Sinister new twist in 25-year-old cold case of missing Australian mother Marion ... trends now
The case of Marion Barter has sparked podcasts with millions of listeners, an army of amateur sleuths and social media pages dedicated to finding her.
It's a tale that is stranger than fiction yet most people in Britain are unaware of one of the biggest missing person cases in Australian history.
Marion, an incredibly popular and award-winning teacher, travelled to the UK on her dream holiday in 1997.
She spoke to her daughter, Sally Leydon, from a phone box in Tunbridge Wells explaining how she enjoyed her time in the UK so much she would defer her trip on the Orient Express. But the conversation ended when she ran out of coins.
That was August 1, 1997, and since then her family has never heard or seen Marion. Although records showed the former teacher's passport arrived back in Brisbane the next day.
Her daughter, Sally (pictured above), openly admits that her mother was slightly naive. She was unlucky in love, having been married three times including to Australian footballer Johnny Warren
The mother-of-two 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
Marion was reported missing on October 22, 1997, when she failed to contact her son Owen on his 23rd birthday
But the long flight time would have made the journey from Kent impossible. This has sparked debate as to whether it really was Marion on the phone, whether she was really in Kent, or whether someone else used her passport.
Sally then went on a quest spanning decades to find her mum which then became the premise of an Australian News 7 Podcast, The Lady Vanishes.
'She wasn't even classed as a missing person initially,' Sally said, 'the police looking into the case decided that because she'd sold her house and changed her name, she was trying to deliberately disappear. Since her passport was used, she wasn't classed as a missing person.
'For years we were told that she didn't want to be found. That she had started a new life and didn't want anything to do with us.
'She never came to my wedding and my brother sadly took his own life with the belief that his mother abandoned him. I think he took it especially hard.'
Marion was reported missing on October 22, 1997, when she failed to contact her son Owen on his 23rd birthday.
In 2011, Sally convinced a senior detective in Byron Bay into reopening the case, but he soon closed it after establishing she changed her name in May 1997.
Her new name was Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel and according to her passport, she was married and from Luxembourg.
Years later, The Lady Vanishes podcast was able to link the last name to a serial fraudster and conman now living as Ric Blum, 83.
Blum, originally from Belgium, was convicted for offences in the 1960s for traffic violations and also falsifying documents.
In the 1970s he was also imprisoned in France for fraud and between 1976-77, he committed a litany of offences in Europe including fraud and using false names.
He emigrated to Australia in 1976 and has since then changed his name at least 13 times.
Blum was linked to Barter through a 1994 lonely hearts advertisement in Le Courrier Australien, a French-English bilingual newspaper.
Fraudster and conman now living as Ric Blum (pictured) was convicted for offences in the 1960s for traffic violations and also falsifying documents
Marion Barter, aged 51 at the time, was last seen at a bus depot on Scarborough Street at Southport, Queensland, on Sunday 22 June 1997
Ric Blum has vehemently denied killing her or having anything to do with Marion's disappearance
Going by the name Fernand Nocola Remakel, which is the name of the husband of a woman he had an affair with, he described himself as single and looking for love - despite being married for 40 years to his current wife, Diane De Hedervary.
This was the name Marion would later change hers to in secret before possibly travelling back to Australia.
In August 2020, the New South Wales State Coroner announced its decision to hold an investigation into Marion Barter's disappearance and presumed death.
During the inquest, Blum was asked directly, 'Did you kill Marion?'
Blum has vehemently denied killing her or having anything to do with Marion's disappearance. But he admitted he changed his name frequently.
It was during the inquest that he also admitted to meeting Marion via a lonely hearts ad.
'He made out my mum to be a whore,' Sally added, 'during his first police interview, he denied even knowing my mum but then he called the next day and admitted to having a four-month affair with her.'
Blum says his relationship with Marion ended just before she flew to the UK. He also claims around the time of her disappearance he was in Europe but mostly visited France and Belgium and rarely visited the UK.
But several women have since come forward with allegations of how Blum would seduce them and promise a 'new life'.
Two women gave evidence during the inquest saying since the 1990s Blum met them and offered them a new life, only to try to defraud them of money.
Sally said: 'During the inquest, you could just tell that he didn't have any regard for my mother, or any women for that matter.
'There were women who gave evidence at the inquest who had affairs with him and there was all this evidence being read out but he didn't respond and to which he denied mostly any wrongdoing.
'A letter he wrote to Monique Cornelius was read out on court which demonstrated to me he is very articulate and intelligent.
'He seems to have a pattern of behaviour that he follows and has refined over the years where he manipulates and makes women fall in love with him within a matter of months.
'He always picks vulnerable women and my mum was in a vulnerable place in her life.'
Sally openly admits that her mother was slightly naive. She was unlucky in love, having been married three times including to Australian footballer Johnny Warren.
