Police offer reward for Marion info

A $250,000 reward for information into the bizarre disappearance of Gold Coast teacher Marion Barter is a “step in the right direction” to finding answers, her daughter says.

The Southport School (TSS) teacher Marion Barter, 51, was last seen at a bus station on Scarborough St, near Railway Street, Southport on June 22, 1997.

Her behaviour leading up to her disappearance has been described as “out of character”.

Marion’s daughter Sally Leydon said she last saw her mother in her red Honda Civic Breeze leaving McDonalds on Ferry Rd, with a tall male passenger, weeks before her disappearance.

Ms Leydon welcomed the reward and said she urged anyone with information to come forward, especially the man from that night.

“I think it’s definitely a good step in the right direction … it’s been a long time and I’m hopeful that maybe someone might come forward with some good detail about what they might know,” she said.

The $250,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in Marion’s suspicious disappearance was announced days after an inquest got underway in Sydney.

It will continue in Ballina and Byron Bay over the next week where Ms Leydon is expected to give evidence.

NSW police said inquires at the time revealed Marion travelled to the UK on June 22, 1997, under the name Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel.

Her outgoing passenger card stated that she was divorced and intended to reside in Luxembourg.

On Saturday, August 2, 1997, investigators believe Marion may have reentered Australia under the name of Florabella Remakel.

Following her disappearance, an unknown person appears to have accessed a bank account. Her family reported her missing to Byron Bay police in October 1997.

The case was reviewed and in July 2019 reinvestigated by the unsolved Homicide Unit with local officers and the State Crime Command’s Missing Persons Registry.