Marion Barter

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Nsw Police Force Unsolved Homicide (SQUAD)

Missing From:

Southport, Queensland

Summary:

Marion Barter was an Australian missing person, teacher and mother-of-two, who disappeared on Sunday 22 June 1997 from Southport, Queensland. She was dropped off at a bus stop in Southport to go to the airport for a planned long-term vacation in England and has not been seen since. On 29 February 2024 the NSW State Coroner announced that Barter is deceased, with her date of death declared as sometime after 15 October 1997, though there is insufficient evidence to declare a place, cause or manner of her death.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Marion Barter disappeared on Sunday 22 June 1997 from Southport, Queensland. She was last seen at a bus depot on Scarborough Street, near Railway Street, at Southport, Queensland, on Sunday 22 June 1997. In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Marion was also observed by a family member leaving a service station on Ferry Road, Southport, in a red Honda Civic Breeze with a tall male passenger in the vehicle. On 15 May 1997 she changed her name via deed poll to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel and obtained a passport under her new name. However, she continued to use her previous name at work and in correspondence with family and friends, and never mentioned her name change to anyone. Marion left Australia for the United Kingdom on Sunday 22 June 1997, under the name Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, which she had officially changed the month before leaving the country. While on vacation, Barter sent family, friends and former students postcards, letters and gifts from locations around England postmarked Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Sussex, and London. She also called her daughter, Sally Leydon, in late July and early August. On August 1, she phoned from Tunbridge Wells and spoke to Sally until she ran out of coins. That was the last time Sally spoke to her mother. On Saturday 2 August 1997, investigators believe Marion may have re-entered Australia under the name of Florabella Remakel with an incoming passenger card stating she was married and resided in Luxembourg. Barter's children became concerned in October 1997, after months of not hearing from her, when she failed to call her son to wish him a happy birthday. Leydon called the Commonwealth Bank telebanking line on 21 October, where Barter did her banking, to check for activity on the account, discovering it had been emptied of more than $80,000 in daily increments of $5,000 between August and September from branches in Byron Bay, New South Wales and in Burleigh Heads and Ashmore, Queensland.

Additional Details:

Family members reported Ms Barter missing to police at Byron Bay in October 1997, with detectives from the Tweed-Byron Local Area Command commencing an investigation into her whereabouts. For years, police maintained that Barter's disappearance was voluntary, although their attempts to locate her were unsuccessful. In March 1999, Jack Wilson received a suspicious letter from The Salvation Army claiming that a Missing Persons police officer spoke to a security officer at Colonial State Bank who said that Barter 'spoke of starting a new life,' and, in 1990 (not 1997), withdrew the balance of her account in Ashmore. The inconsistencies and errors in the letter made Leydon concerned that the inquiries were not taken seriously. Many years later, the SA apologised and admitted that they never physically sighted Barter nor can they confirm if she truly made the statements in the letter. In 2011, the Byron Bay missing persons unit removed Barter from the NSW state missing persons register. In 2019, after extensive international media coverage and new legal proceedings lodged by her daughter, Sally Leydon, her case was taken over by the Unsolved Homicide Squad in Sydney and authorities are now handling it as an active homicide investigation. Barter's case was featured in the Australian crime podcast The Lady Vanishes, a Seven News production and one of "Apple's Best Listens of 2019". The inquest began in June 2021, before Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan with ten days of evidence from police officers and members of Barter's family. The inquest then sat for another ten days in February 2022 and three days in April 2022 to hear the evidence of a man called Ric Blum who says he had two brief affairs with Barter, first in the 1960s then again in 1997 very shortly before she disappeared, making him one of the last people to see her. The inquest also heard from former Queensland police officers working at the Missing Persons Bureau, staff of the Commonwealth Bank, Ric Blum's wife of 45 years, and two other women with whom Blum had extra-marital relationships in the 1990s. The inquest sat for one further day in October 2022 to hear the evidence of a Byron Bay bank employee who says they remembered serving Marion Barter in 1997. The name 'Remakel' opened new doors that led police to Blum. In 1994, Blum placed an advertisement in an Australian-French newspaper, describing himself as a single, 47-year-old 'tall, dark, sober' man, who was looking for a relationship with a view to marriage. The ad was signed 'Mr. F. Remakel,' but the phone number linked to a coin business in the New South Wales town of Ballina run by one of Blum's many aliases. Blum formed a relationship with Barter in 1997, while posing as Fernand Remakel and 'encouraged her to start a new life with him' in Luxembourg. The coroner found Blum 'persuaded or otherwise encouraged' Barter to sell her house before they left, and evidence suggested they spent some time together in England. Barter did not contact her family when Leydon got married in 1998 at The Southport School Chapel, nor in 2001 when her first granddaughter was born, in 2003 when her son died by suicide, or in 2003 when her father died after a long illness. On 29 February 2024 the NSW State Coroner, Teresa O'Sullivan, announced that she has declared Marion Barter deceased. She established Barter's death as sometime after 15 October 1997, the day she was last seen. However the cause, place, and manner of her death could not be determined. The Coroner also announced that Ric Blum, Barter's former lover, 'does indeed know more', but did not recommend charges against him. In June 2021, NSW police and local government announced a A$250,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of what happened to Barter. This was increased on 26 April 2022 to A$500,000.

Case Last Updated:

May 11, 2026