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The Debt

Jun 26, 202359 minSeason 1Ep. 52
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Episode description

Some parents leave their children an inheritance, Ric Blum left his daughter Evelyn a debt worth millions of francs. Plus, we feature the gripping interview of Liam Bartlett speaking to Ghislaine Danlois, who claims Mr Blum left her more than 300,000 Euros poorer. 

 

Music Credits:


Theme: Identity Crisis - Myuu - thedarkpiano.com


My Belgian Rose: Elliot Shaw-Charles Hart (1918)


Unnatural Situation by Kevin MacLeod

Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/4567-unnatural-situation 

License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license 

Artist website: https://incompetech.com


Deadly Sorrow - Myuu - thedarkpiano.com


See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

This is the case of Marion Barter, a mother teacher friend missing for twenty six years.

Speaker 2

You know, no sign that she was going to vanish.

Speaker 3

That's for sure.

Speaker 1

The bizarre circumstances surrounding her disappearance, I'm.

Speaker 4

Not sure if it was intentional or if there's something more foul afoot.

Speaker 5

If you could imagine a teacher coming straight from say little house on the prairie to the eighties, that was Marian Barter.

Speaker 6

What I say, whether you find Marian Barter dead or alive, I honestly believe somebody has that key piece of information.

Speaker 1

And the relentless quest of a daughter to find her mum. Something had happened, Something has happened to make her leave.

Speaker 4

I am one hundred percent sure, one hundred percent sure that somebody knows something.

Speaker 1

The lady vanishes, episode fifty two. I'm Alison Sandy and I'm Brian Seymour. Evelyn and the Spotlight crew are at the Park to Brussels, right in the heart of the capital city. Flemish folk tunes crafted by campanologists or bell ringers flood the regally Landscape square every hour. The old fashioned park is lined with classical statues, trees and fountains, and provides views of the Royal Palace and Palais Delaination,

also known as the Belgian Federal Parliament. Unusual, taking pride of place at the front is an imposing statue of King Albert, who reigned in Belgium from nineteen oh nine to nineteen thirty four, when his country was occupied by German soldiers during World War I, before overseeing Belgium's postwar recovery. His achieved hero status after rejecting a German ultimatum demanding free passage of their troops to access French borders. Belgium

was invaded two days later. The former monarch credited with introducing universal male suffrage, giving all men the equal right to vote, regardless of wealth or station. Though Belgium was one of the last European countries to give women equal voting rights in nineteen forty eight, Belgium remains a very patriarchal society. They elected their first female prime minister in twenty nineteen. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, Belgium women are a formidable and strong force in their

families and society. Case in point, Gulaye Ganois, whose daughter in law Alexandra offered us the use of her Brussels inner city home to interview her with Glaine is Laurent or Larry. Dressed in smart dark slacks, a patterned black and white shirt and red blazer, the fourth right octogenarian tells us exactly what she's prepared to do in this interview.

Speaker 7

You you call another as a mattress.

Speaker 3

All right, So Gilaine, thank you, thank you so much for doing this with pleasure. It's lovely to be able to talk to you, even through Larry, and just to have you here. So we we appreciate it very much.

Speaker 8

You know why, because I will help the person who lose the mother that I is my reason.

Speaker 3

Sally and the other one yes, yes, yes, the name. So let's go back to the beginning. Okay, when you first met Rick Blom what was his name to you?

Speaker 9

Frederic?

Speaker 3

He used Frederic the A A Y.

Speaker 9

Yes, but he.

Speaker 8

Don't say that immediately the first time he signed Frederic.

Speaker 3

And did he introduce himself to you as Frederic? Yes? So the whole time you knew him, you knew him as Frederick.

Speaker 9

Yes?

Speaker 3

How did you come to meet him?

Speaker 9

Basic game me?

Speaker 5

I had placed an ad in a very popular newspaper in Belgium. And he answered, and he wrote a letter to me, was written in perfect French, a very nice letter.

Speaker 3

At you placed the ad in the paper? Why because you were lonely?

Speaker 9

No, because persic.

Speaker 5

At the time, I got very depressed. I had spent some time in France helping a friend who had lost everything. The house had burned down, the car had burned. I spent a lot of time. I stayed a lot of time in France helping that person for paperwork, getting the idea again, and all kinds of official papers. But I got tired of that situation. But I couldn't at the time, I wasn't able to tell my kids because they would have told me that it was stupid to spend my time and energy doing that.

Speaker 9

We should dear me Cete and mephis.

Speaker 5

That person was actually not a friend. That person was one of my sons. My other sons would have thought that I was doing too much for that one son.

Speaker 8

It's impossible. I must do that for my children. They lose their father, then I stay alone to help all the children. And this one was over head thirty times.

Speaker 3

You were just at that stage of your life where you needed someone for you well exactly, and when he presented to you, you say, he wrote a beautiful letter. What about when you met him, what did he tell you about himself? What did he tell you? He did nothing?

Speaker 9

Nothing, It don't speak from him.

Speaker 3

So he kept the information very close to his chest. Yes, yes, so you were in effect giving him all of your information and looking back, he was he was not giving you anything cool exactly, very clever. Yes. But when you spent some time with him, Galaan, what did he tell you that he did back in Australia? Did he say he was a professional man or what did he say he did?

Speaker 9

Ah? I never asked that.

Speaker 8

But now because you ask me that thing, I understand that he has to say something to me. But I did not ask him, Adelie Jean.

Speaker 5

Yeah, he was so intelligent and so and he would say nothing, probably because he understood that I was not going to ask anything.

Speaker 9

He causes more, Delia.

Speaker 3

Did he give you the impression that he was a successful man, a wealthy man? What did you think?

Speaker 9

I believe? Stupidly? I believe or what he said?

Speaker 3

So you believed his story?

Speaker 1

Yes?

Speaker 8

Always always, and after that, when I think about that, I can understand.

Speaker 9

Because I am not like that.

Speaker 8

For instance, in France, I am no approximatively fifty years in sounds of France, I know. Let me say fifteen persons, no more, no more, and don't give my.

Speaker 9

Something from me.

Speaker 3

But you have been a successful woman. You have been a business woman.

Speaker 9

Yes, yes it was.

Speaker 3

And you are you. You are very competent, and you've been very smart.

Speaker 9

I have more than five hundred.

Speaker 3

Clients, five hundred insurance clients. Yes, so even now you are you are essentially you are beating yourself up as to why was I so stupid? Why couldn't I see his lives? That's that's why, Yes, you are? You are so torn by this?

Speaker 5

Of course, yes, I'm beating myself up. Yes, there's a reason why I was late today, because it's been twenty years she passed. I think about this every day, basically.

Speaker 8

Particularly during night, because first I am alone, the second I can't.

Speaker 3

Sleep even after all this time.

Speaker 8

Yes, yes, because it took all my money. So every day I have to tell my money because he asked my money, but for a reason for my.

Speaker 3

Children, Gilein, can I ask you, yes, how much has this cost? How many dollars.

Speaker 9

Dollars I can say. I can't just say roughly roughly yes.

Speaker 8

In let me say if I sell all it's more No, No, because I move, you know, I'm moving soon self house because I sell my home in Bend.

Speaker 9

So I had to to follow.

Speaker 3

And did he get that money?

Speaker 9

No, he does not have that money.

Speaker 8

No, because at the moment he understood that we did not give it, because I gathered it to buy a home in France, because the sin had help before.

Speaker 9

He needed that.

Speaker 8

And when Frederic understood that he was away.

Speaker 3

Ah, So when he realized that he could not get that last bit of money from you, that's when he left.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 9

Absolutely, do you.

Speaker 3

Not want to give the figure? I mean, can you say? Are we talking a lot of money?

Speaker 9

Do you fit?

Speaker 5

On top of the money he took me had to move and then I bought that house in France, and on top of the price of the house, I had to put money to renovate that house, and altogether it went to two hundred or three hundred thousand euros a seasons. On top of everything else. Then I had to find me a place to stay when I visit my family in Belgium. But I didn't have enough money anymore to buy to buy an apartment directly. So I bought per

life annuity and I'm still paying today after all these years. Nowadays, I paid nine hundred and eighteen euros every month for a place where I cannot stay.

Speaker 3

So what he has done has had a domino effect.

Speaker 9

Exact more exact, more exactly.

Speaker 3

But fair as I it has cost you around at least three hundred thousand euros.

Speaker 8

It may it may be more, maybe more, because well it took the money to.

Speaker 9

Nuvoirs.

Speaker 5

He also left with the bunny that he's he said he would he would put in a bank for when my kids would visit, and that's around seventy thousand euros Pluse. He went away with two trunks of full of objects and things that I wanted for me in Australia, do Maloni.

Speaker 3

So he took valuables from you as well, and you've never seen them again never. Plus he took advantage of the legacy that you had for your sons. Well, you know, that's an awful lot of money. I mean, that's that's a lot of money. No wonder that you it's to keeps you awake. After seventeen years, I needed that moning. No, I understand this.

Speaker 8

I perceived from one of my friends. This also the shoes I buy myself.

Speaker 3

This also this a gift from your friends, A gift. Yes, it's still very nice you look. Thank you, Jelene. Apart from the financial cost, as significant as the money is, what about the other cost, the emotional cost? How has this changed your life?

Speaker 5

At the time, I was financially at ease, had that little pension. I got that little pension because my husband had died. He died young, he was actually older than me, and then I was making money from my own business. I used to work from seven am the morning until midnight. But in any case, I have always preferred to be around older people because I enjoyed a conversation, the mindsets, and I didn't quite appreciate younger people. And all of this led to the situation afterwards.

Speaker 3

When you met him, when you knew him, did he ever tell you that he was married back in Australia? No, No, were you shocked when you found that out?

Speaker 9

I don't know pardicular.

Speaker 3

He never told me he was buried. Later, when you were told, what did you think?

Speaker 5

Well, hard to believe. I understood that he had lied. So what was the plan? What did he tell you?

Speaker 9

The plan was, uh, married in Bali.

Speaker 3

Married in Bali.

Speaker 9

Yes, he asked me, do you know what is his O? Yes? I know, don't.

Speaker 1

It?

Speaker 8

Don't do Balier it careers?

Speaker 3

Okay, so leave here, sell up, go to Australia via Bali, get married in Bali, and then get back to Australia and settle in Australia as husband and wife. Yes. Well that would have been difficult, wouldn't it because he was already married back in Australia. But I didn't know that. Incredible so so obviously everything he was telling you was a lie.

Speaker 8

Yes, at that moment when I understood what it happened, really, I understood immediately that he was lying for whole thing.

Speaker 3

To the whole thing.

Speaker 9

Yes, he does not love me.

Speaker 8

No, s to not because at the moment I say that I lose my first boy with an accident, yes, it don't do what it was necessary?

Speaker 9

And at that moment I think.

Speaker 3

You thought there's something funny there, there's something strange, Yes, yes, because there's no emotional connection.

Speaker 9

Well exactly, it.

Speaker 3

Must be very embarrassing for you to tell this story. Why are you doing it as brave and courageous as you are. Why are you doing it? What's the reason why?

Speaker 8

Maybe too well to receive help. I think because for me, the loose of that child, it was clearly the same face or figure lam la figure of us.

Speaker 9

The same face, there's the same face.

Speaker 8

It was exactly the same face, like my husband exactly.

Speaker 2

Juliane is referring to the trauma of losing her two year old son in an accident in the early nineteen sixties. It's something that haunts her still. She has three surviving sons and a daughter she adopted.

Speaker 8

So still now it's more than fifty years that it happened.

Speaker 9

That thing.

Speaker 8

Each day I think about that two or three times a day, and the night.

Speaker 9

You can imagine it.

Speaker 2

Juliane says when she told Bloom about the he seemed disinterested. It was then she knew he did not care for her at all.

Speaker 5

Deposit plant a la police a fire the complaint to the police.

Speaker 3

He was so smart when I went to the.

Speaker 5

Police, fire the complaint because I wanted to prevent him from harming other people. And actually a few well sometime before he left, he called me on the phone and he said, if I ever hear from you again, you'll see what happened.

Speaker 3

What will happen, Sissa. So he threatened you, and at that moment I replied.

Speaker 9

Oh, well, to Sutrich.

Speaker 5

Give me back everything you took from me, and he said I did not take anything.

Speaker 3

Did that threat scare you?

Speaker 9

No?

Speaker 3

No, because I can't be scared.

Speaker 5

I'm not the kind of woman that can be scared by this kind of threat coming from a swindler.

Speaker 3

Was he trying to intimidate you too?

Speaker 5

He even said that he would tell everything to one of my daughters in law. He said he had recorded everything. But of course I could not be scared of anything like that. But he went to the police, yes, and filed a report. And what did they do? Did they do anything? The first time I went to the police to file a report, I went there because I was

afraid that something had happened to him. I was scared that he would have been attacked, because he said that he was running a risk of being attacked because well, first of all, he was over there with my money. But then the police told me that he was okay, that there was nothing to worry about because he had been cited at the customs between I Guesst, Belgium and Hull, and he was he was leaving to you know, to

catch a plane. But then then, of course I understood at that moment that he was actually leaving me.

Speaker 3

So so in essence, the police could do nothing.

Speaker 9

No.

Speaker 3

No. When he was with you, did he ever talk about poison? He wanted you to have an examination in hospital, an examination of what of your liver? Yes, but Glaine, what was wrong with your liver? Nothing?

Speaker 9

Nothing?

Speaker 3

But did you say to him I've got a problem with my liver. No, no, no, but he just he brought that up. Yes, he actually told me to go to hospital for a test, to test my liver.

Speaker 5

So I went. I went to the hospital. They gave me an ultrasound for my liver and there was no problem.

Speaker 8

And the second because there's a new do some agency, but it soundly.

Speaker 5

A problem that I actually had is that I was suffering from apnia. And then he was referring to some kind of pillow that you know, he was he would use in order to suffocate people. He's it's difficult to be very clear about it, but he made me feel that he would not want people to believe that he would have suffocated me with a pillow, and so it was kind of relieved that I was suffering from opnia, if you see what I mean.

Speaker 3

But he mentioned he talked about suffocation, Yes, and then getting you to go to the hospital for a test for something that you all day night. That's very strange behavior.

Speaker 8

And he said that he would came with me.

Speaker 9

During the night. He stayed in my home.

Speaker 3

Very strange.

Speaker 8

Yes, And then I find it it's.

Speaker 9

Something danger that it's not normal.

Speaker 8

But it is not normal that at that moment that I find that it is not normal, Why does does it put him out my home?

Speaker 9

I can understand. I cannot understand.

Speaker 3

What do you make of him as a man? How do you describe him?

Speaker 9

Bizarre?

Speaker 8

Bizarre, bizarre persic It was, it was bizarre.

Speaker 5

We would have breakfast together, but then he would be away for lunch away in the afternoon, and then we

would gather again in the evening. He was very interested in old coins, and one one day we went together to a cafe in Russells and in the back room there was an event there and some people were selling old coins, and he took to one of the vendors there, and that man, the vendor found it very difficult to say that the name the heder vari And then some minutes later he told me that, yes, that he let that man speak and he said stupid things, but he

didn't want to contradict him. And then following that event we went to Actually there was another event. One day he came back with an old rusted coin and he with that coin on the side of the pillow. And then another occasion we were we were somewhere and then in front of a shop selling old coins, and he insisted that I would go inside a shop to buy a catalog. I said, well, why don't you go yourself?

He said, no, please do it for me. But you know, Gilin, when you look at it now, when you look back, clearly, at one stage you thought you loved him. But now today what do you think of him?

Speaker 9

Huh?

Speaker 5

Plan to show a lot of negative words from the beginning. His one and only idea was to take as much money as possible from me.

Speaker 3

But of course he never loved me, that's clear, Jammy, never, Jammy.

Speaker 5

It's a difficult story, and it's very difficult to explain. I had a friend and her husband was a very successful collector. He had a lot of money. He was a very important person. He was the director of a university institution in Rome. I don't really remember which one. But actually Frederick really insisted that he wanted to meet that friend. But at the same time that friend, that the woman my friend. I knew that she loved men a lot, and I didn't want her to meet him.

And also I didn't want Frederick to be in contact because it would have been risky that Frederick would take contact with such a man.

Speaker 3

We can agree, I think that he's been very cruel, But do you think he could be dangerous? Oh?

Speaker 8

You certainly, certainly, because at once during the nine.

Speaker 5

Camp, I had a cramp in my leg and he wanted to take care of me, just something, but also I felt danger and I said no, forget.

Speaker 10

I refused elast but then he insisted it was just something. But I was kid, we just something. I was feeling danger. You felt you felt it was a dangerous way situation.

Speaker 5

And once again I don't understand why I didn't simply kick him out.

Speaker 3

Then I don't understand should it's a good question, why didn't you just get rid of it?

Speaker 5

Because that's not me. I'm not that kind of person. It's not my personality.

Speaker 9

Should three pack them up?

Speaker 3

You know there are and you know this now because people have given you the information. There are many women who are now telling us the same story, the same sort of story that you're telling us your story. Does that make you feel better or worse?

Speaker 8

My complaint to the police, because I should like to never hell something like that.

Speaker 9

But I know that it is because.

Speaker 5

I was invited by the police in because he had that accent from the region of Tourney, just like my husband had, and I was confused about that. Samable, there's another victim in Tournay. That's the reason why the police off Tournay called me. I went there to to talk to one police inspector and he he he well, actually I I told my my story and then he called the head of the station there and he said that he was happy to see that I had got over it. I had gotten over it because that other woman was

at the time, she was still down and destroyed. Because that other woman in Tourney, he had hair changed the colover hair. He took all her money. Then he made sure that she broke all contacts with the family. They went to Bali together. He abandoned her in Bali. She could not speak a word of English. She had no money. Then she called the family and the family send her money so that she could come back to Tourney.

Speaker 2

Julane is referring to Bloom's cousin's wife, whom he also swindled back in twenty twelve. We discussed this incident earlier in the podcast after she spoke to our colleague Tom Rudell, who works for the Luxembourg Word newspaper. They referred to her as Christine, not her real name, as she feels such deep shame and embarrassment. We have not been able to speak with her directly, but we understand she has been contacted by authorities in Australia.

Speaker 9

In County Little Simoe.

Speaker 5

When he was living at my place, he paid for nothing and one day he had bought six polo shirts and he insisted that.

Speaker 3

I would them all because that's worth. That's how he was.

Speaker 5

He didn't want to wear anything without washing anything new, without washing the clothes before he would wear them.

Speaker 3

Gila, just finally, you've been very patient. No no, no, so thank you. Is there anything you could say? Simple message? Do you know the story of one of the women that we are talking to Sally, whose mother she can't find, who tells a very you know, it's a very similar story, but she's still missing after all these years.

Speaker 9

Met.

Speaker 3

Everything I've done since the beginning, I've done for.

Speaker 9

This is just to help that person, Nickma, don't record it to.

Speaker 8

Scuse your faith for this only as.

Speaker 5

I really wanted to tell my story to the reporters in Luxembourg to you now, everything I've done is for her, only for her, For Sally, more deficile for me. This is really really deficial. It's really complicated, but I must do.

Speaker 9

This is in normally no of it.

Speaker 3

I got a lot of help from my daughter in law who's here with us.

Speaker 9

Me prefer.

Speaker 3

She did better than what I could have done. She helped me a lot.

Speaker 5

Did do you think she'll ever find her mom? He was a man that was capable of anything. I'm not confident and I'm scared of what that man can still do. I remember at the time in the courthouse in Leuven, I had access to the file and I saw that he'd been that rig Gloom had been to prison fourteen or seventeen times, I don't remember, for different kinds of embezzlements, stealing money and so on and so forth.

Speaker 3

What I know is that.

Speaker 5

Victims will always remain victims. The police is on the side of wrongdoers. They go to prison, but then you never see your money back. And that's the reason why I'm say I'm not confident and I'm scared of what such a man can still do.

Speaker 2

Just stopping here for a second, we suspect July and actually meant fourteen to seventeen charges rather than the number of times Bloom went to prison.

Speaker 9

Kille Marie.

Speaker 3

I even saw that he was married or had been married to.

Speaker 9

Catch some men epicky his own divorce.

Speaker 3

Three to four weeks. Then they got a divorce.

Speaker 9

I don't said person that deposit plant called.

Speaker 5

And that woman also filed the report against that man, because of course he went with all the money.

Speaker 3

A long record. It's an amazing past. In Australia, we would call that a colorful history.

Speaker 9

We may be not on the pasc.

Speaker 3

He meant no, of course, this is not the word I would have used at that moment. I bet you would not. We may, but it's not laughing matter.

Speaker 9

A complete marchan.

Speaker 4

He met no.

Speaker 5

Bafo because the impact on my life was too negative, and now my children have to help me, although I wanted to help them always because of that guy.

Speaker 3

I understand. Yeah, I'm very sorry for you.

Speaker 9

I am still living.

Speaker 1

And I.

Speaker 8

Saw my grandchildren and oh so beautiful, really really and is some madeable kupersmedi It helps me.

Speaker 3

Well, you have survived the experience, which is great.

Speaker 9

Exact, more exact, more exact.

Speaker 2

It's clear that this has been a difficult ordeal for July, having to tell her story yet again. Were living the pain and trauma imposed on her by Rick Bloom. We don't take this lightly. We know that to all this takes on brave women like Julaine and Evelyn, who opened their hearts to us. Julaine is a proud woman. She goes on to talk about how her husband was in the Belgian resistance during World War Two.

Speaker 9

Lads cash.

Speaker 3

And he had to hide for two years in a nattic.

Speaker 9

I don't la complete man.

Speaker 5

That's when he changed personality, hiding two years in anatic. And then when we went for our honeymoon. I remember we were in a restaurant somewhere in France and then he said, madus, why did you marry me?

Speaker 3

Mons?

Speaker 9

I said, Jillie, Cristomatic.

Speaker 5

Not that you speak. I wrote it on a napkin in order to make you happy. Then he put it in his pocket.

Speaker 2

When her husband died, Gulaine hoped to find love again with Frederic. He kind of reminded her of him.

Speaker 5

Frederic, and I thought Frederic could be able to to cheer me up, console me, to give me some consolation, to give me.

Speaker 7

Some really normal in the constantly, if he had loved me, he would have helped me. But he did not love me.

Speaker 3

Helene. It's not a crime to have a broken heart. You can't keep kicking yourself. You know what, You have three beautiful boys and they obviously everyone loves you. You have your your daughter in law has been helping you certainly, so it's great, wonderful. You have to unfortunately, as tragic as that is, you have to move forward and grab the positives, don't you.

Speaker 9

It's difficult each day, each name.

Speaker 3

It's a challenge. But there are some good things. There are some good things. Well, thank you again, clearly with pleasure.

Speaker 9

I owe the best for Sally.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so do I so do I. But you know, as I said to you, I mean there are a lot of women. The story is, you know, his what we would call m o modus operandi, the way he operates very similar, very similar to all these different women across so many different years. He's very calculating and conniving, despicable to the bone. May piner exact exact exact.

Speaker 1

Indeed, Delaine has formed the firm opinion that mister Blum does not have a conscience, does not care about what he's done to these women to whom he's promised so much. Hearing Elaine's story firsthand hits Evelyn hard. She has only heard bits and pieces about her father, and meeting Elaine has been confronting. Gilaine's daughter in law, Alexandra, continues helping us, escorting Evelyn to the Belgian suburb where she spent her earliest years. Like Alexandra's home, it's nestled in the inner

city amidst the hustle and bustle of urban life. Evelyn reflects on why we're here.

Speaker 4

And there's someone out there in the closure.

Speaker 1

This is so important for us, and the women are uniting. I feel in this whole battle right that we're all working together. This man who clearly hated women, he did there's no doubt about it. And you know we've just discovered obviously the four million frank debt that he he's given his daughter. You know who's just come over here to find that out, and.

Speaker 4

Who is unbelievable.

Speaker 1

But not surprising.

Speaker 6

Yeah, no, I'm not surprised.

Speaker 1

But it's amazing these brave women like yourself and Elaine and Tina Monique when we go to Luxembourg and Alexandra, you just join the course like you are. Thank you so much, like seriously, like just giving up your time like this and vurrying us around. It's just it's just I just feel like this is solidarity, like we was saying, solidarity. I'm so proud of us, so thank you ladies.

Speaker 2

Allison is talking about some documents Evelyn bought over here, written in French, which Alexandra earlier helped to translate. The documents came from Rick Bloom and was signed in front of a notary, a lawyer who can authenticate a signature as genuine. What they learned from these documents was startling, if not surprising, given who was involved.

Speaker 4

Inheritance.

Speaker 11

Inheritance sure, he explains that your father refused the inheritance of his brother and your father. I said, I don't want the inheritance of my brother.

Speaker 9

I don't want I refuse to say what it.

Speaker 3

Is that reper.

Speaker 11

Renounced to the inheritance of his brother.

Speaker 1

Of his brother doesn't say what the inheritance.

Speaker 11

Is though, no, no, you have to sign a document to say, okay, I don't want their inheritance.

Speaker 2

Things so called inheritance or debt amounts to four million francs or one hundred thousand euros. Allison explains that you can't inherit debt in Australia, but in Belgium you can.

Speaker 11

So this is the list of the people who could receive their inheritance, so his wife, his two children who were not who were to be minors at that time, his mother, and his brother not Evelyn.

Speaker 3

Though.

Speaker 2

The confusion here is whether the debt is actually Freddie, David's Loom's late brother or his own, as that was one of the names he used as an alias.

Speaker 1

Because one of these seasons, one of these fake names was Freddy.

Speaker 12

I know that was it.

Speaker 11

But when when she met he met Gila, he well, he explained that he was good visiting David because it was the name of his brother who saw him.

Speaker 1

His purpose was.

Speaker 11

To try to make a confusion between the names and said, is my brother not me?

Speaker 3

So when you see that he's there, but this.

Speaker 9

Is too too kink.

Speaker 11

He was dead himself, you know. Yeah, yeah, I think you understand why I don't.

Speaker 6

Okay, So what's happened is he's inherited his death and he's saying under give fake name which he took on Freddy David, it's a safe name, and he said he's dead, I can't be mine and as a result, I'm not going to pay iron to here.

Speaker 11

The notary context contacts you and say I think you have a link with the dead guy with pediavis but of course the father is not dead.

Speaker 3

To understand.

Speaker 11

So for the notary it's not clear because he don't yes, but maybe he made something to make people believe that he said as editor didn't head. Of course he had problems with the police at that time. If he said no, no other problem from and he explained that he took the furniture because it was the rented apartment, so he put the furniture some somewhere.

Speaker 3

Okay, the not a real because the the apartment was rented.

Speaker 11

So there is a debt four million francs of debt to the States. Access to the States four millions really neutral.

Speaker 4

So potentially that was my father's debt.

Speaker 11

Wow, I better get on with renouncing that. Renounce as soon as removed.

Speaker 3

Don't sign this documents.

Speaker 11

The family is not closed for maybe they are waiting for this body.

Speaker 9

Wow.

Speaker 2

So just to confirm, Evelyn has a one hundred thousand euro debt her father has effectively bequeathed to her, which she now has to renounce. We don't know if it was a debt of his own making or the real Freddy David, as there are rumors Freddy had a gambling problem. That isn't all though. Evelyn reveals another document relating to the estate of her grandmother, who also died in nineteen seventy seven, not long after a loaner.

Speaker 4

Private agreement in place and we're trying.

Speaker 2

Evelyn and Allison visit a notary named Jerome Otto in Brussels, whose mother apparently witnessed the signing of the document basically at his office. They discussed further, immediately realizing Rick Bloom's own claims again formed the proof of his lives.

Speaker 1

Willie Wooters aka Frederic DEHEEVERI when he was in Torney prison, made an agreement on your angel brother Chris's behalf, that the settlement of your grandmother's estate, which is bizarre, right because he told you that he didn't know you existed, remember that's right.

Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah, he did tell me that. He Yeah, when I first met him.

Speaker 1

Which was twenty years later, so yeah, he said that he.

Speaker 4

You know, when I asked him, why hadn't he come to try to find me as my father, first question really that I wanted to know and to have answered, and he said that because he didn't know I existed. So that until the Belgium Consulate in Australia contacted him to let him know that I was looking for him. He didn't even know until that moment that my mother had passed away, soies, I was in my twenties by that stage, which I now know all of that that's

a lie. But this the state of my grandmother has has I'm not sure about the authenticity of the inheritance document itself, but the document that that I got that came to me through the Belgium Consulate in Australia, it was translated and in that translation it said that he had made a private arrangement with the doctor of law in nineteen seventy eight. We've got a document that I was even that was meant to represent I think that

the will of my grandmother, which was translated. I don't have the document anymore at the only time it was in my twenties of skin in this document. Why is his name even in her estate, I'm not sure why. Why is the fact that he's made a private agreement on your being by behalf and your brother my brothers while he's in prison. I'm not quite sure what all that means. So we're just trying to get to the bottom of that.

Speaker 1

And this is the other thing that's interesting with that, because when you raised that about the settlement with him, which we discussed earlier, he said, well, obviously he acted like he knew nothing about it.

Speaker 4

If he acted like he knew nothing about it, and he said that he would be making a trip to Belgium and that he may know relative or a friend of a relative of my mother's that he may be able to contact and find some information out for me, and that on his return he let me know if he discovered anything. So he obviously his story was that

he didn't know anything about me. So the fact that he was involved in making legal agreements on my behalf, you know, not something that he was forthcoming about at all. But we don't know.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we don't know the details. So that's what we're here for. Because Jerome, this is the firm Jerome.

Speaker 4

It's because this is a legacy business through his families.

Speaker 3

It was his.

Speaker 4

I think it was his mother, Jerome's witness witness. That's a private arrangement that was put together between Willie Waters and.

Speaker 9

Doctor of law.

Speaker 4

So might they just that he has appointed that doctor of law to act as some type of a proper attorney or proxy on behalf of my brother and I and that this notary signed that private agreement off and then we would have to go then to that power of attorney to find out then how that power of attorney got used.

Speaker 1

And that was in ninety in seventy, and.

Speaker 4

So really not sure, but anyone who's going to uncover.

Speaker 1

But yes, then after that they can look accepting at the file. But also we can see if we can obtain some documents from the consulate, from the consulate and maybe they might be able to help us to So what documents do we want in the consulate.

Speaker 4

From the consulate, we're looking for my grandmother's will. We're looking for any translated copies of that that they may have and when for the power of attorney documents that they that they had us sign, my brother and I sign.

Speaker 2

Unfortunately, the notary does not have a copy of the original private agreement that says he will make inquiries on Evelyn's behalf. You'll remember in the previous episode, Evelyn recounted how her father offered to find out what happened to her grandmother's inheritance as he was going to Belgium and he knew somebody you could maybe help.

Speaker 4

He said to me that I really wish I could remember the name of the person that he said that he had contact with.

Speaker 9

But what he said to me was he said.

Speaker 4

That there's an extended family in Belgium that knew that alone had two children, that those children were in Australia, and that the rumor that people had heard was that a private arrangement had been made between Joseph Birou, my grandmother's second husband, and my step father, whereby Joseph biro would have the rights to keep the majority of the finances from my grandmother's estate and Michael could keep the daughter. That's what he came back and said to me.

Speaker 2

This was devastating for Evelyn. We're still waiting to hear back from the Belgian notary about all of this, and rest assured we won't give up trying to find out more about Evelyn's lost legacy until we have answers. Thanks to Alexandra, however, we did discover the building that belonged to her grandmother was sold by Bureau and his new wife. He then moved to the country.

Speaker 4

It had a lot more life when I was young in this place, and I have fond, very fond memories.

Speaker 1

Yeah, up until you were seven, line, it was a pretty good life, right, it was pretty good. Yeah, and then everything came tumbling down because that's when she lived. That's when everyone lost her mum at seven years old.

Speaker 3

And so it's very young.

Speaker 4

It's a young yea. Here I was in Australia and I had left here to go to live in Australia permanently with my mother, and I had a husband, and I wasn't there long. Do you remember being told it happened at the school where I was in the office. I think.

Speaker 1

And how he told you.

Speaker 4

I think the principal of the school and my stepfather together.

Speaker 1

What do you remember about your mom?

Speaker 4

I remember her chasing me around the house with a wooden spoon quite frequently.

Speaker 1

I got the wooden spin growing up, did you Yeah.

Speaker 4

I've had a few of those broken.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 4

Yeah, but it's so funny. I can't remember anything she said, but I can remember the sound of her voice in Hungarian and in French and always telling me, you know, not to do that, don't touch that.

Speaker 1

But she was so young too.

Speaker 4

She was thirty one when she died.

Speaker 1

Yeah, but so she yeah, she was in her twenties, early twenties, Yeah, because she had you do you remember your grandmother at all?

Speaker 4

I do remember my grandmother.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 4

I remember my grandmother being sick and being in bed a lot. So you know, my grandmother was beautiful and she's to teach me how to knit and yeah, she taught me lots of And.

Speaker 3

Did you go to school.

Speaker 4

I went to school here as well, somewhere I don't know where, not for long. I was probably speaking English around five or six years old because I was going to Australia with my mother. So my English women have been very good, typic In and a five year old's fluent French isn't the same as adults French.

Speaker 1

Eveyln was telling me about how the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo she related to that girl that have you ever read the stick lasson Snip? Well, there's a lady. There's a girl in that and she's strong and she's she's tough, you know, but she has a lot of tattoos and the nose ring and all this sort of soul piercings and and ultimately the story leads her to her relatives. Yeah, do you remember?

Speaker 2

Evelyn is talking about Lisbet Solander, the hero of the Millennium trilogy of novels beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The author was Swedish journalist Steve Larsen, who died in two thousand and four just before his first book was published, topping bestseller charts and spawning multiple feature films. His original title for the first book was Men who Hate Women.

Speaker 4

Her father who tried to bury her and kill her. I remember that part of the story.

Speaker 1

I didn't get that far.

Speaker 12

Oh yeah, god, yeah, Like she has all these troubles, but eventually, as she slowly uncovers things.

Speaker 4

The troubles end up leading to her father, who who then tries.

Speaker 6

To kill her.

Speaker 2

Evelyn confesses to Allison she did used to have a lot of tattoos and piercings, most of which have now been removed.

Speaker 9

You have to no sign.

Speaker 2

Next time, the team travels to Luxembourg to catch up with an old friend. He says she bore witness to one of Rick Bloom's Frederick the Head's criminal ventures.

Speaker 9

If you come back once, I will imaged to go to I told you.

Speaker 2

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, slash news slash the Lady Vanishers, and you can also message us here. You can also send us an anonymous tip at the Lady Vanishes dot org. 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, investigative journalist Brian Seymour, producer and writer Sally Eels, sound design Mark Wright, graphics, Jason Blandford, Transcripts and translation Estelle Sanchez. The theme and much of the music by Nicholas Gasparini at the Darkpiano dot com. Thanks again to the Alliance Francis. This is a seven News production.

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