Australia Australia - Marion Barter, 51, missing after trip to UK, Jun 1997

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I haven't watched the podcasts so I'm coming from a place of relative ignorance. I thought Marion might have known the name Remakel because her former husband was a soccer player (?) and so she followed international soccer. Perhaps she liked the name and thought, If I ever 'remake' myself, that's the name I'd choose. And then perhaps she saw the name again in the advertisement so it was refreshed in her mind. The person who placed the ad might have been romanticizing with regard to his name as well as his description. Thinking of himself as the soccer player. And his real name was something quite different.
There seems to be some hard to ignore coincidences with the Remakel name. But perhaps Marion simply chose it because she heard it somewhere and liked the sound of it?

Without being unkind to Fernand Remakel - because playing sport at national level is an achievement in itself - he was a relative no-name who was retired in 1969 at about 22 years of age. So Marion is fairly unlikely to have even come across his name.
 
Without being unkind to Fernand Remakel - because playing sport at national level is an achievement in itself - he was a relative no-name who was retired in 1969 at about 22 years of age. So Marion is fairly unlikely to have even come across his name.

I agree - think the chances of her coming across the name through the football world while Johnny Warren was her husband, and then subsequently retaining that name, is a far less likely scenario than Marion coming across the name in the recent history prior to her disappearance.

My husband is a footballer and I can tell you that as a 'WAG', I'm barely aware of the names of players on opposing teams. Yes, sure if it was someone on the same team as her husband then I'd get that, but the chances of her taking note of the name of an opposing player? Nope. I think she had to have come across F Remakel either via the personal ad, or simply by meeting him some other way due to geographic proximity in the mid-late 90s. Maybe she never saw the ad in Le Courier, but she may well have met him some other way.
 
The podcast isn't perfect but IMO they have done more to give this case a profile and momentum than anything else has managed in the past.

Criticising them for sensationalism seems like a waste of everyone's time. They're a commercial news organisation and they have listener targets to meet in order to attract paying advertisers, and therefore have the funding to keep going with the investigation.

As they said in episode 11, they're going to pause now to focus on following up leads which I think is the right thing to do.

You only have to look at Teacher's Pet to see what the benefits can be of having a podcast shine the light on a cold case.

Instead of spending time moaning about the journalistic techniques that one doesn't like, how about spend that time doing some sleuthing of one's own.

OK, rant over.

Comparing the lady vanishes to teachers pet is like comparing four corners to a current affair. Teachers pet was powerful because of its investigative integrity which is sadly lacking in TLV.

I dont know what happened with the lost boy of TSS but he (a PI) clearly believes Sally/podcast resist lines of enquiry incongruent with the view that Marion's disappearance was involuntary.

Sally is entitled to a biased view but I object to the strawman argument adopted by the podcast which discredits, disputes or casts suspicion on anything/anyone not supporting their preferred version of events (Lesley, the police, the banks, Marion's sisters and that poor elderly man in Luxemburg). An investigation should follow the evidence not just look for things to support your predetermined view.

Now in latest conversation episode Brian addresses the backlash over what happened in Luxemburg by calling it trolling.

This 'investigation' has become a self-indulgent farce. Potentially good for ratings but i fail to see how any of this is in Sally/Marion best interest so I'm not going to follow this one anymore. I have enjoy reading everyone's clever suggestions and ideas. Good luck with the search!
 
Another point they are discussing is that Marion would not have had access to internet to come up with the name Remakel. There was television and newspapers in the 90’s though so she might have come across the name via those means.
Marion could of also picked up the newspaper and thought 'yeah I ll go with that name'. I knew a lady once who changed her name. She just opened a phone book and picked a name, there was no rhythm or rhyme, just changed it to a random one out of the book.
 
Comparing the lady vanishes to teachers pet is like comparing four corners to a current affair. Teachers pet was powerful because of its investigative integrity which is sadly lacking in TLV.

I dont know what happened with the lost boy of TSS but he (a PI) clearly believes Sally/podcast resist lines of enquiry incongruent with the view that Marion's disappearance was involuntary.

Sally is entitled to a biased view but I object to the strawman argument adopted by the podcast which discredits, disputes or casts suspicion on anything/anyone not supporting their preferred version of events (Lesley, the police, the banks, Marion's sisters and that poor elderly man in Luxemburg). An investigation should follow the evidence not just look for things to support your predetermined view.

Now in latest conversation episode Brian addresses the backlash over what happened in Luxemburg by calling it trolling.

This 'investigation' has become a self-indulgent farce. Potentially good for ratings but i fail to see how any of this is in Sally/Marion best interest so I'm not going to follow this one anymore. I have enjoy reading everyone's clever suggestions and ideas. Good luck with the search!
Brian keeps saying he is positive he will solve the mystery of what happened to Marion. We will see!
 
Permanent Internet access was first available in Australia to universities via AARNet in 1989. The first commercial dial-up Internet Service Provider (ISP) appeared in capital cities soon after, and by the mid-1990s almost the entire country had a range of choices of dial-up ISPs.
Telecommunications in Australia - Wikipedia


I was using the internet in 1992, a friends university account.
then got my own account in 1994, when the first commercial internet arrived here.
It looks like some other places had it well before 1994.
Quite likely that school staff had access to it.
But was the french newspaper published online back then.
 
Re Luxenbourg, I was surprised that the words "The Ad you placed" or similar were used on meeting Monsieur Remakel, I don't recall the exact words. I didn't expect that at all.
Do they have evidence that he was the one that wrote and placed the ad?
I wouldn't be surprised if he got straight on the phone to a lawyer to be honest.
And that doesn't always mean being guilty of anything, maybe he has nothing to with Marion vanishing but has now read up on the case and believes he might be accused of something.

I would have tried to arrange a meeting with him alone, with no wife or partner around.
I would hardly expect anyone saying yes I placed that ad if there was a chance anyone could overhear.
Especially if he had a relationship with someone else at the time.

Pretty sure I would have freaked out if a foreign TV crew arrived at my door making accusations.


I don't know one way or the other if he has anything to do with Marion vanishing.
I hope one way or the other that Sally does find out that what happened to her mum.
 
I'm looking forward to the next Conversations and do hope that the team are able to get some sort of a conclusion to the disappearance of Marion.
I can only imagine how hard it must be for Sally and others not knowing what happened.
I think knowing what happened is the best thing, even if it turns out to be the worst news, or even something unexpected.

I believe the team are doing everything they can think of to find out what happened.
Hopefully there is someone out there who does know and will come forward with information.
 
Re Luxenbourg, I was surprised that the words "The Ad you placed" or similar were used on meeting Monsieur Remakel, I don't recall the exact words. I didn't expect that at all.
Do they have evidence that he was the one that wrote and placed the ad?
I wouldn't be surprised if he got straight on the phone to a lawyer to be honest.
And that doesn't always mean being guilty of anything, maybe he has nothing to with Marion vanishing but has now read up on the case and believes he might be accused of something.

I would have tried to arrange a meeting with him alone, with no wife or partner around.
I would hardly expect anyone saying yes I placed that ad if there was a chance anyone could overhear.
Especially if he had a relationship with someone else at the time.

Pretty sure I would have freaked out if a foreign TV crew arrived at my door making accusations.


I don't know one way or the other if he has anything to do with Marion vanishing.
I hope one way or the other that Sally does find out that what happened to her mum.
Hopefully when the Federal Police file is fully released once it has been been to the FOI administrative tribunal, it will contain links that will help solve the mystery. However, if Marion is a live and has chosen to live a life away from her family she will not be happy.
 
Hopefully when the Federal Police file is fully released once it has been been to the FOI administrative tribunal, it will contain links that will help solve the mystery. However, if Marion is a live and has chosen to live a life away from her family she will not be happy.
If there is any information in the file about where Marion is or was, it will not be released through FOI. Marion has every legal right to not be in contact with her family, and any breach of that would be illegal.
 
I a
If there is any information in the file about where Marion is or was, it will not be released through FOI. Marion has every legal right to not be in contact with her family, and any breach of that would be illegal.
I agree, however when Sally received file before it was heavily redacted. The FIO stated that there was no need to redact all of the information presented. So it will be interesting all the same. Sally only had 3 minutes to go through the info which had a copy of the passport. Hopefully there will be flight information which will prove to sally that it was Marion who come back to Australia and withdrew her own money, not an imposter as some believe. There maybe evidence that points to her being alive rather than dead.
 
What is interesting with the add in 1994, is that for most Recontres adds in the classified section, when looking at other editions, most adds are run for 2 editions. This add was only run once. What that means, I don't know but interesting. I have been looking to see if there is a similar add, maybe with different name, but there isnt one that i have come across as yet.

On another note, I wonder if this was the Michele Burnett, that had been looking for the F Ramakel recently (on Luxembour website). If its the same lady, she had posted the following add March '97, found French newspaper in Australia (on Trove) a few years later.

MICHELE 39 ans, l m60, libre sans enfants, bien physiquement, sérieuse, souhaite rencontrer gentleman 39 50 ans,
libre, affectueux, sincère, situation stable, pour une conclusion heureuse: amour, sécurité et plus si affinités. Sydney et Cold
Coast seulement. Photo récente appréciée. Pas sérieux s'abstenir. Ecrire à Michèle CIIEMINON, P.O. Box 391, RANDWICK,
NSW 2031.
I think that she had posted the add previously as well.
 
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It looks to me like it will come down to whether the police will eventually cooperate or not. [/B]Nothing so far suggests they will.

Why won't they, I wonder?

Is it because they know more but can't elaborate? Can a missing person specify to the police that relatives can't be told that they have been located and are safe and well....?

Or is it because the Police have dropped the ball and are trying to save face?

It's got to be one of these, doesnt it or am I being to simplistic?
 
Why won't they, I wonder?

Is it because they know more but can't elaborate? Can a missing person specify to the police that relatives can't be told that they have been located and are safe and well....?

Or is it because the Police have dropped the ball and are trying to save face?

It's got to be one of these, doesnt it or am I being to simplistic?
I think that the police know she is alive and well. If they are trying to save face, it will will come back and bite them on the backside.
 
Why won't they, I wonder?

Is it because they know more but can't elaborate? Can a missing person specify to the police that relatives can't be told that they have been located and are safe and well....?

Or is it because the Police have dropped the ball and are trying to save face?

It's got to be one of these, doesnt it or am I being to simplistic?

According to the police they have informed Sally that Marion contacted them, and they seem to be intimating Marion doesn't want people - including Sally - to know any more than that.
 
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