Marion Barter Inquest: Cop believes she started ‘new life’

A schoolteacher changed her name, abruptly wrote a will, qsuuit her job and sold her home before she vanished, a court heard.

A detective who investigated the baffling disappearance of a mother-of-three believes she executed an elaborate ruse to start a new life.

Gold Coast schoolteacher Marion Barter, who changed her name to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel without her family or friends knowing, was acting “strange” before she vanished - meeting a mystery man, abruptly writing a will, quitting her job and selling her home, the NSW Coroner’s Court heard on Monday.

Marion Barter and former husband Australian soccer legend Johnny Warren.

These are just a few of the mysterious details surrounding her disappearance 24 years ago, which left her family perplexed.

A two-week inquest presided before Magistrate Teresa O’Sullivan will examine the police investigation, from when Marion was reported missing at Byron Bay Police Station by her daughter in 1997, up until now.

Marion was the former wife of Australian soccer great Johnny Warren, who she married in 1968, but divorced two years later.

On Monday, Byron Bay Det Sen Cnst Gary Scheehan, who took over the investigation in 2009, told the court Marion went to great lengths to start a new life.

“I was and am still of the opinion that (Marion) had estranged herself from the family,” Det Sen Cnst Scheehan said.

Marion Barter and her two children Sally and Owen. Picture: Supplied by the family

Missing woman Marion Barter and her daughter Sally Leydon. Picture: Supplied

“In my opinion Marion wanted to give off the opinion everything was fine. And not tell people what she was doing, in my opinion, becoming estranged from her family...I think she went to great lengths to do so.”

Tuesday will mark the anniversary of the day the Gold Coast School teacher flew out of Australia to England for a year-long working holiday 24 years ago.

Her family and friends received postcards and letters up until July 31, 1997, before she stopped writing.

The inquest heard police did not act on Sally Leydon’s concerns about her mother and the case went cold until Det Sen Cnst Gary Scheehan took over the investigation in 2009.

Marion was only made an official ‘Missing Person’ in 2007, but was removed in October 2011 when NSW Police concluded she purposefully went missing.

“She was deliberately going out of her way to go under the radar..to remain unnoticed. In my opinion it strongly suggested this person did not want to be found,” he told the court.

Marion Barter and Sally Leydon as a child.

Missing woman Marion Barter. Picture: Supplied

He told the court he did not receive information to suggest she was suffering a mental disorder or psychiatric illness.

But he did say witnesses told him she was never “complete” unless she was in a formal relationship.

On Monday, the inquest heard Marion - who married and divorced three different men had made a number of curious steps before her departure.

For “unknown reasons” the studious teacher quit her job.

She sold her home for $165,000 in April, 1997, $10,000 less than she originally bought it for.

And on May 13, 1997, Marion secretly changed her name and three days later applied for a passport.

The inquest heard Sally noticed her mother behaving “strangely” leading up to her departure.

She remembered spotting her in a car at a service station with a mystery man.

Marion “did not want to discuss it”, but did say he was a “friend” she met at a performing arts centre.

“She brushed it off, which Sally herself thought was quite unusual,” Det Sen Cnst Scheehan said.

Sally later learned Marion, who was 51 at the time, had possibly returned to Australia three weeks after she left.

She learned sums of cash were withdrawn from her mother’s bank accounts in Byron Bay and Burleigh Heads and her medicare card was used.

The inquest will be held in Sydney for a week then a few days each at Ballina and Byron Bay in Northern NSW.

It will endeavour to understand whether Marion left Australia on June 22, 1997, and returned on August 2, 1997, under her new name.

The Coroner will attempt to work out the reasons for her disappearance, whether the police conducted a thorough investigation and whether Marion is alive or dead.

Mark and Faye, the parents of missing Sydney man Matthew Leveson, attended the first day of the inquest to lend their support.

The story of her disappearance was made into a 7News podcast ‘The Lady Vanishes’ released on March 31, 2019.