Overview
- NSW Police and the state government doubled the reward to $1 million on Monday, seeking information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the 1997 disappearance of teacher Marion Barter.
- Barter, 51, changed her name to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, left Southport for Brisbane Airport on June 22, 1997, and is believed to have returned in August with travel cards listing marriage and residence in Luxembourg.
- Her family reported her missing in October 1997 after contact stopped, and investigators later found about $80,000 was transferred from her Byron Bay bank account.
- A 2024 coronial inquest found Barter was deceased after October 15, 1997, could not determine how or where she died, and said a man she knew, Ric Blum, held further knowledge but withheld it from the court.
- Homicide detectives report no major breakthroughs since the inquest and hope the larger reward, alongside public appeals and podcasts led by her daughter, will bring forward new witnesses.