It’s been 28 long and painful years since Sally Leydon last saw her mum Marion Barter – and she’s still fighting to discover what happened to her.
“I want to find my mum first and foremost, that’s the most important thing, and I want to ensure that justice is served for her,” Sally tells Woman’s Day shortly after NSW police increased the reward for information about Marion’s disappearance to $1 million.
“People need to be held responsible for their actions and what’s happened to her.”
LAST SIGHTING
Marion was first reported as missing in Byron Bay on October 22, 1997 by Sally.
The last confirmed sighting of Marion, then aged 51, was at a bus depot in Southport, Qld on June 22, 1997.
It’s believed Marion travelled to the airport and flew to the UK under a new name, Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel.
Detectives believe Marion returned to Australia that August, while an unknown person appeared to have transferred $80,000 from her bank account after she disappeared.
A coronial inquest into her disappearance held in 2021 found that Marion had likely died on October 15, 1997 – but the coroner could not determine the nature of her death.
KEY LINK TO MARION
After the inquest concluded in February 2024, Sally was informed that the investigation was being handled by the unsolved homicide squad, but not much was being done.
So, she and her friend Joni Condos started a podcast, The Lady Vanishes, in the hope someone would come forward with information.
“There’s people out there that know more,” says Sally.
The inquest heard how Marion was romantically involved with a man, Ric Blum, a Belgian national who was imprisoned in France during the ’70s for fraud, forgery, confidence tricks and giving a false identity.
By the ’90s he was living in Australia and the coroner found that, over the years, he’d held 10 passports in different names and travelled to Europe up to twice a year. One of the names he used was “Fernand Nocolas Remakel”.
This use of the name Remakel was a key link to Marion, the inquest found.
But while Magistrate Teresa O’Sullivan did not find or infer that Blum was involved in Marion’s death, she found he had further information that he was “deliberately unwilling to divulge… to the court”.
Magistrate O’Sullivan concluded Blum, who had a tendency to “misrepresent himself to single vulnerable women for financial gain”, had “exploited” Marion – but didn’t recommend charging him.
Sally hopes the increased reward will finally bring her family answers.
“Mum literally vanished off the face of the earth,” says Sally.
“She matters to me and my kids, who never met their grandmother. She’s still a big part of their life. I want answers so I can rest, I’m really exhausted and my family need 100 per cent of me because this is consuming my life.”
‘THERE’S NO WAY SHE WOULD HAVE LEFT HER KIDS’
Recalling the night Bronwyn Winfield disappeared, her estranged husband Jonathan told police the young mum wanted to take some time out from their children, and was picked up outside the house by an unknown person.
Just hours later, Jon packed up the family Ford Falcon and drove his girls, Chrystal, 10, and Lauren, five, to Sydney where he’d been working.
Their neighbour Judy Singh recalls seeing Jon drive away from their Lennox Head home on May 16, 1993 with something wrapped in bedsheets on the backseat.
“I know that he had something in the car that resembled a body,” Judy told the Bronwyn podcast in 2024.
Jon was named as a suspect in a 2002 coronial inquest which found Bronwyn was likely murdered. The coroner recommended prosecuting Jon for her murder, but no charges were ever laid as there was not enough evidence. He has always denied any involvement.
Bronwyn’s cousin Madison Walsh believes the young mum was murdered. “There’s no way she would have left her kids, it wasn’t in her nature and it wasn’t who she was,” she told Woman’s Day in 2024.
The podcast alleged that Jon killed her after losing control during an argument, then wrapped her body in bedsheets and buried her at a construction site in the Sydney suburb of Illawong.
Jon later claimed Bronwyn, who was his third wife, had postnatal depression and ran away following a breakdown.
“There is a generational history of mental illness, both male and female, in the Read family,” he told police in 1998.
Jon still lives in Lennox Head. His second wife, only referred to as “Dee”, told the podcast Jon was never physically violent, but he questioned Dee’s faithfulness during their marriage.
HOPING FOR SOMETHING MORE
Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez’s working holiday in Australia turned to tragedy when he vanished after a night out in Byron Bay in 2019.
The 18-year-old was last seen leaving Cheeky Monkey’s bar on May 31 and over the coming days, his friends and family became increasingly concerned when they didn’t hear from him. They, and staff at the hostel where he’d been staying, reported Theo missing on June 6. When police designated Theo’s disappearance as “high risk” a large-scale, official search of bushland took place three days later.
After the police land search ended, community members continued the search for Theo, and on July 7, his grey cap was found in bushland near Tallow Beach. Theo’s phone data showed he had been walking near this area towards the Cape Byron Lighthouse the night he disappeared. No other traces of Theo have been found since.
A coronial inquest launched in 2022 focused on whether Theo had died alone from a tragic misadventure or whether another person was involved in his suspected death. Magistrate O’Sullivan found there was not enough evidence to substantiate or dismiss either theory.
She also noted that there was “no clear evidence” that Theo was intoxicated with drink or drugs, nor that he had taken his own life.
“Assuming that Theo was in his right mind, it is difficult to accept that he ended up at Cosy Corner [at Tallow Beach] of his own volition,” said Magistrate O’Sullivan at the time.
Theo’s mum, Vinciane Delforge, told 60 Minutes in 2022 that she didn’t understand how her son could have fallen from a cliff as it was so out of character for him to be reckless.
“It’s so impossible to me. He told me that he would be extremely careful,” she said.
