this is where we already know that most
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: likely she has been intercepted. She has been intercepted by
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the conniving, deceiving individual Rick Bloom because that same last name, Remekil,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: has been used by Rick Bloom as one of his
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: fake identities. As early as 1992.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: So, Rick Bloom, our main person of interest, has been
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: using that last name since 1992. So, I mean, it's
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: so obvious that at this point, Marion has been intercepted.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Let's be real here. She is intercepted. She is intercepted
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: by Rick Bloom as early. As early as 15th of May,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: 15th of May, she leaves Australia on June 22nd. So
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: she has been intercepted as early as 15th of May.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: So roughly a month.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, sorry, yeah. So she has been intercepted by Ricky,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Rick Bloom, for over a month.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Just over a month, yeah.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: And maybe even longer because, you know, you don't.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's longer because you don't gain that
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: trust enough for someone to change their whole identity, their
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: whole name, sell their property, quit their job in a month.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Absolutely right. And look what was happening. Look at this.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: She sold her house in April. If we think that
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: she sold her house in April, maybe Rick Bloom is
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: already coordinating this. Maybe he's telling her to sell it
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: as early as April. So maybe, maybe he has intercepted her,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know, like since January or even earlier. Because
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: you don't coerce someone to sell their home also like
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: you need some time, right? So... to me seems like
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: rick bloom has absolutely intercepted intercepted this woman marion barter
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: for a very long time at this point um now
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: let's proceed with the timeline here.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Before we do it's actually really sad because i do
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: have a feeling that maybe ricky rick already knew her
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: from way back in the day well not way back
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: in the day but the way longer than we think
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: because literally marion ditched her a whole life in australia
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: for this guy so i'm assuming that to gain someone's
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: trust like that had to take a little bit of
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: time and marion is not a complete dummy she was
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: a teacher she had she's a mother who raised two
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: adult children now and i don't think she could easily
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: be swayed as easily as we think So I think
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: it was already ongoing and ongoing and maybe Rick promised her,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: you know, grandiose things. And that's when she believed in
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: him and started doing all of these things. What do
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: you think?
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a fair assessment. I believe that Rick
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: has told her about some sort of a life in
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Europe that she can expect.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a very beautiful life in Europe, worth everything. ditching
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: her australian life for.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Absolutely and then on 22nd of june she actually leaves
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: australia for a year-long vacation to england according to her
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: information that she told her family you remember at this
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: point no one even knows that she is intercepted by
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: rick bloom no one knows that she changed her name
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: no one knows any about any about these details and
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: And her plan was apparently to travel through the United
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Kingdom and mainland Europe. There was a confirmed sighting of
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: her at a bus depot on Scarborough Street, Southport in
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Queensland on June 22nd. This is the last time she
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: has been seen. She took a bus to the Brisbane
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: International Airport and left Australia for the United Kingdom. I
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: think it's pretty well established that she actually took that flight.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I don't think anyone is arguing that it was not
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: her on that flight. Marion officially changed her name the
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: month before her disappearance and departed the country under the
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: name Flora Bella Natalia Marion O'Brien. Her outgoing passenger card,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: which is something that apparently had to fill in in
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Australia back in the day, as you enter the country
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: or as you leave the country, you have to kind
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: of sign some sort of information. So in her outgoing
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: passenger card, she stated that she was divorced and intended
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: to reside in Luxembourg. It was later learned that Marion
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: was in a relationship with Rick Bloom According to information
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I found on Rick, he was a con man. He
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: was using fake identity. And at that point, Rick Bloom
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: was going by Fernand Remekil. So Marion had no idea
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: that Rick Bloom is Rick Bloom. She knew him as
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Fernand Remekil. So he had intercepted her with a fake
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: identity already. Fernand Remekil. And by the sound of it,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: he was conning her. He was taking her on some
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: sort of a long England con. I have no idea.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: And also, Rick Bloom is a complete mystery man, in
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: my opinion, because if I understand correctly, on the side
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: of this crazy con that he's running with Marion, he
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: has a whole family. He has a whole family and
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: a whole you know, child or multiple children in Australia
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: or something. And he is now conning this woman out
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: of her life savings by the sound of it. Marion
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: and Rick were traveling to England and he suggested starting
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: a new life in Luxembourg to her apparently. So while
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: Marion was in England, you know, on her supposed vacation
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: for all her family knew, She was sending her family
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: and friends and former students postcards, letters and gifts from
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: locations around England, postmarked. Apparently she was sending from Turnbridge Wells,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: which is a town in Kent. She was also sending
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: postcards from Sussex and from London. So to me, this
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: indicates something very interesting that she is, you know, having
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: this new identity and But she is still in contact
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: with her family. She's not ditching her family. She, you know,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: by the looks of it, loves and cares for her
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: family and friends and former students. But she, for some reason,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to say that she's with Rick Bloom. Rick
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Bloom potentially, you know, had told her not to tell
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: anyone about this. I wonder how he did it, right?
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Marion also called her daughter Sally.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Wait, before that, not only that, I am wondering how
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Rick Bloom managed to convince Marion to change her name.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: And I didn't even know you could change her name
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: like that, like completely. How does that work?
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I think there's a process to change the name. I
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: think you can definitely change your name. Because if you couldn't,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: then what, you're going to be stuck with what your
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: parents gave you?
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: No, including the last name.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, everything.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: I'm just surprised that you could also change your last name. Like,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: completely new identity.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: That's so interesting. And I also wonder how Rick managed
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: to convince Marion that. And why?
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: This is a very good question. Why? Why is Rick
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: doing this? Why is Rick telling... Marion to change her name. Why? Because,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: you know, if he's going to go with the scheme
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: of taking her savings and leaving her, why does he
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: need her to change her name?
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Just sell the house and then drain the bank account.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Drain the bank account. and then leave her.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: And then go back to being ricky bloom rick bloom.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: I to be honest don't know why is.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: There a possibility that he maybe potentially could have been
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: attached to Marion, and maybe they were planning a different
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: life together.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: What do you mean, attached to Marion? That he liked her?
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because he did have a different identity when
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: he met her, right? Like the Remical?
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: So, what if just a very wild guess, a very
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: wild opinion, and potential, you know, there's a possibility that
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: maybe Rick Bloom in his fake identity got attached to
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: marion and they were like he also had a family
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: right but maybe what if they actually decided that they
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: would start a new life with brand new identities in
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: i don't know luxembourg or something is there a possibility
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: or is there a chance of that.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: That's a good question i believe that there is no
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: chance because i've read somewhere people are saying that his
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: wife rick's wife knew about all of this But I
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: think she never confirmed maybe. I don't know. There's so
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: much information that you could only sift through in a
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: few days.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I gave up.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: But I'm not sure about that.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: The name change is very interesting.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Is it really necessary? Maybe it is. I feel like
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: if it wasn't necessary, he wouldn't... Because it causes so
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: much extra work.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: But.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking maybe it's part of a bigger... bigger goal
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: bigger scam no no part of a bigger goal which
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: would be that marion doesn't tell her family about about
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: rick and and you know he's like oh change your
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: name don't tell about the family you know maybe maybe
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: by changing the name he kind of gets her to
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: be like more solid about her not spilling the beans
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: that oh she's with rick bloom and she's about to
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: like you know blow her financial financials on this guy
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: or something you know i mean so to.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Make everything more complicated so it's harder for them to get.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Caught potentially i don't know to be honest that's a
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: good question i feel like there's a obvious there's probably
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: some obvious reason that i just can't think.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Of yeah we're just we're just missing.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah there's probably an obvious reason why he needed her
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: to change her name there probably was such a obvious
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: reason uh so marion called her daughter sally For the
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: last time in early August, as she said that she
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: was in UK, I believe they spoke for the last
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: time on the evening of the 1st of August. 1st
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: of August, right? Marion mentioned that she was extending her
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: stay in Turnbridge Wells and decided to reschedule her upcoming stay.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: reservation to ride the orient express so the orient express
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: is that you know train route and apparently uh marion
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: had a dream about going on it so this was
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: you know one of the reasons why she said like
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: oh i'm gonna go on the orient express she apparently
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: never actually went to the orient express we're gonna find
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: out later and this was the last time that she
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: had ever spoken to anyone from her friends or family
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: this was the first of august when she called her
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: daughter sally I have some information here. Marion last spoke
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: to Sally around 1st of August in a telephone call,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: which seemed very ordinary and showed no outward signs of
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: distress by Marion. She said she was phoning from Turnbridge Wells, UK,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: but given the dates and passenger card, either Marion was
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: phoning from Hong Kong airport, or an impersonator was on
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: her flight. What does this mean? This means that actually,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: as she was calling her daughter on the 1st of August,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: she had no plans on going and staying in the
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: UK any longer because we know for a fairly good fact,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: for a fairly good probability that she did in fact
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: catch a flight back to Australia. So she goes back
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: to Australia and we will find that out in a
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: little bit. But this is where contact ends with the family.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: And what the family does next is family becomes very
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: concerned because there's no information coming from Marion after this
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: last phone call on August 1st. So her children became
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: concerned in October because it had already been a month
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: of not hearing from Marion. And Marion had failed to
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: call her son Owen on his birthday, which was in October.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: And this was super out of the world. like she
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: would call him but she didn't call her son so
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: what happened next is that sally had called her bank
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: you know to me and where uh where marion was
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: doing her banking it was commonwealth bank in australia she
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: called them on the 21st of october so this is
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: already the whole august had passed the whole september had
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: passed and to be honest most of october had passed
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: so almost three months Almost three months had passed and
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Sally is now calling the bank. She's asking about her
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: mother's well-being. Has there been any activity on her bank account?
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: And she had discovered that her mother was actually taking
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: out money, I believe in increments of $ 500, which was
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: the maximum limit for a few days. We're going to
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: get into the days. I believe it was maybe August. Uh,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: I have the specific dates later down in my timeline, but,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: and then there was this one big, one big payout
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: of $ 80, 000 Australian. So I believe this was the big
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: takeout that happened in October 15th. This could be actually, uh,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: six days before, uh, you know, Sally called the bank
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: to ask about her mother. Um, I could be shaky
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: on these times, though, but I do have this information
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: later on in my notes. We have so much stuff here.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: So what happened next is that actually Sally and Marion's father,
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: so Sally's grandfather, they went to investigate. They drove to
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: Byron Bay, New South Wales, the locations where the money
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: was being cashed out. We have information that during 1997
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: and her supposed return to Australia in August, money was
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: drained from her account from banks around near where she
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: used to live. Her car insurance was canceled. She used
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: her Medicare card, which is a universal health care program
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: in Australia at that time, at an appointment at an optometrist.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: Let me do a quick Google search. Maybe it's something else.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: I think it's a doctor for the eyes.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I also feel like it could be an eye doctor, optometrist.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: Yep, it is an eye doctor. The ones making glasses.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: That's interesting because Marion doesn't really have any pictures with glasses, right?
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a healthcare professional who examines eyes, tests vision,
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: and prescribes corrective lenses like glasses or contact lenses.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: But it's interesting because Marianne doesn't seem like she has
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: glasses in any of her.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: Based on her pictures, yeah.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right?
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: But she was already like 51 at this time, is
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: that right? Yes. So maybe the vision already was starting
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: to get, you know.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Worse. Okay, that makes sense. Sally also discovered through a
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: friend at a customs office that on the morning of
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: the 2nd of August, less than a day after she
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: last spoke with her mother.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: When she allegedly was calling from England, Marion's passport had
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: returned to Australia via Brisbane airport. So it is believed
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: that Marion actually returned. It is believed that actually Marion
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: returned to Australia the day after she had that supposed
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: call from UK with her daughter.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: But she didn't tell anyone that she was back?
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: No, she didn't tell anyone. And her incoming passenger card
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: had stated that she was married and she was living
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: in Luxembourg. So now she was stating these things. So
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: it also is, in my opinion, likely that maybe Rick
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Bloom was also on that plane with her. Sally immediately
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: traveled to Byron Bay and filed a police report with
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: this information. And this happened on October 22nd. So, at
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: this point, Marion's family were unaware that she had actually
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: changed her name or that she had returned from overseas.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Despite never physically citing Marion, police told Sally that she
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: was alive and did not want to be contacted. They
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: marked the report as an occurrence as opposed to an
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: investigation of a missing person. Sally was unhappy with these findings.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: Marion's father, Jack Vilsson, who would be Sally's grandfather, decided
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: to ask the Salvation Army, which is, I believe, some
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: sort of charity organization, I'm not really sure, specifically their
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: missing persons bureau, for help in locating his daughter, convinced
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: that her decision to leave was out of character for Marion.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: In March of 1990, two years after Marion's disappearance, Jack,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Marion's father, received a suspicious letter from the Salvation Army
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: claiming that a missing person police officer spoke to a
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: security officer at Colonial State Bank who said that Marion
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: spoke of starting a new life. And in 1990, not 1997,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: withdrew the balance of her account in Ashmore. This is
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: very confusing, but stay with me. The inconsistencies and errors
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: in the letter made Sally concerned that the inquiries were
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: not taken seriously. Many years later, the Salvation Army apologized
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: and admitted that they never physically cited Marion Barter, nor
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: can they confirm if she truly made the statement in
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: the letter. So basically, this is not something that the
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Salvation Army did suspiciously or anything like that. I feel
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: like it's just information that they didn't really fully investigate.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: what actually happened to Marion Barter. But it does seem
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: that there was some sort of a police investigation into
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: her disappearance, and police actually spoke to someone who worked
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: at the bank. And that bank person apparently were fairly
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: certain that they did speak to Marion. And I believe
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: this was October 15th, and I believe this is when
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: she was taking out that big chunk of money, $ 80, 000.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm actually, I believe this bank employee because
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: Marion has one of those faces that you'd remember immediately, right?
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: She has that face, yeah.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: It's really recognizable.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: I agree.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: And if she's taking out a large sum of money,
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: then it's even more remarkable, no? I agree.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: So, police inquiries revealed that an unknown person agreed to
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: have access to a bank account belonging to Barter, um,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: to Marion Barter and transferred $ 80, 000 after she went missing.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm not sure how credible that piece of information
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: is from Wikipedia. Maybe I have some different stuff actually
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: from the inquest that I found, but we could get
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: into it. So I have a couple more, uh, a
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: couple more, uh, details here before we kind of, I
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: want to go over what was in the inquest. So
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: bear with me here. Um, uh, Marion Barter did not
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: contact her family when Sally, her daughter, got married in 1998.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: That doesn't sound super nice.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: And this is definitely something that Marion knew about.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I feel like if Marion, I don't know,
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: if Marion was still with us at that time, I
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: don't think she would miss her only daughter's wedding, no.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: This sounds very out of the ordinary. And then she
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: also didn't contact the family in 2001 when her granddaughter
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: was born. So I believe Sally's daughter. She didn't contact
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: in 2001. And she didn't contact the family in 2003
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: when very sadly her son, Owen, had died due to self-harm.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: And her father also died from a long illness. So
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: 2003 was a very hard year for the family and
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Marion did not call.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, the thing is, it's very interesting that she
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: had her name changed and she was doing all sorts
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: of different things without her family knowing. But I don't know,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: maybe it's just my personal opinion or the way I
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: view it. It's just that it's a little too extreme.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: You know, she was a mom. Her daughter got married.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Her son died. She was a daughter. Her father passed away, sadly,
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: as well. But no contacts. It's like, sure, she could
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: have a... Let's say she managed to successfully have a
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: completely different identity from what she had. Isn't it a
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: little too extreme to just forget everyone like that? Like,
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: do you think she was capable of doing it?
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Somehow doesn't seem to me that that would be likely. Right?
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking more that.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: Maybe she wasn't already, you know, something bad already happened
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: to her by then.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I also don't think that she is actively hiding.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like, okay, screw everyone. I'm living as a
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: completely different Marian in Luxembourg.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious that's not happening.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: In 2007, Sally contacted the Australian Federal Police Missing Persons
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: Unit asking for information on the 10-year anniversary of her
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: mother's disappearance. The police looked into the case and planned
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: to use the case as the face of their annual
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: Missing Persons Week campaign, hoping the public exposure might help
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: bring in new information. But the New South Wales Police
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: Force barred the use of her story in the campaign,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: citing the need to protect the investigation, despite the fact
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: that Sally was told that there was no ongoing investigation,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: so some sort of very not nice communication by the
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: police force to Sally in 2007. Then apparently some new
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: details emerged, because in the beginning of 2009, the new
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: cold case detective in Byron Bay uncovered some significant findings,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: Shortly before leaving Australia, Marion had changed her name on
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: 15th of May 1997 to Flor. So yeah, this whole
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: thing about Marion changing her name only came out in 2009.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, so the family also did not know about this?
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, I believe so. This is so wild. They didn't
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: know that she actually changed her name to Florabella Natalia
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: Marion Remekil from what I'm seeing until 2009. This is
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: like 12 years after she has been missing and obtained
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: a new passport in that time that she returned to
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Brisbane airport on the 2nd of August. I think this
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: also maybe only came out. Oh no, they knew it earlier,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: I think. But what else did they find? They found
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: out that on August 13th her Medicare card was used
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: in Grafton under her old name Marion Barter. After this
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: date her passport never left the country and her Medicare
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: card was never used again. It was confirmed that police
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: have not seen or spoken to her since 1997 and
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: cannot locate her. And then We had a couple of
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: clues here that came out. In 2010, the lead detective
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: looked into a tip from 2002, which came in five
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: years after her disappearance, to Crime Stoppers. In this tip,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: a man claims that a missing woman named Barter had
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: been murdered and buried in bushland near the University of
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: New England in Armidale, New South Wales. The detective investigated
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: this tip alone, bringing a cadaver dog And he was
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: out there for two days. The search was unsuccessful. Another
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: piece of information came in 2011. The Byron Bay Missing
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: Persons Unit recovered Barter, sorry, removed Barter, removed Marion Barter
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: from the state's missing person register. In 2013, Sally was
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: contacted by a stranger named Clark Hunter via private Facebook message.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: And Clark Hunter on Facebook told Sally that Natalia is alive,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: but you never see her again. Natalia? Yeah, Natalia. Well,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: you know, her new name is Florabella Natalia.
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: No, because I was like, Natalia sounds familiar, but was
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: it married?
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: It's part of her new identity, Florabella Natalia. So someone
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: wrote to Sally on Facebook, Natalia is alive. But you
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: never see her again. It was not her intention to disappear.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: She was forced. To me, it just immediately sounds like
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: a prank. Sally forwarded this screenshot to police, but apparently
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: police never investigated.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: Why? I wonder why the police never investigated that. Even
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: if it's a prank, shouldn't it be investigated on? Still?
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: Yes, you would hope it should be. And in May 2019,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: the New South Wales Missing Person Unit disbanded and a
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: new unit was formed. Homicide Review Unit reopened Marion's case,
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: decided to put Marion Barter on the National Missing Persons
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: Register for the first time in 23 years. And actually,
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: they have been raising reward money. The last time they
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: raised it was this year May of this year, they
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: raised it to a million Australian dollars.
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: So this year they raised... it so it seems like
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: they're really escalating this case and they're really trying to
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: get to the bottom of it potentially because they know
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: Rick Bloom maybe he's still alive and he could could
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: hold the answers. So they're trying to get someone who
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: remembers anything.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: Wait, wait. Hold on, hold on. I just want to
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: double check with you and confirm if my understanding is correct.
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: Natalia or Marion, whichever one.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Florabella.
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: Florabella, Natalia, or Marion herself. Neither one of her identity
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: left Australia, right? No. So whoever she was and... Yeah,
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: whatever happened there, it happened just in Australia.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: By the looks of it.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: It didn't happen. She didn't successfully go to, like, start
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: a new life in Luxembourg.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: No, it looks like a bank employee is fairly certain
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: they had spoken to Marion on 15th of October as
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: she was withdrawing a large sum, 80,000 Australian dollars, and
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: No other contact is ever made. Okay, and so we're back.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: We're back from a commercial break that had no commercials.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: But now at this point, I would like to bring
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: up something that is publicly available for everyone. And it's
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: very easy to find. And it is the inquest information
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: from Marion's case. So the inquest that took place and that,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: you know, established that Marion most likely died sometime after
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: October 15th in 1997, and that Rick Bloom, the con
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: artist that had intercepted Marion sometime ago leading up to
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: her disappearance, and presumed death knows more and is not
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: telling the full truth during the inquest, Well, that inquest
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: produced a, I believe, close to 200 pages or something
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: like that report file that is available. Now, I didn't
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: go through all of it, but I tried to kind
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: of get the main things that are relevant from the inquest.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: I think it's important for us to bring this up
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: to our listeners and just to have this discussion to
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: kind of try to speculate what could have happened. So
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: this is the stuff that I found that I think
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: we should mention from that document that is available. So
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: the inquest was announced in 2020, and the hearings ran
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: from 21 to 23. Evidence was heard from the family, police,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: bank staff, Rick Bloom, his wife, and women who had
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: relationships with Rick Bloom. So it seems like Rick Bloom
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: is actually the main person Here in the inquest information,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: and we have this information that on the 29th of
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: February in 2024, Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan actually declared that her
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: findings are that Marion is actually deceased. She says that
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: Marion's death had occurred sometime after the 15th of October 1997,
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: but she cannot tell, say, the cause, location, and manner
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: of her death. These things cannot be determined due to
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: lack of information. Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan also recommended that the
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: case should be investigated continuously by the unsolved homicide team.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe this is the reason why they have been increasing
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: the reward money. The last piece of reward money that
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: is offered in this year, May, is actually $ 1 million.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: A million AUD, I mean. A million Australian dollars. That's
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of money.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: That's a lot of money.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: So what is actually in that file? So in the file,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: we have information that in 1997, Marion sold her house.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: She resigned from the Southport School and made plans to
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: travel to Europe. She secretly changed her name to Florabella
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: Natalia Marion Ramical. In May of 1997, we already talked
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: about this. Apparently, no one close to her knew about
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: this name change. In June... 22nd of that same year,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: she genuinely left Australia under the new identity. She told
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: everyone that she was traveling alone and planned to return.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: On the 2nd of August, which would be a month
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: and a half into her European travels, she returned to Brisbane.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: Under the Florabella Natalia identity, she did not tell her
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: family and friends that she had returned to Australia. Her
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: passport was never used again, so the coroner concluded that
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: she remained in Australia. She continued communicating as though she
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: were still traveling in England.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: So we could maybe presume that she was actually in
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: England during these times.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: Well, she wasn't.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, she wasn't?
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no. What the inquest found is
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: that this is interesting. Apparently, she was still sending maybe
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: like postcards or something pretending that she's in the UK.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, all this time I thought she actually
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: went to the UK.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: No, she went to the UK, but she came back.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, okay, okay.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: No, no, she went to the UK.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: She actually went to the UK.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: She went to the UK. Remember on August 1st, she
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: called her daughter sally yeah she said oh i'm gonna
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: extend my stay in this little village in the uk
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: but in fact she was most likely calling from hong
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: kong airport she was already on the way back she
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: was already on the way back to.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: Australia i wonder where she was when she came back
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: to australia and what was she doing then so.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: So so this is where the the inquest has something
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: so marion's bank account was being used around byron bay
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: in august okay this is the general area where she
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: kind of was living at anyways On the 15th of October,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: approximately 80,000 Australian dollars were withdrawn from her bank account.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: And this is a big enough sum that we think
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: it has to be her. It has to be Marion
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: who is doing this withdrawal. A bank employee later identified
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: the woman who made the transaction as Marion with a
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: 9 out of 10 confidence.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: 90% certainty.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. The coroner found Marion herself made the transaction and
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: had told the bank she did not want her whereabouts disclosed.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: She did not want her whereabouts disclosed. Okay, Marion herself
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: made the transaction and she was doing it under secrecy.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Police subsequently recorded her as located safe and well, whereabouts
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: not to be disclosed. This is the last point at
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: which we have strong evidence Marion was alive. What happened
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: after 15th of October remains unknown. For me, this is
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: a very interesting point because maybe I'm just realizing this
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: right now as I'm reading this information. But does this
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: mean that actually police made contact on 15th?
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: That's a good question.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know if police made actual contact because I
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: thought that police... only suspect that she was alive based
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: on the fact that someone withdrew $ 80, 000 from her account,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: which is a big enough sum that she had to
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: do it in person. And the bank employee was certain
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: it was her. But now we're seeing that police recorded
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: that located safe and well whereabouts not to be disclosed.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: So what does that mean? Does that mean the police
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: actually talked to Marion? Or does this mean that Marion
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: actually wasn't spoken to by the police, but police spoke
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: to the bank, and they were like, okay, she's still
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: out here. I guess it doesn't make any difference, to
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: be honest. And now this is where Eric, sorry, Rick,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: Rick Bloom enters the picture in the inquest. Marion, this
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: is what they found in the inquest, that Marion had
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: secretly been involved with a man named Rick Bloom who
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: was conning her under an identity called Fernand Remkild. Apparently,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: Rick Bloom, pretending to be Fernand, had a long history
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: of aliases, false identities, fraud and secret relationships. Most importantly,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: he had previously fraudulently used the surname Remickle himself. The
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: coroner found Marion changed her name to Remickle because she
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: was in a relationship with Rick Bloom and wanted to
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: share his name. Rick Bloom had encountered encouraged her to
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: consider a new life together in Luxembourg. The coroner also
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: found that Rick Bloom and Marion traveled together in England,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: despite Bloom denying this belief. was saying oh i didn't
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: but but but the coroner was like no she went
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: to england with you i wonder.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: I wonder actually where they went in england like do
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: we have any more details about it like which town
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: was marion talking about like Did they go to, I
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: don't know, London?
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: So she did send those postcards from London.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: From London?
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from London and from Sussex and from that small town.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, from that small town. I wonder if someone actually
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: saw her with.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: Ricky. Rick Bloom, right? I'm not sure. I'm not really sure.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: Because yeah, London is a bit too big. Sussex might
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: also be a bit too big. But that small town,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: maybe there was a possibility that if the police inquired,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: someone would have stepped in and would probably be like,
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: oh yeah, they look familiar. Feel like I served them
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: in a restaurant.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: I don't think this came out, but I'm certain someone
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: had interactions, right? Because we know that Marion was in
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: fact in Europe for at least a month and a half.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: She was in Europe from June 22nd to August 2nd.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a month and a half. That's quite a lot
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: of time.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: To not be.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: Recognized by anyone.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that came out, but what we
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: do have is in the inquest, we have more information
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: on Rick Bloom. This is just a little bit of
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: information that I want to give out to you because
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: this might kind of paint a picture and to our listeners.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: So the coroner heard evidence of... Concerning five women who
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: had been conned by Bloom and became involved with him
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: after Marion. So he had been doing this after Marion.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: I wonder if Marion was the first one or could
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: have been like the 23rd one at this point.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: That's a good question. But we have the woman. It's Jeanette...
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: Gaffney Bowen, Janet Oldenburg, Ghislaine Danlois Dubois, Andra Flemmi, and
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: Mary Landrieu. Actually, most of these don't even sound Australian.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: That's true. Let's read here. The evidence showed a recurring pattern.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Bloom targeted vulnerable single women, concealed that he was married.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: developed an emotional or romantic relationship with these women, promised
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: a new life overseas or a business venture for these women,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: encouraged secrecy, obtained money or valuables, and then left them, disappeared.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: Gnafri Bowman, apparently this happened in 1998, the year after
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: Marion went missing. He was back at it. He was
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: back at it with Gaffney. And what he did, he
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: responded to her companionship ad. So it's kind of like Tinder,
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: but on newspaper back in the day.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's interesting.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: He proposed a coin business and encouraged her to sell
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: her house for an apartment in Paris. Oh my God,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: this could be similar to... To Marion.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: She gave him access to $ 30, 000 and allegedly he took valuables.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: The coroner largely accepted her evidence. Then we have Miss Oldenburg,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: which was the year after, 1990. He was going after
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: it every year. He approached her shortly after her separation,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: proposed a business and new life in Europe, and became
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: intimate with her while allegedly concealing his marriage. She traveled
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: overseas with him, carrying property documents and valuables. He abandoned
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: her in England, and she later discovered jewelry, property documents missing.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: Coroner found he deliberately misled and exploited Miss Oldenburg. So
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: he's going after these women immediately after Marion.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: But the thing is, the only thing I've noticed is
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 2: that nobody, none of them, or maybe only the ones
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: who spoke, they did not really say anything bad towards
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: him other than the fact that he was a scammer.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: You're saying that.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 2: Like he wasn't a violent man.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: He wasn't killing them.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: Or hurting them.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: So let's read here. Now, we're jumping to 2006, financial
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: crisis year. He met her through a companionship ad again
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: when this woman was 72. Oh my gosh. 72-year-old widow.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: And guess what? He proposed marriage and moving to Australia. Oh,
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: so this was... So the boy, French. I also feel
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: like it could be French. Encouraged her to sell her
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: house and obtained at least 60,000 euros. which he never returned.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: He also took valuable possessions. Coroner accepted her evidence. So
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: he's approaching these women. Then in 2010, there was a woman,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: the Miss Flemmi, recently widowed again. Bloom took her late
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: husband's coin collection supposedly to value it. Oh, I'm just
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: going to check the valuation. She said he disappeared with
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: it and only some coins were later returned.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: I just realized he's Belgian, right? Yeah. So he could
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: speak French.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: A true international.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: And then the last one that spoke was Miss Landrieu
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: recently widowed relative. Wait, relative of his? Wait, what? Traveled
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: with Bloom to Bali in 2012. They went to Bali
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: after giving him money. He left abruptly. Bloom admitted receiving
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: at least 50k euros. which he had no legitimate entitlement
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: to and never returned. Travel records corroborated her account. Man,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: he was getting so much money. 50k euros back in
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: the day. You could come to Lithuania and you could
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: legit buy a massive house. Lithuania was impoverished in 2012.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: You could come here with the money he was getting
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: from these women. He could be a king here. I mean,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: nowadays you can't get absolutely nothing in this country for
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: that money. But back in the day, man, he could
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: really go hard.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 2: It's kind of sad that he knew what he was doing.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: He was targeting specifically vulnerable women. I mean, of course,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: vulnerable people are... The chances of them falling for this
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: scam is way higher than vulnerable women.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, he had the system. I feel like he had
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: the system of identifying... identifying vulnerable, single, lonely women with money.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: Mostly widows, actually.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: Widows, yeah. He was like one of those guys. So
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: coroner's conclusion is the evidence established that Bloom had a
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: tendency to misrepresent himself to vulnerable women for financial gain
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: and to exploit them. The coroner specifically found that he
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: had exploited Marion, in the same manner in 1997, encouraging
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: her to start a new life with him in Europe.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: Important limitations. This tendency evidence was not used to prove
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: that Bloom killed Marion. Rather, it supported findings about his
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: relationship with Marion, his influence over her decisions, and his credibility.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: The coroner subsequently found that Bloom encouraged Marion to sell
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: her house. Although there was insufficient evidence to conclude he
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: caused her resignation from high school the coroner also found
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: that marion withdrew trans uh withdrew or transferred 80 000
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: in october on bloom's encouragement so so we know that
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: bloom bloom most likely told her like yo get the
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: money out in oct on october 15th so she got
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: the money out although there was insufficient evidence to establish
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: that bloom actually received the money so so the The money,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: where the money went, the ATK, is unknown. Coroner further
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: found that Marion had agreed to Bloom taking possession of
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: some of her belongings before she traveled. Nothing striking similarity
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: to his latter conduct with other women. His explanation involving
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: tea chests and an unknown man was found. Okay, so
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: this is not important. So what we know about Bloom...
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: From the coroner's report is that he encouraged her to
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: sell the house. He encouraged her to withdraw the 80,000
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: Australian dollars on October 15th. This is the last time
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: we know that there was any time. So now what happened?
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: Did he kill her? Did he kill her to get
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: the 80,000? We also know that he contacted her after
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: she had returned to Australia and most likely also flew
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: with her to England. And Bloom's credibility, which we have here,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: Bloom himself gave numerous contradictory accounts about his identity, relationships,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: and how he had met Marion. His story about Marion
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: traveling with a mysterious tall man was rejected by the coroner.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: So basically, at some point during the inquest, Rick Bloom
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: was saying, oh, he was trying to say that there
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: was another unknown man that actually he was the one,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: the unknown man traveling with Marion to the United Kingdom.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: But the coroner was like, no, man, you're lying. Like,
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: you're the con coroner.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, how can we trust this guy? Come on.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Rick Bloom was trying to say that there was
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: another con guy.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: Well, it seems like it would fit into his scheme.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 2: Wasn't he the one? promising several women, oh, let's go
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: to Australia, let's go here, or Paris. Seems like it
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 2: fits him.
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it fits the MO. The one thing that doesn't
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: fit MO, the biggest thing that doesn't fit MO, it doesn't,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: to me, sound that Rick Bloom is killing these women.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: That's what I was supposed to say, actually.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: It doesn't sound that he is killing these women, At
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: least on paper.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: It just seems like he's continuously doing it to get
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: them some money to take advantage of these vulnerable women.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: Is he killing? From the looks of it, it doesn't
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: seem like he was a violent man.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was a despicable.
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: A disgusting.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: Disgusting individual. Human being. Yeah, but is he a murderer?
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: That's the big question.
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: The coroner ultimately found that Bloom does indeed know more
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: about Marion's disappearance, specifically that he had further knowledge about
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: Marion's overseas travel, about his relationship with Marion, about Marion's
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: circumstances after she returned to Australia on August 2nd, 1997,
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: and about Marion's money withdrawals and transfers leading up to
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: her disappearance, and importantly, the $ 80, 000 Australian dollar transfer from
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: her bank account to her cash holdings on October 15th,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: after which her paper trail dies. And accordingly, the coroner
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: found that he was deliberately unwilling to disclose this additional information.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: The coroner did not find that he killed her or
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: directly was involved with her death. But it is possible.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, and if you're going to point the finger
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: at someone responsible, you're going to point at that Rick Bloom, right?
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 2: All of my fingers, yes.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: So this is where, finally, I ran out of notes.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: And I guess I'm left with the same conclusion here.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: is that did Rick Bloom kill Marion shortly after she
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: withdrew the money? Because it is weird. His MO is
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: he gets the money and then disappears. But this time,
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: we don't know where the money went, but Marion disappeared.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: So what does that mean? I think he could have
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: killed her.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: I don't think so.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: You don't think he killed Marion?
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 2: No, I do know of some stories. I'm not going
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: to disclose any countries because I don't want to seem
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 2: like we're discriminating. But I do know of some older
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: people who was promised love and stability in another country
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: and the person from that country just scams them and
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: they're left homeless. So, the way I see it, it
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 2: seems like this Rick guy, Ricky, just keeps on scamming
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 2: vulnerable people, but I do not think that from the
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 2: looks of it, but the thing is, this is just
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 2: a personal opinion. We don't know the guy personally. Or, like,
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 2: we're just basing it off what be found in the
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: internet all of the information from the internet it doesn't
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 2: seem like he's capable of murdering someone and then just
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 2: moving on.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: Can you google rick bloom 2026 is he like is
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: his picture out there because i know it sounds so
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: strange but i didn't even have time to actually check
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: if he is still alive.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 2: Wait the last name is bl um right.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: Yes r i c rick is r i c oh.
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: Rick blum blum yeah Not Bloom. An hour after, I
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: just figured out his last name. Sorry.
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: Rick Blum. Or like Rick Blum Australia.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 2: No, I could see him immediately, but it's just.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: Can you click on images? Is his face popping up?
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: Do you think this is him? Oh, this guy?
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 2: Let me click on... Let me read on the article itself.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 2: A 40-year-old... A 40-year-old con yet citizen swindler, Rick Blum,
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 2: is still here.
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: When is this article written?
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 2: It was written... Maybe it has a.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: He doesn't look like he's... Like, he looks old, but
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: he doesn't look like he's 100 yet, right? He's like, what?
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 2: He looks like he's about, like, 70, 80? 70, 80, yeah. Yeah,
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 2: Australian authorities suspected more than four decades ago that Belgium-born
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 2: Rick Blum became an Australian citizen fraudulently. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 2: And it's, of course, the article is not.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: It's paid, right?
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's paid, of course. Give me one more second.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: But basically, he's still there.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: He's still there, and he's a known fraudster.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: So he is still there. And he's the one right
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: now living in Australia. So he's actually Belgian. He's not
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: even Australian.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: The man with 14 names. According to the findings handed
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 2: down by the coroner, Rick Blum was born in Belgium
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 2: and claims his birth name was Willy Copenol. Copenol, yeah.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 2: He first came to Australia in 1969 but continued to
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 2: visit Europe. The coroner found that throughout his adult life,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 2: Rick Blum had routinely changed his name and said he
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 2: used 14 different aliases over the years. He also held
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 2: at least 10 different passports with different names. This guy
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 2: is an extreme scammer. When asked about the name changes, Mr.
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 2: Blum said he couldn't really explain it, but that he
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 2: supposed it was to do with his mental health issues.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 2: When questioned further during inquest, he said, because it's legal
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: to do so and because probably it was a fantasy.
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 2: In France, 1971, Mr. Blum was sentenced to four years
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 2: in jail over charges of fraud, forgery, and confidence tricks
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 2: in giving a false identity.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: So he did prison time?
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 2: He did prison time before he met Marion.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: Before?
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 2: He did prison time in... 1971. When did he meet Marion?
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's way before.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: That's way before, yeah.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my God. So he was like an absolute professional
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: by the time he met Marion. She had no chance.
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: I think so, yeah. This guy was an absolute professional.
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. He was a pro, basically, right?
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was a pro. But, Yeah, I do not
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 2: see anything.
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: That he's killing people, right?
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that he's killing people. Just exploiting people.
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: And I'm also thinking, you know, someone mentioned this and
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: I have to say that I also find it quite
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: possible that maybe what could have happened is that Rick
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: Blum takes the 80k from.
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: From Marion because, you know, oh, he needs to do
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: the down payment for their Luxembourg house. That's what he
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: tells her. Oh, look, listen to this.
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 2: Sorry, really quickly. The counsel assisting the coroner submitted to
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 2: the court that Mr. Blum had a tendency to seek
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 2: out vulnerable women through the news ads or through knowledge
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 2: of their personal circumstances, then ingratiated himself with them and
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 2: making a grand proposal such as new marriage... or a
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 2: new life. The council said the grant proposals consistently involve
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 2: an overseas destination and that Mr. Blum encouraged the women
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 2: to keep the plan a secret. The inquest heard Mr.
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 2: Blum would then ask the women to provide him a
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 2: significant amount of money to realize this grand plan before
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 2: swiftly ending the relationship and departing with the money. However, Mr.
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 2: Blum said the alleged incidents happened in the years after
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 2: he met Ms. Barter and do not show a tendency
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 2: to act in relationship before the time he met Maren Barter.
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: No, but I think we already established that he's a crook.
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: I guess the thing is no one's really mentioned about murdering, right?
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: He's not really accused of killing anyone. And I will
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: say someone mentioned online that it could be a chance
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: that maybe he took the money from her after she
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: withdrew it and then he ghosted her.
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, I could see that happening.
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yes. Because that is his MO. Why
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: would he... Or maybe she's not willing to hand over
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: the money. It would be like, oh, she's not willing
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: to hand over the money, so he kills her to
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: get the money.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 2: Could be, could be actually.
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: It's either this, because I think I also read somewhere that,
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: take it with a grain of salt, but this was
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: mentioned somewhere, that one of his hobbies was concocting poisons.
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: And knowing him and his whole career i could see
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: how he would be into making poisons.
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 2: That's true that's true yeah it seems like i don't
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 2: know i don't know this guy i only know him
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 2: like just i don't know a couple of days ago
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 2: or something but he does seem like it would fit
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 2: his but the.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: Thing is that would be a huge escalation of his established.
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 2: And wouldn't there be more evidence or like i don't
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 2: know we'd have more information about it if he was
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 2: actually planning to Or his M.O. actually, like, potentially drugging
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 2: and poisoning his victims?
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: Because how I see it, he doesn't even need to
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: do it. Couldn't he just, like, oh, if she withdrew
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: the money, couldn't he just, like, steal it off her?
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: He knows it's in her bag.
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: She just goes to the bathroom one day, he just
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: takes the bag and runs.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 2: Or just, like, I don't want to say this, but
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 2: I have to. He's stronger. Just grab the bag.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: Grab the bag as he has a whole life with
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: another family, his real family in Australia.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 2: From the way I see it, I feel like there's
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 2: a huge possibility that it was self-inflicted by Marion.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: Man, unfortunately, I'm also leaning towards the fact that, because
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: you know, she's already like, she wasn't this huge. And
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: you know, she was a teacher. You know, teachers are
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: like very by the book. Like very, like, you know,
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: the teachers would be the last people to have secrets
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: or do something outside of the procedure.
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 2: Let's put it this way. They're basically like open books.
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 2: Not everyone, we're not generalizing, but it seems like, you know.
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, teachers are very like, that's my take on teachers.
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: They're very like.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 2: They're honest.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: Honest and they're not doing anything outside of the rule book, right?
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that.
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: And this is a huge... outside.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 2: Of everything the thing is i i sense throughout the
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 2: podcast that she was in a very vulnerable state her
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 2: children were both adults at that time she was 51
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 2: and she wanted a company she wanted she wanted someone
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 2: of course.
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: And she believed we all want that and she believed
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: it and when it all went crashing down she went
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: to england.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 2: With potentially this guy probably a time of her life
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 2: she had.
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: So much fun maybe but this is such i will
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: see this this is such a compelling case true and
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: i'm gonna keep my tabs on this one and now
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: that in may they increased the money i for the
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: reward you know what i mean i feel like they
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: really feel like they could get something here so i
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: hope there's some more information to be honest i'm very
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: very curious because this is one of those things where
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: it's like Really? What did Rick Bloom do? Did he
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: kill Marion or did he just take the money and
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: Marion then lost hope and unfortunately self-harm?
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 2: You know what also convinced me that this may have
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 2: been self-harm?
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: What?
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 2: She did not have anything to go back to. Like,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 2: if she does, it would be shameful. I mean, I'm
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 2: not saying it was shameful, but I could see it
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 2: like From her perspective, like, okay, I already sold everything
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 2: I have. I quit my job. I lied to my
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 2: family and all of my friends. And then now I'm
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 2: going to go back with my tail tucked between my legs. Oh,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 2: I got scammed out of everything. And also the fact
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 2: that eventually her daughter got married. She did not show up.
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 2: No contacts whatsoever. Her son unfortunately passed away as well
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 2: as her father on the same year. Nothing whatsoever. Makes me,
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know, fully convinced that she was not living
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 2: somewhere they're hiding. It's just too much.
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: No, I think she either did it herself or Rick
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: Bloom killed her. I think there's only two options here, realistically.
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: And I don't know. I think we need to maybe...
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: To be honest, I'm giving my options here, maybe returning
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: to this case to kind of like dig deeper into
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: this potentially, not immediately, but maybe down the line we
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: could come back here and just skip the story.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: And just keep on digging.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: Just keep on digging because I feel like there's more
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: to dig. And actually I went to the Facebook page
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: for Missing Marion Barter, which I believe is ran by Sally,
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: her daughter. And Sally's actually posting some interesting stuff, some
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: stuff that we didn't even touch. She's posting pictures from
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: the hotel that apparently Marion stayed at in Australia. She's
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: posting some pictures about some neighborhood in Luxembourg. So there's
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: like some more. And then there's this whole thing about
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: allegedly Rick Bloom having a hobby of concocting poisons. I mean,
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: there's more stuff here. You know what I mean? So
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: I feel like.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: This wasn't a rabbit hole.
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: This is a rabbit hole. We could keep going, digging.
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: And maybe we could return here. But I think at
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: least we have a base of information here. We could
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: wrap it up here. And then we could potentially return.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: And I'm also very interested in our listener comments as well.
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes, please. Most likely we missed something.
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so... Thank you once again, Kylo, for suggesting the case.
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: Everyone who wants to suggest you, feel free to either
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: comment on the podcast app.
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 2: Or contact us directly.
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: Or contact us directly on, I guess... Somewhere. I guess
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: on our email. To be honest, we're checking email regularly,
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: so send us an email.
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is on the lot.
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, checking the email regularly, so you could send us
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: an email. Or, yeah, any other way. And I think
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: let's wrap it up here. Yeah. Thank you guys for
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for listening. Be safe out there and
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 2: we'll see you very soon.
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, bye.
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 2: Bye.