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

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Cliff Hardy said:
On second thoughts, I think you are right there.

I am struggling to remember exactly how the police did explain to Sally their confidence Marion was ok.

I do remember the police conceding they hadn't physically seen Marion.
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I know, it’s just so odd. That first article I quoted also said that detective Sheehan hadn’t been able to find any trace of Marion or florabella through public records. And yet the police are steadfast in their resolve not to reopen the case. They MUST know something more that they’re not sharing IMO.
 
sunnynz said:
I know, it’s just so odd. That first article I quoted also said that detective Sheehan hadn’t been able to find any trace of Marion or florabella through public records. And yet the police are steadfast in their resolve not to reopen the case. They MUST know something more that they’re not sharing IMO.
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This is what I think.

If they had dropped the ball initially you would think that they would be allowing for DNA tests and what not to occur. You would also expect that she would be relisted on the missing persons register.
 
I can't listen to the ABC interview because I am at work. Can anyone summarize it please?

In this day and age "possible breakthrough" usually amounts to nothing more than please be sure to listen to our next episode.

Sure hope I am wrong.
 
I just finished listening to the pod conversation. No new news, just opinions. I personally do not think that withdrawing $5000 out of the bank each day is suspicious. Her identity would have been verified. Bank security contacted her to verify her identity. As for being in Byron Bay where she could of been seen, well if she parked close to the bank at morning opening time, went in and basically straight out, no one would of seen her. Perhaps she had a hat on and hair tied up. As for her medicare card, well she would have used that herself. I still think that maybe the cult theory fits. As for writing letters, going on holidays, and the phone calls, if Marion planned her disappearance then she would of carried on as normal until the date she had planned as to reduce suspicion. Then there is the security guard who Marion spoke to and told him she was starting a new life. Also the part about Marion stating that she wasn't happy that the money for her car had not been deposited by Sally into her bank account. However, this is only my theory and if the Police do another investigation, then they will know who with, where and how she travelled which will solve the mystery once and for all.
 
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TheOracle66 said:
I just finished listening to the pod conversation. No new news, just opinions. I personally do not think that withdrawing $5000 out of the bank each day is suspicious. Her identity would have been verified. Bank security contacted her to verify her identity. As for being in Byron Bay where she could of been seen, well if she parked close to the bank at morning opening time, went in and basically straight out, no one would of seen her. Perhaps she had a hat on and hair tied up. As for her medicare card, well she would have used that herself. I still think that maybe the cult theory fits. As for writing letters, going on holidays, and the phone calls, if Marion planned her disappearance then she would of carried on as normal until the date she had planned as to reduce suspicion. Then there is the security guard who Marion spoke to and told him she was starting a new life. Also the part about Marion stating that she wasn't happy that the money for her car had not been deposited by Sally into her bank account. However, this is only my theory and if the Police do another investigation, then they will know who with, where and how she travelled which will solve the mystery once and for all.
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Agree with most/all of what you've said there.

I initially thought the daily $5000 withdrawals were suspicious, but the more I think about it the less suspicious I am. Think about it for a minute. If you were up to no good would you keep doing it day after day after day in the same place where the pattern could be noted by the same staff? Surely not.
 
Cliff Hardy said:
I initially thought the daily $5000 withdrawals were suspicious, but the more I think about it the less suspicious I am. Think about it for a minute. If you were up to no good would you keep doing it day after day after day in the same place where the pattern could be noted by the same staff? Surely not.
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The bank withdrawals are interesting. I do think it was a different time back then - even if it doesn't feel that long ago. Making the maximum daily withdrawals from the same branch day after day seems like a dumb thing to do if you're trying not to arouse suspicion. But, back then I think people felt they were more anonymous?

I think there's also a good chance that whoever was making the withdrawal had come up with a really good cover story that kept the branch staff satisfied so that they didn't feel the need to report the unusual transactions.

If it were Marion herself making the withdrawals then she could have easily asked for the daily limit to be adjusted so that she could make one very large withdrawal and get it over and done with. Why do it piece by piece? I think because it wasn't Marion making the withdrawals so whoever it was didn't want to go through the process of properly ID'ing themselves to a manager so they could withdraw it all at once.
 
sunnynz said:
The bank withdrawals are interesting. I do think it was a different time back then - even if it doesn't feel that long ago. Making the maximum daily withdrawals from the same branch day after day seems like a dumb thing to do if you're trying not to arouse suspicion. But, back then I think people felt they were more anonymous?

I think there's also a good chance that whoever was making the withdrawal had come up with a really good cover story that kept the branch staff satisfied so that they didn't feel the need to report the unusual transactions.

If it were Marion herself making the withdrawals then she could have easily asked for the daily limit to be adjusted so that she could make one very large withdrawal and get it over and done with. Why do it piece by piece? I think because it wasn't Marion making the withdrawals so whoever it was didn't want to go through the process of properly ID'ing themselves to a manager so they could withdraw it all at once.
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Cases can be made for either line of thinking I guess.

I have listened to the first few minutes of Conversations 8 and it starts out as a little chat without anything new being touted. I will listen to it in full tonight, but suspect the "possible breakthrough" headlines today amount to nothing more than clickbait advertising.
 
Re the podcast,
It's not the first time I've heard that until Google no one was able to search for anything online.
That isn't true, there was a wealth of information online in 1992 when I first had net access and there were search engines, quite a few of them.
In fact back then the search engines seemed to come up with many more results than these days.
I find it quite disappointing searching these days because the results are far fewer than in the past.
I was amazed at how much information there was and there were a heap of good search engines to choose from, well before Google appeared on the scene in 1998.

I used to use Web Wombat and Anzwers for searching for results re Australia, and AltaVista for a general search engine.
Also DogPile was another good one.
There were heaps of others as well.
 
sunnynz said:
The bank withdrawals are interesting. I do think it was a different time back then - even if it doesn't feel that long ago. Making the maximum daily withdrawals from the same branch day after day seems like a dumb thing to do if you're trying not to arouse suspicion. But, back then I think people felt they were more anonymous?

I think there's also a good chance that whoever was making the withdrawal had come up with a really good cover story that kept the branch staff satisfied so that they didn't feel the need to report the unusual transactions.

If it were Marion herself making the withdrawals then she could have easily asked for the daily limit to be adjusted so that she could make one very large withdrawal and get it over and done with. Why do it piece by piece? I think because it wasn't Marion making the withdrawals so whoever it was didn't want to go through the process of properly ID'ing themselves to a manager so they could withdraw it all at once.
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BBM. As a woman I wouldn't want to walk away from a bank carrying eighty thousand dollars. I wouldn't feel physically safe, apart from the risk of theft or loss.
 
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