You're listening to The Lady Vanisher's catch up series number four. I'm Alison Sandy.
And I'm Brian Seymour. We begin by looking back at episode ten, which introduced the piece of information that changed the course of our investigation. A personal ad written in French and placed in the bilingual French Australian newspaper Le Courier Australia on December tenth, nineteen ninety four by a man seeking a relationship. This is the ad he placed.
Monsieur can stor celibadel grand braun sobra non.
Female that roughly translates as a tall forty seven year old single man with brown hair, a non smoker uni who is cultured, intelligent and can speak a number of languages. He owns multiple properties or big businesses and is highly motivated. He is warm and welcoming, but also quite serious, and he's looking for an unattached lady with a view for a permanent relationship or marriage. The letters bc BG in the ad stand for bon chice bon genre, which translates
as good style, good class. It's apparently an expression used in France to describe members of the upper class, typically well educated, well connected, and descended from old money. There are two ways to get in touch. There's a phone number and a post office box for lennox Head in northern New South Wales. That's not too far from Byron Bay. In fact, it's just a twenty minute drive. And at the bottom of the personal ad there's also a name.
M. A.
Mikael or MF. Ramichel.
We thought would give you a moment to let that sink. In no doubt, you're automatically doing what we did, connecting the dots with Marion's case. Our first action was to dial the number listed in the ad.
You have reached the message bank of private number.
Hi, It's Alison Sandy from the seven network.
Can you please give me a call on zero. So far we haven't heard back.
Let's examine the ad further. We know the qualities of the man, cultured, educated and motivated would have appealed to Marion, and if his age in nineteen ninety four was forty seven by nineteen ninety seven, he would have been around fifty two years younger than Marion. The post office box listed is in the seaside holiday town of lenox Head. That's just a short drive south of Barren Bay, the place where most of Marion's money was withdrawn. Now let's look at the name. The ad was placed by a
mister f Ramkeel. Marion officially changed her name to Florabella Natalia Marion Ramackel in May nineteen ninety seven. And yes, in both cases the surname Ramkeel is spelled exactly the same way. It's an uncommon name in Australia. There isn't one we can find listed in the white pages or on the electoral role. From our other searchers, we've learned that the f Ramakel who held the post office box in the Lenoxhead area in the nineteen nineties appears to
have long since moved on. We have found Rameckel's living in the United States, but mostly the name pops up in Luxembourg, the small European country bordered by France, Germany and Belgium. Remember the customs documents for Florabella Remichel when she supposedly came back to Australia stated that she was a housewife from Luxembourg and that personal ad was written in French, with the writer claiming to be a polyglot
or multilingual in Luxembourg. The residents generally are multilingual. There are three official languages Luxembourgish, French and German, although many people can also speak English, Portuguese and Italian.
It seems like far too many coincidences. We have to track down the man who posted this ad, this monsieur remical. This ad was discovered by Joni, a researcher and good friend. Now but back in twenty nine nineteen, Joanie was a listener who decided to do some digging of her own.
So essentially essentially Radical or Ramacle as a name is something that features essentially nowhere in all of Australia, no family groups, no history of the name. So to me it jumped completely out at me. So I guess the story is. I was sitting at the computer, I was sick, it was midnight, and I thought I'll run the name through and suddenly, from nineteen ninety four December nineteen ninety four, this ad popped up in a French speaking newspaper coming
out of Sydney. And this was something that totally took me by surprise. I thought, what is this? So I then quickly ran it through an online translator and found that it was a man a mister f Ramicle who was looking for a long term relationship or marriage, and he well, his ear box was located in Lenox Head and his phone number was a Ballana or Lenox Head phone number. So that's essentially what was in the paper.
But you didn't stop there, did you.
I didn't stop there, So, like a dog with a bone and lots of time on my hands, so I essentially sat on the computer pretty much all nice and just started delving and digging deeper into the surname. Discovered that the actual translator itself, and this is where all the finer details do come in, is that it's actually the Luxembourg die So the ad isn't in French as we know it, so there are a few little words and things in there that aren't actually French. They're purely
targeted to Luxembourg. So this is where I thought, oh, okay, well looking at the information that was on the passport coming back in, and then I thought this looks quite interesting. So yeah, So basically, in a nutshell, I mapped out anything that was radical that was Luxembourg and started to gather together all the family groups. Because there's only around one hundred radicals around the world as far as I've been able to tell, majority in the US and a
couple of smaller families in Luxembourg. Now considering that the ad was in French, that was why I was looking at the Luxembourg connections as well. Yeah, certainly there are only three veils that I've been able to find, you know, publicly listed that begins with an F. So there's one in Germany, one in Luxembourg, and one in the US. So looking at the year how they were as mentioned in the ad, then looking at the same year of birth online and found someone that matches all of that criteria.
You know, I must have been a social worker for twenty odd years. Family violence is one of my I guess specialties, if you want to call it that. And certainly, just looking at I really feel, you know, even before finding this information, just looking at the actual case. I've been a massive True Climb podcast listener for many many years as well, and just purely looking at her actions and how quickly things changed, and I can just see coercive control over a lot of her actions.
Tell me more about that.
So as soon as I saw the letter that Sally had posted up online, don't worry about me, you know, I'm okay that sort of thing. Also putting her name within the string of names, so the fact that she's retaining a small little piece of herself in Marion in the choice of that within the name. But it hasn't gone first, the money coming out of the bank, you know,
five thousand dollars every day. It just really frustrates me, just as a general Joe blow on the street, that the police would take the fact that she took the money as like a tick against her being, you know, living well, alive, choosing to disappear to me. I think that, you know, probably as the years of progress now we're a bit more aware of how you know, predominantly men can control women and can do it very quickly.
How do they go about it in your experience.
Well, certainly it starts off with love bombing all the way. So love bombing meaning you know, like it's just the most overwhelming feeling of safety, security, love, passion, romance. You know, you are their world, you are everything to them. And then that turns into I want to see you all the time. I want to know where you are all the time. I want to I want to phone you
five or six times a day. I need to you know, you're looking good in that outfit, that maybe consider this outfit, so things, you know, can progress quite quickly, and especially for someone like Marion who has been looking for love and can't be without a man, as her friend said,
or always wants to be with a man. It's those sort of things I could I could just looking at her victimology so to speak, and again just talking as a joe blow off the street, certainly I would see her as being an absolute prime candidate for someone who you know, quite possibly had repeated this behavior time and time again with women, and that was how we operated. So certainly I just see I just see certain aspects
of it. Putting all her things into storage, keeping you know, certain things out, but they're not telling her daughter where these things were, throwing her future son in law out of the house, so that there was no meeting of the minds. Because I guess what I've found over the years is that women in retrospect, they can actually look back and say, yeah, I didn't want anyone to meet this new partner. You know, I wanted him because we
were so wrapped up in each other. I wanted him to be kept separate from everybody else.
But how might have wanted that too, right?
Yes, yep, absolutely.
Because isn't that part of the control thing as well, you know, keeping them being a secret to everyone else?
Is that?
Yep? Yeah, definitely.
In this episode, we also considered Clark Hunter, the mysterious Facebook user who approached Sally online several years ago and left the following message.
Natalia is alive, but you never see her again. It was not your intention to disappear.
She was forced when Sally chased up the comments. Clark Hunter responded, but very soon his account was deactivated. Clark Hunter used the name Natalia Marion had changed her name to Flora Bella Natalia Marion remarkable. Both Joni and I discovered through our own investigations that in Luxembourg it's not uncommon for people to go by their second name, so that Clark Hunter seems much more legitimate. I guess now.
It's when I saw that after doing all of this deep dive. Yes, I thought, oh, that is that is very interesting, especially Natalia and not Natalie, like retaining the true wording as well. Yeah, it's just it is just such a baffling case.
It is, But this to me, seems out of all the tips and leads and everything that we've gotten, this one seems to me like the most solid.
Yes, if only, if only we could get the passport, the ins and outs, all of those details, because that would certainly either propel it forward or put it the rest exactly if we could get that information, because essentially, you know, like I've gone to the library and I've gotten out all of the physical phone books from the bar and Bay area, the Grafton area, and the Gold Coast area looking for a ramical you know, from nineteen ninety three up to two thousand. I think I went,
and there's just no one anywhere. His non existence.
Well, we have shared that information with police. Gary Shean did indicate that would take some time, but regardless, we're going to plug on and keep doing our own investigation. I think that, regardless of anything, we just have to follow this rabbit down this hole. Like this is an absolute definite. And as I said, when I think of what Clark Hunter said, she was forced again, I'm not directly linking the two, no, but yeah, we have to investigate that possibility given all the coincidences.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, because I can see it just looking at the story. What Sally has said, you know, filled
in quite a lot of the gaps. I can most definitely see, you know, even from a week or a few weeks in, I think that Marion was potentially a prime candidate for getting sort of swept up captured, you know, sell your house, sell everything, Let's go and live in Luxembourg with all of the all of the lavender bushes and the music and the art, and the French speaking multiple languages, like it's such an exotic country, and you know, it's just I just think it is something well worth pursuing for sure.
But if Marian was planning all along to go to Luxembourg with some exotic stranger, why go to London and spend weeks in the south of England first? Was it a ruse to hide her true intentions from her family? Did she encounter some unforeseen delay which kept her from traveling to the European continent, or perhaps she did end up in Luxembourg at some point before her passport returned to Australia. So we're starting to collect quite a few leads which are pointing overseas. It's time for us to
follow them. Sally and I head to the UK and Europe. In England, we go straight to Tunbridge Wells. The police in Kent already know we're coming. We gave them advance warning and information about Mary case. Sally spends twenty minutes explaining what's happened in the past twenty two years. Hey, see what happened?
Well, I just met a I'm not sure what his status is, maybe he's the sergeant. His name was Luke Stablein, really nice young guy and he he said he's just done a bit of googling and stuff like that this morning just to get a bit of a heads up on what the story is actually about, and knew that I was coming in this morning to speak to them. So there's had been a group of them who had been discussing it this morning and talking about what they
can and cannot do. No surprise, they can't do anything unless Australian Police contact them directly and ask for their help. I told him the story. He said, I don't like to make judgment on anything, but he said if it was us here in Kent, we would do everything in our power to help people to get some answers, particularly in circumstances like this.
Circumstances yet.
Yeah, so he said it would be everything in their power to do what they could to help the people financeers. But he did stress to me, I can't do anything like I couldn't leave my DNA. He couldn't take a report or anything unless it's a directive from Australian Police. Back to square one, I guess. But look, I said to him, at least you know that I'm here. I offered to give my DNA and just leave it in the event that I am actually sitting here, and can
you take it. I find it really difficult that it's such a big deal here because I literally walked into bar and Bay Police and they stuck a thing in my mouth and put it in a bag and that was my DNA test. So it took literally two minutes. So I don't understand from my point of view, why it's such a big deal over here that they can't take it, being that I've suggested while I'm sitting in your office, can you take it and if you need it, you can keep it. If you can't use it, you
throw it in the bin. But obviously they've got different rules and regulations here, so yeah, there's not really much to.
Tell, So really it's down to the New South Wales Police. He should have reached out to the police here years ago, surely.
Well, I said when I left, I said, my goal would be to get my DNA here so that we could run it against any Jane does and also put her on the missing person's list here because there is a lot of elderly people living in these areas who potentially might have might have sat down, had tea with her, might have sat and had lunch with her one day as a woman traveling potentially by herself through these quaint little towns, so you know, there's every chance that someone
may recollect seeing her or speaking to her, or seeing what.
Happened to her.
But without that inquiry from our police.
Need the police to step up here, I really really do. I really need them to help me.
Waiting for us is Christina, the woman who's taken it upon herself to investigate Marion's story. We're at the Tunbridge Wells Hotel and it's a beautiful Sunday morning, about to have tea and Christina and Zali clearly hitting it off like best friends, and they've only just met just a few minutes ago. And from opposite sides of the world, now linked and obviously connected. Like Sally, Christina is a mum without a mother.
I could relate to Sally on some personal level, and I did say to Sally, I don't mean to deflect from her case at all, but I lost my own mum when I was nineteen. Oh no, it's cancer, and just thought maybe I can get a few bits of information relating to Sussex. But obviously things have snow Vaudevitch since that point. Close to here you have Tonbridge where there's Tonbridge Castle there, which we're pretty sure marian visited. That's just a short distance north of here, in Tonbridge Wells.
And then we could head for the south towards the Sussex coast. We could go to Alfreston and East Sussex, where Marianne said on the other postcards, and then down to the coast in Brighton, another location that she seemed to be.
And then we're on our way. First stop, ton Bridge Castle.
It's open. Do you want to go in there and have a lot? Sure, Okay, let's see if someone was working here.
Hello you, thank you.
My name is Sally.
I'm come from Australia. Would any of you happen to be working here in nineteen ninety seven? Yeah, okay, and.
You working up here?
I was here, I.
Was here, I did here.
My question is my mum's missing person. And she came here.
Sent me this brochure and told me that she was here.
And this is my friend Christina.
We're actually doing a podcast in Australia to help try and find her because police have really just given up and they're not looking for her anymore.
And it's been quite terrible because she came to the UK. She was supposed to come for a year long holiday.
And her passport came back in six weeks after she left, and all her money was drained out of her bank account in five thousand dollars increments, which nearly one hundred and twenty thousand dollars back then.
So yeah, we've come to try and see if we can retrace her steps and.
That actually Marian Barter, I've got a photo.
I'll show you a photo of her.
When I walked in, I thought, oh, you never know, you might have been I mean, I never expect anybody to have been here. I didn't remember twenty two years ago. Remember I know, she said to me in one of the letters, she said, oh, people recognize that I'm from Australia.
Is really is my accent really that bad?
Because she always liked to speak quite proper and quite well, and she felt that people knew she was a stranger because of out occer kind of accent.
Which is why you'd hope someone would remember meeting her or having a conversation with her, because that would have led to a conversation about Australia and why she was here. And I just hope that person.
Is two papers, yeah, Career okay.
And the other one is called The Times of Tunbridge okay, which is a freebie okay.
And lots of people picked that up just to read on the train or something like that, so.
That might be where you're going. Okay.
There's also one of these two that's okay. There's also age much called Facebook group.
Oh yes, I'm on those.
There's a tree's amazing.
That's right.
There's a face that's usually quite good, and that's usual quite good for people.
You'll get information about what's happening in television things like that.
So we're trying to find out if any of anything from back then, whether it was in some sort of archive somewhere, you know, where old tay for work, or because I would have thought with the visitors book, Yeah, that's kept mind reason where that might be.
It would be wonderful if you did find something, wouldn't it.
Yeah.
We were talking about this in the car actually, and I think Christina was saying too. You know, it's funny because something like this, you'd kind of imagine that people feel in a book to keep for records for years and years, not something that you get rid of in seven years, like a typical bank report or tax deep details something like that. More for history, you know, So maybe that you never know, Maybe you guys might find it tucked away somewhere.
If the guest book is found and Marion's name is in it, there might also be the name of someone he was traveling with. Sally leaves her name and contact details.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Marion next traveled south in her hire car one hour's drive to the tiny hamlet of Alfriston the postcard Marion sent Sally from Alfreston. Began thinking of you as I explored the quaint little shop on my tour to the historic village of Alfriston. The card featured a sticker in the top left hand corner advertising that shop Sallie's Craft and Gift Center. It's here Sally has one of her
most powerful moments yet. The shop is now an interior design store, and just as Sally arrives, the owner returns and lets her in, allowing her to explore and literally walk in her mother's footsteps.
Intriguing.
So do you remember when it was called Sally's Craft?
No, No, I way beyond beyond the people who have it before me?
Okay, okay, Well, my mum, Marian came for a holiday for a year in the UK. Yes, and sadly she disappeared. So she disappeared in nineteen ninety seven and one of my last contacts with her was a postcard that she sent me from Alfriston.
Yes, with the postcard is actually of the shop front, Yes, And she put a little gold sticker that said Sally's Craft on the back of the postmer you know how they do this year.
So she stuck out on the back of the postcard as well. So they're kind of retracing her steps a little bit in hope that we might find somebody that might remember her.
The new owner of the shop, Diana no is the former owner Carol. Christina has already written a letter to Carol but hasn't heard back yet.
It was it's actually a nice comforting feeling for me. I felt very much like Mum was around, if that makes any sense. Like I just felt like everything that was in there was her taste, and she loved fabrics and wallpaper and very much, you know, very much Upper Alley. So it was kind of nice to be in there, to be honest, to know that she'd stepped there and that was you know, I could have been at last
steps for all we know. I don't know, but it sounds a bit morbid to say that, But you don't know, so that I know for fact she was there, So it was kind of nice being in there.
Before we head on our way again, we come across the village post box, possibly the very same one Marian used to mail a postcard there twenty two years ago. After a short drive to the coast, Sally and Christina arrive in the seaside town of Brighton, home to the famous Peer. It's a melting pot of cultures and a vibrant party town. It also featured an odd little store when Maryan visited there in nineteen ninety seven, called the
Cat Shop. She was so taken with that she purchased a postcard bearing its name and sent it home to some elderly relatives who loved cats.
There you go.
You.
Okay, So we're standing opposite amethys. I think that's how it was pronounced. Yeah, and this is the shot that used to be the cat Shop.
Yeah. I don't know what the cat shop was, he said, do you reckon?
It was like just things.
For your cat.
I know what it was, I do from some of the Facebook groups that I reached out to. So the lady who run the shop she sold basically everything cat so cushions, ornaments, gifts, trinkets. It was cat world basically, and she sold these like bizarre looking cat dollies, basically cats dressed up in clothing and wearing spectacles. It was a bit of a sort of strange, bizarre concept for the cat lovers. Yeah, so that would have been where Marion purchased the postcard.
She walked along.
Yeah, so I'm not sure how long she was here for. No, but being like the trip that we just did, like, it's definitely not all in a day, is it like.
You would say, would do Alphaston? Alvist is not that big.
So Alphaston you could do in a short time.
Come here and stay the night or yeah, you certainly wouldn't do this and then go all the way back to Tunbridge.
Wells like it's bright and as we are. It's a big city and there's a lot to see, and this is where you would spend I would say at least a couple of days, maybe longer if you really wanted to have a look around and see everything there was to see as a tourist. So I would imagine these lanes that are quite popular for tourists. She would have spent some time walking around these looking at the little shops, which is how she come across the cat shop.
Yeah, and I think in their postcutch. She literally says, I stumbled across this cute little shop and reminded me of you guys.
That might have been Sally's craft.
I don't know, I.
Can't remember, but funny feeling it was the the this is the post couch she sent you her great her aunties and was Nony, dub and Margie and now were the most beautiful sisters you ever met, and they loved their cats, so kind of fitting that she would stumble across it and feel that that was a nice thing to send them.
So once again.
Putting a real personal touch here on the contact and keeping in crafts absolute the family with that postcard to your aunties and that one to you from Sally's Croft Center, it shows that her family was in her thoughts thinking a utory of birthday present. Yeah, you know, like you don't do that in my opinion, if you're planning to disappear. And you know, some people have said, oh, maybe that was to buy some time, but why did she need
to buy time? Like it was in an era where we didn't have computers, we didn't have social media.
No, we didn't have Facebook.
It wasn't as easy to be found as it is today. Life was very different back then, and that's ten to wash. You know, we didn't know where she was. We couldn't search for her on snap maps and keep an eye on where she was like my kids can do with me, you know, So life was very different.
Imagine if she hadn't sent the postcards, we wouldn't have very much to go on at all.
We wouldn't have any but she's.
Left some clues for us by sending the postcards. So it's almost as if she was inviting family members in to be part of her trip. What she was doing, Yeah, yeah, it's not like she was trying to hide what she was doing.
Well, I mean, even if you think about the fact about the comments about the Steiner School and this comments to other friends saying she'd met Susie Cooper who had come over in exchange the TSS and that she was a good contact to have if she decided to teach in the UK. I one hundred percent think she would love the lot of the European lifestyle. Like I never have said that that's not a thing or that would
be out of the realm of possible. But the fact that her passport never left Australia after it returned, and I don't know, I'm tired of looking over my shoulder everywhere I go. Like people are on Facebook today, go make sure you're looking into the crowds, and make sure you're looking in the superhoo, make sure you're looking over here. I'm like, if I do that all the time, I will be.
A basket case crazy.
I will be a basket case so of course, if I see someone that catches my attention that I think might possibly be her, I certainly.
Have a good look.
You know, this is surreal for me to stand across the way and know that she walked in there, and you know, technically speaking, that's the last postcard we have. Yeah, so that was This is actually the last point of core. I mean, we've got no proof that it was her taking the money out of her bank account. We have no proof that it.
Was her who used the Medicare cards.
So no, we have proof that she was here.
Yeah, that's solid proof.
And then that postcard was posted with the postage stamp is Hastings. Yeah, so it's quite possible that she headed east from here, okay, and possibly went to Hastings.
Okay, how far is Hastings from here?
It would probably take thirty minutes Okay, so she bought it and twenty to thirty minutes.
Yeah, okay, so got care and concern and you know, time to write it, not just write a quick school and work it in the post.
Do you know, I think I think she's traveled east from here or gone on to Hastings or somewhere surrounding Hastings. And that's where the postcard from the cat shop eventually got posted from.
Okay, okay, well, you know, we've a it's been an absolute rollercoaster being over here, like we have not stopped. You know, You're getting up at four am and being out till one am trying to find information like if it's not holidays is like an absolute mission that I've never experienced in my life, you know. And for the fact that at the end, the fact that you know, we might not have got any results for anything, you know, it's it's such a gamble to come and do this
sort of stuff. But I can say we spent the whole day yesterday retracing mom's steps all through like starting at Tunbridge Wells, going to Tunbridge Castle, going to Sally's Craft or what used to be Sally's Craft, and meeting the lady who now owns that shop, you know, and for her to give me a hug and have tears in her eyes and give me her name and her number and say, please let me know how you go
with your mum. You that was such a special moment for me because I'm standing in that shop going, holy Dooley, this is where my mum was standing like this is I know that sounds weird, Like I could go and stand it out the front of her house in Ashmore, but it's not the same. It's to be here and walk the steps that she last known to me. Like you know, I said to Christina yesterday when we're standing out the front of what was the cat shop which is.
Now a.
Bottleo.
Essentially we're standing at the front, I'm like, this is the last known place factual that I have that my mum was here. I have a postcard from her that she sent to her cousins from that shop. So you know, there's speculation whether she used her passport to come back into the country. There's speculation whether it was her who took the money out of her account. This speculation, whether it was her who used a Medicare card in Grafton.
That's all speculation, that's not fact. We don't know for sure. We don't know if her identity was used to do that. But I know for fact that it's her on the postcard, and I know for fact that she was at that place. So that was really important and I'm so grateful for that.
That's that's a really special special thing for me to be able to do and I've wanted to do that for a very long time, and I didn't know how I was going to do it because I didn't want to come just by myself, do you know what I mean. I didn't want to come and rock up, and I didn't know how it would feel and what would.
Be the case.
So the fact that I had a whole team behind me and we're out there together, that was really awesome.
Oh God, you're going to make me cry now, Okay, I'm going to stop, Monsieur can Seli Badal. Now let's focus again on that personal AD and.
I met Kayla.
We've been able to find and if Remichel of precisely the right age to match the forty seven year old man listed in the nineteen ninety four ad in Le Courier. Australian Fernande Remikal was born on December two, nineteen forty seven, and he's now seventy one. To be absolutely clear, there is no firm evidence to suggest that he's connected to that AD or that Marion even knew him, but there is a possibility, so we need to find out for sure. The Framichel we found is not in Australia or England.
He's in Luxembourg.
My sons just passing through twenty seven thousand feet of just over one hundred miles left to go, so it take us twenty minutes were expected to touch date just after a half past and that we don't know if you can see that windows a fairly nace Sam plays blon it not two discimilar to lond.
Between nineteen sixty six and nineteen sixty eight he played three soccer games for the national Luxembourg team. That's around the same time as Johnny Warren, Marian's first husband was playing for Australia.
Help us for Londing.
Please can you found owther all of your personal belongings?
Friday Speaker's away.
Is this the man who knows what happened to Marrian? Episode ten ended with a cliffhanger, leaving our listeners quite literally on the doorstep at the home of a seventy one year old man in Luxembourg, a mister Fernand Remachel. Here is what happened in episode eleven.
Hello, I'm Sally finand No.
As we've said before, we have no firm evidence that he had any link to marry in, but so many bizarre coincidences have led us to his door. Just a recap Monsieur Jon.
In late nineteen ninety four, there was the personal ad in Le Career Australian, the French English newspaper for a monsieur f Ramichel, a cultured, educated, middle aged man looking for love in Lennox Head. That was two and a half years before Marion Barter packed up her life and headed overseas. Now she may never have even seen that ad. But what the ad proves is that a mister Ramichel, who was just a couple of years younger than Marian, listed an address and phone number not too far away
in northern New South Wales. At the time, Marion lived on the Gold Coast, and Lennox Head is also very close to Byron Bay, where most of Marion's money was drained. He was a man looking for love and she was someone who wanted to be in love. Also, what about the mysterious tall stranger in Marion's car, spotted by Sally and Chris not long before her trip, the one Marion tried to hide, the one she said later she met at the Gold Coast Arts Center. Then there's Marion's name change,
to Florabella Natalia Marion Ramichel. The name Ramichel is so rare in Australia we can no longer find it. We've only been able to track down one f Ramchel, of precisely the same age as the man in the ad, and he coincidentally played professional soccer for Luxembourg at the same time Marian's first husband, Johnny Warren, played for Australia.
So much possibility and yet still so many ifs. We've come all the way to Luxembourg on a charts.
They help us prepare for Lunding.
Please can younound do owther all of your personal bloggings? Freddy speakers away.
We meet up with journalist Sarah Kanes.
My name is Sarah and I'm a journalist for the Luxembourg Bought.
We made contact with Sarah before we left Australia. She's now covering this story in Luxembourg and for our trip she also acted as our translator. We've managed to find mister Remikill's address from a number of business documents. Rather than call, we head straight there root recalculation.
There left.
Sister around the corner.
On the left three hundred meters.
Sally is a whirl of emotion.
Is one hundred meters. It's hard to tell if anyone's destination yep, okay, that's a chat. Okay, let's good.
How will fernand Remikill react to what Sally has to say? But no one is home. We'll have to return later for a walk, will be anywhere. We're concerned because our time here is limited. We have just four days. In the meantime, Sally tries to see the Luxembourg police to tell them her story. They respond in a way We've come to expect.
We're here and I can't even go to the police like We've contacted the police and have said no, you need to go through Australia. So I'm damned if I do, and I'm damned if I don't. Really, because I'm here, I'm happy to.
Give my DNA to them.
We're not happy to take it because it's another jurisdiction. So I'm face with yet another yackage in the road.
I guess they can't do anything unless New South Wales Police formally makes a request. We repeatedly struck out while door knocking a number of homes in Luxembourg. So then we made some phone calls. One of them was to a Monique Cornelius, the former wife of Bernay Maem Monicolino. Back then, we had no idea just how important Monique would be to Maryan's story, and neither did she. Hello, Monique, is this Monique? It are Hello? My name is Brian.
I'm a journalist from Australia. I'm here with Sarah. Yeah, we're looking we're looking for Fernande. They were actually looking for Marianne, who we believe New York ex husband Fernande. They've been divorced for more than thirty years.
Mary Anne, I don't know Anny Marianne.
But Marianne, yes, no, not here.
Maybe you knew her by a different name. She had another name. It was Flora Bella, Natalia Marion Renmachel.
Marianne o Macco that I know. I know that's his sister, my former husband.
Yes, no, this is a different woman.
She's from Australia.
She is all right, yeah, but the woman all paint very well.
Oh right, yeah, okay, what the woman we're looking for is from Australia. Do you know any was your was your ex husband ever in in Australia? Do you know? You don't know okay, okay, okay.
You're sure that it is Smellian yes, yes.
Or Flora Bella. And let me ask you when did you divorce your ex husband?
For when I was through six, No, I'm seventeen.
Oh okay, it was Finanze so.
Seventies as well, sixty seven seventeen.
Yeah, and was was Bonande playing soccer when you were together playing football?
Dana was playing football. Yeah, he was a good football player.
And what was he like? Well, I'm actually recording this for our podcast money, and I just want to know a bit about what fernand was like. Can you tell us a bit about what he was like as a husband.
My husband was very spot if. He studied psychology, and yeah, he was a sportive man and a tactic many he played very well foot football. He was in our nationally kid And afterwards we had together a library, that's to say, a shop with held books, you know, yes, and afterwards we will re divorced or.
Ten years later, thirty six, thirty.
Seven a year.
But no, I don't know what he's doing. And really he's building many houses also apartments and so on, and he's forgotten with a woman. But I don't even know the first name. The secret name is always is living in the ustling now?
Yes? And what was Fernande like? Was he a good husband? Did he spend time with his friends? What was he like?
No?
No, that is personal.
You know.
I will never say something good or something worse about my husband. I loved that boy. He was a good man.
Yeah, it was a good guy.
He is a good guy that I know.
Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, and I appreciate that. Absolutely. I want to ask you to betray a confidence or a privacy, of course, all right, you so, But just to be clear, we were calling about a Flora Bella, Natalia Lemachel. Do either of those names ring a bell that name? Never read that name or Natalia not? Okay, Well, thank you very much for talking with this. Okay, bye bye, a new day and another attempt to see fernand Remichel. Okay, Sally, this is the third day we've come to this house.
They're still not here. In terms of this this house and this man, this name, it's so unique. It's such a strong lead. I mean, is this the strongest lead we've had about someone who might know.
What happened to you?
And yet it's never been followed up? Our day is in Luxembourg, Regard very quickly running out, but we suspect Fernand may return home. As the European elections are being held the next day, and whilst anyone over seventy does not have to vote, many choose to and they can only vote in their local electorate. We resort to phoning Fernand. Unexpectedly, he answers myan, but the call doesn't go too well.
There's confusion as he says he doesn't speak English. What we've come to ask him can't be translated over the phone, especially the documents and photos we have to show him. We have to see him face to face, so we return to his home sky. Perhaps because of our earlier phone call, Fernand appears now to be very weary of us. With Sarah by her side to translate, Sally walks up to Finan's front door.
That's the way, letn't come out.
Hello.
He's not happy to see them.
I am Sally, Fernande.
Nice to meet notice to meet you.
My name is Sally.
I've come from Australia. Do you understand English?
He refuses to shake Sunie's outstretched hand, and then does not look at her. Instead, he focuses on Sarah and makes conversation with her in luxembourgish, Okay.
So what do you want to ask?
So I have I found an ad that you put in the newspaper in Australia in northern New South Wales back in nineteen ninety four, and I was just wondering if you can tell me how long you were in Australia.
I was a title.
He wants to to stop. So this is my mom.
What does that mean?
Just what does that mean?
He doesn't want to talk and we should leave.
He says, okay, well this is my mom.
Yeah, okay, thank you, thank you.
Mm hmm.
Sally can't see. But while she was talking with finnand the garage door opened and his partner slipped out to take photos of me and my cameraman in our car parked down the road. Do you want to come with us?
Yeah?
Sure, okay. After coming all this way, we are to everyone involved to politely request the opportunity to talk about the circumstances which have led us here. We need to speak with Fernand and at the very least find out if he has ever heard of Marian or if he's ever been to Australia and to explain the confusion over our phone call. Hello, Fernanne, just two minutes of your time please, and then we'll leave you alone. We just need a couple of minutes of your time. Hello, we
just need a couple of minutes of your time. Can we have a quick chat please, I've come all the way from Australia. Just two minutes, it's please, it's nothing bad. I just need a quick two minutes and then I'll leave you alone. I just need to answer a couple of questions and then I'll leave you a line. But I can't do it through the window. I need to tell you something just very quickly, just just very quickly. Then I'll leave your line. It's nothing bad. We've come
all the way from Australia. We just need your help. Can you please help us just just a two minutes? Van Mien Newton bitter. We can't leave until we just speak for two minutes.
Then we'll go.
Then we'll leave, she said, saying you can also explain what you want if you're standing here.
Yes, yes, well, we're trying to help Sally find someone that she's been missing for a long time, and we think that you fernand might know something that might help us, so we just want to have a quick chat. He may not, but he might be able to help us. We'll just take two minutes.
It's nothing bad, We need no harm.
Just two minutes. Okay, it's a good story. We just need some help. Okay, we'll put the camera away. We'll put the camera away and we'll just have a quick chat, just us, no camera. A police car arrives carrying two officers. They're happy with our explanation of why we're here. Then fernand comes marching from the house towards us. We thought it'd be better to appear in person show them what we were doing, because we didn't. We couldn't explain it on the phone. It's too difficult. It's a mixed up
conversation in English and Luxembourg. We didn't mean to scare you. We apologized. We didn't mean to do that. We weren't your house before. Where'd you go for holidays? The police quickly realized there is no threat and they assist us in trying to talk with Fernande and Mary. And then you played for Luxembourg.
If you play, so, Fernande, just to be clear that you're not saying he's definitely not looking for that.
It's perhaps a little confusing to follow. We've since had our entire conversation translated, So what you're about to hear our segments of our actual chat with Fernande and a description of what he's saying based on our translation. Fernandez saying he's been with his current partner but he jo say Noah for forty years, and that the ad was placed twenty five years ago. He asks, why would he go all the way to Australia to place an ad
looking for a wife. It's illogical and it should be clear now that it has nothing to do with him. He says, he's never been to Australia. Noah agrees, And if the mother of that woman he's referring to Mary and annt Sally came here and took on his name, where would he have hidden her? Do you know Flora Bella, Florabella Natalia, Marian Ramachel.
Yeah, he has never heard that name.
Never heard that name. Okay, so you're a completely different man who happens to be the same age as the person in the ad. It's an amazing coincidence, isn't it. Finanz says, we should have explained the situation better. He felt our approach was quote like being ambushed by gypsies, a derogatory term to use, we're told. He then speaks to the police officer, saying, I'm sure you come across a lot of coincidences where you think it can't be and then it is all the other way around. The
officer agrees with him. I keep asking questions. Very few from Michel in the world, very few, hardly any and same age amazing.
In ash So in the south, but he's a lot younger.
Younger wouldn't be him, so you're the right age. And also Marion Flora Bella said she was living in Luxembourg, so f rammchel Luxembourg, same age, it's amazing. Fernand responds that if she was here in Luxembourg she would have to be registered.
And then the soccer. Can we explain the soccer thing to you?
With Johnny Warren Marian, her first husband, Australian soccer captain, football captain, when you were playing.
Nineteen sixty eight, you played in No Johnny played over here.
And my mum came over with We have quite a disjointed conversation trying to figure out whether Australian soccer star Johnny Warren and Fernand Ramical's paths may have crossed. Fernand seems quite interested in finding out about Johnny, where he played, whether he had games in Luxembourg, but he says he's
never heard of him. Finanz says he played for Luxembourg when he was eighteen and was meant to become a professional player in Belgium, but he was injured at the age of twenty one in nineteen sixty nine and had to stop playing. Sally asks more questions relating to Johnny.
He played the World Cup, so he played lots of places. Did you go to Japan?
Fernand then turns to the police officer and asks, why do I have to answer all these questions. I'm standing in front of my door and have to tell complete strangers whether or not I've been to Japan. The officer says, if you don't want to talk, you don't have to, and later it's a weird situation, of course. Fernand continues saying I want to help them. I want to help them. I would help him. He seems nice, referring to me. His wife adds they are nice. Then ferinand says they
went about it the wrong way. Well, now that we're friends, can have a proper talk. Now that we're friends, can we sit down properly at all? A quick but Fernand refuses. He says, had he been approached differently, quote, I would have said, I'm the first person who wants to help his partner. Marie Jose adds that she would have even cooked something for us to eat. Sally prompts Sarah to ask why he wouldn't shake her hand. Why wouldn't you
shake her hand? Why did you fand Fernand responds by describing how Sally should have approached him, and I, quote, shall I tell you what you should have said going forward? You should say, excuse the disturbance. I hope I'm not intruding. If I could have five minutes of your time, I would like to ask you a question. My name is such and such. I want to ask you something. We are looking for a person. You don't have to answer me. If you want to help us, then do that. That's
how you should do it. And yet that is exactly what we did do. There's more talk about soccer, and ultimately it's the police officer who brings our impasse to an end of point to talk. But that's interview. Yes, the police officer says, I don't think this will amount to anything today. Try again when everyone is willing to sit down and talk. Maybe Monday, where you could just talk more calmly, when you've slept on it for a couple of nights. Maybe you'd even agree to an interview.
Then Maddy JS says there's nothing to talk about, not him. Fernand then asks for Sally and Marion's names to be written down for him. Yeah, do you want to write He's got a note if he can write the name down. I think you want to write the name down.
Picture.
This is her name.
This is the name, and she came to Luxembourg on the passport with that name. Said she was married, only coming back to Australia for three days. Her passport never left.
The police officer explains how her passport came back, but the trail vanished and so did she, adding that they are now looking to find anyone who might have known the woman back. Then, we explain about Marion's name change and Fernand asks more questions how old is she is that her picture? Taking a close look at Marion's photo, Marty Jose tells Sally she resembles her mum. Then, before we finally depart, Fernande says he'll see what he can do.
Okay, come out.
Interestingly, a few weeks ago, as Sally and Brian were about to travel to Luxembourg, we were made aware of a posting in an online forum.
Ala rocheche de monsieur Fernand Michel.
It basically translates as.
In search of mister Fernand Remachel. Hello, does anyone here know mister Fernand Remachel. I cannot find his location. I'm trying to get in touch with him again. I met him in Australia a long time ago.
Michel.
Thanks Michelle.
Now, we're not sure whether Michelle is a female or male. Is it one of our listeners who's also a sleuth, or is it someone who actually knew Fernand Remichel. Regardless, Michelle, we'd like to hear from you. Since Sally and Brian left Europe, we've received a couple of emails from Sarah Kanes, the journalist from.
The Luxembourg Word.
The first provides an update from police on whether Sally can supply a DNA test to match against any potential Jane does. The second email came six days later and is a little left field. It may perhaps provide an explanation though, as to Marion's choice of Florabella when she changed her name. Sarah has discovered a line of Vilroy and Bosh crockery named Florabella. It features white dishes, plates, tea cut saucers and teapots with a distinctive floral design.
After contacting a representative from Vilroy and Bosch, Sarah discovered that the Floribella line went into production in Luxembourg in the early nineteen nineties and was made until about nineteen ninety four. It was distributed worldwide and so it's entirely possible that Marian could have come across it and purchased it in Australia. Of course, we went straight to Google to have a look, and there it is. We already know Marion liked fine China. We are sally whether she
thinks her mum would have liked the Floribella design. Her answer are resounding yes. And that was where we hit the pause on the Lady vanishes. As we waited for people and organizedzations to get back to us, for authorities to make decisions and take action.
Next in the catch up series what happened in the two years of waiting before the start of the inquest into Marion's disappearance.
If you knew Marion or have any information about her or her whereabouts, we'd love to hear from you. Our website is Sevennews dot com dot au forward Slash the Lady Vanishers and you can also message us here and if you like what you're hearing, don't forget to subscribe. Please rate and review our series. It helps new listeners find us. Presenter and executive producer Alison Sandy, Presenter and
investigative journalist Brian Seymour, producer and writer Sally Eels. Sound design Mark Wright, transcripts Charlie Dally Watkins and Alice Sinclair. Graphics Jason Blampard. The theme and much of the music by Nicholas Gasparini at the Dark Giano dot com.
This is a seven years production