Passport for Sale?

In this final episode of this series, Sally and Joni follow a curious lead about a passport found in Tasmania that belonged to the former owner of a house Rick Blum lived in and they journey to Rye, Tonbridge Wells and Burwash

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
I appociate production.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to episode ten of The Missing Matter.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
It has been a.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Journey, Jonie, another journey with you on a different scale,
and I just want to say, personally from me, I'm
very grateful for all your efforts and all your energy
and doing this with me because I never thought that
this would actually be happening. But very grateful to you
and you sharing this with me on a very personal level.
You know, we've gone through a lot together, so I

(00:42):
know everyone who's following along has the same sentiment for
you as I do, but I am definitely on an
extra scale, So thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Back atchaatcha.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Well, thanks.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm glad we've I'm glad we're man, and glad we're friends.
It makes the good side of a bad story, you know,
gives us something positive out of it, so I'm really
grateful for that. And you've taught me how to make
sour dough, so that's another thing I did.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I have a big burn. Look at my arm.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I've got a massive burn. Listen, we're going to take
you on this last bit of the journey with us.
It's a rollercoaster this episode. It's a big episode. We're
giving you a lot of information here, but let's jump in. Okay,
So it's now October nineteen and we're making our way

(01:31):
back into the UK for the last leg of the
research trip. We caught the Eurostar back up to London
before making our way down to Gatwick Airport, where we
had planned to pick up a rental car. We were
getting lots of people offering us to meet for lunch

(01:52):
and coffee, so I sort of suggested to the journey
maybe we put a post out on Facebook and just
see if there was an opportunity to meet some of
these amazing people who have been following along and so supportive.
We popped out a post and we were coming to
Hastings that afternoon if anyone was able to meet us.

(02:13):
So before we went to Hastings, though, we had a
little plan in place. We wanted to go to Jane
Austen's house because we knew that my mum had been
there and a lovely lady who I've met through this journey.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Her name is Wendy.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
She had offered to meet us there for lunch, so
that was our first stop.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
We pulled up.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
We saw these beautiful little houses, so quaint with these
do you remember like little tiny metal figurines that lined
the roofs.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, the losses.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
It was just absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
I've never seen anything like it, so definitely right up
my mum's alley. I can imagine her sitting there saying
exactly the same thing and just looking at all the
rose bushes and the lavender everywhere again and they're just
the beautiful area, beautiful scenery.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Anyway, Wendy had organized for us.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
There's a pub directly across the road from Jane Austen's house,
so we met there and had a cozy English pub launch,
didn't we It was nice to just sit and relax
after a very very busy morning traveling. Wendy had greeted
us with some gifts, actually because she'd just bumped into
Laura Richards, who you'll all know from Crime Analysts, who

(03:25):
had been at Crime Con in London and had given
some T shirts and some merchandise of hers to Wendy
to give to you and I. So we've got photos
of us out the front of Jane Austin's house holding
up our crime analyst T shirts and we managed to
get a couple of picks with Wendy before heading south.
I do remember that drive actually going from Jane Austen's

(03:48):
house down to meet all the wonderful people down near
the ocean, and it was just magnificent, just the all
the autumn lee's everywhere.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, it was just a magnificent drive.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
And plus I wasn't driving, I wasn't having to navigate,
that was your deal, all those endless roundabouts.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Do you remember? It was just a beautiful drive down there.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
It was a really relaxing sort of time after everything
that had happened on this journey thus far.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
So look, we arrived in Hastings.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
That Wash about quarter past five or something or other.
I do remember looking out at the ocean and seeing
the sunset, and then of course Sal pulled in the car,
and of course we pull in behind a van called
Owen's Brickwork and Scaffold Contractors.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
That was kind of like a bit of a good omen.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
I feel as though he's kind of I don't know
whether he's just been perched like a little our, you know,
following us around as we've gone, because there just seems
to have been signs of him everywhere.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
And the Owen was massive, do you remember, like it
took up new leader yees.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
So I feel though almost in a way, I mean,
I'm not that kind of person, but I sort of
feel as that he has been really following you around
on this journey I want to forget, you know, turning
up walking up the path there to go to the
a pub and up on the sort of landing there
is all these people and I was personally, I probably

(05:12):
didn't voice it to you at the time, but I
was personally a bit concerned that there might be like
two people or something, not that that would have mattered,
Like I would have loved that too, but I when
I saw the crowd, I thought, oh wow, and yeah,
I was really very excited to see everybody like leaning

(05:33):
over the balcony with their hands out waving, saying hi, Hi,
and again you know this journey like we've had a
month literally bouncing between countries, and so we had each other, yes,
and we traveled I thought, really well together.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
But it was a very.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Bizarre situation and we did meet a lot of people
that weren't exactly overly friendly or welcoming or warm. So
it was lovely to see those lovely, lovely people leaning
over the balcony welcome us back into the UK.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
It was so funny, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Sally Jonie's We're walking up the foot bath and all
these other people must have been looking at us, going
here are these people?

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Like, what's going on?

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (06:17):
It was just and they didn't even know each other.
I don't think. I don't think anybody knew anybody else.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
I think some of them do.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
But we had people who had driven down like a
good hour or two because they'd seen that we were
going to Hastings. But that was probably our only only
opportunity to catch up, so some people made some huge
efforts and yeah, it was just lovely. We sat and
had a drink with them all we talked about what
we'd been doing, and it was a really nice nice

(06:45):
thing for us to just sit in chill for a
little bit before heading up to Rye where we had
our accommodation for the night.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
Rye Gee Rye was. Wasn't that a spectacular place? I
just loved it, actually, when I actually think about it,
of all the places that where we traveled around there,
that would have been the one that I would have
personally wanted to stay in. I just found the whole
thing absolutely magical, and especially you know, luckily, thank you

(07:15):
to Carly, Marie and Simon that they put us up
in their beautiful little airbnb in the walking only so
you couldn't even take your cars into that area.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
It was such an hstoic little area.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
So Carly had reached out to me on Facebook actually
and offered to let us stay in their Airbnb in Rye.
So it was this the quaintest cottage. I don't even
know if cottage is the right name. I apologize if
I get that wrong, but it was situated across from
a church and just cobblestones. It had grass coming up

(07:49):
through the cobblestones. It was just around the corner from
the tower. Oh, just amazing. It's such amazing generosity and
kindness shown to us by so many different people.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
So we are staying yew wow, we're very feeling very
privileged here.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Carl and Simon is very kindly let us staying at
their Airbnb. And we were just sitting there having dinner
because we'd had a massive afternoon.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
People next to us.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Were smiling as we were getting up to leave, so
we started chatting to them and their locals, telling them
all about how Mum had Barclay's Bank in Mint Street,
Rye as her address.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
And hence while we're here, and they were very excited.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
We gave them our cards and everything so that they
know the podcast and they know what's happening with the story.
There you go, Jonie, That's what I was thinking. Is
this the place you were talking about?

Speaker 1 (08:44):
So this is it. We're just like literally two doors
up from where we're staying.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
The attractions that we're going to go and see to
see if she accessed it, and to look at a
guest book.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
He's literally at the end of the street.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, I feel like that's that's very similar looking to
the place looks like a like a castle. And then
across from our room is a church which has a
well lit cemetery. It's help us ten, I think, oh no,
it's ten o'clock, big, big day. So here we are,

(09:17):
so I'm going to go inside because my cheeks are cold.
Good night everyone.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Oh that was a weird sounding animal. All right, Let's
let's skip. Let's watch the dog Prarie again. Johnny's got
a fun day today. Vomit and dom poo very early

(09:47):
in the morning.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
Very early in the day, all right, after a cozy
night in we had another very big day planned.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
It's Saturday. It was so cold, Jooney, like, what are
we doing? I didn't mind it, so as you well know,
it was probably more the rain for me, Like, I
don't mind the cold either. I was.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
I had jackets and everything, but we literally had beanies
on and our jackets on and our gloves because it
was cold. It was and it was windy, I guess
windy and raining.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Okay, So good morning wearing Rye and it is blowing
again outside.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
It's been blowing like this for about two hours.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
I can actually feel a bit of a breeze coming
in through the window.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Right was a town of huge interest in my mum's timeline. Firstly,
it was where she got her bank correspondence posted interestingly,
nothing else just her bank and financial documents. And why
did they not go to Leslie Loveday's house in Southport
like the other male that she had redirected. So the

(10:59):
only clue to a destination in the UK other than
the postcards was the Barclay's bank in Rye. The postcard
the seventh of July in nineteen ninety seven to my
Auntie Lee is from Hastings East Sussex village of Rye

(11:19):
and it says feel peaceful and at home staying in
an old farm oast with a nice family.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
A huge amount of work was done.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
I want to thank everybody over there and over here
who have also tipped in and tried to help. But
we have done a massive job trying to find an
our house that was serving bed and breakfast based on
my mum's postcard to try and locate where it might
have been that she stayed. The database just got longer

(11:49):
and longer by the day with all the suggestions coming
out of everywhere, so we did happen to have one.
Christina did a fair bit of work again, being that
she was over there. She sent out letters and put
things on Facebook groups and one lady did contact her
and said, I remember this lady and the main reason

(12:10):
she remembered my mum in her thoughts was because her
name was Marian as well and that she was from Australia,
so she was a person of interest for me. I
wanted to meet this woman myself and we'll talk a
little bit about that later.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
That's the main reason.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Why we were in Rye was to go and see
if we could find any information about Barclay's Bank in Rye.
We knew that it had shut down, but being such
a small hamlet, we were of the opinion that potentially
someone might still be there working. I know that the
Rye Facebook group has been very helpful in sharing and

(12:47):
giving me tips and talking about who has worked there
in the past. I'm yet to be able to speak
to any of those people, So another shout out if
there is anyone over there who can help with this,
and if you knew someone who was working at Barclays
Bank in Rye in June July August nineteen ninety seven,
We'd really like to talk to those people and see

(13:09):
if they have any recollection of this or the fact
that my mum's mail was actually going to there, or
we were receiving her mail over here with that address
as her address and point of contact in the UK.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
So we were on a mission.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
We only had one day to get around and see
everyone that we wanted to see. It was a Saturday,
so unfortunately there were a few places that were closed
that we really wanted to go to, like the Black Sheep,
but we had made sure to put flyers in that
we'd taken over there under every door, just to let
them know that we'd been there, hadn't We just we
were on a mission. Anybody that wasn't available, We did that.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
We've just been into a couple of shops. What have
we done? What have we done so far?

Speaker 4 (13:51):
Okay, so we've done Rockcastle Museum, East Street HG.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Glesson. The upris are probably saying that wrong.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
The castle up the top Adams of Rye, which is
the news agent Puckerhaben Decretty Antiques.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
The was new, like it had no like that was
all tad that.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
But that was like thirty years so maybe they must
have just renewed it just got all that new stuff in.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, it's been there for that long.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
And now we're about to go.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
To Lamb Housep's go and do that now. Last night
home of US novelist Henry James.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
We all gardens, So we're going to go there and
see if they've got a book.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
So let's just get moving and going with the strip.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
If nothing else, we're spreading the word right.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
This is a small town, Okay, So I think it's important.
I really want everyone to listen carefully to the next
snippet that we've captured.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Read the Mint Street High Street.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
The building inside was covered with boxes and dead flies.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Okay, so you reckon this is baro.

Speaker 6 (14:57):
Well what I'm saying is doesn't said the the winnows.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Oh, there's like twenty people. Oh and look inside, there's more.
Why would there be flies everywhere?

Speaker 7 (15:21):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Oh my god, you should there are flies?

Speaker 2 (15:29):
And then there was boxes everywhere, And I'm like, what
is in there for all those blowflies to be in there?
I was feeling a bit sick in the stomach. But
it's obviously shut down.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
You and I.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
You can hear us in the back and forth in
the what we were recording. We were very confused about
Mint Street and High Street because it's actually the same street,
but the name changes.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
So I guess you must wonder why Marian had this
bank and this location marked as her address from her
bank in Australia. But we actually have documents showing that
with her money that went to claim and funds, the
address was Barclay's Bank, Comma Mint Street, Rye Comma London,

(16:14):
Comma UK. And what is most interesting to me, and
something that perhaps some people haven't heard, is that the
date recorded for the creation of this profile was actually
later backdated to the twenty second of March nineteen ninety one,
So that particular detail is important because that was not

(16:37):
Colonial's date bank, So that was her profile for the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia back in nineteen ninety one.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
You know, I can totally see why my mum would
have loved Rye with all the history and the beauty,
But why did she do this? Like why did she
make that her point of contact in the UK?

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Now we know that.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Rick Blum in the nineteen eighties lived only a short
drive away in Burwash, so he'd likely have known ry
would be my opinion in my mind, if you were
using an address of a location, you'd likely had made
that your main point of call. Like if I'm going
overseas and I'm marking that bank for my mail to

(17:20):
the point where all her unclaimed monies, that was the
address noted. And people were confused about this, as was
I at the very beginning, because it made out like
the money was sitting in Barclay's bank in Rye, but
that wasn't the case. It was just the address that
was linked to it. So was she staying in Rye?
Was she using that as a hub while she was

(17:42):
traveling around. She set in one of her postcards that
she'd hired a car and now Rye is tiny, so
we wanted to bring some awareness about mum's case to
the locals there and see if anyone remembered anything finding
staff who had worked at Barclays Bank. As I said,
you know, that's still working progress. I did write to Barclays.

(18:03):
I had to email them while we were in the
UK as I needed to be on the UK VPN,
I could not do it from Australia. And then when
I got home, they actually sent me a letter. I've
just received an airmail.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
I wonder what that might be, and that was what
I thought it was.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
So it's a response from Barclaye's Bank addressed to my mum,
which is very weird. I'm very stressful to read actually,
but they've given me a reference and their reference and
out my reference, and the letter is dated the twenty
third of October, so pretty much that's the day before

(18:46):
we flew home.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
So they did this very very quickly, I must say.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Pretty much. They've just said we cannot complete your personal
data request. Thank you for your recent GDPR request. I
want to let you know that we've been unable to
carry out your request as we have been able to
locate the.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Customer from the information provided.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
If you wish to resubmit a request, please provide account details,
IG bank account, mortgage number, etc. Details of any previous names,
address history.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Date of birth.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
If you would like to appeal against this decision, please
get back in touch with us and explain the reasons
why so we can reconsider your request. You can do
this by writing to us at the above address or
by submitting a new request online.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
So one of the other locations that we did go
and visit was the Mermaid in Now. I know that
that's a fairly famous little location in Rye, and I
think I remember the street. Was it the street that
it was on or the street behind it was one
of the most instagrammed images in the UK or across
the world. I can't remember now, but it was certainly

(19:56):
very picturesque, wasn't it.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
It was an amazing little place.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
So look, we went back there because Christina, the wonderful
fluth from the UK, she had gone there, and Judith
who is the manager and has been the manager for
many many years there. She actually did have the nineteen
ninety seven guest book for the Mermaid in But at
the time that Christina went Frederick to had a very

(20:22):
or Rick Bloom wasn't known, so Christina would have been
looking for a Florabella Ramichel or a Marion Barter, therefore
having all of those other names. We just thought, while
we're there, we'll go and say hi to Judith and
just I guess check in, have a chat with her
and check the book again for those other names.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
A few years ago, yeah, twenty nineteen.

Speaker 8 (20:44):
In twenty nineteen, you helped some people out with a
missing person case where you let them go through the book.

Speaker 7 (20:52):
They just wondered if.

Speaker 8 (20:53):
You had a minute, because there's been some updates and they.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Know they're a peran person. Yeah, we've come from Australia.
They've come from Australia. Yeah, and I'm the daughter of
the missing persons.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
The daughter of the missing person so yeah, yeah, all right,
that's fake.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
All right, let me get someone to show you over
to the office. That would be amazing. Called to a reception.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Please, I think we're going to see.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Might be shown.

Speaker 5 (21:27):
Just check check.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Could you show them to the office. Judith is expecting
them so they can talk straight in.

Speaker 5 (21:36):
Thank you so much, have a great day so much.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yes, we say him to night.

Speaker 7 (21:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
You have just likes. Yes, you got a moment, all right,
that's not resturant. But in the bar we do begets.

Speaker 7 (21:58):
We've got ham, salmon, cheese.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Okay, alright, let's don't forget when you've got the name
and you've got chips.

Speaker 8 (22:05):
If you watch something.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Anything like that, ye, and then we'll see more bigger mills.
But again in the bar we got all hie.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
Okay, Sunday wrote, but I won't.

Speaker 9 (22:14):
Say anything massively.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Sunday wrote that sounds good.

Speaker 7 (22:17):
Yeah, okay, thank you, yeah, yeah, thank you? How are you?

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Thank you? Thanks very much. You put my umbrell with him?

Speaker 10 (22:48):
Thanks, thank you, Sally, Hi, thank you.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Interesting. We love be a sanctum. Yeah, picture and let
me to sit here?

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Ye here, all right?

Speaker 2 (23:13):
So I know Christina said that you were very lovely
and spoke to her a few years ago and.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Let her have your guest book.

Speaker 6 (23:20):
Yeah, because we did the same with Jick's house, because
we were the two that have been here the longest.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yes, yes, yes, you're going to be difficult.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, Jen is.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
The answer to jin you.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
My husband would agree with you, so we The reason
we've come back over is so I'm Sally, I'm the
daughter of Marion and Joanie is like Christina. She's been
helping me on mum's case as a sleuth investigator, researcher,
and so we've just been this is the end of

(23:57):
our three and a half week's journey. So we started
in Japan, went to London, went to Brussels, Luxembourg, little
back down in the south of London because this is
where most.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Of her activity was.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
But since Christina spoke to you, we have actually had
an inquest into my mum's disappearance back in Australia and
she was declared to ceased by the coroner and that
she died in October of nineteen ninety seven, the same
year she went missing. And since then there has been
an update because we found a man, so JOONI found
an ad in a newspaper for a guy looking for

(24:30):
a relationship.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
He's admitted to having a relationship with her at that time,
so then it's not and he so nobody was ever found. No,
so we haven't found her body.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
So I've still got documents up to twenty thirteen where
the Commonwealth Bank were still sending letters care of Barclay's
banking rye in Mint Street. So for me, I know
she flew back into Australia because we have her incoming
passenger card confirmation and she's never left again unless she's

(25:06):
used a fake name or got a fake passport or
something like that.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
But I really don't think that's happened.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
This man has. We've found seven other people who have
had dealings with him, and allegedly he stole their money
and did very similar activities as my mum did, like
going overseas to start a new life, sending postcards to family,
having liver function tests, and all sorts of crazy wild

(25:33):
parts to the story. So the reason we wanted to
come back to you particularly is because we thought we
Christina didn't know about him at that time, so we
weren't looking for his name in the guest book. And
we have got now a copy of Jane austen House Guestbook,
and there's an odd there's an odd entry that's in

(25:56):
the timeline of Mum that just says French woman.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
What does it say? Swiss?

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Swiss this lady and then Belgium and the Belgium is
very similar to nineteen ninety seven, so we can narrow
it right down to because it's from June to August. Second,
because you think of technology now, she wouldn't have gone

(26:24):
missing now.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Really definitely, it's a lot.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
I mean, people still go missing, and you know, and
it's and I did. And for the better side of
the story you said before, they are good people. I've said,
you know, my cup is half full, always not empty.
And I've made some amazing friends, and I've met some
awesome humans who have.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Helped me and just keeping me going, you know.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
And then at the same time, it's been very difficult
because I've had all these roadblocks through my life going
you tell her.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Having the family saying what are you doing?

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Like she leave her alone, she's not missing, and then
the police telling me we found her and she doesn't.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Want to be found.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
And then for her tenth anniversary, I was like, something's wrong.
She's never contacted anybody. She needs to someone needs to
do something. And so that started the ball rolling a
little bit again, and then it just got shelved again
and it was just me hating to come back in
and dig and dig, and then they come and they
just it was like they were musing with me, Oh, well,

(27:25):
just check this out. Sorry, she's still you know, she
just doesn't want to be found, Sally. It's just as
good as it's going to get, Sally. The case is closed.
Our hands are tired, Sally, like I have just dealt
with that for years. And then when my grandmother finally
passed away at ninety four, that's when I went, right,
she's now passed.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
I'm not going to upset her by going to the media.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
And I sort of was contacting sixty minutes and trying
to get somebody to do something in the media because
she'd had she wasn't even on the missing person's list.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
It's pretty wild.

Speaker 6 (27:57):
Well you get some sort of piece and get to
the end of all this, because it's just it's almost criminals.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
That's a terrible I keep thinking she's so familiar.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
But then again, obviously obviously in the picture a few times.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
Yeah, in ninety seven, I must have know' that's a
so stupid.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Thing because I was just out front all the time.
I was always everywhere.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah. Yeah, So Judith and Martin were so lovely taking
time to talk to us and show us their guest
book from nineteen ninety seven. We finished our afternoon dining
in their stunning dining room for a Sunday roast.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
So, look, we had a lot to squeeze into our
last forty eight hours, didn't we sell.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
So Tumbridge Wells was a bit of a tricky kind of.

Speaker 4 (28:47):
Location because we had We've had so many awesome people
well and truly covered Tumbridge Wells, haven't we. So look,
we also went to the Tumbridge Wells Family History Research Room.
We went in there just to see if there was
any kind of guess books or any phone books or
anything like that where we could find information that hadn't

(29:08):
been discovered by the fantastic slus or armchair detectives or
researchers down in that area.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah, well, we know that mum had been to the
visitor center, but that actually was not existing anymore. And
the reason we wanted to go there was to see
if she'd signed the book based on the postcard that
she'd sent to Una and George.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
So Una and George was Una was.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
My grandfather's sister, and George was probably one of my
mum's favorite humans on the planet. And his name was
George Smart. And there was actually at the time when
she was in Tumbridge Wells. There was an exhibition there
called the George Smart. I can't remember if it said
George My Exhibition, but anyway, she'd sent him a brochure,
so similar to me when she sent me the day

(29:51):
at the Wells brochure in her letter that she sent
me back. It's just that extra step that my mum took.
So if we just pause there for a minute and
just to reflect on that, this is a woman that
everyone told me had delivered, never wanted to see her
family again, who didn't want to be found, who deliberately
was trying to disappear herself. Yet she's going to the

(30:13):
effort of actually remembering things like Sally's craft and asking
for a sticker to put on the back of the postcard,
and going to George Smart exhibition and grabbing a booklet
and putting it in the envelope and saying it made me.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Think of you, Georgie.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Or going to the cat shop and sending that to
the cousins going because they love cats. This is not
the making of somebody who was never wanting to see
her family ever again.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
I just want to put that out there.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
That's my I've become very firm on this, Like, as
we've been going along, especially over the last six years,
and I've had to analyze every single detail, I am
firm on that I know she definitely did not intend
to disappear and leave us forever.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
I mean, there's still people commenting.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
I saw a comment the other day, like someone telling
me I was delusional and that my mum just clearly
wanted to leave and never wanted to see me ever again.
And I'm like, well, interesting people have these opinions so
firmly in their choice of words when they've never met
my mother and they're listening to a podcast for probably
five seconds to come up with that analogy. So each

(31:17):
to their own, and everyone can have their own opinions,
but I think that kind of thing is quite evident
to me that she was thinking about her family and
we were definitely in her thoughts. So our accommodation was
a little Airbnb flat. It was on a busy main
road central to everywhere we needed to go, so that's

(31:37):
kind of like why I chose it, because I knew
we were going to be super busy. The downsize was
there was no car park on site, so we had
to park at a parking station. It just happened to
be right next door to the Kent Police station, so
I went there in May twenty nineteen. We Channel seven
and I spoke to a police officer there at the time.
And we'll come back to this shortly, but anyway, we

(31:59):
rolled our luggage in the rain surprise a long way
to their accommodation with a lot of narrow stairs. For
the last time, we had no time to rest, and
this was actually a very good reason for no time
to rest, because we were meeting up with the lovely
Laura Fitten.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Laura had traveled a.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Long way to come down and see us down there,
so we had a very nice time with her that night,
went to a little Indian restaurant on the pantiles in Timebridge,
Wals and we just had a little cocktail and a
little chat. Laura gave us some beautiful gifts as well,
which I was just pretty blown away by, to be honest,

(32:40):
and we just sat there and we just actually had
a very nice time.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
And you know, it was nice to hear.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Laura's one of those people who I've always loved her
comments because they're so clear and they're so detailed, and
so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
I love reading what she has to say.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
She's very sensible in her approach to things and how
she feels about certain things. And she's been following along
for a long time. And yeah, she's the lady who
gave me the scarf the Sunflowers Van Goes scarfs and
had Marion matters printed on them. And she's given me
a little leather diary and she's has been printed on

(33:19):
that as well, and I use that at work every day.
And you know, people are just so kind. And she
spent through I think three hours on the train to
come down and visit us. She explained to us and
sat there and had an opportunity to tell us why
my story resonated with her and all the connectors for
her with her mum and myself and our journey and

(33:41):
her journey, and how it sort of resonated with her,
and how she's been pulled in with the similarities and
how we've connected that way. So feel very lucky to
know some of these great people in the world, and
I know that they're out there, and if I never
ever need them, I know they're there, and vice versa.
You know, we were very blessed. Actually, journey. We met

(34:03):
up with some other lovely women as well. We had
coffees and breakfasts and you know, there's so many I
probably can't mention everybody, but you know, some gorgeous little
trinket gifts just to remind us of that time we
traveled there. And from me to you who are listening,
I'm so grateful for the care and support to help
me find the truth. It's definitely my upside of this journey.

(34:24):
So thank you so much. So the next morning we
were up early.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
We hadn't really had much sleep, just didn't really sleep well,
but anyway, that was okay. We grabbed the car and
today was burwash day, so we were heading up there
and the first stop was Battle.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Well it was just weird.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
It was pouring rain and when you're driving over there,
not like in Australia. So if we're driving on the rock,
like we're on the same side of the road over there.
So I'm driving and there's cars that have parked facing
across the road on the wrong side of the road
that we would typically not be allowed to an Australia
park on. But they're all facing the way I was

(35:03):
heading and so see people coming from my lane, crossing
over the oncoming traffic and parking their cars. So I went, okay,
well that's obviously the how they do it. So I've
pulled over and I've got a car spot just close
to where the restaurant was, and we were meeting another
beautiful lady and it was pouring rain, so I was
trying to get as close to the restaurant as we

(35:24):
possibly could, and there was not one sign in place
to say you had to pay for parking, so we
just locked the car and troofed off, and when we
came back there was a ticket yeap.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
So across the road there we went to see one
of the older dealers there who that was a bit
of mucking around. He had changed his shops from one
location up to right near the old ruins there, so
we went and went in and saw him.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
We actually went into the castle there at Battle of
Hastings and we asked them again if they had a
guest book, but again we were faced with really young people.
So it makes me think, is it something that we
don't really do in today's world where people sign guest books?
I guess as much as they did back in the day.
And these girls were like, oh no, really sorry, nothing

(36:10):
to see here, and I was really sad because we
had no time to look at anything. We literally walked
in the front door, asked them the question, and left.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
What sat behind.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
That was also an email to whoever was running those
different attractions at the time with a request to actually
look and see whether they had archive books and if
they could get back to us, and a number of
them actually did from Southern England saying so we used
to hold them, but we don't anymore, or we never did.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
People just came in and out as long as they paid.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
For their ticket and look.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
The reason Battle of Hastings was important was because Mum
mentioned it in one of her postcards. So just to
clarify that we're really honing in on the finer details
and going to these places where she said she had visited.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Also Battle Cell like paul Kent.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
Battle for paul Kent was in his opinion, the place
where she may have actually stayed as well, because there
was a lot of oustouse B and B's oost oust
were around that area. So that's also while we went
to Battle just to see if we could locate that
as well in that particular area.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
All right, so we drove off. I was panicking about
having a parking ticket and us leaving the country, so
I got Joni on the mission while I'm trying to
navigate where we're going, while she's trying to pay the
bill online. But then they told us that you can't
pay it for forty eight hours or something ridiculous, or
twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
You had to wait before you could actually make the payment.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
So we parked that idea and just put in our GPS.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
And I wanted to go and speak to a lady named.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
We wanted to speak to this lady because she was
actually friends with Diane when they lived in Burwash back
in the eighties, and Christina had managed to speak with her,
and she shared fair bit with Christina about her time

(38:08):
and friendship with Diane back in the eighties. Hello.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Hello, Hello, Hello bubbies.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Hello, Hello, Hello, I like you beautiful?

Speaker 7 (38:27):
Hello Hello Hello.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Hello all.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
I don't think she's fine?

Speaker 2 (38:43):
All right?

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yeh say the way?

Speaker 5 (38:58):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Hello?

Speaker 5 (38:59):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Hello?

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Let's going you?

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Sorry?

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Sorry, don't interrupt you.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
We're just wanding live here.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah. Can I give you a card for her if
you don't want a moms prow Ollo buddies.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
It's very interrupted from Australia. So we're a long way away.
We come a long way.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
We will be familiar with.

Speaker 7 (39:30):
My mom.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
My mom's actually listen her on my Space. What a

(39:52):
beautiful house. And of course she's in Spain. Look how
they get both you're friends a minute ago?

Speaker 5 (40:05):
Yeah, okay, well it's disappointing that she's not here. Dja
vou again?

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Repeat.

Speaker 4 (40:18):
In twenty nineteen, Christina had actually done an amazing job
which I was very, very impressed with personally. She had
mailed letters to every single resident in the Burwash area,
so pretty much, as far as I could tell, nearly
every resident had received a letter from Christina asking whether

(40:42):
they knew the head of Very family. And so Christina
actually did get a call from a lady who had
from what I I guess, my opinion is she'd almost
been a confidante to Diane, to head of Very. So
their children had gone to play group together and they
had created a bit of a friendship. And so we

(41:04):
really got a lot of insight into Diane's life in
Burwash and some of the observations that made of Diane
and Rick and their family life, and just how I guess,
you know, her observations of Rick or Frederick de Hedavari's
behavior in that relationship too, and their children had little

(41:27):
playdates together, you know, like how we all, all of
us mums had little playdates with other mothers. So that
was like a really amazing thing to have located her.
And she was very, very giving of her time and
the giving of information, and it really did as with Luxembourg,
you know, you've got the little black box, and that

(41:48):
really did open up that little door to be able
to look into that whole Burwash, that family's time in Burwash.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
The reason that that was sort of of interest to
us was not only to give us some background, but
we also had an interesting connector to that house that
might not mean anything at all, actually, but we had
a lovely lady by the name of Gemma who contacted

(42:17):
us with a curious find. So she had found an
online forum and someone had purchased an old passport of
a woman named Elaine Irene Edwards. So long and behold
to our shock. Elaine Edwards was actually Elaine Verica, and

(42:38):
the Vericas owned the home in Burwash that Rick Blum
and his wife Diane rented in nineteen eighty in the
nineteen eighties, and so we were like, Okay, a passport
has been sold in Tasmania at a car boot sale
for a lady who lived in Burwash, at the same

(43:00):
residence that Rick Blum and Diane lived in in nineteen
in the eighties.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
My brain was going a million miles an hour. Once again, I.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
Did manage to contact him and he did agree. Yes,
that was me posting in the early two thousands. Yes,
I did purchase a passport. No, it wasn't from a
tall French speaking man with a limp et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. It was from an elderly couple that I
knew from that particular carboot sale, and they would buy

(43:31):
all these antique things and things. And I asked if
there was anything else with it. He said he didn't
think so was just sitting on the table alone. There wasn't.
It wasn't as part of a box or a package
or anything like that, he said. I just picked it
up a bit like you at the Brussels flea market,
you know, where you opened up that little locket and
you saw the little photo.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
He said.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
I just couldn't really leave it there he said, I
felt as though this was someone's history and that the
family might be wanting this back, and so that was
why he purchased it, and that was why he posted
in that magazine to try to have that passport reconnect
with its owner. And he did say to me he

(44:16):
was quite confused as to why this UK passport from
the early nineteen twenties was sitting in a car boot
sort of flea market in northern Tasmania.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
So let me read out the actual newspaper clipping that
went into this England magazine.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
It's called passport Holder.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Sir, I recently purchased an interesting document at a market
in Evandale and Tasmania which might be a treasure item
for one of your readers. The document is an English
passport issued in nineteen nineteen to a Miss Elaine Irene Edwards.
She was born in Cheshire on the sixth of September

(44:59):
eighteen ninety eight. I have enclosed a copy of the
picture inside Sea below. The passport provides evidence of her
travels in Europe from nineteen nineteen to nineteen twenty four.
I keep wondering who she was and why her passport
should end up at a country market in Tasmania. So
many years later. I wonder if she might be the

(45:20):
ancestor of one of your readers. If so, perhaps the
passport will fill in some information in terms of family history.
If anyone has a particular association with this lady, I
would like to hear from them. I thought, gosh, that
is just crazy, and Janie and I belined it for

(45:41):
the house. We wanted to go and see this house
in Burwash for ourselves, and we put it in the
GPS and off we went.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Okay, so I've just tried ringing.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
They're not at work, so that's probably good to ring.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
It's out of our way, affair. Bit, we're going to
brave it and we're going to try to find into
the barn. Yeah, because there's no actual there's no.

Speaker 6 (46:11):
Number associated, like, there's no clues as to where it is.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
I don't know about you, Johnny, I'm completely spun out
at how isolated this is.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
It is in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
Yeah, that'll be another house, that's Modeston House. Yeah, and
then if you keep on going, we're looking for the barn.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
So that's Modeston Manor, which is who are these people.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Saying that residant access maximum widely. Hello, how are you
very well?

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Very unusual.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
We're from Australia and we are driving, but we're not lost.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
I'm looking for so you need to get back on
the track. Okay, right and right.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
Yes, they're in the in a barn.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
They're in a barn and it's a stone barn. Yes,
and it's just before you go right up the hill.
It's just before you get to the top of hill
on the left.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Okay, yep, I've got it.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
What red postbooks and it's behind there.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
Thank you so much, thank you very much, thank you.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yeah, he's there. I hit the concrete mixer, Sally. This
is weather for ducks.

Speaker 9 (47:55):
Yes, thanks, They probably just live here, probably coming to
the barn, the barn. I love how you tell everyone
for from.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Australia, Australia and in these people and indeed people tell you.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
I feel okay, how brilliant was that? The quinamber is?
What a pretty house from this side? What a hobble?

(48:35):
All right?

Speaker 5 (48:36):
So you have.

Speaker 7 (48:38):
Go in, yeah, like party with me?

Speaker 2 (48:42):
M hm.

Speaker 7 (48:45):
A whole back mm HMM's.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
What yep? So okay, all right, okay, I'll forget the
umbrella out of the booth.

Speaker 6 (49:16):
Where not where women, We've got families, et cetera. Okay,
So the short of it is, in the early nineteen
eighties there was a bloke who lived in Modeston Lodge
named Frederick Dehead of Berry. He had Diane and was
his wife, and Mattiaan David were the kids.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Yeah, so do you know them? Do you know that?

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Yeah? Well I know Diane, I mean yes, okay, yeah,
you were.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Quite young anyway, so you're probably think and what have
we got to do with it now?

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Rick, So, Diane's husband, Frederick.

Speaker 6 (49:50):
Sally's mother is a missing person twenty seven years missing,
and Rick has been.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
In court as significant.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Of interest in Sally's mother's missingness.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Seven years ago.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
We have found a passport of Elaine.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
So your grandmother, okay, is Elaine? Your grandmother? Is a
great grandmother, mother or great grandma?

Speaker 3 (50:19):
I don't think so, Elaine.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
I'll show.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
So Elaine Irene Edwards.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
I don't recognize that, but yes it could.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
So her passport was found in Tasmania.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
In Australia, Okay, So, and it was sold to a
man at a car boot sale. All these documents and
Elaine lived in the same house as where Rick and
Diane lived when they lived here, so we feel like.

Speaker 6 (50:52):
Yes, we're just wondering if you knew anything of that
time and any memories of him.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
So it was just really Diane that you you remember
her own for quite a while.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
I think.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Because the kids are running little they.

Speaker 6 (51:09):
Were tiny kids talk Yeah right, yeah, when was this
nineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty four? I mean I really,
I mean I know, I mean I know the name,
and I would say I know, and I think I
thought Diane lived there alone.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Yeah, I don't think anyone else was there?

Speaker 7 (51:30):
Was her?

Speaker 6 (51:30):
Was he did?

Speaker 5 (51:31):
He?

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Was he a DeepC diver?

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Was that was that?

Speaker 1 (51:34):
I thought there was someone who lived there.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
His husband used to go from work on the.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Old maybe yeah, maybe yeah.

Speaker 6 (51:40):
Well he was a coin dealer, ancient coin dealer, and
he also ran furniture between the UK and Belgium and Luxeburg,
so he had a family finisher business over there.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
So I mean, I really don't remember him.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Yeah, God, you're only two.

Speaker 4 (52:01):
So as we left, we made a quick detour to
an house house to be a lady called Marian, who
told Christina that she remembered Marian Barta, Sally's mum. Staying
with her in nineteen ninety seven. She said that she
remembered it because they shared the same name, so it
kind of stuck out to her for that reason. And

(52:23):
so we drove up this beautiful road going up to
her house, and I could see you being involved with
horses myself.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
I could see that she was anxious to get away
to do her feeds.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
So I sort of understood that.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
But yes, it was a very interesting little conversation, wasn't itself.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
It took us quite a while to get there too.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
It was right off the beaten track, and we arrive
and you see the beautiful outhouses. They've got the beautiful
cylindrical triangular roofs and the beautiful shingled sort of finishes
exteriors to those.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
It was gorgeous. And we arrived and I was quite surprised.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
We had coversed with her a little bit, and she
was very friendly and very accommodating, and she had come
across a little bit blunt to us, I would say.
When we got there, she sort of just turned around
and said to me straight out, you're never going to
find her. And that caught me off guard a little bit.

(53:31):
I was quite shocked. By the way she said that
she had no.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
I don't know. Her body language was a little off.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
It was simply like she just didn't care, like she
really didn't want to talk to me. So we just
I didn't want to upset her, so we just pretty
much got in the car and left. But one of
the things I wanted to mention, just for clarity, so
she'd actually told Christina that she remembered my mom because
my mom had the same name.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
When she stayed with her.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
She had told us that she remembered my mom because
she had booked online. And that sort of stopped me
in my tracks with this information, because if we go
back to nineteen ninety seven, there was no online booking
agencies for travel agents back then, so I think she
might have.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Got a little bit confused.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
But it's still important to go and see these people,
and you know, as we've spoken a lot through this podcast,
it's important to front up and meet people in person
because I'm the daughter of this person who is missing.
And sometimes there is an element that brings it to
a sort of a bit more of a real scenario

(54:40):
rather than just reading about it in a letter or
reading about it on a post on Facebook. It just
puts the prospective right slam into the mix. Okay, So
the next morning we caught up with another lovely local lady, Michelle,
for breakfast, where I had the most divine hot chocolate.
It's a bit over having so many coffees. Yeah, we

(55:02):
ate breakfast before heading up to Kent Police to go
and see them.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
Yes, And of course, amazingly enough, as we're walking up
to Kent Police Station, of course they had the red
carpet rolled out ready for the Sally Layden to come
in and had the door open. They had their white
gloves on with their little hat and they already No,
the door was well and truly locked, bolted shut.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
They were closed. Won't they sell another.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
Big a four piece of paper explaining that they were
shut for the day. I was like, this is not happening.
This is not happening. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Anyway, if you don't laugh, you will cry. It's really
a case of I just yeah, I had no. I
had nothing to say, really, but I did. I was
sitting there and I noticed next to the door there
was a yellow phone. I'm just going to give you
the idea. The phone is out in the elements any

(56:04):
per and can pick this phone up and have a chat.
It was pretty grotty. So anyway, I walk over to
it and it gave you an option to call if
you wanted to speak to the police. So I picked
it up and I called the number.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
It was so disgusting. I'm saying to Jonie, have you
have you got a wipe? Have you got a wipe?

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Give me a wipe quickly and I'll wipe the phone
because I just and I'm holding it with the wipe
away from my head because it.

Speaker 4 (56:32):
Was you were literally holding it with two fingers because
he didn't want to go anywhere near.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
It was disgusting.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
And Jonie's laughing her head off at me at this point,
and I was like, right, whatever, this is just crazy.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Anyway, So to my.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Surprise, a lovely lady answered the phone and we were
talking and she asked me for my phone number.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
She asked me for details, and then the phone cut out.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
So we're standing there going, hey, all right, Well we
didn't really get any answers. She had told me that
they had no record of my mum at camp police,
even though I sat in there five years before and
gave them all the details. They had nothing on record
at all for my mum, so that would tell me
that New Southwest Police had not also given them a

(57:25):
file or a detailed report about my mom, because otherwise
they would have had it.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
So she's given me an event number and an email
for me to email her. Anyway. Jonie and I are
standing there, We're like, what do we do? Now? Where
do we go? What are we going to do? And
the phone starts ringing.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
It was it was wild. I could not fathom. And
I'm standing there and I answered the phone and she
goes Sally and I went, oh, Hi, it's Sally later
and on the phone and you're the phone.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
It's just something like out of Batman and Robin. I
just the batphone was ringing. I pick it up.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
She goes, hi, Sally, and I'm like, yes, yes, it's me,
Oh my god, hello, and she guys, I just.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
Tried to call you on your mobile. I couldn't get through.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
So maybe we had discussions about that, maybe being with
the international codes and all that sort of jazz, but
absolutely bizarre. I felt like I was in a movie
with the payphone ringing and me answering it and the
lady saying Sally, you know, it was just the wildest
thing ever. And of course you know, how else would
it be for me in Tunbridge Wells than to have

(58:32):
those experiences.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
TNT options they were here. It's not upstairs or something
that was the back and break down.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Okay, all right, thank you for your thank you.

Speaker 8 (59:03):
Well she's sent to as such anymore. But we have
a museum and library. Oh which might they have which
is that building there? They have like an interactive board
so that you can kind of touch and it shows
you how things are after COVID. The baby went and
never came back and it's never been reopened. Oh so,

(59:24):
but they'll have maps and sort of they think they
can give you'll be in that building.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Yeah, so we're actually after archives. Do you listen to podcasts? Yes, do, Jim,
I'll give you one of my cards.

Speaker 5 (59:37):
This is.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
The podcast is called The Lady Banishers And that's me
that I'm Sadly my mom is married and that's that's
my mum.

Speaker 5 (59:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
So she's fifty one when she went missing. I'm fifty
one myself now.

Speaker 4 (59:54):
So there was the last stop before we headed to
the airport, which was to have lunch with a lovely
gentleman named Paul Kent when his wife. So we walked
up that long he'll remember, and we went to this
beautiful restaurant which had a little sort of bar area
that was cut into like a little cave as you
walk through, and it was a beautiful view. And that

(01:00:16):
was really nice, wasn't it, just to have a nice
lunch with Paul. Paul's put a lot of effort in
as well. He's really tried hard to get as much
information in that local area as possible.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
So that was lovely to.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
See him and to meet him in person and to
say thank you, and it was it was just really
lovely again to be with someone who's been so dedicated
to the case of you're missing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
Mum Marian over many many years.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
So we left the car in the car park where
we were and headed up to go and see them.
And it was nice just to show my gratitude, shout
them a meal, say thank you so much for all
the work that he's done. He's done TV as well
over there and articles in papers. We left him with
a few tasks to do when we left, But life
gets busy, and understand that, you know, people have lots

(01:01:07):
of things to do. So this is just this is
just a long slow burn that we're doing now where
we're just filling in the gaps, looking up, emailing, contacting people,
trying to get as much as we possibly can. And
you know, for me, you know, I'd just like to
personally say thank you to everybody who's followed along on

(01:01:27):
the journey with me. The missing do matter, and I
keep saying that because it doesn't matter how they went missing,
if they're male or female, a mother or a father,
a sister or a brother, they all count. And unfortunately
resources are so slim within all police services throughout the world.

(01:01:50):
It comes down to good people like you all, like Joonie,
like Paul, like Tom Riddell, the likes of David Murray,
doing articles in the Australian, like Channel seven doing a
podcast for Caught for us for over five years to
make awareness and bring awareness to this space. So I

(01:02:11):
personally just love to say thank you so much to everybody.
Thank you Jonie for joining me in doing this. I'm
sure this is not the last everyone's going to hear
from us. There might be a few bonus episodes that
we throw in the mix in the near future, but
I just want to end by saying in a recent

(01:02:32):
interview I did with Gary Jubilin, he.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Asked me, why do you keep going? Sally? But tell
my audience on his Catch Killers podcast, way is it
that you're keeping on going? What's driving you?

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
And you know, I don't get lists of questions before
I go and do some of these interviews, and it
catches me off guard. Sometimes I'm like, I don't really,
I haven't thought about that like that. I don't just
want to give an off the cuff answer, And walking
away from that interview, I thought about why am I
keeping on going? And I'm going to be really raw

(01:03:08):
here and tell you all, I feel like I'm a
little terrified that if I stop, my mum will be forgotten.
And I feel like in my heart, if I keep
doing what I'm doing, people will remember her, people will
be talking about her, and.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
It keeps her alive for me. And maybe that's why
I keep going.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
And maybe that's why, you know, outside of me wanting
justice and pushing for answers and wanting to be able
to celebrate her in a memorial, I think that's honestly,
what is driving me to keep going is I'm just
really fearful that if I stop, she might be forgotten again.

(01:03:58):
Like it's taken me a long time to get to
a point where people love her and respect her and
understand her and have feelings and care for her, and
I don't want that to ever ever go away. So
it does put you in a very hard position when
you're doing something like what I'm doing. But yeah, I

(01:04:18):
trust that you know, she's in a lot of your
hearts now and hopefully she'll stay there and we don't
have to talk about it every single day, but you know,
I'm really grateful for everyone's care and kindness, so thank you.