A coroner has delivered her findings over the 1997 disappearance of 51-year-old gold coast schoolteacher, Marion Barter. The inquest heard almost two weeks of evidence from Ms Barter's former partner Ric Blohm who denies having anything to do with her disappearance.
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00:00 First and most crucial in the court's findings is that Florabella Natalia Marion Remakl,
00:07 also known as Marion Barter, is deceased.
00:10 The court is unable to determine the exact date and manner of her death, but it is satisfied
00:14 that it most likely happened sometime after October 15, 1997.
00:19 The coroner has also criticized New South Wales police investigation of the case from
00:23 1997 to 2019, describing it as inadequate.
00:28 She said that it's clear from evidence provided to Byron Police Station in 1997 that very
00:32 little was done.
00:33 When Marion's daughter Sally first presented to Byron Police Station with evidence of her
00:39 mother's disappearance, the case was put down as an incident and not as a missing person's
00:44 case.
00:45 This has led to the case going uninvestigated for 10 years, and according to the coroner,
00:51 aided in the loss of much crucial pieces of evidence.
00:54 With regard to Rick Blum, a key figure in this inquest, the court has found that Mr.
00:58 Blum, representing himself at the time as Fernand Remakl, has a tendency to engage in
01:04 dishonest relationships with vulnerable women, several of whom have provided evidence during
01:10 the course of this inquest.
01:11 She has also found that Mr. Blum did indeed meet Miss Barter back in 1997, suggested to
01:18 her that they start a new life together and move to Luxembourg, that they did in fact
01:23 travel together to Europe for a period of time in 1997.
01:27 She also found that he exploited Marion in the same way that he exploited these other
01:31 women.
01:32 The coroner said that the evidence, along with his lies and deception, according to
01:36 her own words, suggest that he has more information about what happened to Marion during her time
01:42 in Europe and after she was returned to Australia.
01:45 The court's recommendation to the New South Wales Police Commissioner is for the investigation
01:51 to now reside with the State Crime Command's unsolved homicide team.
01:56 Investigations done by police have collected DNA samples from Sally, the daughter, which
02:01 will now be monitored across national databases of DNA from unidentified deceased persons.
02:08 [BLANK_AUDIO]