Missing school teacher's case referred to homicide unit

The near three-decade-old disappearance of a schoolteacher has been referred to homicide detectives after a coroner slammed prior police failings to investigate the case.

Mother-of-two Marion Barter, 51, disappeared in suspicious circumstances in 1997.

She was last seen on June 22 that year - the day she flew out of Brisbane for an indefinite trip to England with Ric Blum, who she had recently entered into a relationship with after meeting him through a personal ad in the newspaper.

The Belgian-born Mr Blum did not appear in court to hear NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan deliver her findings into the disappearance on Thursday.

While Ms O’Sullivan did accept on the balance of probabilities Ms Barter was dead, she was unable to determine the exact location, cause or manner of death as the remains had never been found.

The coroner described the circumstances surrounding Ms Barter’s disappearance as “troubling” and referred the case to the NSW Police unsolved homicide team for review.

Ms Barter was last spotted before travelling overseas using her new name, Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, after making the formal change via deed poll one month earlier.

Her outgoing passenger card stated that she was divorced and intended to live in the small European nation of Luxembourg.

Weeks later, on August 2, she was listed as returning to Australia with an incoming passenger card stating she was married and living in Luxembourg.

Ms Barter changed her name because “she was in a relationship with Mr Blum and sought to share a name and life with him”, Ms O’Sullivan said in her findings.

“Marion did not disclose her new identity to friends or family,” she said.

“And she took steps to ensure no one was aware of her return to the country”.

Ms Barter met Mr Blum after the married man placed a personal ad seeking a relationship in the newspaper, which he kept secret from his wife and family, the coroner said.

Ms O’Sullivan also accepted Mr Blum met with Ms Barter on at least three occasions between February and May 1997.

“Mr Blum entered into a relationship with Marion in 1997 and encouraged her to change her name,” she said.

“Mr Blum suggested they start a new life together in Luxemburg.”

There was sufficient evidence Ms Barter withdrew tens of thousands of dollars from her account before she disappeared “on the encouragement of Mr Blum and under the circumstances she was in a relationship with him”, the coroner added.

Inquiries revealed someone accessed the missing woman’s bank account following her disappearance.

Ms O’Sullivan said she did not accept any evidence given by Mr Blum, who she believed was withholding key information and had represented himself to “single, vulnerable women for financial gain”.

“His lies and deception throughout this inquest convinces me that he does indeed know more than he’s saying,” she said.

Ms Barter was last seen at a bus depot on Scarborough St at Southport in Queensland on June 22, 1997.

Weeks before she disappeared, she was seen by a family member leaving a service station at Southport in a red Honda Civic with a tall male passenger.

Ms Barter’s daughter, Sally Leydon, previously said her mother’s behaviour before leaving Australia was out of character and “something untoward was happening in her life” at the time.

Her disappearance was reported to Byron Bay police in October 1997, but the file was not marked as a missing-person report and lay dormant for a decade.

Mr O’Sullivan said the NSW Police investigation was inadequate and little was done to find Ms Barter’s whereabouts until 2017.