The Lady Vanishes Press

The Lady Vanishes: The investigation into Marion Barter’s disappearance

27 June 2024

Co-author of ‘The Lady Vanishes’, Alison Sandy, joined Greg Cary on 4BC Afternoons to dissect the bestselling Australian true crime book based on the investigation into the disappearance of Marion Barter.

Marion Barter is dead: Coroner delivers findings in The Lady Vanishes case

The NSW State Coroner has delivered her findings from a years-long inquest into the disappearance of mum-of-two Marion Barter.

By Alison Sandy

(Source: 7NEWS Queensland)

9 February 2024

Missing Gold Coast mum-of-two Marion Barter has been declared dead and the man she was in a secret relationship with when she vanished in 1997 knows much more than he’s prepared to reveal, the NSW State Coroner has revealed.

Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan’s findings in Lidcombe today mark the end of a years-long inquest that heard evidence from across Australia and Europe — sparked by Seven Network’s The Lady Vanishes, the global smash-hit podcast series.

Barter, 51, was an award-winning teacher at an elite Gold Coast boys school when, in 1997, she quit, sold her house and drained her bank accounts. Her family never saw her again, and her daughter Sally Leydon has been searching for answers ever since.

The Lady Vanishes: Stunning claim from Blum’s ex that ‘these hands have killed’

‘One day he told me, ‘Look, these hands have already killed’ and he showed me his hands.’

Alison Sandy / Crime / March 6, 2023

A former lover of a convicted conman living in northern New South Wales has revealed he boasted to her he had killed.

Ric Blum's alleged victims unite to fight for justice after release of 'The Lady Vanishes' | 7NEWS

He's been dubbed the original 'Tinder swindler'. Now Ric Blum's alleged victims across the globe are uniting in their fight for justice. The serial philanderer is the person of interest uncovered by the hit 7NEWS podcast, The Lady Vanishes. Reporter Steve Hart tracked him down to ask him about the mounting evidence against him.

Astonishing development in The Lady Vanishes case of missing woman Marion Barter | 7NEWS

There's been an astonishing development in the case of missing Gold Coast mother Marion Barter. The man at the centre of an inquest is now facing fresh claims, a woman in Europe saying Ric Blum stole her life savings.

Marion Barter's mystery lover changes his tune when questioned by police | 7NEWS

A court has heard Marion Barter's secret lover denied knowing her when he was first questioned by police. Ric Blum finally took the stand at the inquest into the Gold Coast school teacher's disappearance today, admitting to using more than a dozen different names.

Conman ‘gave false evidence’ about daughter

The alleged serial fraudster who denied killing Queensland teacher Marion Barter gave false evidence when he said under oath that he’d never been in contact with his daughter, witnesses say.

By DAVID MURRAY

12:15PM FEBRUARY 21, 2023

The alleged serial fraudster who denied killing Queensland teacher Marion Barter gave false evidence when he said under oath that he’d never been in contact with his daughter, new witnesses say.

Ric Blum last year said at an ongoing inquest into Barter’s disappearance and suspected death that he had only seen his daughter ­Evelyn Reid once, as a baby.

But Ms Reid says she reconnected with Mr Blum as an adult, and that he talked to her in disturbing detail about how to kill people with homemade poison.

Family members have now spoken out in support of Ms Reid, with her half-brother saying she talked to him at the time two decades ago about meeting Mr Blum.

Ms Reid was in Melbourne and raised concerns that Mr Blum may have poisoned a bottle of champagne given to her as a gift, he said.

Court told Marion Barter is deceased after she disappeared in 1997 | 7NEWS

They were hard words to hear, but ones Marion Barter's family have been waiting decades for. For the first time since the Gold Coast teacher went missing, a court has been told she is deceased.

Marion Barter's secret lover revealed to have 38 aliases | 7NEWS

An inquest into Marion Barter's disappearance has heard her secret lover had 38 aliases. Ric Blum's wife was today questioned about why she never pressed him about his name changes.

Lady Vanishes: Ric Blum's salacious love letters revealed at Marion Barter inquest | 7NEWS

Salacious love letters have been read out at the inquest into the disappearance of Gold Coast teacher, Marion Barter in 1997. They were written by Ric Blum to yet another woman. While he denies that affair, he admits his relationship with Marion, the mother who is the focus of popular podcast, The Lady Vanishes.

Conman dad terrified daughter with ‘lessons on poisons’

By DAVID MURRAY

NATIONAL CRIME CORRESPONDENT

12:15PM FEBRUARY 20, 2023

A convicted conman questioned over the disappearance of a Queensland teacher spoke in ­horrifying detail about how to kill people with homemade poison, his daughter says.

Ric Blum gave evidence under oath at the inquest into the presumed death of Marion Barter that he met his daughter, Evelyn Reid, only once, as a baby, and had never seen or spoken to her since.

Yet Ms Reid has told The Australian of her as an adult making contact with Mr Blum, only to be terrified by his dark tales of torture and murder.

Accused Casanova conman Ric Blum denies dabbling in poisons

By DAVID MURRAY

• 6:30AM FEBRUARY 19, 2023

  An accused romance scammer at the centre of inquiries into the disappearance of a Queensland teacher has denied having a ­special interest in poisons.

Ric Blum also declared he “didn’t take a razoo” from the missing woman, Marion Barter, a mother of two and former wife of Australian football legend Johnny Warren.

Mr Blum was previously jailed in France for fraud, is known by at least 50 aliases and has admitted to an affair with Barter shortly ­before she vanished in 1997.

In recent months, allegations have emerged that he scammed two Belgian widows out of their money and belongings, with one stating: “I think he wanted to ­poison me.”

How deep and dark does Ric Blum’s backstory go?

By DAVID MURRAY

February 18, 2023

From her secluded bushland home in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, Joni Condos has a breathtaking view that takes in one of Australia’s most famous landmarks.

Hanging Rock is known for its eponymous novel, adapted for film, plays, radio and a TV mini­series, about the disappearance of a group of schoolgirls – one named Marion – and their maths teacher on a Valentine’s Day picnic.

New claims in mystery disappearance of Marion Barter

By DAVID MURRAY

• NATIONAL CRIME CORRESPONDENT, THE AUSTRALIAN

  7:46PM FEBRUARY 13, 2023

A convicted conman questioned over the possible murder of his missing lover has been accused of ripping off his dead cousin’s widow.

The new claims against Ric Blum follow allegations he deceived or exploited a string of other women after Queensland schoolteacher Marion Barter vanished more than 25 years ago.

An inquest into the dis­appearance and suspected death of Barter, the former wife of Socceroos legend Johnny Warren, was put on hold at the end of Nov­ember to allow homicide squad detectives to conduct further investigations.

The search for a missing mother surfaces claims of her lover’s ‘life of deceit’

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN

Updated 12:14 AM EST, Mon November 28, 2022

Brisbane, AustraliaCNN — 

Marion Barter won plaudits for her warmth as an elementary school teacher, but in 1997 the 51-year-old mother-of-two became restless, quit her job, sold her house, and flew from Australia’s beach-lined Gold Coast to start a new life in Europe.

Her family never saw her again.

If Barter had vanished without a trace, Australian police may have taken her case more seriously, but when her daughter, Sally Leydon, reported her missing, she wasn’t added to the missing persons list, and later a police officer told her Barter wanted no contact with her family.

For Leydon, there were too many unanswered questions, and 25 years later she is still searching for answers.  Did her mother leave of her own accord, and did she truly want to vanish?

The Lady Vanishes: Australian series leads to new investigation into 25-year-old mystery disappearance

Henrietta McKervey (The Independent, Ireland)

March 12 2022 05:00 AM

Marion Barter was last seen by her daughter Sally Leydon in June 1997. Unhappy in her teaching job at a prestigious Queensland boys’ school, she had sold her house and put her possessions into storage before leaving Australia for a solo trip to Europe via Tokyo.

Her rough itinerary included fulfilling a lifetime dream of travelling on the Orient Express. She kept in touch with Sally and other family members for a while, phoning and sending postcards from Kent, Sussex and London. All contact stopped abruptly that August. Sally hasn’t heard from her mother for 25 years.

Back in 1997, Sally didn’t know that Marion had secretly changed her name to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel a month before she left Australia. On the same day that Marion last called Sally from a payphone in Tunbridge Wells, someone using Florabella Remakel’s passport landed in Sydney on a flight from London.

Over the next three-and-a-half weeks, someone withdrew AUS$5,000 every day from Marion’s bank account in branches on Australia’s Gold Coast — a fact that Sally discovered almost by chance.

Until a friend put her in touch with 7News journalists Alison Sandy and Bryan Seymour in 2019, Sally felt as though she was the only one still looking for her mother. Sandy and Seymour took up her cause, and created The Lady Vanishes (7News, widely available) to document their search.

The podcast, which just hit ten million downloads, has relentlessly pursued the story over 30-plus episodes to date. In fact, the show created the story, in many ways. Before it launched, Marion Barter wasn’t even a cold case as far the police were concerned, because in October 1997, authorities believed she had been located but was refusing to contact her family. (The original police file has been lost).

With the assistance of the “super sleuths”, as Sally calls the listeners who took it upon themselves to chase down leads, the team discovered far more than the police had, following up mysterious messages from strangers, a tip that Marion was living in a commune, and even tracking down a man by the name of Remakel in Luxembourg.

The renewed interest the series generated in what it calls “Australia’s most-baffling missing persons’ case” led to a new investigation, a AUS$250,000 reward for information, and finally a cornoner’s inquest that began last month.

Extraordinary revelations at the inquest include the existence of Marion’s secret lover; a serial fraudster with a string of aliases.

Many true crime podcasts follow the same tropes: hosts muse thoughtfully about the nature of truth, time and memory, preconceptions get reframed… but there are no new conclusions.

As it edges ever closer to finding answers, The Lady Vanishes is the opposite. Sally Leydon is a tenacious, impressive and articulate woman, who needs and deserves the truth.

As the investigation and inquest begins to tease out the truth, what she has said from the outset appears to be true: somebody out there does know what really happened to her beloved mum.

The Lady Vanishes: Former ‘secret lover’ of Marion Barter to appear at inquest into her disappearance

Published by Alison Sandy · February 14, 2022

The secret lover of missing Gold Coast woman Marion Barter will appear at the inquest into her disappearance and suspected death for the first time when it resumes on Monday.

Convicted conman Ric Blum and his wife, Diane De Hedervary, are both scheduled to appear at Ballina Courthouse, near where they live.

Sally Leydon talks about her mum’s disappearance in the video above

In an interview with NSW Police, Mr Blum admitted to having two “fleeting” relationships with Marion - once in the 1960s and again just before she embarked on her trip of a lifetime to Europe in June 1997.

From there, she was never seen again by friends and family.

However, the 51-year-old mother-of-two reportedly re-entered Australia about five weeks later and withdrew large amounts of cash from her bank account.

Daughter Sally Leydon hopes Mr Blum will reveal key information about what happened to her mum.

Marion Barter with daughter Sally prior to her disappearance. Credit: Supplied

“I believe we’re the closest we’ve ever been to finding out what’s happened to Mum,” Ms Leydon told 7NEWS.

“I’m really hoping that we get that information at the inquest.

“That’s my hope and prayers that ... I just want to find her.

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“I care little about the rest, I just want to find her.”

The mystery man

Ric Blum, now aged 83, is a man with many names.

Adam Casselden, counsel assisting the NSW Coroner, cited some of them, including Frederic de Hedervary, Rick West and Fernand Remakel, but there are reportedly dozens more.

Mr Blum is not the Fernand Remakel 7NEWS tracked down in Luxembourg in 2019, after the revelation Ms Barter changed her name to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel in 1997 and, on her incoming passenger card when returning from overseas, ticked the box to indicate she was married and was a resident of Luxembourg,

However, Ric Blum did live in Luxembourg under a different name, although it’s unclear whether he knew the real Mr Remakel.

Either way, he borrowed not only Mr Remakel’s name, but also his age, when he took out a driver’s licence in that name in Queensland in the 1980s.

Sally Leydon confronts another man named Fernand Remakel in Luxembourg in 2019. Credit: 7NEWS

According to National Archives of Australia documents, Mr Blum, who now lives in northern NSW, was born Willy Wouters on July 9, 1939, in Belgium.

The son of Abel and Maria, it was an average start to a family life that would go on to be anything ordinary.

Ric Blum has three ex-wives, including Ilona Kinczell, who was born in 1946 in Hungary and who he married in Brussels on May 10, 1969.

Although he stated on his incoming passenger card to Australia later that same month that he’d “never married”, 7NEWS is aware of two previous marriages before Ilona.

Arriving in Perth, and then moving on to Sydney, Willy Wouters applied for citizenship to Australia off the back of Ilona’s existing migrant visa.

In the paperwork he stated he had “nil” convictions, but this was untrue.

A Belgian national due to give evidence at the inquest into Marion’s disappearance has many aliases. Credit: 7NEWS

On October 2, 1969, he was granted residency status in Australia.

The following year, an outgoing passenger card from Australia showed he had ticked the box “divorced”.

It’s unclear from Immigration documents whether they were divorced, but Illona Kinczell died in 1977 at just 31 years of age.

On February 20, 1976, Ric Blum married his current wife Diane.

He changed his name to Frederick David De Hedervary by deed poll on February 23, 1976, and applied for citizenship under this name, which was granted later that same year.

By then, according to Interpol, Willy Wouters had an extensive criminal record, dating back to the mid-1960s.

His criminal activities, mainly in Belgium and France, most notably included fraud, forgery, confidence tricks, embezzlement, breach of trust, and false identity/impersonation - attracting multiple sentences totalling about 10 years’ imprisonment.

Marion’s travel documents show her using the same surname as one of Ric’s aliases. Credit: Supplied

Records from about this time show he also used the name Roger Louzoney, born February 1, 1945, in Casablanca, with his occupation given as photographer.

As Roger Louzoney, he was arrested in Luxembourg between October 1976 and February 1977.

That’s where police discovered he had an Australian passport in the name of Frederick De Hedervary.

He went back to prison in France for a short time before returning to Australia and reuniting with Diane.

The couple has two children, a son born in 1979 in Australia and a daughter born in Luxembourg in 1981.

The inquest continues

Ms Leydon said the inquest had been difficult for her, exacerbated by a feeling of annoyance she detects from authorities when dealing with her .

“We should be all trying to do the same thing, which is trying to locate my mum and find out what’s happened to her,” Ms Leydon said.

“I just feel like people get annoyed with me because I’m like a dog with a bone, but I have every right to be.

“She’s my mum and she’s worth fighting for.”

When asked if she felt vindicated, Sally replied: “Not yet - we haven’t got the answers yet.

“There’s still more to do.”